FOURIER, JOSEPH. 



FOURMONT, MICHEL. 



978 



He proclaiuis himself a Christian. Theology as well as politics hu 

 deems a proper subject for discussion, but not Revelation. He differs 

 from philosophers and divines on many points of natural and scriptural 

 interpretation, but he never doubts of Revelation in the Word and in 

 the works of God. If we have understood him rightly in his views of 

 future unity in Christian faith, he believes the Roman Catholic religion 

 will be universally adopted, when its oecumenical councils have been 

 re-established, and the principles of love and charity regain as much 

 ascendancy as will admit of private liberty and toleration of opinion 

 in the Church. The unity of Roman Catholic devotion will then 

 harmonise the liberty of Protestant opinion, aa the solar light includes 

 the various coloured rays without destroying them in one refulgently- 

 i ai partial colour, White. Doctrinal variety and pure devotional unity 

 appear to be the Phalansterian view of Christian harmony. 



After Fourier's death, the progress of his theory was rapid in 

 almost all parts of the civilised world, but more especially in 

 France and North America. In both countries associations were 

 formed for the purpose of carrying out Fourier's theory of domestic 

 and agricultural association, and two men of great literary ability 

 and mental energy, M. V. Cousiderant and Mr. Albert Brisbane, 

 devoted themselves to the task of popularising his opinions. But 

 in France Fourierism was beaten down with all other phases of 

 socialism by the reactionary movements which followed the revo- 

 lution of 1848, and in America the doctrin; appears to exhibit little 

 more vitality. In England, where Mr. Hugh Doherty has made 

 himself the representative of Phalansterianisin, the name is only 

 known outside the small 'phalanx' to those who take a more thau 

 common interest in tbose mental manifestations which, in a silent 

 and unobserved way, appear to be acting upon public opinion. In 

 Germany, Italy, ami Spain, and also in Belgium and Holland, the 

 Phalansterians assert that their system has numerous converts, aud 

 there appear to be reasons for believing that some such form of 

 doctrine has a very large number of secret adherents in mo-t, if 

 Dot all of those countries, but how far it is Fourierism, or a ruder 

 and coarser form of socialism, is by no means easy to say. 



FOURIEK, JOSEPH, was born at Auxerre in 1768. He was the 

 eon of a tailor in that town, and there received his education at a 

 school directed by the Benedictines. Into this order he was about to 

 enter, and had passed a part of his noviciate, when the Revolution com- 

 menced. He had applied himself very early to the mathematics, aud 

 had gained such reputation that in 1789 he was appointed professor in 

 the school at which he had formerly studied. He had not confined 

 himself to one branch of learning, as appears from his giving courses 

 of history, rhetoric, and philosophy. Before this time, in 1787, he had 

 gont to Paris a memoir on the theory of equations, to be presented to 

 the Academy of Sciences. This memoir contained the first steps of 

 the theory which was afterwards publi-hed : it was lost during the 

 Revolution, but a sufficiently attested copy exists. 



Fourier took some part in the civil troubles, at their commencement, 

 and was a member of the Committee of Public Safety at Auxerre. He 

 was more than once the object of proscription, having been twice 

 either saved or delivered from prison by his fellow-townsmen of 

 Auxerre, once saved from the guillotine by the death of Robespierre, 

 and once by the interference of the professors of the fecole Polytech- 

 nique. Having previously been a pupil of the ficole Normale, he was 

 appointed a sub-professor of tlie Polytechnic School in 1794, and 

 remained in that post till 1798. In the latter year Monge proposed 

 to him to accompany the expedition to Egypt. His occupations in 

 that country were various : he was secretary of the Institute which 

 was formed at Cairo ; he superintended the commission which was 

 e-nployed in collecting materials for the great work on Egypt, aud was 

 employed in judicial and diplomatic capacities. At his return from 

 Kgypt he was appointed by the First Consul prefect of tlie department 

 oflsdre, which place he continued to fill till 1815, his situation having 

 been preserved to him at the fall of Napoleon in 1814, by the higli 

 estimation in which he was held, aud the gratitude of tho-e adherents 

 of the old monarchy whom he had served. When Napoleon I. in 1815 

 parsed through Grenoble (a town of Fourier's prefecture), Fourier, 

 who had hesitated much, issued a moderate Bourbouist proclamation, 

 and left the town by oue gate as Napoleon entered it by another. 

 Napoleon was extremely enraged at this step, and causing Fourier to 

 be brought into his presence, reminded him in strong terms of former 

 benefits, and telling him that, after the proclamation, lie could not 

 remain at Grenoble, appointed him prefect of the department of the 

 Rhone. Fourier appears to have been softened by the matter, or 

 subdued by the manner, of Napoleon's address to him, and went 

 quietly to his new post. He resigned it however on tue 1st of May, 

 u consequence of his determination not to execute the orders of 

 Cnrnot, which required him to make numerous arrests among the 

 Bourbouites ; and he was in Paris wheu the news of the battle of 

 Waterloo arrived. Here he remained for some time, entirely neglected, 

 and with very moderate funds, until his former pupil, M. de Chabrol, 

 gave him the superintendence of a ' bureau de statistique.' In 1816 

 he was chosen a member of the Institute, but Louis XVIII. refused to 

 ratify the election ; and it was not till a year after that this king could 

 be induced to allow it. On the death of Delambre he was chosen 

 secretary of the Academy, and on that of Laplace president of the 

 council of the Polytechnic School. Fourier died at Paris in May 1830. 



The character of Fourier was in every point of view respectable. 

 His appearance and manners were decidedly good, and his address, 

 united with the respect which he created, enabled him to manage the 

 prejudices and passions of others to a remarkable extent, of which 

 M. Cousin, in his notes to his eUoge of Fourier, gives several instances. 

 He knew how, says M. Cousin, " prendre chacun par ou il <Stait 

 prenable;" and his own explanation of this faculty was "jeprends 

 1'dpi dans sou sens, au lieu da le prendre a rebours." The influence 

 of his conversation produced in one case at least abiding aud remark- 

 able effects : it was he who first gave a taste for Egyptian antiquities 

 to the Champollions. 



The writings of Fourier consist of papers in the ' Memoirs ' of the 

 Academy of Sciences, the ' Annales de Physique,' and the ' Recherehes 

 Statistiques sur la Ville de Paris,' &c., as well as of two separate works, 

 namely, the ' Thdorie de la Clialeur,' Paris, 1822, and the ' Analyse des 

 Equations deterimue'es,' Paris, 1831. The last work is posthumous, 

 and was completed under the inspection of M. Navier. 



In the first of the two works, the object of which is the deduction 

 of the mathematical laws of the propagation of heat through solids, 

 Fourier extended the solution of partial differential equations, gave 

 some remarkable views ou the solution of equations with an infinite 

 number of terms, expressed the particular value of a function by 

 means of a definite integral containing its general value (which is 

 called ' Fourier's Theorem '), &c. This work is full of interesting 

 details, and is one of the highest productions of analysis of our day. 



The latter of the two works contains an extension of Descartes' 

 well-known rule of signs, by means of which the number of the real 

 roots of au equation may be determined. Considered with respect to 

 results merely, the method of Fourier may perhaps be considered as 

 superseded by the remarkable theorem of M. Sturm ; but there is 

 nevertheless much in the course marked out by Fourier which it would 

 be worth while to examine. The work also contains a method of 

 solving equations by determination of the successive figures of the 

 root, analogous to that proposed by Mr. Homer and others. The 

 preface of M. Navier contains attestations as to the time at which the 

 several parts of the work were written, which it will be worth the 

 while of those to consult who think that " all which has been done by 

 Fourier was virtually done by Mr. Horner long before." 



FOURMO'NT, ETIE'NNE, born at Herbelay, near Paris, in 

 1683, was the sou of a surgeon : he studied in several colleges at 

 Paris, and showed an early an! extraordinary facility for learning 

 languages. He made himself master of the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 

 Syriac, and Arabic, and was appointed professor of the last-men- 

 tioned language in the College Royal of Paris. In 1715 he was 

 made a member of the Academy of Inscriptions aud Belles-Lettres, 

 and afterwards of the royal societies of London and Berlin. A 

 young Chinese named Hoan-ji having been brought to Paris by the 

 missionaries, Fourmont was appointed to assist and direct him in 

 the compilation of a Chinese grammar and dictionary. After a 

 few years Hoanji died, and left to Fourmont only very scanty 

 materials for the intended work. Fourmont prosecuted the labour 

 alone, aud after several years he published his ' MeJitationes Sinicae,' 

 1737, which coutain a kind of introduction to the Chinese grammar. 

 Five years later he brought forth the grammar itself, which had cost 

 him twenty years of study: ' Linguce Siuarum Mandarinicte Gnun- 

 matica duplex, Latine et cum Characteribus Sinensium,' fol., 1742. 

 Fourmont availed himself of the suggestions of several Jesuits, and 

 he is said to have borrowed from Father Varo's ' Arte de la Lengua 

 Mandariua,' printed at Canton in 1703, which was little knowu in 

 Europe. He also compiled a catalogue of the Chinese manuscripts 

 in the king's library at Paris. Peter the Great having forwarded to 

 the Academy of Inscriptions some fragments of a Tibetan manu- 

 script found by tho Russian soldiers, Kourmout deciphered it, and 

 his ver-ion is given in Boyer's 'Museum Siuicum.' His 'Reflexions 

 sur 1'Origine, i'Histoire, et la Succession des Aucieus Peuples, Cualddens 

 Hebreux, Pheuiciens, Egyptiens, Grecs, &c., jusq'au terns de Cyrus,' 

 were published after his death in 2 vols., 4to, Paris, 1747, with a 

 biographical notice of the author. He wrote numerous other works, 

 dissertations, memoirs, some of which appeared in the ' Memoirs of 

 the Academy," others were published separately, and many he left 

 in manuscript. He published himself a catalogue of all his works in 

 1731, which then amounted to about 120, but many of them were 

 mere unfinished sketches. Fourmont was not extremely modest, and 

 was fond of speaking in praise of his own erudition, which was 

 undoubtedly very extensive. He died at Paris, in December 1745. 



FOURMO'NT, MICHE'L, younger brother of Etieune, boru in 1690, 

 exhibited also a facility for learning languages : he assisted liis brother 

 in his philological labours, was ma le professor of Syriac in the College 

 Royal in 1720, aud -ho gave also from his chair lectures on the Ethiopia 

 language. In 1726, being sent by the government to Greece to pur- 

 chase manuscripts and copy inscriptions, he gathered a rich harvest of 

 both. He boasted of having copied more than 1000 inscriptions, 

 chiefly in Attica and the Peloponnesus, which had escaped the 

 researches of Spon and Wheeler nud other travellers. These copies 

 were deposited in the Koyal Library at Paris. Many of these inscrip- 

 tions are authentic, but others are forgeries, although liaoul Rochette 

 (' Lettres sur I'AutheuticitiS des Inscriptions de Fourmont,' Paris, 1819) 

 defends their authenticity. In his letters to Freret and Count Maurepas, 



