Human Physiology. 429 



with himself, or did not injure another. But as every act of 

 one's life which has any effect does concern others for good or 

 ill, Mr Warren's liberty goes no further than that of the most 

 rigid of moralists. It is only the right to do right. His 

 commercial maxim is of more importance. In all trade, or 

 exchange of commodities, he contended that the price of every 

 article was to be fixed, not by any urgency or slackness of 

 demand, nor by competition of anxious dealers or combina- 

 tions to raise prices, but by the actual cost that is, the time, 

 labour, and kind of labour used to produce it; reckoning in 

 also the actual cost of distribution. Profit, he held, was 

 robbery. The equitable price of everything was what it cost 

 to make and sell it; and the merchant or retail trader should 

 be paid a fair price for his time and work, and no more. In 

 this way labour is exchanged for labour, and none can get rich 

 at the expense of their neighbours. 



The social system of Fourier is elaborate and magnificent. 

 I take the liberty to transfer to these pages a very brief sketch 

 of it written by me for Chambers 's Encyclopedia: 



" Fourierism, the social system invented by Charles Fourier, 

 is contained in his published works, in a large collection of 

 unpublished MSS., and in the writings of Considerant, Leche- 

 vallier, Brisbane, and others of his disciples. It differs materi- 

 ally from the systems of Communism strictly so called, and all 

 other social theories, and professes to be based upon natural 

 laws, and capable of being carried out on mathematical prin- 

 ciples, as fixed and certain as those of geometry, music, or 

 colours. The earth and human society, Fourier taught, are in 

 their crude and infantile stage. The period of the race will be 

 80,000 years, the latter portion of which will be its declining 

 phase, as the present is its ascending. The middle term will 

 be a long period of maturity, prosperity, and happiness. What 

 we call civilisation, Fourier considers a false and imperfect 

 condition, with poverty, crime, ignorance, idleness, repugnant. 



