ON ASSOCIATION AND ATTRACTIVE INDUSTRY.

BY ALBERT BRISBANE.

Second Article.

In my former article I glanced at the misery which exists in the world, and showed, I trust, that there is an amount of suffering and wretchedness in it which calls loudly, and in tones which should not be disregarded, for alleviation.

Political and administrative Reforms absorb completely the attention of the leading and influential men of society, and are the only measures which they propose to remedy the poverty, misery, ignorance, degradation, and other evils which disgrace our civilized societies. I ask, in all earnestness, Can political and administrative reforms reach those deeply rooted social evils, which blight the existence of so many of our fellow-creatures? Can they give food to the hungry? shelter to the houseless clothes to the unclad? fire to the cold? Can they give labor to the poor workman out of employment? education to the child that is growing up in ignorance? Can they relieve the toil-worn mass of the overburdening drudgery, and of the cares and anxieties, which are wearing them out? Can they correct the abuses of the present false, ill-requited, and repugnant system of labor? Can they do away with the tyranny of capital, when wielded by the avaricious and selfish, and the industrial oppression of the mass which results from it? Can they check the deceptions, adulterations, monopolies, and other frauds of commerce, and the tricks and injustice of the law? Can they do away with vice, crime, and drunkenness, and the causes of despair which plunge men into them? In short, can they do anything for the real and positive welfare of mankind? The experience of the past answers that they cannot; and however good may be the intentions of politicians and legislators, it is as evident as that the sun shines in the heavens, that, with the means they wield, they can do nothing towards remedying the miseries, privations, sufferings, and social wrongs from which the mass desire so ardently to be relieved. Charity towards our fellow-men, pity and commiseration for the poor, the ignorant, and the down-trodden, who cannot plead their own cause, should impel us to seek for effectual remedies, and rest not until such are discovered. The world is perfectly callous to human misery; it has become accustomed to it, as it becomes accustomed to anything hideous, which it sees constantly; it must be aroused from its apathy, and its attention directed to this great and melancholy subject.

I will propose a remedy; it is AsSOCIATION, based upon ATTRAC TIVE INDUSTRY. It will not be vague and indeterminate in its operation as are political reforms; it will be positive and practical. It will do away with poverty, and secure abundance to all, because it will increase production four-fold, introduce vast economies, and establish an equitable division of profits. It will give education, intellectual development, and independence to the mass, because it will abolish indigence, of which ignorance and dependance are two results. It will do away with the slavery of labor, by rendering industry honorable and attractive. It will put an end to the tyranny of capital, by uniting labor and capital in the same hands. It will check the monopolies, adulterations, and other frauds of commerce, by establishing a system of wholesale trade. It will avoid the immense number of law-suits and litigations which now occur, by introducing a system of truth, probity, and unity of interests. It will do away with vice, crime, brutality, and degradation, by giving to the passions a true and harmonious development.

The principles of the system of Association which I shall explain were discovered by CHARLES FOURIER, who devoted a long life of labor and study to the profound and intricate problems of the social elevation and happiness of man. The only means by which these ends can be attained, is a reorganization of society. Our evils are social, not political, and a social reform only can eradicate them. Political reforms act merely upon the surface of social interests; and if we wish to obtain the means of effecting any real and permanent good, we must enter frankly into an examination of the grand question of a social reform. As it is new, it will of course be disregarded by those who are wholly engaged in the routine of the present, and whose ambitions or pecuniary interests are linked in with existing political and social institutions.

The doctrine of Association appeals for support to those who are tired of the controversies of the day, and wish some great object to which to direct their efforts; to those who take a stronger interest in the race than in the individual, and to those who feel indignant at the misery and injustice which oppress mankind. Let them not despair of a great reform being effected, for as a God of justice rules in the universe, who gave us the varied wants, and implanted in us the deep aspiration for happiness, which we feel, he did not intend that we should wear out an existence in poverty and suffering, and be tormented eternally by desires unsatisfied. The justice of God is a guarantee that we can attain happiness upon this earth, but reason tells us that there is one condition to be fulfilled; which is, that we discover and organize a true system of society.

Before entering into an examination of the mechanism of Association, that is, of its system of industry, of property, commerce, education, &c., I will endeavor to do away with some deeply rooted prejudices which exist relating to the passions, and to the destiny of man upon the earth. It is generally supposed that the passions are bad,-are even inherently vicious and depraved. Those who entertain the most liberal views of human nature, suppose that they are incapable of order and harmony, and have no faith that a society can be organized in which they will direct men rightly.

As to the destiny of man, the mass are led instinctively to conclude, from the disappointments, anxieties, and miseries which are their lot, that man was put upon the earth to mourn and suffer; that it is a place of trial; that the evils which afflict him are results of his depraved nature, and that as a consequence they will always exist. A minority may entertain different views upon the subject, but those even who have expressed the most advanced opinions on this great question, suppose that man was placed upon the earth to combat, to overcome difficulties, and to suffer; and to give elevation to their view, they add that his dignity consists in, and his powers and talents are called out by combating, by overcoming, and suffering.

To correct these errors, I will explain briefly the nature and mode of action of the passions; I will show that they are good and perfect in themselves, but that they may be perverted and misdirected by a false system of society-which is now the case -and that, when perverted, they engender evils of all kinds, and appear depraved and vicious. I will also glance at the question of the Destiny of Man upon the earth, and examine why he was created and placed upon it, and will explain one of the great laws upon which Association is based,-the law of Attractions proportional to Destinies.

TWO-FOLD MODE OF ACTION OF THE PASSIONS.

The first objection which will be raised against Association is, that the passions are obstacles, that they cannot be harmonized, and that the nature of man must be changed, or a new being created. This is a mistaken prejudice. Let us endeavor to show that the passions are good, that God has created rightly what he has created, and that he has given them to us for wise and useful ends, provided we discover a system of society adapted to them, and in which they can act and develop themselves according to their true nature. If they who criticise the passions VOL. X., No. XLIV.-22

were charged with the task of creating them anew, they would find that they had a perplexing work on hand; they would soon discover that they had misconceived the question, and that the problem was, not to change the passions, but merely to change their present false development.

So little is known of the passions, that it has not been discovered that they are subject to a law, which may be termed the Law of Duality of Movement; or, in other words, that they are capable of two modes of action, or a double development, one of which is true, the other false; the one harmonious, the other discordant. When the passions are rightly developed, they produce harmony, order, justice, unity; when they are falsely developed, they engender discord, injustice, duplicity. The passions remain in both cases the same; it is their effects only which are changed; and they appear good or bad according as they are truly or falsely developed.

The first great error which should be avoided in the study of those springs of action within us, is to take the bad effects of the passions for the passions themselves. The false results which they produce, when perverted by a defective system of society, should be carefully separated from their real nature, their true essence.

Everything in nature is subject to this two-fold mode of action. I will illustrate it with a single example. The notes of music are in themselves good and perfect: no musician would wish to, or could, change them; but the notes of music may produce discords as well as harmonies—that is, they are capable of two modes of action. If they are played upon rightly, they produce harmonies; if falsely, they produce discords. The notes are in both cases the same; they are unchanged; it is only their effects which are changed. What is true of music is true of the passions. The social system holds to the passions the same relation that the musician holds to the notes of music the former are the elements of social harmony, as the latter are the elements of musical harmony. If an unskilful musician produces discords, we do not blame the notes of music : we separate the discords from the notes, and blame the musician. Let us be as impartial towards the passions: if a false system of society perverts them, and deranges their natural action, we should separate the bad effects which they then produce from their true na ture, and blame the society which perverts them. But this impartiality the world has not exercised: being ignorant of the law of Duality of Movement, it has thrown all the blame upon human nature, and exculpated our false societies. The world believes the present system of society good, and the passions bad; it endeavors in consequence to reform man, instead of reforming de

fective social institutions. The political and scientific leaders of mankind have endeavored from the earliest times to force the passions to adapt themselves to the forms of society which were established, but at no epoch have they thought of adapting the social organization to the passions. The time has now come to pursue a different policy; we must study with care the nature, the tendencies and requirements of the passions, and deduce from them a system of society suited to them. Do we not adapt our food to our stomachs, our mode of living to our physical organization? If so, why not carry out the system, and adapt our form of society to our intellectual nature? Man is the standard by which we should judge of the goodness or badness of social institutions, but heretofore human nature has been required to conform to and judged of by existing forms of society.

Our societies are the work of politicians and legislators; the passions are the work of God. Now either the passions are bad, or society is false, for evil prevails, and to a melancholy extent; which of the alternatives shall we choose? Reason answers that it would be more natural to suspect society, the work of man, than the passions, the work of God. If the passions are in themselves good and perfect, but at present merely perverted, then order, justice, and harmony can be established on the earth, for the false societies, which cause their perversion, can be reformed and replaced by others; but if the passions are in themselves inherently bad, then there is no hope of a change for the better, for legislators, philosophers, and moralists, have been striving unceasingly for the last four or five thousand years to repress and keep them in subjection, but all in vain. They have made use of the most violent punishments, such as scaffolds, gibbets, prisons, exiling, branding, &c.-of moral persuasions and of reasonings upon self-interest, to attain their end; but without effect: for we find in our modern civilized societies as much fraud, injustice, vice, and crime, to say the least, as in antiquity. While the passions have remained unchanged, society has changed a hundred times, and is still constantly changing. These facts should make us doubt the infallibility of our present social institutions, and induce us to examine closely whether they cannot be reformed.

In the benighted question of the passions, the law of Duality of Movement will, however, overcome all those difficulties which have heretofore confused the minds and confounded the judgments of men. It will show that while the passions are in themselves good, they may be perverted, and that the evils which they then produce are not inherent in them, but are deranged effects, which may be corrected. It will also prove that hatred, envy,