We had lately an opportunity of learning something of these Socialists and their theory from the indefatigable15 apostle of the sect in New York, Albert Brisbane. Mr. Brisbane pushes his doctrine6 with all the force of memory, talent, honest faith, and importunacy. As we listened to his exposition, it appeared to us the sublime16 of mechanical philosophy; for the system was the perfection of arrangement and contrivance. The force of arrangement could no farther go. The merit of the plan was that it was a system; that it had not the partiality and hint-and-fragment character of most popular schemes, but was coherent and comprehensive of facts to a wonderful degree. It was not daunted17 by distance, or magnitude, or remoteness of any sort, but strode about nature with a giant’s step, and skipped no fact, but wove its large Ptolemaic web of cycle and epicycle, of phalanx and phalanstery, with laudable assiduity. Mechanics were pushed so far as fairly to meet spiritualism. One could not but be struck with strange coincidences betwixt Fourier and Swedenborg. Genius hitherto has been shamefully18 misapplied, a mere19 trifler. It must now set itself to raise the social condition of man, and to redress20 the disorders21 of the planet he inhabits. The Desert of Sahara, the Campagna di Roma, the frozen polar circles, which by their pestilential or hot or cold airs poison the temperate22 regions, accuse man. Society, concert, cooperation, is the secret of the coming Paradise. By reason of the isolation23 of men at the present day, all work is drudgery24. By concert, and the allowing each laborer8 to choose his own work, it becomes pleasure. “Attractive Industry” would speedily subdue25, by adventurous26, scientific, and persistent27 tillage, the pestilential tracts28; would equalize temperature; give health to the globe, and cause the earth to yield ‘healthy imponderable fluids’ to the solar system, as now it yields noxious29 fluids. The hyaena, the jackal, the gnat30, the bug31, the flea32, were all beneficent parts of the system; the good Fourier knew what those creatures should have been, had not the mould slipped, through the bad state of the atmosphere, caused, no doubt, by these same vicious imponderable fluids. All these shall be redressed33 by human culture, and the useful goat, and dog, and innocent poetical34 moth35, or the wood-tick to consume decomposing36 wood, shall take their place. It takes 1680 men to make one Man, complete in all the faculties37; that is, to be sure that you have got a good joiner, a good cook, a barber, a poet, a judge, an umbrella-maker, a mayor and aldermen, and so on. Your community should consist of 2000 persons, to prevent accidents of omission38; and each community should take up 6000 acres of land. Now fancy the earth planted with fifties and hundreds of these phalanxes side by side, — what tillage, what architecture, what refectories, what dormitories, what reading rooms, what concerts, what lectures, what gardens, what baths! What is not in one, will be in another, and many will be within easy distance. Then know you and all, that Constantinople is the natural capital of the globe. There, in the Golden Horn, will be the Arch-Phalanx established, there will the Omniarch reside. Aladdin and his magician, or the beautiful Scheherzarade, can alone in these prosaic39 times, before the sight, describe the material splendors40 collected there. Poverty shall be abolished; deformity, stupidity, and crime shall be no more. Genius, grace, art, shall abound41, and it is not to be doubted but that, in the reign42 of “Attractive Industry,” all men will speak in blank verse.
Certainly we listened with great pleasure to such gay and magnificent pictures. The ability and earnestness of the advocate and his friends, the comprehensiveness of their theory, its apparent directness of proceeding43 to the end they would secure, the indignation they felt and uttered at all other speculation44 in the presence of so much social misery45, commanded our attention and respect. It contained so much truth, and promised in the attempts that shall be made to realize it so much valuable instruction, that we are engaged to observe every step of its progress. Yet in spite of the assurances of its friends, that it was new and widely discriminated46 from all other plans for the regeneration of society, we could not exempt47 it from the criticism which we apply to so many projects for reform with which the brain of the age teems48. Our feeling was, that Fourier had skipped no fact but one, namely, Life. He treats man as a plastic thing, something that may be put up or down, ripened49 or retarded50, moulded, polished, made into solid, or fluid, or gas, at the will of the leader; or, perhaps, as a vegetable, from which, though now a poor crab51, a very good peach can by manure52 and exposure be in time produced, but skips the faculty53 of life, which spawns54 and scorns system and system-makers, which eludes55 all conditions, which makes or supplants56 a thousand phalanxes and New-Harmonies with each pulsation57. There is an order in which in a sound mind the faculties always appear, and which, according to the strength of the individual, they seek to realize in the surrounding world. The value of Fourier’s system is that it is a statement of such an order externized, or carried outward into its correspondence in facts. The mistake is, that this particular order and series is to be imposed by force of preaching and votes on all men, and carried into rigid58 execution. But what is true and good must not only be begun by life, but must be conducted to its issues by life. Could not the conceiver of this design have also believed that a similar model lay in every mind, and that the method of each associate might be trusted, as well as that of his particular Committee and General Office, No. 200 Broadway? nay59, that it would be better to say, let us be lovers and servants of that which is just; and straightway every man becomes a centre of a holy and beneficent republic, which he sees to include all men in its law, like that of Plato, and of Christ. Before such a man the whole world becomes Fourierized or Christized or humanized, and in the obedience60 to his most private being, he finds himself, according to his presentiment61, though against all sensuous62 probability, acting63 in strict concert with all others who followed their private light.
Yet in a day of small, sour, and fierce schemes, one is admonished64 and cheered by a project of such friendly aims, and of such bold and generous proportion; there is an intellectual courage and strength in it, which is superior and commanding: it certifies65 the presence of so much truth in the theory, and in so far is destined66 to be fact.
But now, whilst we write these sentences, comes to us a paper from Mr. Brisbane himself. We are glad of the opportunity of letting him speak for himself. He has much more to say than we have hinted, and here has treated a general topic. We have not room for quite all the matter which he has sent us, but persuade ourselves that we have retained every material statement, in spite of the omissions67 which we find it necessary to make, to contract his paper to so much room as we offered him.
Mr. Brisbane, in a prefatory note to his article, announces himself as an advocate of the Social Laws discovered by CHARLES FOURIER, and intimates that he wishes to connect whatever value attaches to any statement of his, with the work in which he is exclusively engaged, that of Social Reform. He adds the following broad and generous declaration.
“It seems to me that, with the spectacle of the present misery and degradation68 of the human race before us, all scientific researches and speculations69, to be of any real value, should have a bearing upon the means of their social elevation70 and happiness. The mass of scientific speculations, which are every day offered to the world by men, who are not animated71 by a deep interest in the elevation of their race, and who exercise their talents merely to build up systems, or to satisfy a spirit of controversy72, or personal ambition, are perfectly73 valueless. What is more futile74 than barren philosophical75 speculation, that leads to no great practical results?”
点击收听单词发音
1 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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2 disciples | |
n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 );门徒;耶稣的信徒;(尤指)耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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3 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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4 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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5 doctrines | |
n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 );教义;学说;(政府政策的)正式声明 | |
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6 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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7 machinery | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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8 laborer | |
n.劳动者,劳工 | |
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9 laborers | |
n.体力劳动者,工人( laborer的名词复数 );(熟练工人的)辅助工 | |
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10 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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11 domains | |
n.范围( domain的名词复数 );领域;版图;地产 | |
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12 sect | |
n.派别,宗教,学派,派系 | |
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13 socialists | |
社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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14 diffusing | |
(使光)模糊,漫射,漫散( diffuse的现在分词 ); (使)扩散; (使)弥漫; (使)传播 | |
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15 indefatigable | |
adj.不知疲倦的,不屈不挠的 | |
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16 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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17 daunted | |
使(某人)气馁,威吓( daunt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 shamefully | |
可耻地; 丢脸地; 不体面地; 羞耻地 | |
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19 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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20 redress | |
n.赔偿,救济,矫正;v.纠正,匡正,革除 | |
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21 disorders | |
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调 | |
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22 temperate | |
adj.温和的,温带的,自我克制的,不过分的 | |
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23 isolation | |
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离 | |
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24 drudgery | |
n.苦工,重活,单调乏味的工作 | |
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25 subdue | |
vt.制服,使顺从,征服;抑制,克制 | |
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26 adventurous | |
adj.爱冒险的;惊心动魄的,惊险的,刺激的 | |
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27 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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28 tracts | |
大片土地( tract的名词复数 ); 地带; (体内的)道; (尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的)短文 | |
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29 noxious | |
adj.有害的,有毒的;使道德败坏的,讨厌的 | |
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30 gnat | |
v.对小事斤斤计较,琐事 | |
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31 bug | |
n.虫子;故障;窃听器;vt.纠缠;装窃听器 | |
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32 flea | |
n.跳蚤 | |
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33 redressed | |
v.改正( redress的过去式和过去分词 );重加权衡;恢复平衡 | |
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34 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
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35 moth | |
n.蛾,蛀虫 | |
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36 decomposing | |
腐烂( decompose的现在分词 ); (使)分解; 分解(某物质、光线等) | |
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37 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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38 omission | |
n.省略,删节;遗漏或省略的事物,冗长 | |
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39 prosaic | |
adj.单调的,无趣的 | |
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40 splendors | |
n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 );壮丽;光辉;显赫 | |
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41 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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42 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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43 proceeding | |
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报 | |
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44 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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45 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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46 discriminated | |
分别,辨别,区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 ); 歧视,有差别地对待 | |
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47 exempt | |
adj.免除的;v.使免除;n.免税者,被免除义务者 | |
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48 teems | |
v.充满( teem的第三人称单数 );到处都是;(指水、雨等)暴降;倾注 | |
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49 ripened | |
v.成熟,使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50 retarded | |
a.智力迟钝的,智力发育迟缓的 | |
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51 crab | |
n.螃蟹,偏航,脾气乖戾的人,酸苹果;vi.捕蟹,偏航,发牢骚;vt.使偏航,发脾气 | |
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52 manure | |
n.粪,肥,肥粒;vt.施肥 | |
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53 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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54 spawns | |
(鱼、蛙等的)子,卵( spawn的名词复数 ) | |
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55 eludes | |
v.(尤指机敏地)避开( elude的第三人称单数 );逃避;躲避;使达不到 | |
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56 supplants | |
把…排挤掉,取代( supplant的第三人称单数 ) | |
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57 pulsation | |
n.脉搏,悸动,脉动;搏动性 | |
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58 rigid | |
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
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59 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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60 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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61 presentiment | |
n.预感,预觉 | |
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62 sensuous | |
adj.激发美感的;感官的,感觉上的 | |
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63 acting | |
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的 | |
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64 admonished | |
v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 );训诫;(温和地)责备;轻责 | |
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65 certifies | |
(尤指书面)证明( certify的第三人称单数 ); 发证书给…; 证明(某人)患有精神病; 颁发(或授予)专业合格证书 | |
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66 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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67 omissions | |
n.省略( omission的名词复数 );删节;遗漏;略去或漏掉的事(或人) | |
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68 degradation | |
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变 | |
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69 speculations | |
n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 );思考;投机活动;推断 | |
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70 elevation | |
n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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71 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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72 controversy | |
n.争论,辩论,争吵 | |
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73 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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74 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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75 philosophical | |
adj.哲学家的,哲学上的,达观的 | |
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