him to retire from the army at the expiration of two years, and return to a business life. Fourier was never greatly prospered, nor did he ever, so far as I know, give evidence of ability to achieve a large amount of worldly success. In this he was unlike almost every other great communist or socialist. However, it must be acknowledged that his mind was from childhood engaged with other thoughts than the means of acquiring wealth, so that we are scarcely in a position to say what he might have done in this direction if he had devoted himself heartily to business. It is certain that to him the words idler and bungler do not apply, and that he had no desire to fork out his penny and pocket another’s shilling. On the contrary, it was to give, and not receive, that he desired. This trait of all large souls was manifested in a touching way when he was a small boy. There came one morning to the door of his father’s house a poor cripple, asking if little Charles was ill. When he was told that Charles was not ill, but had left the city, he burst into tears. Inquiry disclosed the fact that while on his way to school, and without the knowledge of others, the little fellow had every day given half of his lunch to the poor man. Two events occurring to Fourier in early life led him to a train of thought which ended in his condemnation of the economic organization of society as a disastrous failure. When he was five years of age he proved himself an _enfant terrible_ by telling the truth in an innocent and childlike manner to some customers, about certain goods in his father’s shop; and for this he was punished. The falsehood which his father or some person connected with the shop was accustomed to tell the customers appears to have been one of the kind common in some parts of the mercantile world, and which many might to-day regard as not very sinful—as not worse, at any rate, than the white lies of society. The other incident occurred when he was nineteen years of age. He was connected with a business house in Marseilles, and was required to assist in throwing overboard rice, which his employer had kept for speculative purposes and had allowed to remain in the hold of a ship until it was spoiled. Prices were high, owing to a famine, and it was feared they would fall if the rice were thrown on the market. Young Fourier argued that a system which forced children to lie and men to allow food needed by hungry people to rot must be radically defective.