“Let us estimate, to begin with, the real value of these eggs. I appraise them at ten sous or half a franc a dozen, when they are guaranteed fresh and of a good size, like those of the hens of Caux.... “Valuing at ten sous a dozen the guaranteed good, large, and fresh eggs of fowls, nourished with all the resources of art, we should have to count upon fifty billions of dozens of eggs in order to extinguish in a single year the English debt. “The hen, the most precious of fowls, is a truly cosmopolitan bird. With suitable care she becomes acclimated everywhere. She flourishes on the sands of Egypt and among the glaciers of the North. “I will prove that the hennery of one phalanx ought to contain at least 10,000 hens, not including the pullets, twenty times as numerous. “Let us estimate that a hen lays 200 eggs a year. She ought not, perhaps, to be expected to do this under our present social _régime_, but well cared-for in a socialistic phalanx she could do rather more.... “Let us add up, and, after the manner of good housewives, neglect fractions.... Let us suppose that the hennery of each phalanx contains 12,000 hens, instead of 10,000. “One thousand dozens of eggs at half a franc the dozen would amount to 500 francs. Multiplying this by 200, we would have from each phalanx a product valued at 100,000 francs. We must now multiply this by 600,000, the number of phalanxes, which gives a total product of 60,000,000,000. “Now, as we have estimated the number of hens at 12,000 for each phalanx, in order to facilitate the calculation, it will be necessary to deduct one sixth from our product, which will leave 50,000,000,000. Divide this by two, and the quotient is 25,000,000,000, precisely the amount of the English debt expressed in round numbers.”—Q. E. D. Of course, such amusing and ridiculous passages in Fourier’s writings do not give us any sufficient ground for condemning the cardinal principles of Fourierism.