THE YOUNG AMERICAN. 361

experiments. They were founded in love and in
labor. They proposed, as you know, that all men
should take a part in the manual toil, and proposed
to amend the condition of men by substituting har-
monious for hostile industry. It was a noble thought
of Fourier, which gives a favorable idea of his sys-
tem, to distinguish in his Phalanx a class as the
Sacred Band, by whom whatever duties were dis-
agreeable and likely to be omitted, were to be as-
sumed.

At least an economical success seemed certain for
the enterprise, and that agricultural association
must, sooner or later, fix the price of bread, and
drive single farmers into association in self-defence;
as the great commercial and manufacturing com-
panies had already done. The Community is
only the continuation of the same movement which
made the joint-stock companies for manufactures,
mining, insurance, banking, and so forth. It has
turned out cheaper to make calico by companies;
and it is proposed to plant corn and to bake bread
by companies.

Undoubtedly, abundant mistakes will be made
by these first adventurers, which will draw ridicule
on their schemes. I think for example that they
exaggerate the importance of a favorite project of
theirs, that of paying talent and labor at one rate,
paying all sorts of service at one rate, say ten cents