would cost, which would not accommodate a much greater number of
individuals, and which would fall to pieces after a few years. And as to
housekeeping, would not one enormous kitchen replace to advantage four
hundred small and ill-appointed kitchens? one vast cellar four hundred
little cellars? one gigantic washhouse four hundred damp, wretched
outhouses, not worthy of the name? Add to which, that much may be done
in these gigantic kitchens and washhouses by the judicious introduction
of a steam-engine, which might also be employed in supplying all the
apartments with water.

Labour, proceeding with such facility, such ardour, such enthusiasm,
as it will do in the _phalanstere_, must bring in enormous
profits--quadruple, as M. Fourier thinks, of what our present
ineffective means produce. It is in the division of these profits that
our socialist has been thought particularly happy; here it is that he
introduces his famous formula, "to associate men in capital, labour, and
talent," (associer les hommes en capital, travail, et talent.) The whole
profits of the community are first to be divided into three portions;
one for capital, one for labour, and one for talent--say four-twelfths
for capital, five-twelfths for labour, and three-twelfths for talent.
The portion allotted to the capitalists can create no difficulty--it
will be divided amongst them in proportion to the amount of capital they
severally supply. But a difficulty presents itself in the distribution
of the other two portions. Are all species of labour, and all
descriptions of talent, to be equally remunerated, or by what rule shall
their several rewards be determined? M. Fourier declares that the
labours _necessary_ to the community shall be most highly recompensed;
then those that are _useful_; and last of all, those which administer,
as the fine arts, only to pleasure and amusement. For this determination
he gives a sound reason, but one which we ought not to have heard from
the centre of a _phalanstere_; it is, that necessary labours are nearly
all of a repugnant nature, and should therefore be most amply rewarded.

To determine the degree of talent the individual has displayed, the
principle of election is called in. There is, however, a high order of
talent which is considered quite apart. Great artists, great
mechanicians, great writers--these belong to no _phalange_, but to
humanity. The world will charge itself with their remuneration. They
will be re