Charles Fourier.

In a work entitled: Charles Fourier, his life and his works, n by Pellarin, there is found a letter from Fourier to Mr. Muiron, dated December 3, 1826, by which he foresees the future phenomena of Spiritism.

It is conceived thus:

“It seems that Messrs. C. and P. have renounced their work on magnetism. I would wager that they do not make the fundamental argument count: it is that, if everything is linked in the Universe, there must exist means of communication between the creatures of the other world and of this one; I mean: communication of faculties, temporary and accidental participation in the faculties of the ultramundane or the deceased, and not communication with them. This participation cannot take place in wakefulness, but only in a mixed state, such as sleep or another. Have the magnetizers found this state? I do not know, but, in principle, I know that it must exist.” Fourier was writing this in 1826, with respect to the somnambulistic phenomena; he could have no idea of the means of direct communication, discovered twenty-five years later, and he conceived its possibility only in a state of detachment, that in some manner brought the two worlds closer; but he did not for that cease to have the conviction of the principal fact, that of the existence of these relations.

His belief on another capital point, that of reincarnation on Earth, is still more precise when he says: A wicked rich man may return to beg at the door of the castle of which he was proprietor. It is the principle of terrestrial expiation in successive existences, in everything similar to what Spiritism teaches, according to the examples furnished by these very relations between the visible world and the invisible world. Thanks to such relations, this principle of justice, which existed in Fourier's thought only in the state of theory or of probability, has become a patent truth. [See Charles Fourier's reply to a disciple.] [1] [Charles Fourier: sa vie et sa théorie - Google books.]