The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest / The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

by Unknown

Incentives

By Charles Fourier

(See page [202])

Up to the present time politicians and philosophers have not dreamed of rendering industry attractive; to enchain the mass to labor, they have discovered no other means, after slavery, than the fear of want and starvation; if, however, industry is the destiny which is assigned to us by the creator, how can we think that he would wish to force us to it by violence, and that he has no notion how to put in play some more noble lever, some incentive capable of transforming its occupations into pleasures?