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one establishment will serve to excite and stimulate another . As this is one of the most important questions connected with the scheme , I have been led to dwell more upon it than I should otherwise have deemed necessary : but I know that many men of
very benevolent and liberal sentiments have entertained a fear , lest men associated on the plan of a community of interests should degenerate into drones . If this be probable , what a dull place must heaven be , where we at least expect to find abundant means of subsistence , angels' food !
The last objection which I shall here notice , is that which founds itself upon the doctrine of Mr . Maltlius respecting population . I have studied his celebrated Essay
with a strong feeling of anxiety , and am happy to say that we have nothing to fear upon the score of an increase of numbers . It is true , he sets out with affirming that the geometrical ratio of human increase , and the arithmetical ratio of the increase of
the means of subsistence , are inevitable laics of nature , of sufficient force to destroy the most beautiful state of society which the imagination of man can conceive . But when we advance towards the close of the Essay , we find to our joy , that the inevitable law of human increase is a power as tractable and docile as our hearts can
wish . " Thus , " says Mr . Malthus , " it appears that we possess a great power , capable , in a short time , of peopling a desart region , but also capable , under other circumstances ,
of being repressed within any , the smallest possible limits , by human energy and virtue , at the expense of a comparatively small amount of eviL "
But if the ratio of human increase be thus variable at the will of man . as admitted by the very person who professes to be the most deeply learned upon the subject , we have the satis faction to be quite certain that
be the rate of increase what it may , there can be no insuperable difficulty ^ to the production <> f the means of subsistence ia a corresponding ratio , until the period shall arrive when the whole of the habitable earth shall lrave been fully peopled . We know that other animals , and the vegetable
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tribe , multiply their numbers still more rapidly than man ; and that an agricultural labourer can raise ten times as much as he can himself consume . We have moreover the satisfaction to know , that under the projected arrangements , with the aid of
machinery , a large portion of those who are at present engaged in manufactures may be liberated and enabled if necessary , to cultivate tlie earth and that the women and elder children may also assist in the lighter parts of husbandry and gardening .
Why these political economists should be so alarmed at the effect which Mr . Owen ' s plan is to produce on the population of the country , I cannot conceive , since by far the greater number of instances in which men have been associated on the
principle of a community of interests , those persons have practised celibacy . I have no idea that any such restrictions will ever be imposed upon the union of the sexes ; but well we know , that , if prudence should require so painful a sacrifice , there is nothing in that form of soeiety to prevent its adoption .
Having thus adverted to some of the leading objections which have been raised against the scheme of Mr . Owen , I shall now slightly touch upon some of the beneficial consequences which it is calculated to ensure to mankind .
Its tendency is to fix the lowest numbers of associated individuals , at such an amount aa shall be competent to raise within themselves almost every thing that is primarily necessary or desirable for the comfortable subsistence of mankind . Each ol
these families will compose a little state , and a nation will therefore be made of a vast number of small corporate bodies . When once the superior efficacy of co * nbi « ed , over indivkhaal exertion , for social purposes , comes to be understood and to be fully experienced , the principle of all
co-operation will be a / Cted upon by tke communities as respects the aggregate interests of the nation , a * effectually as it will be by the ibci » - bera of a single association $ national enmities wild gradually i » eU away , a * d eveotualty all mankind becom e one grettt family ;
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456 Mr . Owen ' s Plan .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 456, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/24/
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