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principle of Malthus . I hope this principle is false in fact , as it is the most horrible that the human imagination can rest upon . To aid the reflexions of your Correspondents , I have drawn up the following facts and
observations . They look both ways , for in every important question the pro and con must occur . Malthus ' s Book has become the text-book of government , and is circulated with an incredible industry . Surely that is worthy of examination , which makes human life a lingering curse .
1 . The earth is so far from being yet cultivated , that it may be safely affirmed that one half of it has not yet been touched , and that the other half is very imperfectly cultivated . 2 . That of life and death we can
give very little account j so much mystery hangs over them , that they can , very generally , only be resolved into a Divine dispensation . 3 . That the great mortality experienced in all countries , amongst infants and very young persons , may be
traced , in a great plurality of instances , to diseases of specific contagion , of the origin of which no account whatever can be given . The hooping-cough , the measles , the small-pox , the
scarlet fever , are diseases of this description ; and it seems necessary that we should be able to prove that to a great extent , and to what extent , death is mediately or immediately produced by want , in order to ascertain what
population is excessive . 4 . Many countries have declined in population , notwithstanding the force of the principle ; and if late marriages were in any country to become
universal , and death continue its ravages , in nearly an equal ratio to its present , can any one say , that population would not sink below the power of producing food ?
5 . Wars and other accidental means of destroying mankind , have existed to an equal extent , in countries very thinly peopled , in countries which have afterwards supported many times the thin population , and it is therefore probable , that wars will continue in
every stage of population in all conn tries .
*>• I think from the history of all countries we learn , that early mar-Jiages were more common formerly man they are now , and it is truly re-
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markable , that if the multiplication supposed by Mr . Malthus of the human species be true , that so little progress should be yet made in tillage . 7 . Notwithstanding all these facts , it does appear , that some strong
permanent cause exists for the constant production and continuance of general poverty , which appears to have been always the state of human existence , and to so great a degree as to make it evident , that human hfe , in an
immense plurality of instances , is an enormous evil , instead of being a blessing in this world ; and there is certainly no one principle to which this general poverty is so clearly ascribable , as the principle of population .
8 . it is certainly a most weighty consideration , in estimating the intention of Providence , if it be discovered that one of the strongest passions of human nature is given chiefly 4 o torment mankind , or to involve them in the extremes of want and
wretchedness ; for , according to this principle , nothing but celibacy can protect against wretchedness : all care , industry , sobriety and every other human virtue , are as dust in the balance , and weigh nothing against evils at which humanity shudders .
9- If there be a question , therefore , that presses upon the attention of the moralist , before all others , and in comparison with which all others are as nothing , it is this . And surely jour correspondents will give it their most anxious consideration .
10 . Mr . Sumner , in his Records of the Creation , after admitting this principle in its full extent , as illustrated by Mr . Malthus , calculates that it only demands an abstinence from
marriage until the age of twenty-five , to relieve from its pressure j but this is evidently . gratuitous , for he has no data ou which to ground his calculation , and it , therefore , falls to the ground .
11 . The history of Mr . Malthas ' * Essay is curious . It was published to shew , that Mr . Godwin ' s System of Equality , in his Political Justice , was impracticable ; and as it was admitted
that Mr . Godwin had shewn , that all the other passions of our nature , which confer happiness , or stimulate to exertion , might be gratified in a state of equality , Mr . Malthus shewed , that the affections which unite the sexes
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On the System of Malthus . 721
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' H . XII . 5 A
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 721, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/25/
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