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Untitled Article
it appearvby looking &tthe * cale > at the ^ Mop-watch' of the ttew # ystem of morals and legislation , as if , when th * popql # Ltk > n is at 4 , the'means of subsistence is at 8 ; so that there is here only a deficit of 1 in the Utter , and a sm&& corresponding quantity of vice arid mistfA /; bnt thM when it ftctk on UtSUy the means of subsistence being only 6 , hers & a tfebefoary deficiency of food , and all the comforts of life , lo 26 persons J oik of 32 , so tl&t wfe' becomes an evil , and the worH a wretched la 4 aLi * -house , a
monstrous sink of misery and famine , one foul abortion , in proportion as it is r fuH rf human beings . * * * - * This doctrine is false in fact and theory . Its advocates do not understand it , nor is it ktteUigiMe * The actual existence of 26 persons in want , when there is only food for 6 out of 32 , is a chimera winch never entered the brains of any one not an adept in Mr Malthus ' s mathematical survey , "—Political JEW ** ?* , p . 403 .
it 19 for this reason that the " moral " of some of Miss Martineau ' s Tales is both heartless and absurd , however talented the execution . Hazlitt haah ^ re red u ced the question to its true pro - portions , and p ointed to the only necessary distinction between iood and population , namely , tc the want of sufficient room for . tbe former tft grpw in . " So stated , it maybe asked whether the whole
question is not reduced to an absurdity ? In order to suppose tae earth . caoipletely peopled , we must suppose mankind to have arrived at the state of perfection contemplated by Godwin , w&ose writings originally called forth My Malthus ' s Essay ; for , uptil man is thus perfected , various forms of evil , the attendants of ignorance and error ^ will perform the office of depopulation ; an 4 gmntittg such a state possible—granting that man will esrer Be governed , by a perfect reason—ve must next suppose him e ® governed , the reckless slave of his animal
] n ) pUlae «? u Whkt conjuration and what mighty magic , " says Hazlitt , " should thus blind bur philosophical descendants on this single subject , in which they &e ftiore interested than in all the rest , So that they should stand with their eyes open on the edge of a precipice , and , instead of retreating from it , should throw themselves down headlong , I cannot comprehend ; unles * , indeed , we suppose that the impulse to propagate the species is so strong and iracontroUable , that reason has no power over it . This is wh » t Mr JMalthua was at oae time strongly disposed to assert , and what ¦
he i » jtf present half inclined to retract . * . * Why , what an ides doe ^ I ^ Ir ^ althus give us of the grave masculine genius of our . UtOr pian philpsop her ? , their sublime attainments and gigantic energy , that they will dot he able to manage these matters as decently and cleverly as the ailHfcst Worato ' can xlo at present !"—Political Essays > p . 420 .
With tfce question thus reduced to its elements ( of absiudity ) f we haye nothing to do as yet . The time has not arrived for mankind to grapple with the difficulty presented by the limits of , tbp : ^ axth . wh » Je . vast pcMr ^ ians of it ^ re , unp ^ qpled ; nor i # tJb e time come to talk of the limits of subaistejiqe in aoy giy « n
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1836, page 664, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2663/page/12/
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