Essay

an
e s s ay
on the
PRIN CIPLE OF POPUL ATION,
as it affects
the future improvement of society.
with remarks
on the speculations of mr. godwin,
m. condorcet,
and other writers.
london:
printed for j. johnson, in st. paul's
church-yard
1798.
pr efac e.
T he following Eay owes its origin

to a converation with a f riend, on
the ubject of Mr. Godwins eay on
avarice and profusion, in his Enquir-
er. The dicusion tarted the general
quetion of the future improvement
of ociety, and the Author at firt
at down with an intention of merely
tating his thoughts to his f riend, up-
on paper, in a clearer manner than he
thought he could do in converation.
But as the ubject opened upon him,
ome ideas occurred, which he did
not recollect to have met with before ;
and as he conceived that every leat
light, on a topic o generally interet-
ing, might be received with candour,
he determined to put his thoughts in
a form for publication.
preface. ii
The Eay might, undoubtedly,

have been rendered much more com-
plete by a collection of a greater num-
ber of facts in elucidation of the gen-
eral argument. But a long and almot
total interruption f rom very particular
busines, joined to a desire (perhaps
imprudent) of not delaying the pub-
lication much beyond the time that
he originally propoed, prevented the
Author f rom giving to the ubject an
undivided attention. He preumes,
however, that the facts which he has
adduced will be found to form no in-
considerable evidence for the truth of
his opinion repecting the future im-
provement of mankind. As the Au-
thor contemplates this opinion at
preent, little more appears to him to
be neceary than a plain tatement, in
addition to the mot curory view of
ociety, to etablih it.
iii preface.
It is an obvious truth, which has

been taken notice of by many writers,
that population mut always be kept
down to the level of the means of ub-
sitence ; but no writer that the Au-
thor recollects has inquired particu-
larly into the means by which this
level is effected ? and it is a view
of thee means which forms, to his
mind, the tronget obtacle in the way
to any very great future improvement
of ociety. He hopes it will appear
that, in the dicusion of this interet-
ing ubject, he is actuated olely by a
love of truth, and not by any preju-
dices againt any particular et of men,
or of opinions. He profees to have
read ome of the peculations on the
future improvement of ociety in a
temper very different f rom a wih to
find them visionary, but he has not
acquired that command over his un-
dertanding which would enable him
preface. iv
to believe what he wihes, without ev-

idence, or to refue his aent to what
might be unpleasing, when accompa-
nied with evidence.
The view which he has given of

human life has a melancholy hue, but
he feels concious that he has drawn
thee dark tints f rom a conviction that
they are really in the picture, and not
f rom a jaundiced eye or an inherent
pleen of diposition. The theory of
mind which he has ketched in the
two lat chapters accounts to his own
undertanding in a atifactory manner
for the exitence of mot of the evils
of life, but whether it will have the
ame effect upon others mut be left
to the judgement of his readers.
If he hould ucceed in drawing the

attention of more able men to what he
conceives to be the principal difficulty
v preface.
in the way to the improvement of o-

ciety and hould, in conequence, ee
this difficulty removed, even in the-
ory, he will gladly retract his preent
opinions, and rejoice in a conviction
of his error.
7 June, 1798.
con t en t s.
C H A P. I.
Quetion tatedLittle propect of a determination
of it, f rom the enmity of the opposing parties
The principal argument againt the perfectibil-
ity of man and of ociety has never been fairly
anweredNature of the diff iculty arising
f rom populationOutline of the principal ar-
gument of the Eay. p. 1.
C H A P. I I.
The different ratio in which population and food
increaeThe neceary effects of thee different
ratios of increaeOcillation produced by them
in the condition of the lower claes of ociety
Reaons why this ocillation has not been
o much oberved as might be expectedThree
propositions on which the general argument
of the Eay depends The different tates in
which mankind have been known to exit
propoed to be examined with reference to thee
three propositions. p. 18.
ii contents.
C H A P. I I I.
The avage or hunter tate hortly reviewedThe
hepherd tate, or the tribes of barbarians that
overran the Roman EmpireThe uperiority of
the power of population to the means of ubsi-
tencethe caue of the great tide of Northern
Emigration. p. 38.
C H A P. IV.
State of civilized nations Probability that Eu-
rope is much more populous now than in the
time of Julius CaearBet criterion of popula-
tionProbable error of Hume in one the cri-
terions that he propoes as asiting in an e-
timate of populationSlow increae of popula-
tion at preent in mot of the tates of Europe
The two principal checks to populationThe
f irt, or preventive check examined with regard
to England. p. 52.
C H A P. V.
The econd, or positive check to population exam-
ined, in EnglandThe true caue why the im-
mene um collected in England for the poor
does not better their conditionThe powerful
tendency of the poor laws to defeat their own
purpoePalliative of the ditrees of the poor
contents. iii
propoedThe abolute imposibility, f rom the

f ixed laws of our nature, that the preure of
want can ever be completely removed f rom the
lower claes of ocietyAll the checks to popu-
lation may be reolved into miery or vice. p. 69.
C H A P. V I.
New colonies Reaons for their rapid increae
North American Colonies Extraordinary in-
tance of increae in the back ettlements Ra-
pidity with which even old tates recover the
ravages of war, petilence, famine, or the con-
vulsions of nature. p. 99.
C H A P. V I I.
A probable caue of epidemics Extracts f rom Mr.
Suemilchs tables Periodical returns of sick-
ly eaons to be expected in certain caes
Proportion of births to burials for hort pe-
riods in any country an inadequate criterion
of the real average increae of population
Bet criterion of a permanent increae of pop-
ulationGreat f rugality of living one of the
caues of the famines of China and Indotan
Evil tendency of one of the claues in Mr
Pitts Poor BillOnly one proper way of en-
couraging populationCaues of the Happines
iv contents.
of nations Famine, the lat and mot dreadful

mode by which nature reprees a redundant
populationThe three propositions considered
as etablihed. p. 111.
C H A P. V I I I.
Mr. WallaceError of upposing that the diff icul-
ty arising f rom population is at a great di-
tanceMr. Condorcets ketch of the progres of
the human mindPeriod when the ocillation,
mentioned by Mr. Condorcet, ought to be ap-
plied to the human race. p. 139.
C H A P. IX .
Mr. Condorcets conjecture concerning the organic
perfectibility of man, and the indef inite pro-
longation of human lifeFallacy of the argu-
ment, which infers an unlimited progres f rom
a partial improvement, the limit of which can-
not be acertained, illutrated in the breeding of
animals, and the cultivation of plants. p. 152.
C H A P. X .
Mr. Godwins ytem of equalityError of at-
tributing all the vices of mankind to human in-
titutions Mr. Godwins f irt anwer to the
diff iculty arising f rom population totally in-
contents. v
uff icientMr. Godwins beautiful ytem of

equality uppoed to be realizedIts utter
detruction simply f rom the principle of popula-
tion in o hort a time as thirty years. p. 170.
C H A P. X I.
Mr. Godwins conjecture concerning the future ex-
tinction of the pasion between the exes Lit-
tle apparent grounds for uch a conjecturePa-
sion of love not inconsitent either with reaon
or virtue. p. 207.
C H A P. X I I.
Mr. Godwins conjecture concerning the indef inite
prolongation of human lifeImproper inference
drawn f rom the effects of mental timulants on
the human f rame, illutrated in various in-
tances Conjectures not founded on any in-
dications in the pat not to be considered as
philoophical conjectures Mr. Godwins and
Mr. Condorcets conjecture repecting the ap-
proach of man towards immortality on earth,
a curious intance of the inconsitency of cepti-
cim. p. 216.
vi contents.
C H A P. X I I I.
Error of Mr. Godwin is considering man too much
in the light of a being merely rationalIn the
compound being, man, the pasions will always
act as diturbing forces in the decisions of the
undertandingReaonings of Mr. Godwin on
the ubject of coercionSome truths of a nature
not to be communicated f rom one man to an-
other. p. 248.
C H A P. X IV.
Mr. Godwins f ive propositions repecting political
truth, on which his whole work hinges, not
etablihedReaons we have for upposing,
f rom the ditres occasioned by the principle of
population, that the vices and moral weaknes
of man can never be wholly eradicatedPer-
fectibility, in the ene in which Mr. Godwin
ues the term, not applicable to manNature of
the real perfectibility of man illutrated. p. 262.
C H A P. X V.
Models too perfect may ometimes rather impede
than promote improvementMr. Godwins
eay on avarice and profusionImposibility of
dividing the neceary labour of a ociety ami-
cably among allInvectives againt labour may
contents. vii
produce preent evil, with little or no chance of

producing future goodAn accesion to the mas
of agricultural labour mut always be an ad-
vantage to the labourer. p. 277.
C H A P. X V I.
Probable error of Dr Adam Smith in repreenting
every increae of the revenue or tock of a ociety
as an increae in the funds for the maintenance
of labourIntances where an increae of
wealth can have no tendency to better the con-
dition of the labouring poorEngland has in-
creaed in riches without a proportional increae
in the funds for the maintenance of labour
The tate of the poor in China would not be im-
proved by an increae of wealth f rom manufac-
tures. p. 301.
C H A P. X V I I.
Quetion of the proper def inition of the wealth of
a tateReaon given by the French conomits
for considering all manufacturers as unproduc-
tive labourers, not the true reaonThe labour
of artif icers and manufacturers uff iciently pro-
ductive to individuals, though not to the tate
A remarkable paage in Dr. Prices two vol-
umes of Obervations Error of Dr. Price in
v iii contents.
attributing the happines and rapid population

of America, chiefly, to its peculiar tate of civ-
ilizationNo advantage can be expected f rom
hutting our eyes to the diff iculties in the way
to the improvement of ociety. p. 325.
C H A P. X V I I I .
The contant preure of ditres on man, f rom the
principle of population, eems to direct our hopes
to the futureState of trial inconsitent with
our ideas of the foreknowledge of GodThe
world, probably, a mighty proces for awaken-
ing matter into mindTheory of the formation
of mindExcitements f rom the wants of the
bodyExcitements f rom the operation of gen-
eral laws Excitements f rom the diff iculties
of life arising f rom the principle of population.
p. 346.
C H A P. X IX .
The orrows of life neceary to often and humanize
the heartThe excitement of ocial ympathy of-
ten produce characters of a higher order than the
mere poeors of talents Moral evil probably
neceary to the production of moral excellence
Excitements f rom intellectual wants continual-
ly kept up by the inf inite variety of nature, and
contents. ix
the obcurity that involves metaphysical ubjects

The diff iculties in revelation to be accounted
for upon this principleThe degree of evidence
which the criptures contain, probably, bet uit-
ed to the improvements of the human faculties,
and the moral amelioration of mankindThe
idea that mind is created by excitements eems
to account for the exitence of natural and moral
evil. p. 370.
an
e s s ay
on the
PRIN CIPLE OF POPUL ATION,
chapter i.
Q uetion tated.Little propect of a determina-

tion of it, f rom the enmity of the opposing par-
ties.The principal argument againt the per-
fectibility of man and of ociety has never been
fairly anwered.Nature of the diff iculty aris-
ing f rom population.Outline of the principal
argument of the Eay.
T he great and unlooked for dicover-

ies that have taken place of late years
in natural philoophy ; the increasing
diffusion of general knowledge f rom
the extension of the art of printing ;
the ardent and unhackled pirit of in-
quiry that prevails throughout the let-
tered and even unlettered world, the
new and extraordinary lights that have
principle of population. 2
been thrown on political ubjects

which dazzle and atonih the under-
tanding, and particularly that tremen-
dous phenomenon in the political
horizon, the French Revolution,
which, like a blazing comet, eems
detined either to inpire with f reh
life and vigour, or to corch up and
detroy the hrinking inhabitants of
the earth, have all concurred to lead
many able men into the opinion that
we were touching on a period big with
the mot important changes, changes
that would in ome meaure be deci-
sive of the future fate of mankind.
It has been aid that the great que-

tion is now at iue, whether man hall
henceforth tart forwards with acceler-
ated velocity towards illimitable, and
hitherto unconceived improvement, or
be condemned to a perpetual ocil-
lation between happines and miery,
3 an essay on the
and after every effort remain till at

an immeaurable ditance f rom the
wihed-for goal.
Yet, anxiouly as every f riend of

mankind mut look forwards to the
termination of this painful upene,
and eagerly as the inquiring mind
would hail every ray of light that
might asit its view into futurity, it
is much to be lamented that the writ-
ers on each side of this momentous
quetion till keep far aloof f rom each
other. Their mutual arguments do not
meet with a candid examination. The
quetion is not brought to ret on few-
er points, and even in theory carcely
eems to be approaching to a decision.
The advocate for the preent order

of things is apt to treat the ect of
peculative philoophers either as a et
of artful and designing knaves who
preach up ardent benevolence and

draw captivating pictures of a happier
tate of ociety only the better to en-
able them to detroy the preent
etablihments and to forward their
own deep-laid chemes of ambition,
or as wild and mad-headed enthusiats
whoe silly peculations and aburd
paradoxes are not worthy the attention
of any reaonable man.
The advocate for the perfectibility

of man, and of ociety, retorts on the
defender of etablihments a more than
equal contempt. He brands him as the
lave of the mot mierable and narrow
prejudices ; or as the defender of the
abues of civil ociety only becaue he
profits by them. He paints him either
as a character who protitutes his un-
dertanding to his interet, or as one
whoe powers of mind are not of a size
to grap any thing great and noble,
5 an essay on the
who cannot ee above five yards before

him, and who mut therefore be utter-
ly unable to take in the views of the
enlightened benefactor of mankind.
In this unamicable contet the caue

of truth cannot but uffer. The really
good arguments on each side of the
quetion are not allowed to have their
proper weight. Each purues his own
theory, little olicitous to correct or
improve it by an attention to what is
advanced by his opponents.
The f riend of the preent order of

things condemns all political pecula-
tions in the gros. He will not even
condecend to examine the grounds
f rom which the perfectibility of oci-
ety is inferred. Much les will he give
himelf the trouble in a fair and can-
did manner to attempt an exposition
of their fallacy.
The peculative philoopher equally

offends againt the caue of truth.
With eyes fixed on a happier tate
of ociety, the blesings of which he
paints in the mot captivating colours,
he allows himelf to indulge in the
mot bitter invectives againt every
preent etablihment, without apply-
ing his talents to consider the bet
and afet means of removing abues
and without eeming to be aware of
the tremendous obtacles that threat-
en, even in theory, to oppoe the pro-
gres of man towards perfection.
It is an acknowledged truth in
philoophy that a jut theory will al-
ways be confirmed by experiment. Yet
o much f riction, and o many minute
circumtances occur in practice, which
it is next to imposible for the mot
enlarged and penetrating mind to
foreee, that on few ubjects can any
7 an essay on the
theory be pronounced jut, till all the

arguments againt it have been ma-
turely weighed and clearly and consi-
tently refuted.
I have read ome of the peculations

on the perfectibility of man and of o-
ciety with great pleaure. I have been
warmed and delighted with the en-
chanting picture which they hold
forth. I ardently wih for uch happy
improvements. But I ee great, and, to
my undertanding, unconquerable dif-
ficulties in the way to them. Thee
difficulties it is my preent purpoe to
tate, declaring, at the ame time, that
o far f rom exulting in them, as a caue
of triumph over the f riends of inno-
vation, nothing would give me greater
pleaure than to ee them completely
removed.
The mot important argument that

I hall adduce is certainly not new.
The principles on which it depends
have been explained in part by Hume,
and more at large by Dr Adam Smith.
It has been advanced and applied to
the preent ubject, though not with
its proper weight, or in the mot
forcible point of view, by Mr. Wallace,
and it may probably have been tated
by many writers that I have never met
with. I hould certainly therefore not
think of advancing it again, though I
mean to place it in a point of view in
ome degree different f rom any that I
have hitherto een, if it had ever been
fairly and atifactorily anwered.
The caue of this neglect on the

part of the advocates for the per-
fectibility of mankind is not easily ac-
counted for. I cannot doubt the talents
of uch men as Godwin and Con-
9 an essay on the
dorcet. I am unwilling to doubt their

candour. To my undertanding, and
probably to that of mot others, the
difficulty appears inurmountable. Yet
thee men of acknowledged ability and
penetration carcely deign to notice
it, and hold on their coure in uch
peculations with unabated ardour and
undiminihed confidence. I have cer-
tainly no right to ay that they pur-
poely hut their eyes to uch argu-
ments. I ought rather to doubt the va-
lidity of them, when neglected by uch
men, however forcibly their truth may
trike my own mind. Yet in this repect
it mut be acknowledged that we are
all of us too prone to err. If I aw a
glas of wine repeatedly preented to
a man, and he took no notice of it,
I hould be apt to think that he was
blind or uncivil. A juter philoophy
might teach me rather to think that
my eyes deceived me and that the of-
fer was not really what I conceived it

to be.
In entering upon the argument I

mut premie that I put out of the
quetion, at preent, all mere conjec-
tures, that is, all uppositions, the
probable realization of which cannot
be inferred upon any jut philoophical
grounds. A writer may tell me that
he thinks man will ultimately become
an otrich. I cannot properly contra-
dict him. But before he can expect to
bring any reaonable peron over to his
opinion, he ought to hew that the
necks of mankind have been gradual-
ly elongating, that the lips have grown
harder and more prominent, that the
legs and feet are daily altering their
hape, and that the hair is beginning
to change into tubs of feathers. And
till the probability of o wonderful a
conversion can be hewn, it is urely
11 an essay on the
lot time and lot eloquence to expa-

tiate on the happines of man in uch
a tate ; to decribe his powers, both
of running and flying, to paint him
in a condition where all narrow lux-
uries would be contemned, where he
would be employed only in collect-
ing the necearies of life, and where,
conequently, each mans hare of
labour would be light, and his portion
of leiure ample.
I think I may fairly make two po-

tulata.
Firt, That food is neceary to the

exitence of man.
Secondly, That the pasion between

the exes is neceary and will remain
nearly in its preent tate.
Thee two laws, ever since we have

had any knowledge of mankind, ap-
pear to have been fixed laws of our na-

ture, and, as we have not hitherto een
any alteration in them, we have no
right to conclude that they will ever
ceae to be what they now are, with-
out an immediate act of power in that
Being who firt arranged the ytem of
the univere, and for the advantage of
his creatures, till executes, according
to fixed laws, all its various operations.
I do not know that any writer has

uppoed that on this earth man will
ultimately be able to live without food.
But Mr. Godwin has conjectured that
the pasion between the exes may in
time be extinguihed. As, however, he
calls this part of his work a deviation
into the land of conjecture, I will not
dwell longer upon it at preent than
to ay that the bet arguments for the
perfectibility of man are drawn f rom
a contemplation of the great progres
13 an essay on the
that he has already made f rom the av-

age tate and the difficulty of aying
where he is to top. But towards the
extinction of the pasion between the
exes, no progres whatever has hith-
erto been made. It appears to exit in
as much force at preent as it did two
thouand or four thouand years ago.
There are individual exceptions now as
there always have been. But, as thee
exceptions do not appear to increae in
number, it would urely be a very un-
philoophical mode of arguing to infer,
merely f rom the exitence of an ex-
ception, that the exception would, in
time, become the rule, and the rule the
exception.
Auming then, my potulata as

granted, I ay, that the power of pop-
ulation is indefinitely greater than the
power in the earth to produce ubsi-
tence for man.
Population, when unchecked, in-

creaes in a geometrical ratio. Subsi-
tence increaes only in an arithmetical
ratio. A light acquaintance with num-
bers will hew the immensity of the
firt power in comparion of the e-
cond.
By that law of our nature which

makes food neceary to the life of
man, the effects of thee two unequal
powers mut be kept equal.
This implies a trong and contantly

operating check on population f rom
the difficulty of ubsitence. This dif-
ficulty mut fall omewhere and mut
necearily be everely felt by a large
portion of mankind.
Through the animal and vegetable

kingdoms, nature has cattered the
eeds of life abroad with the mot pro-
15 an essay on the
fue and liberal hand. She has been

comparatively paring in the room and
the nourihment neceary to rear
them. The germs of exitence con-
tained in this pot of earth, with ample
food, and ample room to expand in,
would fill millions of worlds in the
coure of a few thouand years.
Necesity, that imperious all pervading
law of nature, retrains them within
the precribed bounds. The race of
plants and the race of animals hrink
under this great retrictive law. And
the race of man cannot, by any efforts
of reaon, ecape f rom it. Among
plants and animals its effects are wate
of eed, sicknes, and premature death.
Among mankind, miery and vice. The
former, miery, is an abolutely
neceary conequence of it. Vice is a
highly probable conequence, and we
therefore ee it abundantly prevail, but
it ought not, perhaps, to be called an
abolutely neceary conequence. The

ordeal of virtue is to resit all tempta-
tion to evil.
This natural inequality of the two

powers of population and of produc-
tion in the earth, and that great law of
our nature which mut contantly keep
their effects equal, form the great dif-
ficulty that to me appears inurmount-
able in the way to the perfectibili-
ty of ociety. All other arguments are
of light and ubordinate consideration
in comparion of this. I ee no way
by which man can ecape f rom the
weight of this law which pervades all
animated nature. No fancied equality,
no agrarian regulations in their utmot
extent, could remove the preure of it
even for a single century. And it ap-
pears, therefore, to be decisive againt
the posible exitence of a ociety, all
the members of which hould live in
17 an essay on the
eae, happines, and comparative

leiure ; and feel no anxiety about pro-
viding the means of ubsitence for
themelves and families.
Conequently, if the premies are

jut, the argument is conclusive againt
the perfectibility of the mas of
mankind.
I have thus ketched the general

outline of the argument, but I will
examine it more particularly, and I
think it will be found that experience,
the true ource and foundation of all
knowledge, invariably confirms its
truth.
CHAP T ER I I.
The different ratio in which population and food

increae.The neceary effects of thee different
ratios of increae.Ocillation produced by
them in the condition of the lower claes of
ociety.Reaons why this ocillation has not
been o much oberved as might be expected.
Three propositions on which the general argu-
ment of the Eay depends.The different tates
in which mankind have been known to exit
propoed to be examined with reference to thee
three propositions.
I s aid that population, when

unchecked, increaed in a geometrical
ratio, and ubsitence for man in an
arithmetical ratio.
Let us examine whether this posi-

tion be jut. I think it will be allowed,
that no tate has hitherto exited (at
leat that we have any account of )
where the manners were o pure and
simple, and the means of ubsitence
o abundant, that no check whatever
19 an essay on the
has exited to early marriages, among

the lower claes, f rom a fear of not
providing well for their families, or
among the higher claes, f rom a fear
of lowering their condition in life.
Conequently in no tate that we have
yet known has the power of population
been left to exert itelf with perfect
f reedom.
Whether the law of marriage be in-

tituted or not, the dictate of nature
and virtue eems to be an early at-
tachment to one woman. Supposing a
liberty of changing in the cae of an
unfortunate choice, this liberty would
not affect population till it aroe to
a height greatly vicious ; and we are
now upposing the exitence of a oci-
ety where vice is carcely known.
In a tate therefore of great equality

and virtue, where pure and simple
manners prevailed, and where the

means of ubsitence were o abundant
that no part of the ociety could have
any fears about providing amply for a
family, the power of population being
left to exert itelf unchecked, the in-
creae of the human pecies would ev-
idently be much greater than any in-
creae that has been hitherto known.
In the United States of America,

where the means of ubsitence have
been more ample, the manners of the
people more pure, and conequently
the checks to early marriages fewer,
than in any of the modern tates of
Europe, the population has been
found to double itelf in twenty-five
years.
This ratio of increae, though hort

of the utmot power of population, yet
as the reult of actual experience, we
21 an essay on the
will take as our rule, and ay, that

population, when unchecked, goes on
doubling itelf every twenty-five years
or increaes in a geometrical ratio.
Let us now take any pot of earth,

this Iland for intance, and ee in
what ratio the ubsitence it affords
can be uppoed to increae. We will
begin with it under its preent tate of
cultivation.
If I allow that by the bet posible

policy, by breaking up more land and
by great encouragements to agricul-
ture, the produce of this Iland may be
doubled in the firt twenty-five years,
I think it will be allowing as much as
any peron can well demand.
In the next twenty-five years, it is

imposible to uppoe that the produce
could be quadrupled. It would be con-
trary to all our knowledge of the qual-

ities of land. The very utmot that
we can conceive, is, that the increae
in the econd twenty-five years might
equal the preent produce. Let us then
take this for our rule, though certainly
far beyond the truth, and allow that,
by great exertion, the whole produce
of the Iland might be increaed every
twenty-five years, by a quantity of ub-
sitence equal to what it at preent
produces. The mot enthusiatic pecu-
lator cannot uppoe a greater increae
than this. In a few centuries it would
make every acre of land in the Iland
like a garden.
Yet this ratio of increae is evidently

arithmetical.
It may be fairly aid, therefore, that

the means of ubsitence increae in an
23 an essay on the
arithmetical ratio. Let us now bring

the effects of thee two ratios together.
The population of the Iland is

computed to be about even millions,
and we will uppoe the preent pro-
duce equal to the upport of uch a
number. In the firt twenty-five years
the population would be fourteen mil-
lions, and the food being alo doubled,
the means of ubsitence would be
equal to this increae. In the next
twenty-five years the population
would be twenty-eight millions, and
the means of ubsitence only equal to
the upport of twenty-one millions. In
the next period, the population would
be fifty-six millions, and the means of
ubsitence jut ufficient for half that
number. And at the conclusion of the
firt century the population would be
one hundred and twelve millions and
the means of ubsitence only equal
to the upport of thirty-five millions,

which would leave a population of
eventy-even millions totally unpro-
vided for.
A great emigration necearily im-

plies unhappines of ome kind or oth-
er in the country that is deerted. For
few perons will leave their families,
connections, f riends, and native land,
to eek a ettlement in untried foreign
climes, without ome trong ubsiting
caues of uneasines where they are, or
the hope of ome great advantages in
the place to which they are going.
But to make the argument more

general and les interrupted by the
partial views of emigration, let us take
the whole earth, intead of one pot,
and uppoe that the retraints to pop-
ulation were univerally removed. If
the ubsitence for man that the earth
25 an essay on the
affords was to be increaed every

twenty-five years by a quantity equal
to what the whole world at preent
produces, this would allow the power
of production in the earth to be abo-
lutely unlimited, and its ratio of in-
creae much greater than we can con-
ceive that any posible exertions of
mankind could make it.
Taking the population of the world

at any number, a thouand millions,
for intance, the human pecies would
increae in the ratio of1, 2, 4, 8, 16,
32, 64, 128, 256, 512, &c. and ub-
sitence as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10, &c. In two centuries and a quarter,
the population would be to the means
of ubsitence as 512 to 10 ? in three
centuries as 4096 to 13, and in two
thouand years the difference would be
almot incalculable, though the pro-
duce in that time would have increaed

to an immene extent.
No limits whatever are placed to

the productions of the earth ; they may
increae for ever and be greater than
any asignable quantity, yet till the
power of population being a power of
a uperior order, the increae of the
human pecies can only be kept com-
menurate to the increae of the means
of ubsitence by the contant opera-
tion of the trong law of necesity act-
ing as a check upon the greater power.
The effects of this check remain

now to be considered.
Among plants and animals the view

of the ubject is simple. They are all
impelled by a powerful intinct to the
increae of their pecies, and this int-
inct is interrupted by no reaoning or
27 an essay on the
doubts about providing for their of-

fpring. Wherever therefore there is
liberty, the power of increae is exert-
ed, and the uperabundant effects are
repreed afterwards by want of room
and nourihment, which is common to
animals and plants, and among ani-
mals by becoming the prey of others.
The effects of this check on man

are more complicated. Impelled to the
increae of his pecies by an equally
powerful intinct, reaon interrupts his
career and aks him whether he may
not bring beings into the world for
whom he cannot provide the means
of ubsitence. In a tate of equality,
this would be the simple quetion. In
the preent tate of ociety, other con-
siderations occur. Will he not lower
his rank in life? Will he not ubject
himelf to greater difficulties than he
at preent feel? Will he not be obliged
to labour harder? and if he has a large

family, will his utmot exertions enable
him to upport them? May he not ee
his offpring in rags and miery, and
clamouring for bread that he cannot
give them? And may he not be reduced
to the grating necesity of forfeiting
his independence, and of being oblig-
ed to the paring hand of charity for
upport?
Thee considerations are calculated

to prevent, and certainly do prevent,
a very great number in all civilized
nations f rom puruing the dictate of
nature in an early attachment to one
woman. And this retraint almot
necearily, though not abolutely o,
produces vice. Yet in all ocieties, even
thoe that are mot vicious, the ten-
dency to a virtuous attachment is o
trong that there is a contant effort
towards an increae of population.
29 an essay on the
This contant effort as contantly

tends to ubject the lower claes of the
ociety to ditres and to prevent any
great permanent amelioration of their
condition.
The way in which, thee effects are

produced eems to be this. We will
uppoe the means of ubsitence in
any country jut equal to the eay up-
port of its inhabitants. The contant
effort towards population, which is
found to act even in the mot vicious
ocieties, increaes the number of peo-
ple before the means of ubsitence are
increaed. The food therefore which
before upported even millions mut
now be divided among even millions
and a half or eight millions. The poor
conequently mut live much wore,
and many of them be reduced to evere
ditres. The number of labourers alo
being above the proportion of the
work in the market, the price of labour

mut tend toward a decreae, while
the price of provisions would at the
ame time tend to rie. The labourer
therefore mut work harder to earn
the ame as he did before. During
this eaon of ditres, the dicourage-
ments to marriage, and the difficulty
of rearing a family are o great that
population is at a tand. In the mean
time the cheapnes of labour, the plen-
ty of labourers, and the necesity of
an increaed indutry amongt them,
encourage cultivators to employ more
labour upon their land, to turn up
f reh oil, and to manure and improve
more completely what is already in
tillage, till ultimately the means of
ubsitence become in the ame pro-
portion to the population as at the
period f rom which we et out. The
situation of the labourer being then
again tolerably comfortable, the re-
31 an essay on the
traints to population are in ome de-

gree looened, and the ame retrograde
and progresive movements with
repect to happines are repeated.
This ort of ocillation will not be

remarked by uperficial obervers, and
it may be difficult even for the mot
penetrating mind to calculate its peri-
ods. Yet that in all old tates ome uch
vibration does exit, though f rom var-
ious tranvere caues, in a much les
marked, and in a much more irregu-
lar manner than I have decribed it, no
reflecting man who considers the ub-
ject deeply can well doubt.
Many reaons occur why this ocil-

lation has been les obvious, and les
decidedly confirmed by experience,
than might naturally be expected.
One principal reaon is that the hi-

tories of mankind that we poes are
hitories only of the higher claes. We
have but few accounts that can be de-
pended upon of the manners and cu-
toms of that part of mankind where
thee retrograde and progresive move-
ments chiefly take place. A atifactory
hitory of this kind, on one people,
and of one period, would require the
contant and minute attention of an
oberving mind during a long life.
Some of the objects of inquiry would
be, in what proportion to the number
of adults was the number of marriages,
to what extent vicious cutoms pre-
vailed in conequence of the retraints
upon matrimony, what was the com-
parative mortality among the children
of the mot ditreed part of the com-
munity and thoe who lived rather
more at their eae, what were the vari-
ations in the real price of labour, and
33 an essay on the
what were the obervable differences

in the tate of the lower claes of oci-
ety with repect to eae and happines,
at different times during a certain pe-
riod.
Such a hitory would tend greatly

to elucidate the manner in which the
contant check upon population acts
and would probably prove the exi-
tence of the retrograde and progresive
movements that have been mentioned,
though the times of their vibrations
mut necearily be rendered irregular
f rom the operation of many interrupt-
ing caues, uch as the introduction
or failure of certain manufactures, a
greater or les prevalent pirit of agri-
cultural enterprie, years of plenty, or
years of carcity, wars and petilence,
poor laws, the invention of procees
for hortening labour without the pro-
portional extension of the market for
the commodity, and, particularly, the

difference between the nominal and
real price of labour, a circumtance
which has perhaps more than any oth-
er contributed to conceal this ocilla-
tion f rom common view.
It very rarely happens that the

nominal price of labour univerally
falls, but we well know that it f re-
quently remains the ame, while the
nominal price of provisions has been
gradually increasing. This is, in effect,
a real fall in the price of labour, and
during this period the condition of the
lower orders of the community mut
gradually grow wore and wore. But
the farmers and capitalits are growing
rich f rom the real cheapnes of labour.
Their increaed capitals enable them
to employ a greater number of men.
Work therefore may be plentiful, and
the price of labour would conequent-
35 an essay on the
ly rie. But the want of f reedom in the

market of labour, which occurs more
or les in all communities, either f rom
parih laws, or the more general caue
of the facility of combination among
the rich, and its difficulty among the
poor, operates to prevent the price of
labour f rom rising at the natural pe-
riod, and keeps it down ome time
longer ; perhaps till a year of carcity,
when the clamour is too loud and the
necesity too apparent to be resited.
The true caue of the advance in the

price of labour is thus concealed, and
the rich affect to grant it as an act
of compasion and favour to the poor,
in consideration of a year of carci-
ty, and, when plenty returns, indulge
themelves in the mot unreaonable
of all complaints, that the price does
not again fall, when a little rejection
would hew them that it mut have
rien long before but f rom an unjut

conpiracy of their own.
But though the rich by unfair com-

binations contribute f requently to pro-
long a eaon of ditres among the
poor, yet no posible form of ociety
could prevent the almot contant ac-
tion of miery upon a great part of
mankind, if in a tate of inequality,
and upon all, if all were equal.
The theory on which the truth of

this position depends appears to me o
extremely clear that I feel at a los to
conjecture what part of it can be de-
nied.
That population cannot increae

without the means of ubsitence is a
proposition o evident that it needs no
illutration.
37 an essay on the
That population does invariably in-

creae where there are the means of
ubsitence, the hitory of every people
that have ever exited will abundantly
prove.
And that the uperior power of

population cannot be checked without
producing miery or vice, the ample
portion of thee too bitter ingredients
in the cup of human life and the con-
tinuance of the physical caues that
eem to have produced them bear too
convincing a tetimony.
But, in order more fully to acertain

the validity of thee three proposi-
tions, let us examine the different
tates in which mankind have been
known to exit. Even a curory review
will, I think, be ufficient to convince
us that thee propositions are incon-
trovertible truths.
CHAP T ER I I I.
The avage or hunter tate hortly reviewed.The

hepherd tate, or the tribes of barbarians that
overran the Roman Empire.The uperiority of
the power of population to the means of ubsi-
tence.the caue of the great tide of Northern
Emigration.
In the rudet tate of mankind, in

which hunting is the principal occupa-
tion, and the only mode of acquiring
food ; the means of ubsitence being
cattered over a large extent of terri-
tory, the comparative population mut
necearily be thin. It is aid that the
pasion between the exes is les ar-
dent among the North American In-
dians, than among any other race of
men. Yet, notwithtanding this apathy,
the effort towards population, even in
this people, eems to be always greater
than the means to upport it. This
appears, f rom the comparatively rapid
population that takes place, whenever
39 an essay on the
any of the tribes happen to ettle in

ome fertile pot, and to draw nourih-
ment f rom more f ruitful ources than
that of hunting ; and it has been f re-
quently remarked that when an Indian
family has taken up its abode near any
European ettlement, and adopted a
more eay and civilized mode of life,
that one woman has reared five, or six,
or more children ; though in the av-
age tate it rarely happens that above
one or two in a family grow up to ma-
turity. The ame obervation has been
made with regard to the Hottentots
near the Cape. Thee facts prove the
uperior power of population to the
means of ubsitence in nations of
hunters, and that this power always
hews itelf the moment it is left to act
with f reedom.
It remains to inquire whether this

power can be checked, and its effects
kept equal to the means of ubsitence,

without vice or miery.
The North American Indians, con-

sidered as a people, cannot jutly be
called f ree and equal. In all the ac-
counts we have of them, and, indeed,
of mot other avage nations, the
women are repreented as much more
completely in a tate of lavery to the
men than the poor are to the rich in
civilized countries. One half the na-
tion appears to act as Helots to the
other half, and the miery that checks
population falls chiefly, as it always
mut do, upon that part whoe condi-
tion is lowet in the cale of ociety.
The infancy of man in the simplet
tate requires considerable attention,
but this neceary attention the women
cannot give, condemned as they are
to the inconveniences and hardhips of
f requent change of place and to the
41 an essay on the
contant and unremitting drudgery of

preparing every thing for the reception
of their tyrannic lords. Thee exer-
tions, ometimes during pregnancy or
with children at their backs, mut oc-
casion f requent micarriages, and pre-
vent any but the mot robut infants
f rom growing to maturity. Add to
thee hardhips of the women the
contant war that prevails among av-
ages, and the necesity which they f re-
quently labour under of exposing their
aged and helples parents, and of thus
violating the firt feelings of nature,
and the picture will not appear very
f ree f rom the blot of miery. In eti-
mating the happines of a avage na-
tion, we mut not fix our eyes only on
the warrior in the prime of life ? he is
one of a hundred ? he is the gentle-
man, the man of fortune, the chances
have been in his favour and many ef-
forts have failed ere this fortunate be-
ing was produced, whoe guardian ge-

nius hould preerve him through the
numberles dangers with which he
would be urrounded f rom infancy to
manhood. The true points of compar-
ion between two nations eem to be
the ranks in each which appear nearet
to anwer to each other. And in this
view, I hould compare the warriors in
the prime of life with the gentlemen,
and the women, children, and aged,
with the lower claes of the commu-
nity in civilized tates.
May we not then fairly infer f rom

this hort review, or rather, f rom the
accounts that may be referred to of na-
tions of hunters, that their population
is thin f rom the carcity of food, that
it would immediately increae if food
was in greater plenty, and that, putting
vice out of the quetion among av-
ages, miery is the check that reprees
43 an essay on the
the uperior power of population and

keeps its effects equal to the means of
ubsitence. Actual obervation and ex-
perience tell us that this check, with a
few local and temporary exceptions, is
contantly acting now upon all avage
nations, and the theory indicates that
it probably acted with nearly equal
trength a thouand years ago, and it
may not be much greater a thouand
years hence.
Of the manners and habits that pre-

vail among nations of hepherds, the
next tate of mankind, we are even
more ignorant than of the avage tate.
But that thee nations could not e-
cape the general lot of miery arising
f rom the want of ubsitence, Europe,
and all the fairet countries in the
world, bear ample tetimony. Want
was the goad that drove the Scythian
hepherds f rom their native haunts,
like o many famihed wolves in earch

of prey. Set in motion by this all pow-
erful caue, clouds of Barbarians
eemed to collect f rom all points of
the northern hemiphere. Gathering
f reh darknes and terror as they rolled
on, the congregated bodies at length
obcured the un of Italy and unk
the whole world in univeral night.
Thee tremendous effects, o long and
o deeply felt throughout the fairet
portions of the earth, may be traced to
the simple caue of the uperior power
of population to the means of ubsi-
tence.
It is well known that a country in

pature cannot upport o many in-
habitants as a country in tillage, but
what renders nations of hepherds o
formidable is the power which they
poes of moving all together and the
necesity they f requently feel of ex-
45 an essay on the
erting this power in earch of f reh

pature for their herds. A tribe that
was rich in cattle had an immediate
plenty of food. Even the parent tock
might be devoured in a cae of abo-
lute necesity. The women lived in
greater eae than among nations of
hunters. The men bold in their united
trength and confiding in their power
of procuring pature for their cattle
by change of place, felt, probably, but
few fears about providing for a family.
Thee combined caues oon produced
their natural and invariable effect, an
extended population. A more f requent
and rapid change of place became then
neceary. A wider and more extensive
territory was uccesively occupied. A
broader deolation extended all around
them. Want pinched the les fortunate
members of the ociety, and, at length,
the imposibility of upporting uch a
number together became too evident
to be resited. Young cions were then

puhed out f rom the parent-tock and
intructed to explore f reh regions and
to gain happier eats for themelves by
their words. The world was all be-
fore them where to chooe. Retles
f rom preent ditres, fluhed with the
hope of fairer propects, and animated
with the pirit of hardy enterprie,
thee daring adventurers were likely to
become formidable adveraries to all
who oppoed them. The peaceful in-
habitants of the countries on which
they ruhed could not long withtand
the energy of men acting under uch
powerful motives of exertion. And
when they fell in with any tribes like
their own, the contet was a truggle
for exitence, and they fought with a
deperate courage, inpired by the re-
jection that death was the punihment
of defeat and life the prize of victory.
47 an essay on the
In thee avage contets many tribes

mut have been utterly exterminated.
Some, probably, perihed by hardhip
and famine. Others, whoe leading tar
had given them a happier direction,
became great and powerful tribes, and,
in their turns, ent off f reh adventur-
ers in earch of till more fertile eats.
The prodigious wate of human life
occasioned by this perpetual truggle
for room and food was more than up-
plied by the mighty power of popula-
tion, acting, in ome degree, unhack-
led f rom the conent habit of emigra-
tion. The tribes that migrated towards
the South, though they won thee
more f ruitful regions by continual bat-
tles, rapidly increaed in number and
power, f rom the increaed means of
ubsitence. Till at length the whole
territory, f rom the confines of China
to the hores of the Baltic, was peo-
pled by a various race of Barbarians,
brave, robut, and enterprising, inured

to hardhip, and delighting in war.
Some tribes maintained their indepen-
dence. Others ranged themelves un-
der the tandard of ome barbaric
chieftain who led them to victory after
victory, and what was of more impor-
tance, to regions abounding in corn,
wine, and oil, the long wihed for
conummation, and great reward of
their labours. An Alaric, an Attila, or
a Zingis Khan, and the chiefs around
them, might fight for glory, for the
fame of extensive conquets, but the
true caue that et in motion the great
tide of northern emigration, and that
continued to propel it till it rolled at
different periods againt China, Persia,
Italy, and even Egypt, was a carcity
of food, a population extended beyond
the means of upporting it.
49 an essay on the
The abolute population at any one

period, in proportion to the extent of
territory, could never be great, on ac-
count of the unproductive nature of
ome of the regions occupied ; but
there appears to have been a mot
rapid uccesion of human beings, and
as fat as ome were mowed down by
the cythe of war or of famine, others
roe in increaed numbers to upply
their place. Among thee bold and im-
provident Barbarians, population was
probably but little checked, as in mod-
ern tates, f rom a fear of future dif-
ficulties. A prevailing hope of better-
ing their condition by change of place,
a contant expectation of plunder, a
power even, if ditreed, of elling
their children as laves, added to the
natural carelenes of the barbaric
character, all conpired to raie a pop-
ulation which remained to be repreed
afterwards by famine or war.
Where there is any inequality of

conditions, and among nations of
hepherds this oon takes place, the
ditres arising f rom a carcity of pro-
visions mut fall hardet upon the leat
fortunate members of the ociety. This
ditres alo mut f requently have been
felt by the women, expoed to caual
plunder in the abence of their
hubands, and ubject to continual
diappointments in their expected re-
turn.
But without knowing enough of the

minute and intimate hitory of thee
people, to point out preciely on what
part the ditres for want of food
chiefly fell, and to what extent it was
generally felt, I think we may fairly
ay, f rom all the accounts that we have
of nations of hepherds, that popula-
tion invariably increaed among them
whenever, by emigration or any other
51 an essay on the
caue, the means of ubsitence were

increaed, and that a further popula-
tion was checked, and the actual popu-
lation kept equal to the means of ub-
sitence, by miery and vice.
For, independently of any vicious

cutoms that might have prevailed
amongt them with regard to women,
which always operate as checks to
population, it mut be acknowledged,
I think, that the commision of war is
vice, and the effect of it miery, and
none can doubt the miery of want of
food.
C H A P T E R I V.
State of civilized nations.Probability that Eu-

rope is much more populous now than in the
time of Julius Caear.Bet criterion of popu-
lation.Probable error of Hume in one the cri-
terions that he propoes as asiting in an eti-
mate of population.Slow increae of popula-
tion at preent in mot of the tates of Europe.
The two principal checks to population.The
f irt, or preventive check examined with regard
to England.
In examining the next tate of

mankind with relation to the quetion
before us, the tate of mixed pature
and tillage, in which with ome vari-
ation in the proportions the mot civ-
ilized nations mut always remain, we
hall be asited in our review by what
we daily ee around us, by actual expe-
rience, by facts that come within the
cope of every mans obervation.
Notwithtanding the exaggerations

of ome old hitorians, there can re-
53 an essay on the
main no doubt in the mind of any

thinking man that the population of
the principal countries of Europe,
France, England, Germany, Rusia,
Poland, Sweden, and Denmark is
much greater than ever it was in for-
mer times. The obvious reaon of thee
exaggerations is the formidable apect
that even a thinly peopled nation mut
have, when collected together and
moving all at once in earch of f reh
eats. If to this tremendous appearance
be added a uccesion at certain in-
tervals of similar emigrations, we hall
not be much urpried that the fears
of the timid nations of the South
repreented the North as a region
abolutely warming with human be-
ings. A nearer and juter view of the
ubject at preent enables us to ee that
the inference was as aburd as if a man
in this country, who was continually
meeting on the road droves of cattle
f rom Wales and the North, was im-

mediately to conclude that thee coun-
tries were the mot productive of all
the parts of the kingdom.
The reaon that the greater part of

Europe is more populous now than
it was in former times, is that the
indutry of the inhabitants has made
thee countries produce a greater
quantity of human ubsitence. For I
conceive that it may be laid down as a
position not to be controverted, that,
taking a ufficient extent of territory
to include within it exportation and
importation, and allowing ome vari-
ation for the prevalence of luxury, or
of f rugal habits, that population con-
tantly bears a regular proportion to the
food that the earth is made to pro-
duce. In the controvery concerning
the populounes of ancient and mod-
ern nations, could it be clearly acer-
55 an essay on the
tained that the average produce of the

countries in quetion, taken altogether,
is greater now than it was in the times
of Julius Caear, the dipute would be
at once determined.
When we are aured that China is

the mot fertile country in the world,
that almot all the land is in tillage,
and that a great part of it bears two
crops every year, and further, that the
people live very f rugally, we may infer
with certainty that the population
mut be immene, without buying
ourelves in inquiries into the manners
and habits of the lower claes and the
encouragements to early marriages.
But thee inquiries are of the utmot
importance, and a minute hitory of
the cutoms of the lower Chinee
would be of the greatet ue in acer-
taining in what manner the checks to
a further population operate ; what are
the vices, and what are the ditrees

that prevent an increae of numbers
beyond the ability of the country to
upport.
Hume, in his eay on the popu-

lounes of ancient and modern na-
tions, when he intermingles, as he
ays, an inquiry concerning caues with
that concerning facts, does not eem
to ee with his uual penetration how
very little ome of the caues he al-
ludes to could enable him to form any
judgement of the actual population of
ancient nations. If any inference can
be drawn f rom them, perhaps it hould
be directly the revere of what Hume
draws, though I certainly ought to
peak with great diffidence in dient-
ing f rom a man who of all others on
uch ubjects was the leat likely to
be deceived by firt appearances. If I
find that at a certain period in ancient
57 an essay on the
hitory, the encouragements to have

a family were great, that early mar-
riages were conequently very preva-
lent, and that few perons remained
single, I hould infer with certainty
that population was rapidly increasing,
but by no means that it was then ac-
tually very great, rather ; indeed, the
contrary, that it was then thin and that
there was room and food for a much
greater number. On the other hand, if
I find that at this period the difficul-
ties attending a family were very great,
that, conequently, few early marriages
took place, and that a great number
of both exes remained single, I infer
with certainty that population was at
a tand, and, probably, becaue the ac-
tual population was very great in pro-
portion to the fertility of the land
and that there was carcely room and
food for more. The number of foot-
men, houemaids, and other perons
remaining unmarried in modern tates,

Hume allows to be rather an argument
againt their population. I hould
rather draw a contrary inference and
consider it an argument of their full-
nes, though this inference is not cer-
tain, becaue there are many thinly in-
habited tates that are yet tationary in
their population. To peak, therefore,
correctly, perhaps it may be aid that
the number of unmarried perons in
proportion to the whole number, ex-
iting at different periods, in the ame
or different tates will enable us to
judge whether population at thee pe-
riods was increasing, tationary, or de-
creasing, but will form no criterion
by which we can determine the actual
population.
There is, however, a circumtance

taken notice of in mot of the accounts
we have of China that it eems diffi-
59 an essay on the
cult to reconcile with this reaoning. It

is aid that early marriages very gen-
erally prevail through all the ranks of
the Chinee. Yet Dr Adam Smith up-
poes that population in China is ta-
tionary. Thee two circumtances ap-
pear to be irreconcilable. It certainly
eems very little probable that the
population of China is fat increasing.
Every acre of land has been o long
in cultivation that we can hardly con-
ceive there is any great yearly addition
to the average produce. The fact, per-
haps, of the univerality of early mar-
riages may not be ufficiently acer-
tained. If it be uppoed true, the only
way of accounting for the difficulty,
with our preent knowledge of the
ubject, appears to be that the redun-
dant population, necearily occa-
sioned by the prevalence of early mar-
riages, mut be repreed by occasional
famines, and by the cutom of expos-
ing children, which, in times of

ditres, is probably more f requent
than is ever acknowledged to Euro-
peans. Relative to this barbarous prac-
tice, it is difficult to avoid remarking,
that there cannot be a tronger proof
of the ditrees that have been felt by
mankind for want of food, than the
exitence of a cutom that thus vio-
lates the mot natural principle of the
human heart. It appears to have been
very general among ancient nations,
and certainly tended rather to increae
population.
In examining the principal tates of

modern Europe, we hall find that
though they have increaed very con-
siderably in population since they were
nations of hepherds, yet that at
preent their progres is but low, and
intead of doubling their numbers
every twenty-five years they require
61 an essay on the
three or four hundred years, or more,

for that purpoe. Some, indeed, may
be abolutely tationary, and others
even retrograde. The caue of this low
progres in population cannot be
traced to a decay of the pasion be-
tween the exes. We have ufficient
reaon to think that this natural
propensity exits till in undiminihed
vigour. Why then do not its effects ap-
pear in a rapid increae of the human
pecie? An intimate view of the tate
of ociety in any one country in Eu-
rope, which may erve equally for all,
will enable us to anwer this quetion,
and to ay that a foresight of the diffi-
culties attending the rearing of a fam-
ily acts as a preventive check, and the
actual ditrees of ome of the low-
er claes, by which they are diabled
f rom giving the proper food and at-
tention to their children, act as a pos-
itive check to the natural increae of

population.
England, as one of the mot

flourihing tates of Europe, may be
fairly taken for an example, and the
obervations made will apply with but
little variation to any other country
where the population increaes lowly.
The preventive check appears to

operate in ome degree through all the
ranks of ociety in England. There
are ome men, even in the highet
rank, who are prevented f rom marry-
ing by the idea of the expenes that
they mut retrench, and the fancied
pleaures that they mut deprive
themelves of, on the upposition of
having a family. Thee considerations
are certainly trivial, but a preventive
foresight of this kind has objects of
63 an essay on the
much greater weight for its contem-

plation as we go lower.
A man of liberal education, but

with an income only jut ufficient to
enable him to aociate in the rank of
gentlemen, mut feel abolutely certain
that if he marries and has a family he
hall be obliged, if he mixes at all in
ociety, to rank himelf with moderate
farmers and the lower clas of trade-
men. The woman that a man of edu-
cation would naturally make the object
of his choice would be one brought
up in the ame tates and entiments
with himelf and ued to the familiar
intercoure of a ociety totally differ-
ent f rom that to which he mut be re-
duced by marriage. Can a man conent
to place the object of his affection
in a situation o dicordant, probably,
to her tates and inclination? Two or
three teps of decent in ociety, par-
ticularly at this round of the ladder,

where education ends and ignorance
begins, will not be considered by the
generality of people as a fancied and
chimerical, but a real and eential
evil. If ociety be held desirable, it
urely mut be f ree, equal, and recip-
rocal ociety, where benefits are con-
ferred as well as received, and not uch
as the dependent finds with his patron
or the poor with the rich.
Thee considerations undoubtedly

prevent a great number in this rank of
life f rom following the bent of their
inclinations in an early attachment.
Others, guided either by a tronger
pasion, or a weaker judgement, break
through thee retraints, and it would
be hard indeed, if the gratification of
o delightful a pasion as virtuous love,
did not, ometimes, more than coun-
terbalance all its attendant evils. But
65 an essay on the
I fear it mut be owned that the more

general conequences of uch mar-
riages are rather calculated to jutify
than to repres the forebodings of the
prudent.
The ons of trademen and farmers

are exhorted not to marry, and gen-
erally find it neceary to purue this
advice till they are ettled in ome
busines or farm that may enable them
to upport a family. Thee events may
not, perhaps, occur till they are far ad-
vanced in life. The carcity of farms is
a very general complaint in England.
And the competition in every kind of
busines is o great that it is not posi-
ble that all hould be ucceful.
The labourer who earns eighteen

pence a day and lives with ome degree
of comfort as a single man, will hesi-
tate a little before he divides that pit-
tance among four or five, which eems

to be but jut ufficient for one. Hard-
er fare and harder labour he would
ubmit to for the ake of living with
the woman that he loves, but he mut
feel concious, if he thinks at all, that
hould he have a large family, and any
ill luck whatever, no degree of f rugal-
ity, no posible exertion of his manual
trength could preerve him f rom the
heart-rending enation of eeing his
children tarve, or of forfeiting his in-
dependence, and being obliged to the
parih for their upport. The love of
independence is a entiment that ure-
ly none would wih to be eraed f rom
the breat of man, though the parih
law of England, it mut be confeed,
is a ytem of all others the mot cal-
culated gradually to weaken this enti-
ment, and in the end may eradicate it
completely.
67 an essay on the
The ervants who live in gentle-

mens families have retraints that are
yet tronger to break through in ven-
turing upon marriage. They poes the
necearies, and even the comforts of
life, almot in as great plenty as their
maters. Their work is eay and their
food luxurious compared with the clas
of labourers. And their ene of de-
pendence is weakened by the concious
power of changing their maters, if
they feel themelves offended. Thus
comfortably situated at preent, what
are their propects in marrying? With-
out knowledge or capital, either for
busines, or farming, and unued and
therefore unable, to earn a ubsitence
by daily labour, their only refuge eems
to be a mierable ale-houe, which cer-
tainly offers no very enchanting
propect of a happy evening to their
lives. By much the greater part, there-
fore, deterred by this uninviting view
of their future situation, content

themelves with remaining single
where they are.
If this ketch of the tate of ociety

in England be near the truth, and I
do not conceive that it is exaggerat-
ed, it will be allowed that the preven-
tive check to population in this coun-
try operates, though with varied force,
through all the claes of the commu-
nity. The ame obervation will hold
true with regard to all old tates. The
effects, indeed, of thee retraints up-
on marriage are but too conpicuous in
the conequent vices that are produced
in almot every part of the world, vices
that are continually involving both
exes in inextricable unhappines.
69 an essay on the
C H A P T E R V.
The econd, or positive check to population exam-

ined, in England.The true caue why the im-
mene um collected in England for the poor
does not better their condition.The powerful
tendency of the poor laws to defeat their own
purpoe.Palliative of the ditrees of the poor
propoed.The abolute imposibility, f rom the
f ixed laws of our nature, that the preure of
want can ever be completely removed f rom the
lower claes of ociety.All the checks to popu-
lation may be reolved into miery or vice.
T he positive check to population, by

which I mean the check that reprees
an increae which is already begun, is
confined chiefly, though not perhaps
olely, to the lowet orders of ociety.
This check is not o obvious to

common view as the other I have men-
tioned, and, to prove ditinctly the
force and extent of its operation would
require, perhaps, more data than we
are in poesion of. But I believe it
has been very generally remarked by

thoe who have attended to bills of
mortality that of the number of chil-
dren who die annually, much too great
a proportion belongs to thoe who may
be uppoed unable to give their of-
fpring proper food and attention, ex-
poed as they are occasionally to evere
ditres and confined, perhaps, to un-
wholeome habitations and hard
labour. This mortality among the chil-
dren of the poor has been contantly
taken notice of in all towns. It cer-
tainly does not prevail in an equal de-
gree in the country, but the ubject
has not hitherto received ufficient at-
tention to enable anyone to ay that
there are not more deaths in propor-
tion among the children of the poor,
even in the country, than among thoe
of the middling and higher claes. In-
deed, it eems difficult to uppoe that
a labourers wife who has six chil-
71 an essay on the
dren, and who is ometimes in abo-

lute want of bread, hould be able al-
ways to give them the food and atten-
tion neceary to upport life. The ons
and daughters of peaants will not be
found uch roy cherubs in real life as
they are decribed to be in romances.
It cannot fail to be remarked by thoe
who live much in the country that
the ons of labourers are very apt to
be tunted in their growth, and are a
long while arriving at maturity. Boys
that you would gues to be fourteen
or fifteen are, upon inquiry, f requent-
ly found to be eighteen or nineteen.
And the lads who drive plough, which
mut certainly be a healthy exercie,
are very rarely een with any appear-
ance of calves to their legs ? a circum-
tance which can only be attributed to
a want either of proper or of ufficient
nourihment.
To remedy the f requent ditrees

of the common people, the poor laws
of England have been intituted ; but
it is to be feared, that though they
may have alleviated a little the in-
tensity of individual mifortune, they
have pread the general evil over a
much larger urface. It is a ubject of-
ten tarted in converation and men-
tioned always as a matter of great ur-
prie that, notwithtanding the im-
mene um that is annually collected
for the poor in England, there is till
o much ditres among them. Some
think that the money mut be embez-
zled, others that the church-wardens
and overeers conume the greater part
of it in dinners. All agree that ome-
how or other it mut be very ill-man-
aged. In hort the fact that nearly
three millions are collected annually
for the poor and yet that their
ditrees are not removed is the ubject
73 an essay on the
of continual atonihment. But a man

who ees a little below the urface
of things would be very much more
atonihed if the fact were otherwie
than it is oberved to be, or even if
a collection univerally of eighteen
hillings in the pound, intead of four,
were materially to alter it. I will tate
a cae which I hope will elucidate my
meaning.
Suppoe that by a ubcription of

the rich the eighteen pence a day
which men earn now was made up five
hillings, it might be imagined, per-
haps, that they would then be able to
live comfortably and have a piece of
meat every day for their dinners. But
this would be a very fale conclusion.
The tranfer of three hillings and six-
pence a day to every labourer would
not increae the quantity of meat in
the country. There is not at preent
enough for all to have a decent hare.

What would then be the conequence?
The competition among the buyers in
the market of meat would rapidly raie
the price f rom sixpence or evenpence,
to two or three hillings in the pound,
and the commodity would not be di-
vided among many more than it is at
preent. When an article is carce, and
cannot be ditributed to all, he that
can hew the mot valid patent, that
is, he that offers mot money, becomes
the poeor. If we can uppoe the
competition among the buyers of meat
to continue long enough for a greater
number of cattle to be reared annual-
ly, this could only be done at the ex-
pene of the corn, which would be a
very diadvantagous exchange, for it is
well known that the country could not
then upport the ame population, and
when ubsitence is carce in propor-
tion to the number of people, it is of
75 an essay on the
little conequence whether the lowet

members of the ociety poes eigh-
teen pence or five hillings. They mut
at all events be reduced to live up-
on the hardet fare and in the mallet
quantity.
It will be aid, perhaps, that the in-

creaed number of purchaers in every
article would give a pur to productive
indutry and that the whole produce
of the iland would be increaed. This
might in ome degree be the cae. But
the pur that thee fancied riches
would give to population would more
than counterbalance it, and the in-
creaed produce would be to be di-
vided among a more than proportion-
ably increaed number of people. All
this time I am upposing that the ame
quantity of work would be done as be-
fore. But this would not really take
place. The receipt of five hillings a
day, intead of eighteen pence, would

make every man fancy himelf com-
paratively rich and able to indulge
himelf in many hours or days of
leiure. This would give a trong and
immediate check to productive in-
dutry, and, in a hort time, not only
the nation would be poorer, but the
lower claes themelves would be
much more ditreed than when they
received only eighteen pence a day.
A collection f rom the rich of eigh-

teen hillings in the pound, even if
ditributed in the mot judicious man-
ner, would have a little the ame effect
as that reulting f rom the upposition
I have jut made, and no posible con-
tributions or acrifices of the rich, par-
ticularly in money, could for any time
prevent the recurrence of ditres
among the lower members of ociety,
whoever they were. Great changes
77 an essay on the
might, indeed, be made. The rich

might become poor, and ome of the
poor rich, but a part of the ociety
mut necearily feel a difficulty of liv-
ing, and this difficulty will naturally
fall on the leat fortunate members.
It may at firt appear trange, but

I believe it is true, that I cannot by
means of money raie a poor man and
enable him to live much better than
he did before, without proportionably
depresing others in the ame clas.
If I retrench the quantity of food
conumed in my houe, and give him
what I have cut off, I then benefit
him, without depresing any but
myelf and family, who, perhaps, may
be well able to bear it. If I turn up
a piece of uncultivated land, and give
him the produce, I then benefit both
him and all the members of the oci-
ety, becaue what he before conumed
is thrown into the common tock, and

probably ome of the new produce
with it. But if I only give him money,
upposing the produce of the country
to remain the ame, I give him a title
to a larger hare of that produce than
formerly, which hare he cannot re-
ceive without diminihing the hares of
others. It is evident that this effect, in
individual intances, mut be o mall
as to be totally imperceptible ; but till
it mut exit, as many other effects do,
which, like ome of the inects that
people the air, elude our groer per-
ceptions.
Supposing the quantity of food in

any country to remain the ame for
many years together, it is evident that
this food mut be divided according to
the value of each mans patent * , or
* Mr. Godwin calls the wealth that a man re-

ceives f rom his ancetors a mouldy patent. It
79 an essay on the
the um of money that he can afford to

pend on this commodity o univerally
in requet. It is a demontrative truth,
therefore, that the patents of one et
of men could not be increaed in value
without diminihing the value of the
patents of ome other et of men. If
the rich were to ubcribe and give
five hillings a day to five hundred
thouand men without retrenching
their own tables, no doubt can exit,
that as thee men would naturally live
more at their eae and conume a
greater quantity of provisions, there
would be les food remaining to divide
among the ret, and conequently each
mans patent would be diminihed in
value or the ame number of pieces of
may, I think, very properly be termed a patent,

but I hardly ee the propriety of calling it a
mouldy one, as it is an article in uch contant
ue.
silver would purchae a maller quan-

tity of ubsitence.
An increae of population without a

proportional increae of food will evi-
dently have the ame effect in lowering
the value of each mans patent. The
food mut necearily be ditributed in
maller quantities, and conequently a
days labour will purchae a maller
quantity of provisions. An increae in
the price of provisions would arie ei-
ther f rom an increae of population
fater than the means of ubsitence,
or f rom a different ditribution of the
money of the ociety. The food of a
country that has been long occupied,
if it be increasing, increaes lowly and
regularly and cannot be made to anw-
er any udden demands, but variations
in the ditribution of the money of a
ociety are not inf requently occurring,
and are undoubtedly among the caues
81 an essay on the
that occasion the continual variations

which we oberve in the price of pro-
visions.
The poor laws of England tend to

depres the general condition of the
poor in thee two ways. Their firt ob-
vious tendency is to increae popula-
tion without increasing the food for
its upport. A poor man may marry
with little or no propect of being able
to upport a family in independence.
They may be aid therefore in ome
meaure to create the poor which they
maintain, and as the provisions of the
country mut, in conequence of the
increaed population, be ditributed to
every man in maller proportions, it
is evident that the labour of thoe
who are not upported by parih asi-
tance will purchae a maller quantity
of provisions than before and cone-
quently more of them mut be driven

to ak for upport.
Secondly, the quantity of provisions

conumed in workhoues upon a part
of the ociety that cannot in general
be considered as the mot valuable part
diminihes the hares that would oth-
erwie belong to more indutrious and
more worthy members, and thus in the
ame manner forces more to become
dependent. If the poor in the work-
houes were to live better than they
now do, this new ditribution of the
money of the ociety would tend more
conpicuouly to depres the condition
of thoe out of the workhoues by oc-
casioning a rie in the price of provi-
sions.
Fortunately for England, a pirit of

independence till remains among the
peaantry. The poor laws are trongly
83 an essay on the
calculated to eradicate this pirit.

They have ucceeded in part, but had
they ucceeded as completely as might
have been expected their pernicious
tendency would not have been o long
concealed.
Hard as it may appear in individual

intances, dependent poverty ought to
be held digraceful. Such a timulus
eems to be abolutely neceary to
promote the happines of the great
mas of mankind, and every general
attempt to weaken this timulus, how-
ever benevolent its apparent intention,
will always defeat its own purpoe.
If men are induced to marry f rom a
propect of parih provision, with lit-
tle or no chance of maintaining their
families in independence, they are not
only unjutly tempted to bring unhap-
pines and dependence upon
themelves and children, but they are
tempted, without knowing it, to injure

all in the ame clas with themelves.
A labourer who marries without being
able to upport a family may in ome
repects be considered as an enemy to
all his fellow-labourers.
I feel no doubt whatever that the

parih laws of England have con-
tributed to raie the price of provisions
and to lower the real price of labour.
They have therefore contributed to
impoverih that clas of people whoe
only poesion is their labour. It is
alo difficult to uppoe that they have
not powerfully contributed to generate
that carelenes and want of f rugality
obervable among the poor, o con-
trary to the diposition f requently to
be remarked among petty trademen
and mall farmers. The labouring poor,
to ue a vulgar expresion, eem always
to live f rom hand to mouth. Their
85 an essay on the
preent wants employ their whole at-

tention, and they eldom think of the
future. Even when they have an op-
portunity of aving they eldom exer-
cie it, but all that is beyond their
preent necesities goes, generally
peaking, to the ale-houe. The poor
laws of England may therefore be aid
to diminih both the power and the
will to ave among the common peo-
ple, and thus to weaken one of the
tronget incentives to obriety and in-
dutry, and conequently to happines.
It is a general complaint among

mater manufacturers that high wages
ruin all their workmen, but it is diffi-
cult to conceive that thee men would
not ave a part of their high wages
for the future upport of their families,
intead of pending it in drunkennes
and disipation, if they did not rely
on parih asitance for upport in cae
of accidents. And that the poor em-

ployed in manufactures consider this
asitance as a reaon why they may
pend all the wages they earn and en-
joy themelves while they can appears
to be evident f rom the number of fam-
ilies that, upon the failure of any great
manufactory, immediately fall upon
the parih, when perhaps the wages
earned in this manufactory while it
flourihed were ufficiently above the
price of common country labour to
have allowed them to ave enough for
their upport till they could find ome
other channel for their indutry.
A man who might not be deterred

f rom going to the ale-houe f rom the
consideration that on his death, or
sicknes, he hould leave his wife and
family upon the parih might yet hes-
itate in thus disipating his earnings
if he were aured that, in either of
87 an essay on the
thee caes, his family mut tarve or be

left to the upport of caual bounty. In
China, where the real as well as nom-
inal price of labour is very low, ons
are yet obliged by law to upport their
aged and helples parents. Whether
uch a law would be adviable in this
country I will not pretend to deter-
mine. But it eems at any rate highly
improper, by positive intitutions,
which render dependent poverty o
general, to weaken that digrace,
which for the bet and mot humane
reaons ought to attach to it.
The mas of happines among the

common people cannot but be di-
minihed when one of the tronget
checks to idlenes and disipation is
thus removed, and when men are thus
allured to marry with little or no
propect of being able to maintain a
family in independence. Every obtacle
in the way of marriage mut undoubt-

edly be considered as a pecies of un-
happines. But as f rom the laws of
our nature ome check to population
mut exit, it is better that it hould
be checked f rom a foresight of the
difficulties attending a family and the
fear of dependent poverty than that
it hould be encouraged, only to be
repreed afterwards by want and sick-
nes.
It hould be remembered always

that there is an eential difference be-
tween food and thoe wrought com-
modities, the raw materials of which
are in great plenty. A demand for thee
lat will not fail to create them in as
great a quantity as they are wanted.
The demand for food has by no means
the ame creative power. In a country
where all the fertile pots have been
eized, high offers are neceary to en-
89 an essay on the
courage the farmer to lay his dresing

on land f rom which he cannot expect
a profitable return for ome years. And
before the propect of advantage is uf-
ficiently great to encourage this ort of
agricultural enterprie, and while the
new produce is rising, great ditrees
may be uffered f rom the want of it.
The demand for an increaed quantity
of ubsitence is, with few exceptions,
contant everywhere, yet we ee how
lowly it is anwered in all thoe coun-
tries that have been long occupied.
The poor laws of England were un-

doubtedly intituted for the mot
benevolent purpoe, but there is great
reaon to think that they have not uc-
ceeded in their intention. They cer-
tainly mitigate ome caes of very e-
vere ditres which might otherwie
occur, yet the tate of the poor who are
upported by parihes, considered in
all its circumtances, is very far f rom

being f ree f rom miery. But one of
the principal objections to them is that
for this asitance which ome of the
poor receive, in itelf almot a doubtful
blesing, the whole clas of the com-
mon people of England is ubjected
to a et of grating, inconvenient, and
tyrannical laws, totally inconsitent
with the genuine pirit of the conti-
tution. The whole busines of ettle-
ments, even in its preent amended
tate, is utterly contradictory to all
ideas of f reedom. The parih perecu-
tion of men whoe families are likely
to become chargeable, and of poor
women who are near lying-in, is a
mot digraceful and diguting tyran-
ny. And the obtructions continuity
occasioned in the market of labour by
thee laws have a contant tendency to
add to the difficulties of thoe who are
91 an essay on the
truggling to upport themelves with-

out asitance.
Thee evils attendant on the poor

laws are in ome degree irremediable.
If asitance be to be ditributed to a
certain clas of people, a power mut
be given omewhere of dicriminating
the proper objects and of managing
the concerns of the intitutions that
are neceary, but any great interfer-
ence with the affairs of other people is
a pecies of tyranny, and in the com-
mon coure of things the exercie of
this power may be expected to become
grating to thoe who are driven to ak
for upport. The tyranny of Jutices,
Church-wardens, and Overeers, is a
common complaint among the poor,
but the fault does not lie o much
in thee perons, who probably, before
they were in power, were not wore
than other people, but in the nature of

all uch intitutions.
The evil is perhaps gone too far to

be remedied, but I feel little doubt in
my own mind that if the poor laws
had never exited, though there might
have been a few more intances of very
evere ditres, yet that the aggregate
mas of happines among the common
people would have been much greater
than it is at preent.
Mr. Pitts Poor Bill has the appear-

ance of being f ramed with benevo-
lent intentions, and the clamour raied
againt it was in many repects ill di-
rected, and unreaonable. But it mut
be confeed that it poees in a high
degree the great and radical defect of
all ytems of the kind, that of tending
to increae population without in-
creasing the means for its upport, and
93 an essay on the
thus to depres the condition of thoe

that are not upported by parihes,
and, conequently, to create more
poor.
To remove the wants of the lower

claes of ociety is indeed an arduous
tak. The truth is that the preure of
ditres on this part of a community
is an evil o deeply eated that no
human ingenuity can reach it. Were
I to propoe a palliative, and pallia-
tives are all that the nature of the
cae will admit, it hould be, in the
firt place, the total abolition of all the
preent parih-laws. This would at any
rate give liberty and f reedom of action
to the peaantry of England, which
they can hardly be aid to poes at
preent. They would then be able to
ettle without interruption, wherever
there was a propect of a greater plenty
of work and a higher price for labour.
The market of labour would then be

f ree, and thoe obtacles removed
which, as things are now, often for
a considerable time prevent the price
f rom rising according to the demand.
Secondly, premiums might be given

for turning up f reh land, and it posi-
ble encouragements held out to agri-
culture above manufactures, and to
tillage above grazing. Every endeavour
hould be ued to weaken and detroy
all thoe intitutions relating to cor-
porations, apprenticehips, &c., which
caue the labours of agriculture to be
wore paid than the labours of trade
and manufactures. For a country can
never produce its proper quantity of
food while thee ditinctions remain
in favour of artians. Such encourage-
ments to agriculture would tend to
furnih the market with an increasing
quantity of healthy work, and at the
95 an essay on the
ame time, by augmenting the produce

of the country, would raie the com-
parative price of labour and ameliorate
the condition of the labourer. Being
now in better circumtances, and ee-
ing no propect of parih asitance,
he would be more able, as well as
more inclined, to enter into aocia-
tions for providing againt the sicknes
of himelf or family.
Latly, for caes of extreme ditres,

county workhoues might be
etablihed, upported by rates upon
the whole kingdom, and f ree for
perons of all counties, and indeed of
all nations. The fare hould be hard,
and thoe that were able obliged to
work. It would be desirable that they
hould not be considered as comfort-
able aylums in all difficulties, but
merely as places where evere ditres
might find ome alleviation. A part
of thee houes might be eparated, or

others built for a mot beneficial pur-
poe, which has not been inf requent-
ly taken notice of, that of providing a
place where any peron, whether na-
tive or foreigner, might do a days
work at all times and receive the mar-
ket price for it. Many caes would un-
doubtedly be left for the exertion of
individual benevolence.
A plan of this kind, the preliminary

of which hould be an abolition of all
the preent parih laws, eems to be
the bet calculated to increae the mas
of happines among the common peo-
ple of England. To prevent the recur-
rence of miery, is, ala! beyond the
power of man. In the vain endeavour
to attain what in the nature of things
is imposible, we now acrifice not on-
ly posible but certain benefits. We tell
the common people that if they will
97 an essay on the
ubmit to a code of tyrannical regu-

lations, they hall never be in want.
They do ubmit to thee regulations.
They perform their part of the con-
tract, but we do not, nay cannot, per-
form ours, and thus the poor acrifice
the valuable blesing of liberty and re-
ceive nothing that can be called an
equivalent in return.
Notwithtanding, then, the intitu-

tion of the poor laws in England, I
think it will be allowed that consider-
ing the tate of the lower claes alto-
gether, both in the towns and in the
country, the ditrees which they uf-
fer f rom the want of proper and uffi-
cient food, f rom hard labour and un-
wholeome habitations, mut operate
as a contant check to incipient popu-
lation.
To thee two great checks to popu-

lation, in all long occupied countries,
which I have called the preventive and
the positive checks, may be added vi-
cious cutoms with repect to women,
great cities, unwholeome manufac-
tures, luxury, petilence, and war.
All thee checks may be fairly

reolved into miery and vice. And
that thee are the true caues of the
low increae of population in all the
tates of modern Europe, will appear
ufficiently evident f rom the compar-
atively rapid increae that has invari-
ably taken place whenever thee caues
have been in any considerable degree
removed.
99 an essay on the
CHAP T ER VI.
New colonies.Reaons for their rapid increae.

North American Colonies.Extraordinary in-
tance of increae in the back ettlements.Ra-
pidity with which even old tates recover the
ravages of war, petilence, famine, or the con-
vulsions of nature.
It has been univerally remarked that

all new colonies ettled in healthy
countries, where there was plenty of
room and food, have contantly in-
creaed with atonihing rapidity in
their population. Some of the colonies
f rom ancient Greece, in no very long
period, more than equalled their par-
ent tates in numbers and trength.
And not to dwell on remote intances,
the European ettlements in the new
world bear ample tetimony to the
truth of a remark, which, indeed, has
never, that I know of, been doubted. A
plenty of rich land, to be had for lit-
tle or nothing, is o powerful a caue
of population as to overcome all other

obtacles. No ettlements could well
have been wore managed than thoe
of Spain in Mexico, Peru, and Quito.
The tyranny, upertition, and vices of
the mother-country were introduced
in ample quantities among her chil-
dren. Exorbitant taxes were exacted by
the Crown. The mot arbitrary retric-
tions were impoed on their trade.
And the governors were not behind
hand in rapacity and extortion for
themelves as well as their mater. Yet,
under all thee difficulties, the
colonies made a quick progres in pop-
ulation. The city of Lima, founded
since the conquet, is repreented by
Ulloa as containing fifty thouand in-
habitants near fifty years ago. Quito,
which had been but a hamlet of in-
dians, is repreented by the ame au-
thor as in his time equally populous.
Mexico is aid to contain a hundred
10 1 an essay on the
thouand inhabitants, which, notwith-

tanding the exaggerations of the
Spanih writers, is uppoed to be five
times greater than what it contained in
the time of Montezuma.
In the Portuguee colony of Brasil,

governed with almot equal tyranny,
there were uppoed to be, thirty years
since, six hundred thouand inhabi-
tants of European extraction.
The Dutch and French colonies,

though under the government of ex-
clusive companies of merchants,
which, as Dr Adam Smith ays very
jutly, is the wort of all posible gov-
ernments, till persited in thriving un-
der every diadvantage.
But the Englih North American

colonies, now the powerful people of
the United States of America, made
by far the mot rapid progres. To the

plenty of good land which they
poeed in common with the Spanih
and Portuguee ettlements, they
added a greater degree of liberty and
equality. Though not without ome
retrictions on their foreign commerce,
they were allowed a perfect liberty of
managing their own internal affairs.
The political intitutions that pre-
vailed were favourable to the alien-
ation and division of property. Lands
that were not cultivated by the pro-
prietor within a limited time were de-
clared grantable to any other peron.
In Pennylvania there was no right of
primogeniture, and in the provinces
of New England the eldet had only
a double hare. There were no tithes
in any of the States, and carcely any
taxes. And on account of the extreme
cheapnes of good land a capital could
not be more advantageouly employed
than in agriculture, which at the ame

time that it upplies the greatet quan-
tity of healthy work affords much the
mot valuable produce to the ociety.
The conequence of thee

favourable circumtances united was a
rapidity of increae probably without
parallel in hitory. Throughout all the
northern colonies, the population was
found to double itelf in twenty-five
years. The original number of perons
who had ettled in the four provinces
of new England in 1643 was 21,200. *
Afterwards, it is uppoed that more
left them than went to them. In the
year 1760, they were increaed to half
a million. They had therefore all along
doubled their own number in twenty-
* I take thee figures f rom Dr. Prices two

volumes of Obervations ; not having Dr
Style pamphlet, f rom which he quotes, by
me.
five years. In New Jerey the period

of doubling appeared to be twenty-two
years ; and in Rhode iland till les.
In the back ettlements, where the in-
habitants applied themelves olely to
agriculture, and luxury was not
known, they were found to double
their own number in fifteen years, a
mot extraordinary intance of in-
creae * . Along the ea coat, which
would naturally be firt inhabited, the
period of doubling was about thirty-
five years ; and in ome of the mar-
itime towns, the population was abo-
lutely at a tand.
* In intances of this kind the powers of the

earth appear to be fully equal to anwer it the
demands for food that can be made upon it
by man. But we hould be led into an error
if we were thence to uppoe that population
and food ever really increae in the ame ra-
tio. The one is till a geometrical and the oth-
er an arithmetical ratio, that is, one increaes
by multiplication, and the other by addition.
Thee facts eem to hew that popu-

lation increaes exactly in the propor-
tion that the two great checks to it,
miery and vice, are removed, and that
there is not a truer criterion of the
happines and innocence of a people
than the rapidity of their increae. The
unwholeomenes of towns, to which
ome perons are necearily driven
f rom the nature of their trades, mut
be considered as a pecies of miery,
and every the lightet check to mar-
riage, f rom a propect of the difficulty
of maintaining a family, may be fairly
claed under the ame head. In hort
Where there are few people, and a great quan-

tity of fertile land, the power of the earth to
afford a yearly increae of food may be com-
pared to a great reervoir of water, upplied
by a moderate tream. The fater population
increaes, the more help will be got to draw
off the water, and conequently an increasing
quantity will be taken every year. But the oon-
er, undoubtedly, will the reervoir be exhaut-
it is difficult to conceive any check to

population which does not come un-
der the decription of ome pecies of
miery or vice.
The population of the thirteen

American States before the war was
reckoned at about three millions. No-
body imagines that Great Britain is
les populous at preent for the emi-
gration of the mall parent tock that
produced thee numbers. On the con-
trary, a certain degree of emigration is
known to be favourable to the popula-
tion of the mother country. It has been
particularly remarked that the two
ed, and the treams only remain. When acre

has been added to acre, till all the fertile land
is occupied, the yearly increae of food will de-
pend upon the amelioration of the land already
in poesion ; and even this moderate tream
will be gradually diminihing. But population,
could it be upplied with food, would go on
with unexhauted vigour, and the increae of
Spanih provinces f rom which the

greatet number of people emigrated
to America, became in conequence
more populous. Whatever was the
original number of Britih emigrants
that increaed o fat in the North
American Colonies, let us ak, why
does not an equal number produce an
equal increae in the ame time in
Great Britain? The great and obvious
caue to be asigned is the want of
room and food, or, in other words,
miery, and that this is a much more
powerful caue even than vice appears
ufficiently evident f rom the rapidity
with which even old tates recover the
deolations of war, petilence, or the
accidents of nature. They are then for
a hort time placed a little in the situa-
tion of new tates, and the effect is al-
one period would furnih the power of a greater

increae the next, and this without any limit.
ways anwerable to what might be ex-

pected. If the indutry of the inhabi-
tants be not detroyed by fear or tyran-
ny, ubsitence will oon increae be-
yond the wants of the reduced num-
bers, and the invariable conequence
will be that population which before,
perhaps, was nearly tationary, will be-
gin immediately to increae.
The fertile province of Flanders,

which has been o often the eat of the
mot detructive wars, after a repite
of a few years, has appeared always
as f ruitful and as populous as ever.
Even the Palatinate lifted up its head
again after the execrable ravages of
Louis the Fourteenth. The effects of
the dreadful plague in London in 1666
were not perceptible fifteen or twenty
years afterwards. The traces of the
mot detructive famines in China and
Indotan are by all accounts very oon
obliterated. It may even be doubted

whether Turkey and Egypt are upon
an average much les populous for the
plagues that periodically lay them
wate. If the number of people which
they contain be les now than for-
merly, it is, probably, rather to be at-
tributed to the tyranny and oppresion
of the government under which they
groan, and the conequent dicourage-
ments to agriculture, than to the los
which they utain by the plague. The
mot tremendous convulsions of na-
ture, uch as volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes, if they do not happen o
f requently as to drive away the inhab-
itants, or to detroy their pirit of in-
dutry, have but a trifling effect on
the average population of any tate.
Naples, and the country under Veu-
vius, are till very populous, notwith-
tanding the repeated eruptions of that
mountain. And Libon and Lima are
now, probably, nearly in the ame tate

with regard to population as they were
before the lat earthquakes.
CHAP T ER VI I.
A probable caue of epidemics.Extracts f rom Mr.

Suemilchs tables.Periodical returns of sickly
eaons to be expected in certain caes.Pro-
portion of births to burials for hort periods
in any country an inadequate criterion of the
real average increae of population.Bet cri-
terion of a permanent increae of population.
Great f rugality of living one of the caues
of the famines of China and Indotan.Evil
tendency of one of the claues in Mr Pitts
Poor Bill.Only one proper way of encour-
aging population.Caues of the Happines of
nations.Famine, the lat and mot dreadful
mode by which nature reprees a redundant
population.The three propositions considered
as etablihed.
By great attention to cleanlines, the

plague eems at length to be complete-
ly expelled f rom London. But it is not
improbable that among the econdary
caues that produce even sickly eaons
and epidemics ought to be ranked a
crowded population and unwholeome
and inufficient food. I have been led
112
to this remark, by looking over ome

of the tables of Mr. Suemilch, which
Dr. Price has extracted in one of his
notes to the potcript on the con-
trovery repecting the population of
England and Wales. They are consid-
ered as very correct, and if uch tables
were general, they would throw great
light on the different ways by which
population is repreed and prevented
f rom increasing beyond the means of
ubsitence in any country. I will ex-
tract a part of the tables, with Dr.
Prices remarks.
In the Kingdom of Prussia, and Duke-

dom of Lithuania
Proportion
Proportion
Mar- of Births
Annual average Birth Burial of Births to
riage to Mar-
Burials
riage
10 Yrs to 1702 21963 14718 5928 37 to 10 150 to 100
5 Yrs to 1716 21602 11984 4968 37 to 10 180 to 100
5 Yrs to 1756 28392 19154 5599 50 to 10 148 to 100
11 3
N.B. In 1709 and 1710, a petilence

carried off 247,733 of the inhabitants
of this country, and in 1736 and 1737,
epidemics prevailed, which again
checked its increae.
It may be remarked, that the

greatet proportion of births to burials,
was in the five years after the great
petilence.
Duchy of Pomerania
Proportion
Proportion
Mar- of Births
riage to Mar-
Burials
riage
6 yrs to 1702 6540 4647 1810 36 to 10 140 to 100
6 yrs to 1708 7455 4208 1875 39 to 10 177 to 100
6 yrs to 1726 8432 5627 2131 39 to 10 150 to 100
6 yrs to 1756 12767 9281 2957 43 to 10 137 to 100
In this intance the inhabitants ap-

pear to have been almot doubled in
56 years, no very bad epidemics having
once interrupted the increae, but the

three years immediately following the
lat period (to 1759,) were years o
sickly that the births were unk to
10,229 and the burials raied to
15,068.
Is it not probable that in this cae

the number of inhabitants had in-
creaed fater than the food and the
accommodations neceary to preerve
them in health? The mas of the peo-
ple would, upon this upposition, be
obliged to live harder, and a greater
number would be crowded together in
one houe, and it is not urely improb-
able that thee were among the natural
caues that produced the three sickly
years. Thee caues may produce uch
an effect, though the country, abo-
lutely considered, may not be extreme-
ly crowded and populous. In a coun-
try even thinly inhabited, if an in-

creae of population take place, be-
fore more food is raied, and more
houes are built, the inhabitants mut
be ditreed in ome degree for room
and ubsitence. Were the marriages
in England, for the next eight or ten
years, to be more prolifick than uual,
or even were a greater number of mar-
riages than uual to take place, uppos-
ing the number of houes to remain
the ame, intead of five or six to a
cottage, there mut be even or eight,
and this, added to the necesity of
harder living, would probably have a
very unfavourable effect on the health
of the common people.
Neumark of Brandenburgh.
Proportion
Proportion
Mar- of Births
riage to Mar-
Burials
riage
116
5 yrs to 1701 5433 3483 1436 37 to 10 155 to 100

5 yrs to 1726 7012 4254 1713 40 to 10 164 to 100
5 yrs to 1756 7978 5567 1891 42 to 10 143 to 100
Epidemics prevailed for six years,

f rom 1736, to 1741, which checked
the increae.
Dukedom of Magdeburgh
Proportion
Proportion
Mar- of Births
riage to Mar-
Burials
riage
5 yrs to 1702 6431 4103 1681 38 to 10 156 to 100
5 yrs to 1717 7590 5335 2076 36 to 10 142 to 100
5 yrs to 1756 8850 8069 2193 40 to 10 109 to 100
The years 1738, 1740, 1750, and

1751, were particularly sickly.
For further information on this ub-

ject, I refer the reader to Mr.
Suemilchs tables. The extracts that
I have made are ufficient to hew
the periodical, though irregular, re-
turns of sickly eaons, and it eems
highly probable that a cantines of

room and food was one of the princi-
pal caues that occasioned them.
It appears f rom the tables that thee

countries were increasing rather fat
for old tates, notwithtanding the oc-
casional eaons that prevailed. Culti-
vation mut have been improving, and
marriages, conequently, encouraged.
For the checks to population appear
to have been rather of the positive,
than of the preventive kind. When
f rom a propect of increasing plenty in
any country, the weight that reprees
population is in ome degree removed,
it is highly probable that the motion
will be continued beyond the opera-
tion of the caue that firt impelled
it. Or, to be more particular, when
the increasing produce of a country,
and the increasing demand for labour,
o far ameliorate the condition of the
labourer as greatly to encourage mar-

riage, it is probable that the cutom of
early marriages will continue till the
population of the country has gone be-
yond the increaed produce, and sick-
ly eaons appear to be the natural
and neceary conequence. I hould
expect, therefore, that thoe countries
where ubsitence was increasing uffi-
ciency at times to encourage popula-
tion but not to anwer all its demands,
would be more ubject to periodical
epidemics than thoe where the pop-
ulation could more completely accom-
modate itelf to the average produce.
An obervation the convere of this

will probably alo be found true. In
thoe countries that are ubject to pe-
riodical sicknees, the increae of pop-
ulation, or the exces of births above
the burials, will be greater in the in-
tervals of thee periods than is uual,
caeteris paribus, in the countries not

o much ubject to uch diorders. If
Turkey and Egypt have been nearly
tationary in their average population
for the lat century, in the intervals
of their periodical plagues, the births
mut have exceeded the burials in a
greater proportion than in uch coun-
tries as France and England.
The average proportion of births to

burials in any country for a period of
five to ten years, will hence appear
to be a very inadequate criterion by
which to judge of its real progres in
population. This proportion certain-
ly hews the rate of increae during
thoe five or ten years ; but we can by
no means thence infer what had been
the increae for the twenty years be-
fore, or what would be the increae
for the twenty years after. Dr. Price
oberves that Sweden, Norway, Rusia,
and the kingdom of Naples, are in-

creasing fat ; but the extracts f rom
regiters that he has given are not for
periods of ufficient extent to etablih
the fact. It is highly probable, howev-
er, that Sweden, Norway, and Rusia,
are really increasing their population,
though not at the rate that the propor-
tion of births to burials for the hort
periods that Dr. Price takes would
eem to hew * . For five years, ending
in 1777, the proportion of births to
burials in the kingdom of Naples was
144 to 100, but there is reaon to up-
poe that this proportion would in-
dicate an increae much greater than
would be really found to have taken
place in that kingdom during a period
of a hundred years.
* See Dr. Prices Obervations, Vol. ii,

potcript to the controvery on the population
of England and Wales.
Dr Short compared the regiters of

many villages and market towns in
England for two periods ; the firt,
f rom Queen Elizabeth to the middle
of the lat century, and the econd,
f rom different years at the end of the
lat century to the middle of the
preent. And f rom a comparion of
thee extracts, it appears that in the
former period the births exceeded the
burials in the proportion of 124 to
100, but in the latter, only in the pro-
portion of 111 to 100. Dr. Price thinks
that the regiters in the former pe-
riod are not to be depended upon,
but, probably, in this intance they do
not give incorrect proportions. At leat
there are many reaons for expecting
to find a greater exces of births above
the burials in the former period than
in the latter. In the natural progres
of the population of any country, more
good land will, caeteris paribus, be
taken into cultivation in the earlier

tages of it than in the later * . And
a greater proportional yearly increae
of produce will almot invariably be
followed by a greater proportional in-
creae of population. But, besides this
great caue, which would naturally
give the exces of births above burials
greater at the end of Queen Eliza-
beths reign than in the middle of the
preent century, I cannot help thinking
that the occasional ravages of the
plague in the former period mut have
had ome tendency to increae this
proportion. If an average of ten years
* I ay caeteris paribus, becaue the in-

creae of the produce of any country will al-
ways very greatly depend on the pirit of in-
dutry that prevails, and the way in which it
is directed. The knowledge and habits of the
people, and other temporary caues, particular-
ly the degree of civil liberty and equality exit-
ing at the time, mut always have great influ-
ence in exciting and directing this pirit.
had been taken in the intervals of the

returns of this dreadful diorder, or if
the years of plague had been rejected
as accidental, the regiters would cer-
tainly give the proportion of births to
burials too high for the real average
increae of the population. For ome
few years after the great plague in
1666, it is probable that there was a
more than uual exces of births above
burials, particularly if Dr. Prices opin-
ion be founded, that England was
more populous at the revolution
(which happened only twenty-two
years afterward ) than it is at preent.
Mr. King, in 1693, tated the pro-

portion of the births to the burials
throughout the Kingdom, exclusive of
London, as 115 to 100. Dr Short
makes it, in the middle of the preent
century, 111 to 100, including Lon-
don. The proportion in France for five
years, ending in 1774, was 117 to 100.

If thee tatements are near the truth ;
and if there are no very great varia-
tions at particular periods in the pro-
portions, it would appear that the
population of France and England has
accommodated itelf very nearly to the
average produce of each country. The
dicouragements to marriage, the
conequent vicious habits, war, luxury,
the silent though certain depopulation
of large towns, and the cloe habita-
tions, and inufficient food of many of
the poor, prevent population f rom in-
creasing beyond the means of ubsi-
tence ; and, if I may ue an expresion
which certainly at firt appears trange,
upercede the necesity of great and
ravaging epidemics to repres what is
redundant. Were a wating plague to
weep off two millions in England,
and six millions in France, there can
be no doubt whatever that, after the
inhabitants had recovered f rom the

dreadful hock, the proportion of
births to burials would be much above
what it is in either country at preent.
In New Jerey, the proportion of

births to deaths on an average of even
years, ending in 1743, was as 300 to
100. In France and England, taking
the highet proportion, it is as 117 to
100. Great and atonihing as this dif-
ference is, we ought not to be o won-
der-truck at it as to attribute it to
the miraculous interposition of heav-
en. The caues of it are not remote,
latent and myterious ; but near us,
round about us, and open to the in-
vetigation of every inquiring mind.
It accords with the mot liberal pirit
of philoophy to uppoe that not a
tone can fall, or a plant rie, without
the immediate agency of divine power.
But we know f rom experience that
thee operations of what we call nature

have been conducted almot invariably
according to fixed laws. And since the
world began, the caues of population
and depopulation have probably been
as contant as any of the laws of nature
with which we are acquainted.
The pasion between the exes has

appeared in every age to be o nearly
the ame that it may always be consid-
ered, in algebraic language, as a giv-
en quantity. The great law of necesi-
ty which prevents population f rom in-
creasing in any country beyond the
food which it can either produce or
acquire, is a law o open to our view,
o obvious and evident to our under-
tandings, and o completely confirmed
by the experience of every age, that
we cannot for a moment doubt it. The
different modes which nature takes to
prevent or repres a redundant pop-
ulation do not appear, indeed, to us

o certain and regular, but though we
cannot always predict the mode we
may with certainty predict the fact.
If the proportion of births to deaths
for a few years indicate an increae
of numbers much beyond the propor-
tional increaed or acquired produce of
the country, we may be perfectly cer-
tain that unles an emigration takes
place, the deaths will hortly exceed
the births ; and that the increae that
had taken place for a few years cannot
be the real average increae of the pop-
ulation of the country. Were there no
other depopulating caues, every coun-
try would, without doubt, be ubject to
periodical petilences or famine.
The only true criterion of a real and

permanent increae in the population
of any country is the increae of the
means of ubsitence. But even, this
criterion is ubject to ome light vari-

ations which are, however, completely
open to our view and obervations. In
ome countries population appears to
have been forced, that is, the people
have been habituated by degrees to
live almot upon the mallet posible
quantity of food. There mut have
been periods in uch counties when
population increaed permanently,
without an increae in the means of
ubsitence. China eems to anwer to
this decription. If the accounts we
have of it are to be truted, the lower
claes of people are in the habit of liv-
ing almot upon the mallet posible
quantity of food and are glad to get
any putrid offals that European
labourers would rather tarve than eat.
The law in China which permits par-
ents to expoe their children has tend-
ed principally thus to force the pop-
ulation. A nation in this tate mut
necearily be ubject to famines.

Where a country is o populous in
proportion to the means of ubsitence
that the average produce of it is but
barely ufficient to upport the lives
of the inhabitants, any deficiency f rom
the badnes of eaons mut be fatal. It
is probable that the very f rugal man-
ner in which the Gentoos are in the
habit of living contributes in ome de-
gree to the famines of Indotan.
In America, where the reward of

labour is at preent o liberal, the low-
er claes might retrench very consid-
erably in a year of carcity without
materially ditresing themelves. A
famine therefore eems to be almot
imposible. It may be expected that
in the progres of the population of
America, the labourers will in time
be much les liberally rewarded. The
numbers will in this cae permanently
increae without a proportional in-

creae in the means of ubsitence.
In the different tates of Europe

there mut be ome variations in the
proportion between the number of in-
habitants and the quantity of food
conumed, arising f rom the different
habits of living that prevail in each
tate. The labourers of the South of
England are o accutomed to eat fine
wheaten bread that they will uffer
themelves to be half tarved before
they will ubmit to live like the Scotch
peaants. They might perhaps in time,
by the contant operation of the hard
law of necesity, be reduced to live
even like the Lower Chinee, and the
country would then, with the ame
quantity of food, upport a greater
population. But to effect this mut al-
ways be a mot difficult, and, every
f riend to humanity will hope, an
abortive attempt. Nothing is o com-

mon as to hear of encouragements that
ought to be given to population. If the
tendency of mankind to increae be o
great as I have repreented it to be, it
may appear trange that this increae
does not come when it is thus repeat-
edly called for. The true reaon is that
the demand for a greater population
is made without preparing the funds
neceary to upport it. Increae the
demand for agricultural labour by pro-
moting cultivation, and with it cone-
quently increae the produce of the
country, and ameliorate the condition
of the labourer, and no apprehensions
whatever need be entertained of the
proportional increae of population.
An attempt to effect this purpoe in
any other way is vicious, cruel, and
tyrannical, and in any tate of tolerable
f reedom cannot therefore ucceed. It
may appear to be the interet of the
rulers, and the rich of a tate, to force

population, and thereby lower the
price of labour, and conequently the
expene of fleets and armies, and the
cot of manufactures for foreign ale ;
but every attempt of the kind hould
be carefully watched and trenuouly
resited by the f riends of the poor,
particularly when it comes under the
deceitful garb of benevolence, and is
likely, on that account, to be cheerful-
ly and cordially received by the com-
mon people.
I entirely acquit Mr. Pitt of any

siniter intention in that claue of his
Poor Bill which allows a hilling a
week to every labourer for each child
he has above three. I confes, that be-
fore the bill was brought into Par-
liament, and for ome time after, I
thought that uch a regulation would
be highly beneficial, but further re-
flection on the ubject has convinced

me that if its object be to better the
condition of the poor, it is calculated
to defeat the very purpoe which it
has in view. It has no tendency that I
can dicover to increae the produce of
the country, and if it tend to increae
the population, without increasing the
produce, the neceary and inevitable
conequence appears to be that the
ame produce mut be divided among a
greater number, and conequently that
a days labour will purchae a maller
quantity of provisions, and the poor
therefore in general mut be more
ditreed.
I have mentioned ome caes where

population may permanently increae
without a proportional increae in the
means of ubsitence. But it is evident
that the variation in different tates,
between the food and the numbers
upported by it, is retricted to a limit

beyond which it cannot pas. In every
country, the population of which is
not abolutely decreasing, the food
mut be necearily ufficient to up-
port, and to continue, the race of
labourers.
Other circumtances being the

ame, it may be affirmed that countries
are populous according to the quantity
of human food which they produce,
and happy according to the liberality
with which that food is divided, or the
quantity which a days labour will pur-
chae. Corn countries are more pop-
ulous than pature countries, and rice
countries more populous than corn
countries. The lands in England are
not uited to rice, but they would all
bear potatoes ; and Dr Adam Smith
oberves that if potatoes were to be-
come the favourite vegetable food of
the common people, and if the ame

quantity of land was employed in their
culture as is now employed in the cul-
ture of corn, the country would be able
to upport a much greater population,
and would conequently in a very hort
time have it.
The happines of a country does not

depend, abolutely, upon its poverty or
its riches, upon its youth or its age,
upon its being thinly or fully inhabit-
ed, but upon the rapidity with which
it is increasing, upon the degree in
which the yearly increae of food ap-
proaches to the yearly increae of an
unretricted population. This approx-
imation is always the nearet in new
colonies, where the knowledge and in-
dutry of an old tate operate on the
fertile unappropriated land of a new
one. In other caes, the youth or the
age of a tate is not in this repect
of very great importance. It is proba-

ble that the food of Great Britain is
divided in as great plenty to the in-
habitants, at the preent period, as it
was two thouand, three thouand, or
four thouand years ago. And there is
reaon to believe that the poor and
thinly inhabited tracts of the Scotch
Highlands are as much ditreed by an
overcharged population as the rich and
populous province of Flanders.
Were a country never to be overrun

by a people more advanced in arts, but
left to its own natural progres in civ-
ilization ; f rom the time that its pro-
duce might be considered as an unit,
to the time that it might be consid-
ered as a million, during the lape of
many hundred years, there would not
be a single period when the mas of
the people could be aid to be f ree
f rom ditres, either directly or indi-
rectly, for want of food. In every tate

in Europe, since we have firt had ac-
counts of it, millions and millions of
human exitences have been repreed
f rom this simple caue ; though per-
haps in ome of thee tates an abolute
famine has never been known.
Famine eems to be the lat, the

mot dreadful reource of nature. The
power of population is o uperior to
the power in the earth to produce ub-
sitence for man, that premature death
mut in ome hape or other visit the
human race. The vices of mankind are
active and able miniters of depopula-
tion. They are the precurors in the
great army of detruction ; and often
finih the dreadful work themelves.
But hould they fail in this war of ex-
termination, sickly eaons, epidemics,
petilence, and plague, advance in ter-
rific array, and weep off their
thouands and ten thouands. Should

ucces be till incomplete, gigantic in-
evitable famine talks in the rear, and
with one mighty blow levels the pop-
ulation with the food of the world.
Mut it not then be acknowledged

by an attentive examiner of the hito-
ries of mankind, that in every age and
in every tate in which man has exit-
ed, or does now exit.
That the increae of population is

necearily limited by the means of
ubsitence.
That population does invariably in-

creae when the means of ubsitence
increae. And that the uperior power
of population it repreed, and the ac-
tual population kept equal to the
means of ubsitence, by miery and
vice?
CHAP T ER VI I I.
Mr. Wallace.Error of upposing that the diff i-

culty arising f rom population is at a great di-
tance.Mr. Condorcets ketch of the progres of
the human mind.Period when the ocillation,
mentioned by Mr. Condorcet, ought to be ap-
plied to the human race.
To a peron who draws the preceding

obvious inferences, f rom a view of the
pat and preent tate of mankind, it
cannot but be a matter of atonihment
that all the writers on the perfectibili-
ty of man and of ociety who have no-
ticed the argument of an overcharged
population, treat it always very lightly
and invariably repreent the difficul-
ties arising f rom it as at a great and al-
mot immeaurable ditance. Even Mr.
Wallace, who thought the argument
itelf of o much weight as to detroy
his whole ytem of equality, did not
eem to be aware that any difficulty
would occur f rom this caue till the
whole earth had been cultivated like a

garden and was incapable of any fur-
ther increae of produce. Were this
really the cae, and were a beautiful
ytem of equality in other repects
practicable, I cannot think that our ar-
dour in the puruit of uch a cheme
ought to be damped by the contem-
plation of o remote a difficulty. An
event at uch a ditance might fairly
be left to providence, but the truth is
that if the view of the argument given
in this Eay be jut the difficulty, o
far f rom being remote, would be im-
minent and immediate. At every peri-
od during the progres of cultivation,
f rom the preent moment to the time
when the whole earth was become like
a garden, the ditres for want of food
would be contantly presing on all
mankind, if they were equal. Though
the produce of the earth might be in-
creasing every year, population would
be increasing much fater, and the re-

dundancy mut necearily be repreed
by the periodical or contant action of
miery or vice.
Mr. Condorcets Equie dun

Tableau Hitorique des Progres de
lEprit Humain, was written, it is
aid, under the preure of that cruel
procription which terminated in his
death. If he had no hopes of its being
een during his life and of its interet-
ing France in his favour, it is a singu-
lar intance of the attachment of a man
to principles, which every days expe-
rience was o fatally for himelf con-
tradicting. To ee the human mind in
one of the mot enlightened nations of
the world, and after a lape of ome
thouand years, debaed by uch a fer-
mentation of diguting pasions, of
fear, cruelty, malice, revenge, ambi-
tion, madnes, and folly as would have
digraced the mot avage nation in

the mot barbarous age mut have been
uch a tremendous hock to his ideas
of the neceary and inevitable progres
of the human mind that nothing but
the firmet conviction of the truth of
his principles, in pite of all appear-
ances, could have withtood.
This pothumous publication is only

a ketch of a much larger work, which
he propoed hould be executed. It
necearily, therefore, wants that detail
and application which can alone prove
the truth of any theory. A few ober-
vations will be ufficient to hew how
completely the theory is contradicted
when it is applied to the real, and not
to an imaginary, tate of things.
In the lat division of the work,

which treats of the future progres of
man towards perfection, he ays, that
comparing, in the different civilized

nations of Europe, the actual popula-
tion with the extent of territory, and
oberving their cultivation, their in-
dutry, their divisions of labour, and
their means of ubsitence, we hall ee
that it would be imposible to preerve
the ame means of ubsitence, and,
conequently, the ame population,
without a number of individuals who
have no other means of upplying their
wants than their indutry. Having al-
lowed the necesity of uch a clas
of men, and adverting afterwards to
the precarious revenue of thoe fami-
lies that would depend o entirely on
the life and health of their chief * ,
* To ave time and long quotations, I hall

here give the ubtance of ome of Mr. Con-
dorcet s entiments, and hope I hall not
mi repreent them. But I refer the reader to
the work itelf, which will amue, if it does not
convince him.
he ays, very jutly ? There exits

then, a neceary caue of inequality,
of dependence, and even of miery,
which menaces, without ceasing, the
mot numerous and active clas of our
ocieties. The difficulty is jut and
well tated, and I am af raid that the
mode by which he propoes it hould
be removed will be found ineffica-
cious. By the application of calcula-
tions to the probabilities of life and
the interet of money, he propoes that
a fund hould be etablihed which
hould aure to the old an asitance,
produced, in part, by their own former
avings, and, in part, by the avings of
individuals who in making the ame
acrifice die before they reap the ben-
efit of it. The ame, or a similar fund,
hould give asitance to women and
children who loe their hubands, or
fathers, and afford a capital to thoe
who were of an age to found a new
family, ufficient for the proper de-

velopment of their indutry. Thee
etablihments, he oberves, might be
made in the name and under the pro-
tection of the ociety. Going till fur-
ther, he ays that, by the jut applica-
tion of calculations, means might be
found of more completely preerving a
tate of equality, by preventing credit
f rom being the exclusive privilege of
great fortunes, and yet giving it a ba-
sis equally olid, and by rendering the
progres of indutry, and the activity
of commerce, les dependent on great
capitalits.
Such etablihments and calcula-

tions may appear very promising upon
paper, but when applied to real life
they will be found to be abolutely nu-
gatory. Mr. Condorcet allows that a
clas of people which maintains itelf
entirely by indutry is neceary to
every tate. Why does he allow thi?

No other reaon can well be asigned
than that he conceives that the labour
neceary to procure ubsitence for an
extended population will not be per-
formed without the goad of necesity.
If by etablihments of this kind of
pur to indutry be removed, if the
idle and the negligent are placed upon
the ame footing with regard to their
credit, and the future upport of their
wives and families, as the active and
indutrious, can we expect to ee men
exert that animated activity in better-
ing their condition which now forms
the mater pring of public properity?
If an inquisition were to be etablihed
to examine the claims of each individ-
ual and to determine whether he had
or had not exerted himelf to the ut-
mot, and to grant or refue asitance
accordingly, this would be little ele
than a repetition upon a larger cale
of the Englih poor laws and would

be completely detructive of the true
principles of liberty and equality.
But independent of this great ob-

jection to thee etablihments, and
upposing for a moment that they
would give no check to productive in-
dutry, by far the greatet difficulty re-
mains yet behind.
Were every man ure of a com-

fortable provision for his family, al-
mot every man would have one, and
were the rising generation f ree f rom
the killing f rot of miery, popu-
lation mut rapidly increae. Of this
Mr. Condorcet eems to be fully aware
himelf, and after having decribed
further improvements, he ays ?
But in this proces of indutry and

happines, each generation will be
called to more extended enjoyments,

and in conequence, by the physical
contitution of the human f rame, to an
increae in the number of individuals.
Mut not there arrive a period then,
when thee laws, equally neceary,
hall counteract each other? When the
increae of the number of men ur-
pasing their means of ubsitence, the
neceary reult mut be either a con-
tinual diminution of happines and
population, a movement truly retro-
grade, or, at leat, a kind of ocillation
between good and evil? In ocieties ar-
rived at this term, will not this ocil-
lation be a contantly ubsiting caue
of periodical miery? Will it not mark
the limit when all further amelioration
will become imposible, and point out
that term to the perfectibility of the
human race which it may reach in the
coure of ages, but can never pa?
He then adds,
There is no peron who does not

ee how very ditant uch a period is
f rom us, but hall we ever arrive at it?
It is equally imposible to pronounce
for or againt the future realization of
an event which cannot take place but
at an era when the human race will
have attained improvements, of which
we can at preent carcely form a con-
ception.
Mr. Condorcets picture of what

may be expected to happen when the
number of men hall urpas the means
of their ubsitence is jutly drawn.
The ocillation which he decribes will
certainly take place and will without
doubt be a contantly ubsiting caue
of periodical miery. The only point
in which I differ f rom Mr. Condorcet
with regard to this picture is the peri-
od when it may be applied to the hu-

man race. Mr. Condorcet thinks that
it cannot posibly be applicable but at
an era extremely ditant. If the pro-
portion between the natural increae
of population and food which I have
given be in any degree near the truth,
it will appear, on the contrary, that
the period when the number of men
urpas their means of ubsitence has
long since arrived, and that this
necesity ocillation, this contantly
ubsiting caue of periodical miery,
has exited ever since we have had
any hitories of mankind, does exit at
preent, and will for ever continue to
exit, unles ome decided change take
place in the physical contitution of
our nature.
Mr. Condorcet, however, goes on to

ay that hould the period, which he
conceives to be o ditant, ever arrive,
the human race, and the advocates for

the perfectibility of man, need not be
alarmed at it. He then proceeds to re-
move the difficulty in a manner which
I profes not to undertand. Having
oberved, that the ridiculous preju-
dices of upertition would by that
time have ceaed to throw over morals
a corrupt and degrading auterity, he
alludes, either to a promicuous con-
cubinage, which would prevent breed-
ing, or to omething ele as unnatural.
To remove the difficulty in this way
will, urely, in the opinion of mot
men, be to detroy that virtue and pu-
rity of manners, which the advocates
of equality, and of the perfectibility of
man, profes to be the end and object
of their views.
CHAP T ER IX.
Mr. Condorcets conjecture concerning the organic

perfectibility of man, and the indef inite pro-
longation of human life.Fallacy of the argu-
ment, which infers an unlimited progres f rom
a partial improvement, the limit of which can-
not be acertained, illutrated in the breeding of
animals, and the cultivation of plants.
T he lat quetion which Mr. Con-

dorcet propoes for examination is the
organic perfectibility of man. He
oberves that if the proofs which have
been already given and which, in their
development will receive greater force
in the work itelf, are ufficient to
etablih the indefinite perfectibility of
man upon the upposition of the ame
natural faculties and the ame organi-
zation which he has at preent, what
will be the certainty, what the extent
of our hope, if this organization, thee
natural faculties themelves, are u-
ceptible of amelioration?
From the improvement of medicine,

f rom the ue of more wholeome food
and habitations, f rom a manner of liv-
ing which will improve the trength of
the body by exercie without impair-
ing it by exces, f rom the detruction
of the two great caues of the degra-
dation of man, miery, and too great
riches, f rom the gradual removal of
tranmisible and contagious diorders
by the improvement of physical
knowledge, rendered more efficacious
by the progres of reaon and of ocial
order, he infers that though man will
not abolutely become immortal, yet
that the duration between his birth
and natural death will increae without
ceasing, will have no asignable term,
and may properly be expreed by the
word indefinite. He then defines
this word to mean either a contant
approach to an unlimited extent, with-
out ever reaching it, or an increae.
In the immensity of ages to an extent

greater than any asignable quantity.
But urely the application of this

term in either of thee enes to the
duration of human life is in the high-
et degree unphiloophical and totally
unwarranted by any appearances in the
laws of nature. Variations f rom differ-
ent caues are eentially ditinct f rom
a regular and unretrograde increae.
The average duration of human life
will to a certain degree vary f rom
healthy or unhealthy climates, f rom
wholeome or unwholeome food,
f rom virtuous or vicious manners, and
other caues, but it may be fairly
doubted whether there is really the
mallet perceptible advance in the
natural duration of human life since
firt we have had any authentic hitory
of man. The prejudices of all ages
have indeed been directly contrary to
this upposition, and though I would

not lay much tres upon thee preju-
dices, they will in ome meaure tend
to prove that there has been no
marked advance in an opposite direc-
tion.
It may perhaps be aid that the

world is yet o young, o completely in
its infancy, that it ought not to be ex-
pected that any difference hould ap-
pear o oon.
If this be the cae, there is at once

an end of all human cience. The
whole train of reaonings f rom effects
to caues will be detroyed. We may
hut our eyes to the book of nature,
as it will no longer be of any ue
to read it. The wildet and mot im-
probable conjectures may be advanced
with as much certainty as the mot
jut and ublime theories, founded on
careful and reiterated experiments. We

may return again to the old mode of
philoophising and make facts bend to
ytems, intead of etablihing ytems
upon facts. The grand and consitent
theory of Newton will be placed upon
the ame footing as the wild and ec-
centric hypothees of Decartes. In
hort, if the laws of nature are thus
fickle and incontant, if it can be af-
firmed and be believed that they will
change, when for ages and ages they
have appeared immutable, the human
mind will no longer have any incite-
ments to inquiry, but mut remain
fixed in inactive torpor, or amue itelf
only in bewildering dreams and ex-
travagant fancies.
The contancy of the laws of nature

and of effects and caues is the foun-
dation of all human knowledge,
though far be it f rom me to ay that
the ame power which f ramed and ex-

ecutes the laws of nature may not
change them all in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye. Such a change
may undoubtedly happen. All that I
mean to ay is that it is imposible to
infer it f rom reaoning. If without any
previous obervable ymptoms or indi-
cations of a change, we can infer that a
change will take place, we may as well
make any aertion whatever and think
it as unreaonable to be contradicted
in affirming that the moon will come
in contact with the earth tomorrow, as
in aying that the un will rie at its
uual time.
With regard to the duration of hu-

man life, there does not appear to
have exited f rom the earliet ages of
the world to the preent moment the
mallet permanent ymptom or indi-
cation of increasing prolongation. *
The obervable effects of climate,

habit, diet, and other caues, on length
of life have furnihed the pretext for
aerting its indefinite extension ; and
the andy foundation on which the ar-
gument rets is that becaue the limit
of human life is undefined ; becaue
you cannot mark its precie term, and
ay o far exactly hall it go and no fur-
ther ; that therefore its extent may in-
creae for ever, and be properly termed
indefinite or unlimited. But the fallacy
and aburdity of this argument will
ufficiently appear f rom a light exam-
ination of what Mr. Condorcet calls
* Many, I doubt not, will think that the

attempting gravely to controvert o aburd a
paradox as the immortality of man on earth, or
indeed, even the perfectibility of man and o-
ciety, is a wate of time and words, and that
uch unfounded conjectures are bet anwered
by neglect. I profes, however, to be of a dif-
ferent opinion. When paradoxes of this kind
are advanced by ingenious and able men, ne-
the organic perfectibility, or degenera-

tion, of the race of plants and animals,
which he ays may be regarded as one
of the general laws of nature.
I am told that it is a maxim among

the improvers of cattle that you may
breed to any degree of nicety you
pleae, and they found this maxim up-
on another, which is that ome of the
offpring will poes the desirable
qualities of the parents in a greater
degree. In the famous Leiceterhire
breed of heep, the object is to procure
them with mall heads and mall legs.
glect has no tendency to convince them of their

mitakes. Priding themelves on what they con-
ceive to be a mark of the reach and size of
their own undertandings, of the extent and
comprehensivenes of their views, they will
look upon this neglect merely as an indication
of poverty, and narrownes, in the mental ex-
ertions of their contemporaries, and only think
that the world is not yet prepared to receive
Proceeding upon thee breeding max-

ims, it is evident that we might go on
till the heads and legs were evane-
cent quantities, but this is o palpable
an aburdity that we may be quite ure
that the premies are not jut and that
there really is a limit, though we can-
not ee it or ay exactly where it is. In
this cae, the point of the greatet de-
gree of improvement, or the mallet
size of the head and legs, may be aid
to be undefined, but this is very dif-
ferent f rom unlimited, or f rom indefi-
nite, in Mr. Condorcets acceptation of
the term. Though I may not be able in
their ublime truths.
On the contrary, a candid invetigation of thee

ubjects, accompanied with a perfect readines
to adopt any theory warranted by ound
philoophy, may have a tendency to convince
them that in forming improbable and unfound-
ed hypothees, o far f rom enlarging the
bounds of human cience, they are contracting
the preent intance to mark the lim-

it at which further improvement will
top, I can very easily mention a point
at which it will not arrive. I hould not
cruple to aert that were the breeding
to continue for ever, the head and legs
of thee heep would never be o mall
as the head and legs of a rat.
It cannot be true, therefore, that

among animals, ome of the offpring
will poes the desirable qualities of
the parents in a greater degree, or that
animals are indefinitely perfectible.
it, o far f rom promoting the improvement of

the human mind, they are obtructing it ; they
are throwing us back again almot into the in-
fancy of knowledge and weakening the founda-
tions of that mode of philoophising, under the
aupices of which cience has of late made uch
rapid advances. The preent rage for wide and
unretrained peculation eems to be a kind of
mental intoxication, arising, perhaps, f rom the
The progres of a wild plant to a

beautiful garden flower is perhaps
more marked and triking than any-
thing that takes place among animals,
yet even here it would be the height
of aburdity to aert that the progres
was unlimited or indefinite.
One of the mot obvious features

of the improvement is the increae of
size. The flower has grown gradually
larger by cultivation. If the progres
were really unlimited it might be in-
creaed ad infinitum, but this is o
gros an aburdity that we may be
great and unexpected dicoveries which have

been made of late years, in various branches of
cience. To men elate and giddy with uch uc-
cees, every thing appeared to be within the
grap of human powers ; and, under this il-
lusion, they confounded ubjects where no re-
al progres could be proved with thoe where
the progres had been marked, certain, and ac-
knowledged. Could they be peruaded to ober
quite ure that among plants as well as

among animals there is a limit to im-
provement, though we do not exactly
know where it is. It is probable that
the gardeners who contend for flower
prizes have often applied tronger
dresing without ucces. At the ame
time it would be highly preumptuous
in any man to ay that he had een the
finet carnation or anemone that could
ever be made to grow. He might how-
ever aert without the mallet chance
of being contradicted by a future fact,
that no carnation or anemone could
ever by cultivation be increaed to the
size of a large cabbage ; and yet there
are asignable quantities much greater
themelves with a little evere and chatied

thinking, they would ee, that the caue of
truth, and of ound philoophy, cannot but uf-
fer by ubtituting wild flights and unupport-
ed aertions for patient invetigation, and well
authenticated proofs.
than a cabbage. No man can ay that

he has een the larget ear of wheat, or
the larget oak that could ever grow ;
but he might easily, and with perfect
certainty, name a point of magnitude
at which they would not arrive. In all
thee caes therefore, a careful ditinc-
tion hould be made, between an un-
limited progres, and a progres where
the limit is merely undefined.
It will be aid, perhaps, that the

reaon why plants and animals cannot
increae indefinitely in size is, that
they would fall by their own weight. I
anwer, how do we know this but f rom
experience?f rom experience of the
degree of trength with which thee
bodies are formed. I know that a car-
nation, long before it reached the size
of a cabbage, would not be upported
by its talk, but I only know this f rom
my experience of the weaknes and
want of tenacity in the materials of a

carnation talk. There are many ub-
tances in nature of the ame size that
would upport as large a head as a cab-
bage.
The reaons of the mortality of

plants are at preent perfectly un-
known to us. No man can ay why
uch a plant is annual, another bi-
ennial, and another endures for ages.
The whole affair in all thee caes,
in plants, animals, and in the human
race, is an affair of experience, and I
only conclude that man is mortal be-
caue the invariable experience of all
ages has proved the mortality of thoe
materials of which his visible body is
made ?
What can we reaon, but f rom what

we know?
Sound philoophy will not autho-

rize me to alter this opinion of the
mortality of man on earth, till it can
be clearly proved that the human race
has made, and is making, a decided
progres towards an illimitable extent
of life. And the chief reaon why I
adduced the two particular intances
f rom animals and plants was to expoe
and illutrate, if I could, the fallacy
of that argument which infers an un-
limited progres, merely becaue ome
partial improvement has taken place,
and that the limit of this improvement
cannot be preciely acertained.
The capacity of improvement in

plants and animals, to a certain de-
gree, no peron can posibly doubt. A
clear and decided progres has already
been made, and yet, I think, it appears
that it would be highly aburd to ay
that this progres has no limits. In hu-
man life, though there are great varia-

tions f rom different caues, it may be
doubted whether, since the world be-
gan, any organic improvement whatev-
er in the human f rame can be clearly
acertained. The foundations, there-
fore, on which the arguments for the
organic perfectibility of man ret, are
unuually weak, and can only be con-
sidered as mere conjectures. It does
not, however, by any means eem im-
posible that by an attention to breed,
a certain degree of improvement, sim-
ilar to that among animals, might take
place among men. Whether intellect
could be communicated may be a mat-
ter of doubt ? but size, trength, beau-
ty, complexion, and perhaps even
longevity are in a degree tranmisible.
The error does not eem to lie in up-
posing a mall degree of improvement
posible, but in not dicriminating be-
tween a mall improvement, the limit
of which is undefined, and an im-

provement really unlimited. As the
human race, however, could not be
improved in this way, without con-
demning all the bad pecimens to
celibacy, it is not probable that an at-
tention to breed hould ever become
general ; indeed, I know of no well-di-
rected attempts of this kind, except in
the ancient family of the Bickertaffs,
who are aid to have been very uc-
ceful in whitening the kins and in-
creasing the height of their race by
prudent marriages, particularly by that
very judicious cros with Maud, the
milk-maid, by which ome capital de-
fects in the contitutions of the family
were corrected.
It will not be neceary, I think, in

order more completely to hew the im-
probability of any approach in man to-
wards immortality on earth, to urge
the very great additional weight that

an increae in the duration of life
would give to the argument of popula-
tion.
Mr. Condorcets book may be con-

sidered not only as a ketch of the
opinions of a celebrated individual,
but of many of the literary men in
France at the beginning of the Revolu-
tion. As uch, though merely a ketch,
it eems worthy of attention.
CHAP T ER X.
Mr. Godwins ytem of equality.Error of at-

tributing all the vices of mankind to human
intitutions.Mr. Godwins f irt anwer to the
diff iculty arising f rom population totally in-
uff icient.Mr. Godwins beautiful ytem of
equality uppoed to be realized.Its utter
detruction simply f rom the principle of popula-
tion in o hort a time as thirty years.
In reading Mr. Godwins ingenious

and able work on political jutice, it is
imposible not to be truck with the
pirit and energy of his tyle, the force
and precision of ome of his reaon-
ings, the ardent tone of his thoughts,
and particularly with that impresive
earnetnes of manner which gives an
air of truth to the whole. At the ame
time, it mut be confeed that he has
not proceeded in his inquiries with the
caution that ound philoophy eems
to require. His conclusions are often
unwarranted by his premies. He fails
ometimes in removing the objections

which he himelf brings forward. He
relies too much on general and abtract
propositions which will not admit of
application. And his conjectures cer-
tainly far outtrip the modety of na-
ture.
The ytem of equality which Mr.

Godwin propoes is, without doubt, by
far the mot beautiful and engaging of
any that has yet appeared. An amelio-
ration of ociety to be produced merely
by reaon and conviction wears much
more the promie of permanence than
any change effected and maintained
by force. The unlimited exercie of
private judgement is a doctrine in-
expresibly grand and captivating and
has a vat uperiority over thoe
ytems where every individual is in a
manner the lave of the public. The
ubtitution of benevolence as the
mater-pring and moving principle of

ociety, intead of elf-love, is a
conummation devoutly to be wihed.
In hort, it is imposible to contem-
plate the whole of this fair tructure
without emotions of delight and admi-
ration, accompanied with ardent long-
ing for the period of its accomplih-
ment. But, ala! that moment can nev-
er arrive. The whole is little better
than a dream, a beautiful phantom
of the imagination. Thee gorgeous
palace of happines and immortality,
thee olemn temple of truth and
virtue will diolve, like the baeles
fabric of a vision , when we awaken
to real life and contemplate the true
and genuine situation of man on earth.
Mr. Godwin, at the conclusion of the
third chapter of his eighth book,
peaking of population, ays ?
There is a principle in human oci-

ety, by which population is perpetual-
ly kept down to the level of the means
of ubsitence. Thus among the wan-
dering tribes of America and Asia, we
never find through the lape of ages
that population has o increaed as to
render neceary the cultivation of the
earth.
This principle, which Mr. Godwin

thus mentions as ome myterious and
occult caue and which he does not
attempt to invetigate, will be found
to be the grinding law of necesity,
miery, and the fear of miery.
The great error under which Mr.

Godwin labours throughout his whole
work is the attributing almot all the
vices and miery that are een in civil
ociety to human intitutions. Political
regulations and the etablihed ad-
minitration of property are with him

the f ruitful ources of all evil, the
hotbeds of all the crimes that degrade
mankind. Were this really a true tate
of the cae, it would not eem a
hopeles tak to remove evil complete-
ly f rom the world, and reaon eems to
be the proper and adequate intrument
for effecting o great a purpoe. But
the truth is, that though human inti-
tutions appear to be the obvious and
obtrusive caues of much michief to
mankind, yet in reality they are light
and uperficial, they are mere feathers
that float on the urface, in compar-
ion with thoe deeper eated caues of
impurity that corrupt the prings and
render turbid the whole tream of hu-
man life.
Mr. Godwin, in his chapter on the

benefits attendant on a ytem of
equality, ays ?
The pirit of oppresion, the pirit

of ervility, and the pirit of f raud,
thee are the immediate growth of the
etablihed adminitration of property.
They are alike hotile to intellectual
improvement. The other vices of envy,
malice, and revenge are their inepara-
ble companions. In a tate of ociety
where men lived in the midt of plenty
and where all hared alike the bounties
of nature, thee entiments would in-
evitably expire. The narrow principle
of elfihnes would vanih. No man
being obliged to guard his little tore
or provide with anxiety and pain for
his retles wants, each would loe his
individual exitence in the thought of
the general good. No man would be
an enemy to his neighbour, for they
would have no ubject of contention,
and, of conequence, philanthropy
would reume the empire which reaon
asigns her. Mind would be delivered
f rom her perpetual anxiety about cor-

poral upport, and f ree to expatiate in
the field of thought, which is conge-
nial to her. Each would asit the in-
quiries of all.
This would, indeed, be a happy

tate. But that it is merely an imag-
inary picture, with carcely a feature
near the truth, the reader, I am af raid,
is already too well convinced.
Man cannot live in the midt of

plenty. All cannot hare alike the
bounties of nature. Were there no
etablihed adminitration of property,
every man would be obliged to guard
with force his little tore. Selfihnes
would be triumphant. The ubjects of
contention would be perpetual. Every
individual mind would be under a
contant anxiety about corporal up-
port, and not a single intellect would
be left f ree to expatiate in the field of

thought.
How little Mr. Godwin has turned

the attention of his penetrating mind
to the real tate of man on earth will
ufficiently appear f rom the manner in
which he endeavours to remove the
difficulty of an overcharged popula-
tion. He ays ?
The obvious anwer to this objec-

tion, is, that to reaon thus is to
foreee difficulties at a great ditance.
Three fourths of the habitable globe
is now uncultivated. The parts already
cultivated are capable of immeaurable
improvement. Myriads of centuries of
till increasing population may pas
away, and the earth be till found uf-
ficient for the ubsitence of its inhab-
itants.
I have already pointed out the error

of upposing that no ditres and diffi-
culty would arie f rom an overcharged
population before the earth abolutely
refued to produce any more. But let
us imagine for a moment Mr. God-
wins beautiful ytem of equality real-
ized in its utmot purity, and ee how
oon this difficulty might be expected
to pres under o perfect a form of o-
ciety. A theory that will not admit of
application cannot posibly be jut.
Let us uppoe all the caues of

miery and vice in this iland removed.
War and contention ceae. Un-
wholeome trades and manufactories
do not exit. Crowds no longer collect
together in great and petilent cities
for purpoes of court intrigue, of com-
merce, and vicious gratifications. Sim-
ple, healthy, and rational amuements
take place of drinking, gaming, and
debauchery. There are no towns uffi-

ciently large to have any prejudicial ef-
fects on the human contitution. The
greater part of the happy inhabitants
of this terretrial paradie live in ham-
lets and farmhoues cattered over the
face of the country. Every houe is
clean, airy, ufficiently roomy, and in
a healthy situation. All men are equal.
The labours of luxury are at end. And
the neceary labours of agriculture are
hared amicably among all. The num-
ber of perons, and the produce of the
iland, we uppoe to be the ame as
at preent. The pirit of benevolence,
guided by impartial jutice, will divide
this produce among all the members
of the ociety according to their wants.
Though it would be imposible that
they hould all have animal food every
day, yet vegetable food, with meat oc-
casionally, would atify the desires of
a f rugal people and would be ufficient
to preerve them in health, trength,

and pirits.
Mr. Godwin considers marriage as a

f raud and a monopoly. Let us uppoe
the commerce of the exes etablihed
upon principles of the mot perfect
f reedom. Mr. Godwin does not think
himelf that this f reedom would lead
to a promicuous intercoure, and in
this I perfectly agree with him. The
love of variety is a vicious, corrupt,
and unnatural tate and could not pre-
vail in any great degree in a simple
and virtuous tate of ociety. Each man
would probably elect himelf a part-
ner, to whom he would adhere as long
as that adherence continued to be the
choice of both parties. It would be
of little conequence, according to Mr.
Godwin, how many children a woman
had or to whom they belonged. Pro-
visions and asitance would ponta-
neouly flow f rom the quarter in which

they abounded, to the quarter that was
deficient * . And every man would be
ready to furnih intruction to the ris-
ing generation according to his capac-
ity.
I cannot conceive a form of ociety

o favourable upon the whole to pop-
ulation. The irremediablenes of mar-
riage, as it is at preent contituted,
undoubtedly deters many f rom enter-
ing into that tate. An unhackled in-
tercoure on the contrary would be a
mot powerful incitement to early at-
tachments, and as we are upposing
no anxiety about the future upport
of children to exit, I do not conceive
that there would be one woman in a
hundred, of twenty-three, without a
family.
* See B. 8. Chap. 8. P. 504.

With thee extraordinary encour-

agements to population, and every
caue of depopulation, as we have up-
poed, removed, the numbers would
necearily increae fater than in any
ociety that has ever yet been known.
I have mentioned, on the authority of
a pamphlet publihed by a Dr Styles
and referred to by Dr. Price, that the
inhabitants of the back ettlements of
America doubled their numbers in fif-
teen years. England is certainly a more
healthy country than the back ettle-
ments of America, and as we have up-
poed every houe in the iland to be
airy and wholeome, and the encour-
agements to have a family greater even
than with the back ettlers, no prob-
able reaon can be asigned why the
population hould not double itelf in
les, if posible, than fifteen years. But
to be quite ure that we do not go be-
yond the truth, we will only uppoe
the period of doubling to be twenty-

five years, a ratio of increae which
is well known to have taken place
throughout all the Northern States of
America.
There can be little doubt that the

equalization of property which we
have uppoed, added to the circum-
tance of the labour of the whole com-
munity being directed chiefly to agri-
culture, would tend greatly to augment
the produce of the country. But to
anwer the demands of a population
increasing o rapidly, Mr. Godwins
calculation of half an hour a day for
each man would certainly not be uf-
ficient. It is probable that the half of
every mans time mut be employed for
this purpoe. Yet with uch, or much
greater exertions, a peron who is ac-
quainted with the nature of the oil in
this country, and who reflects on the
fertility of the lands already in cul-

tivation, and the barrennes of thoe
that are not cultivated, will be very
much dipoed to doubt whether the
whole average produce could posibly
be doubled in twenty-five years f rom
the preent period. The only chance of
ucces would be the ploughing up all
the grazing countries and putting an
end almot entirely to the ue of an-
imal food. Yet a part of this cheme
might defeat itelf. The oil of Eng-
land will not produce much without
dresing, and cattle eem to be
neceary to make that pecies of ma-
nure which bet uits the land. In Chi-
na it is aid that the oil in ome of
the provinces is o fertile as to produce
two crops of rice in the year without
dresing. None of the lands in Eng-
land will anwer to this decription.
Difficult, however, as it might be to

double the average produce of the i-
land in twenty-five years, let us up-
poe it effected. At the expiration of
the firt period therefore, the food,
though almot entirely vegetable,
would be ufficient to upport in
health the doubled population of four-
teen millions.
During the next period of doubling,

where will the food be found to atify
the importunate demands of the in-
creasing number? Where is the f reh
land to turn up? Where is the dresing
neceary to improve that which is al-
ready in cultivation? There is no
peron with the mallet knowledge of
land but would ay that it was imposi-
ble that the average produce of the
country could be increaed during the
econd twenty-five years by a quantity
equal to what it at preent yields. Yet
we will uppoe this increae, however

improbable, to take place. The exuber-
ant trength of the argument allows of
almot any concesion. Even with this
concesion, however, there would be
even millions at the expiration of the
econd term unprovided for. A quanti-
ty of food equal to the f rugal upport
of twenty-one millions, would be to be
divided among twenty-eight millions.
Ala! what becomes of the picture

where men lived in the midt of plenty,
where no man was obliged to provide
with anxiety and pain for his retles
wants, where the narrow principle of
elfihnes did not exit, where Mind
was delivered f rom her perpetual anx-
iety about corporal upport and f ree
to expatiate in the field of thought
which is congenial to her. This beau-
tiful fabric of imagination vanihes at
the evere touch of truth. The pirit of
benevolence, cherihed and invigorat-

ed by plenty, is repreed by the chill-
ing breath of want. The hateful pa-
sions that had vanihed reappear. The
mighty law of elf-preervation expels
all the ofter and more exalted emo-
tions of the oul. The temptations to
evil are too trong for human nature
to resit. The corn is plucked before
it is ripe, or ecreted in unfair pro-
portions, and the whole black train
of vices that belong to falehood are
immediately generated. Provisions no
longer flow in for the upport of the
mother with a large family. The chil-
dren are sickly f rom inufficient food.
The roy fluh of health gives place
to the pallid cheek and hollow eye of
miery. Benevolence, yet lingering in
a few booms, makes ome faint ex-
piring truggles, till at length elf-love
reumes his wonted empire and lords
it triumphant over the world.
No human intitutions here exited,

to the perverenes of which Mr. God-
win acribes the original sin of the
wort men * .No opposition had been
produced by them between public and
private good. No monopoly had been
created of thoe advantages which
reaon directs to be left in common.
No man had been goaded to the
breach of order by unjut laws. Benev-
olence had etablihed her reign in all
hearts ? and yet in o hort a period
as within fifty years, violence, oppre-
sion, falehood, miery, every hateful
vice, and every form of ditres, which
degrade and adden the preent tate of
ociety, eem to have been generated
by the mot imperious circumtances,
by laws inherent in the nature of man,
and abolutely independent of it hu-
man regulations.
* B. 8. C. 3. P. 340
If we are not yet too well convinced

of the reality of this melancholy pic-
ture, let us but look for a moment into
the next period of twenty-five years ;
and we hall ee twenty-eight millions
of human beings without the means
of upport ; and before the conclu-
sion of the firt century, the popula-
tion would be one hundred and twelve
millions, and the food only ufficient
for thirty-five millions, leaving even-
ty-even millions unprovided for. In
thee ages want would be indeed tri-
umphant, and rapine and murder mut
reign at large ? and yet all this time
we are upposing the produce of the
earth abolutely unlimited, and the
yearly increae greater than the boldet
peculator can imagine.
This is undoubtedly a very different

view of the difficulty arising f rom
population f rom that which Mr. God-
win gives, when he ays, Myriads of

centuries of till increasing population
may pas away, and the earth be till
found ufficient for the ubsitence of
its inhabitants.
I am ufficiently aware that the re-

dundant twenty-eight millions, or
eventy-even millions, that I have
mentioned, could never have exited.
It is a perfectly jut obervation of
Mr. Godwin, that, There is a prin-
ciple in human ociety, by which pop-
ulation is perpetually kept down to
the level of the means of ubsitence.
The ole quetion is, what is this prin-
ciple? is it ome obcure and occult
caue? Is it ome myterious interfer-
ence of heaven which, at a certain pe-
riod, trikes the men with impotence,
and the women with barrenne? Or
is it a caue, open to our reearches,
within our view, a caue, which has
contantly been oberved to operate,

though with varied force, in every tate
in which man has been placed? Is it
not a degree of miery, the neceary
and inevitable reult of the laws of na-
ture, which human intitutions, o far
f rom aggravating, have tended consid-
erably to mitigate, though they never
can remove?
It may be curious to oberve, in the

cae that we have been upposing, how
ome of the laws which at preent gov-
ern civilized ociety, would be ucce-
sively dictated by the mot imperious
necesity. As man, according to Mr.
Godwin, is the creature of the impre-
sions to which he is ubject, the goad-
ings of want could not continue long,
before ome violations of public or pri-
vate tock would necearily take place.
As thee violations increaed in num-
ber and extent, the more active and
comprehensive intellects of the ociety

would oon perceive, that while pop-
ulation was fat increasing, the year-
ly produce of the country would hort-
ly begin to diminih. The urgency of
the cae would ugget the necesity
of ome mediate meaures to be taken
for the general afety. Some kind of
convention would then be called, and
the dangerous situation of the country
tated in the tronget terms. It would
be oberved, that while they lived in
the midt of plenty, it was of little
conequence who laboured the leat,
or who poeed the leat, as every
man was perfectly willing and ready
to upply the wants of his neighbour.
But that the quetion was no longer
whether one man hould give to an-
other that which he did not ue
himelf, but whether he hould give
to his neighbour the food which was
abolutely neceary to his own exi-
tence. It would be repreented, that

the number of thoe that were in want
very greatly exceeded the number and
means of thoe who hould upply
them ; that thee presing wants,
which f rom the tate of the produce
of the country could not all be grati-
fied, had occasioned ome flagrant vi-
olations of jutice ; that thee viola-
tions had already checked the increae
of food, and would, if they were not
by ome means or other prevented,
throw the whole community in confu-
sion ; that imperious necesity eemed
to dictate that a yearly increae of pro-
duce hould, if posible, be obtained at
all events ; that in order to effect this
firt, great, and indipenable purpoe,
it would be adviable to make a more
complete division of land, and to e-
cure every mans tock againt violation
by the mot powerful anctions, even
by death itelf.
It might be urged perhaps by ome

objectors that, as the fertility of the
land increaed, and various accidents
occurred, the hare of ome men might
be much more than ufficient for their
upport, and that when the reign of
elf-love was once etablihed, they
would not ditribute their urplus pro-
duce without ome compenation in
return. It would be oberved, in anw-
er, that this was an inconvenience
greatly to be lamented ; but that it was
an evil which bore no comparion to
the black train of ditrees that would
inevitably be occasioned by the ine-
curity of property ; that the quantity
of food which one man could conume
was necearily limited by the narrow
capacity of the human tomach ; that
it was not certainly probable that he
hould throw away the ret ; but that
even if he exchanged his urplus food
for the labour of others, and made
them in ome degree dependent on

him, this would till be better than
that thee others hould abolutely
tarve.
It eems highly probable, therefore,

that an adminitration of property, not
very different f rom that which prevails
in civilized tates at preent, would be
etablihed, as the bet, though inade-
quate, remedy for the evils which were
presing on the ociety.
The next ubject that would come

under dicusion, intimately connected
with the preceding, is the commerce
between the exes. It would be urged
by thoe who had turned their atten-
tion to the true caue of the diffi-
culties under which the community
laboured, that while every man felt e-
cure that all his children would be well
provided for by general benevolence,
the powers of the earth would be abo-

lutely inadequate to produce food for
the population which would inevitably
enue ; that even if the whole atten-
tion and labour of the ociety were di-
rected to this ole point, and if, by
the mot perfect ecurity of property,
and every other encouragement that
could be thought of, the greatet posi-
ble increae of produce were yearly ob-
tained ; yet till, that the increae of
food would by no means keep pace
with the much more rapid increae of
population ; that ome check to popu-
lation therefore was imperiouly called
for ; that the mot natural and obvious
check eemed to be to make every man
provide for his own children ; that this
would operate in ome repect as a
meaure and guide in the increae of
population, as it might be expected
that no man would bring beings into
the world, for whom he could not
find the means of upport ; that where

this notwithtanding was the cae, it
eemed neceary, for the example of
others, that the digrace and inconve-
nience attending uch a conduct hould
fall upon the individual, who had thus
inconsiderately plunged himelf and
innocent children in miery and want.
The intitution of marriage, or at

leat, of ome expres or implied oblig-
ation on every man to upport his own
children, eems to be the natural reult
of thee reaonings in a community
under the difficulties that we have
uppoed.
The view of thee difficulties

preents us with a very natural origin
of the uperior digrace which attends
a breach of chatity in the woman than
in the man. It could not be expected
that women hould have reources uf-
ficient to upport their own children.

When therefore a woman was con-
nected with a man, who had entered
into no compact to maintain her chil-
dren, and, aware of the inconveniences
that he might bring upon himelf, had
deerted her, thee children mut
necearily fall for upport upon the
ociety, or tarve. And to prevent the
f requent recurrence of uch an incon-
venience, as it would be highly unjut
to punih o natural a fault by peronal
retraint or infliction, the men might
agree to punih it with digrace. The
offence is besides more obvious and
conpicuous in the woman, and les li-
able to any mitake. The father of a
child may not always be known, but
the ame uncertainty cannot easily ex-
it with regard to the mother. Where
the evidence of the offence was mot
complete, and the inconvenience to
the ociety at the ame time the
greatet, there it was agreed that the

large hare of blame hould fall. The
obligation on every man to maintain
his children, the ociety would en-
force, if there were occasion ; and the
greater degree of inconvenience or
labour, to which a family would
necearily ubject him, added to ome
portion of digrace which every human
being mut incur who leads another
into unhappines, might be considered
as a ufficient punihment for the man.
That a woman hould at preent be

almot driven f rom ociety for an of-
fence which men commit nearly with
impunity, eems to be undoubtedly a
breach of natural jutice. But the ori-
gin of the cutom, as the mot obvious
and effectual method of preventing the
f requent recurrence of a erious incon-
venience to a community, appears to
be natural, though not perhaps per-
fectly jutifiable. This origin, however,

is now lot in the new train of ideas
which the cutom has since generated.
What at firt might be dictated by tate
necesity is now upported by female
delicacy, and operates with the greatet
force on that part of ociety where, if
the original intention of the cutom
were preerved, there is the leat real
occasion for it.
When thee two fundamental laws

of ociety, the ecurity of property, and
the intitution of marriage, were once
etablihed, inequality of conditions
mut necearily follow. Thoe who
were born after the division of prop-
erty would come into a world already
poeed. If their parents, f rom having
too large a family, could not give them
ufficient for their upport, what are
they to do in a world where everything
is appropriated? We have een the fatal
effects that would reult to a ociety,

if every man had a valid claim to an
equal hare of the produce of the
earth. The members of a family which
was grown too large for the original
division of land appropriated to it
could not then demand a part of the
urplus produce of others, as a debt
of jutice. It has appeared, that f rom
the inevitable laws of our nature ome
human beings mut uffer f rom want.
Thee are the unhappy perons who, in
the great lottery of life, have drawn a
blank. The number of thee claimants
would oon exceed the ability of the
urplus produce to upply. Moral merit
is a very difficult ditinguihing cri-
terion, except in extreme caes. The
owners of urplus produce would in
general eek ome more obvious mark
of ditinction. And it eems both nat-
ural and jut that, except upon partic-
ular occasions, their choice hould fall
upon thoe who were able, and pro-

feed themelves willing, to exert their
trength in procuring a further ur-
plus produce ; and thus at once ben-
efiting the community, and enabling
thee proprietors to afford asitance
to greater numbers. All who were in
want of food would be urged by impe-
rious necesity to offer their labour in
exchange for this article o abolutely
eential to exitence. The fund appro-
priated to the maintenance of labour
would be the aggregate quantity of
food poeed by the owners of land
beyond their own conumption. When
the demands upon this fund were great
and numerous, it would naturally be
divided in very mall hares. Labour
would be ill paid. Men would offer to
work for a bare ubsitence, and the
rearing of families would be checked
by sicknes and miery. On the con-
trary, when this fund was increasing
fat, when it was great in proportion to

the number of claimants, it would be
divided in much larger hares. No man
would exchange his labour without re-
ceiving an ample quantity of food in
return. Labourers would live in eae
and comfort, and would conequently
be able to rear a numerous and vigor-
ous offpring.
On the tate of this fund, the hap-

pines, or the degree of miery, pre-
vailing among the lower claes of peo-
ple in every known tate at preent
chiefly depends. And on this hap-
pines, or degree of miery, depends
the increae, tationarines, or decreae
of population.
And thus it appears, that a ociety

contituted according to the mot
beautiful form that imagination can
conceive, with benevolence for its
moving principle, intead of elf-love,

and with every evil diposition in all
its members corrected by reaon and
not force, would, f rom the inevitable
laws of nature, and not f rom any orig-
inal depravity of man, in a very hort
period degenerate into a ociety
contructed upon a plan not eentially
different f rom that which prevails in
every known tate at preent ; I mean,
a ociety divided into a clas of pro-
prietors, and a clas of labourers, and
with elf-love the main-pring of the
great machine.
In the upposition I have made, I

have undoubtedly taken the increae
of population maller, and the increae
of produce greater, than they really
would be. No reaon can be asigned
why, under the circumtances I have
uppoed, population hould not in-
creae fater than in any known in-
tance. If then we were to take the pe-

riod of doubling at fifteen years, in-
tead of twenty-five years, and reflect
upon the labour neceary to double
the produce in o hort a time, even
if we allow it posible, we may ven-
ture to pronounce with certainty that
if Mr. Godwins ytem of ociety was
etablihed in its utmot perfection, in-
tead of myriads of centuries, not thir-
ty years could elape before its utter
detruction f rom the simple principle
of population.
I have taken no notice of emigra-

tion for obvious reaons. If uch oci-
eties were intituted in other parts of
Europe, thee countries would be un-
der the ame difficulties with regard to
population, and could admit no f reh
members into their booms. If this
beautiful ociety were confined to this
iland, it mut have degenerated
trangely f rom its original purity, and

adminiter but a very mall portion of
the happines it propoed ; in hort, its
eential principle mut be completely
detroyed, before any of its members
would voluntarily conent to leave it,
and live under uch governments as at
preent exit in Europe, or ubmit to
the extreme hardhips of firt ettlers
in new regions. We well know, f rom
repeated experience, how much miery
and hardhip men will undergo in their
own country, before they can deter-
mine to deert it ; and how often the
mot tempting propoals of embarking
for new ettlements have been rejected
by people who appeared to be almot
tarving.
CHAP T ER XI.
Mr. Godwins conjecture concerning the future ex-

tinction of the pasion between the exes.
Little apparent grounds for uch a conjecture.
Pasion of love not inconsitent either with
reaon or virtue.
We have upported Mr. Godwins

ytem of ociety once completely
etablihed. But it is upposing an im-
posibility. The ame caues in nature
which would detroy it o rapidly, were
it once etablihed, would prevent the
posibility of its etablihment. And
upon what grounds we can preume
a change in thee natural caues, I
am utterly at a los to conjecture. No
move towards the extinction of the
pasion between the exes has taken
place in the five or six thouand years
that the world has exited. Men in the
decline of life have in all ages de-
claimed againt a pasion which they
have ceaed to feel, but with as little

reaon as ucces. Thoe who f rom
coldnes of contitutional tempera-
ment have never felt what love is, will
urely be allowed to be very incompe-
tent judges with regard to the power
of this pasion to contribute to the
um of pleaurable enations in life.
Thoe who have pent their youth in
criminal excees and have prepared for
themelves, as the comforts of their
age, corporeal debility and mental re-
more may well inveigh againt uch
pleaures as vain and futile, and un-
productive of lating atifaction. But
the pleaures of pure love will bear the
contemplation of the mot improved
reaon, and the mot exalted virtue.
Perhaps there is carcely a man who
has once experienced the genuine de-
light of virtuous love, however great
his intellectual pleaure may have
been, that does not look back to the
period as the unny pot in his whole

life, where his imagination loves to
bak, which he recollects and contem-
plates with the fondet regrets, and
which he would mot wih to live over
again. The uperiority of intellectual
to enual pleaures consits rather in
their filling up more time, in their
having a larger range, and in their be-
ing les liable to atiety, than in their
being more real and eential.
Intemperance in every enjoyment

defeats its own purpoe. A walk in the
finet day through the mot beautiful
country, if purued too far, ends in
pain and fatigue. The mot wholeome
and invigorating food, eaten with an
unretrained appetite, produces
weaknes intead of trength. Even in-
tellectual pleaures, though certainly
les liable than others to atiety,
purued with too little intermision,
debilitate the body, and impair the

vigour of the mind. To argue againt
the reality of thee pleaures f rom
their abue eems to be hardly jut.
Morality, according to Mr. Godwin,
is a calculation of conequences, or,
as Archdeacon Paley very jutly ex-
prees it, the will of God, as collected
f rom general expediency. According to
either of thee definitions, a enual
pleaure not attended with the prob-
ability of unhappy conequences does
not offend againt the laws of morality,
and if it be purued with uch a degree
of temperance as to leave the mot am-
ple room for intellectual attainments,
it mut undoubtedly add to the um of
pleaurable enations in life. Virtuous
love, exalted by f riendhip, eems to be
that ort of mixture of enual and in-
tellectual enjoyment particularly uited
to the nature of man, and mot power-
fully calculated to awaken the ympa-
thies of the oul, and produce the mot

exquisite gratifications.
Mr. Godwin ays, in order to hew

the evident inferiority of the pleaures
of ene, Strip the commerce of the
exes of all its attendant circum-
tance * , and it would be generally
depied He might as well ay to a
man who admired trees ? trip them
of their preading branches and lovely
foliage, and what beauty can you ee
in a bare pole? But it was the tree
with the branches and foliage, and not
without them, that excited admiration.
One feature of an object may be as
ditinct, and excite as different emo-
tions, f rom the aggregate as any two
things the mot remote, as a beauti-
ful woman, and a map of Madagacar.
It is the ymmetry of peron, the vi-
* B. I. C. 5. P. 73.
vacity, the voluptuous oftnes of tem-

per, the affectionate kindnes of feel-
ings, the imagination and the wit of
a woman that excite the pasion of
love, and not the mere ditinction of
her being female. Urged by the pa-
sion of love, men have been driven in-
to acts highly prejudicial to the gen-
eral interets of ociety, but probably
they would have found no difficulty
in resiting the temptation, had it ap-
peared in the form of a woman with
no other attractions whatever but her
ex. To trip enual pleaures of all
their adjuncts, in order to prove their
inferiority, is to deprive a magnet of
ome of its mot eential caues of at-
traction, and then to ay that it is weak
and inefficient.
In the puruit of every enjoyment,

whether enual or intellectual, reaon,
that faculty which enables us to cal-
culate conequences, is the proper cor-

rective and guide. It is probable there-
fore that improved reaon will always
tend to prevent the abue of enual
pleaures, though it by no means fol-
lows that it will extinguih them.
I have endeavoured to expoe the

fallacy of that argument which infers
an unlimited progres f rom a partial
improvement, the limits of which can-
not be exactly acertained. It has ap-
peared, I think, that there are many
intances in which a decided progres
has been oberved, where yet it would
be a gros aburdity to uppoe that
progres indefinite. But towards the
extinction of the pasion between the
exes, no obervable progres whatever
has hitherto been made. To uppoe
uch an extinction, therefore, is merely
to offer an unfounded conjecture,
unupported by any philoophical

probabilities.
It is a truth, which hitory I am

af raid makes too clear, that ome men
of the highet mental powers have
been addicted not only to a moderate,
but even to an immoderate indulgence
in the pleaures of enual love. But al-
lowing, as I hould be inclined to do,
notwithtanding numerous intances to
the contrary, that great intellectual ex-
ertions tend to diminih the empire
of this pasion over man, it is evident
that the mas of mankind mut be im-
proved more highly than the brightet
ornaments of the pecies at preent be-
fore any difference can take place uf-
ficient ensibly to affect population. I
would by no means uppoe that the
mas of mankind has reached its term
of improvement, but the principal ar-
gument of this eay tends to place in
a trong point of view the improba-

bility that the lower claes of people
in any country hould ever be uffi-
ciently f ree f rom want and labour to
obtain any high degree of intellectual
improvement.
CHAP T ER XI I.
Mr. Godwins conjecture concerning the indef inite

prolongation of human life.Improper infer-
ence drawn f rom the effects of mental timulants
on the human f rame, illutrated in various in-
tances.Conjectures not founded on any in-
dications in the pat not to be considered as
philoophical conjectures.Mr. Godwins and
Mr. Condorcets conjecture repecting the ap-
proach of man towards immortality on earth,
a curious intance of the inconsitency of cepti-
cim.
M r. Godwins conjecture repecting

the future approach of man towards
immortality on earth eems to be
rather oddly placed in a chapter which
profees to remove the objection to
his ytem of equality f rom the princi-
ple of population. Unles he uppoes
the pasion between the exes to de-
creae fater than the duration of life
increaes, the earth would be more en-
cumbered than ever. But leaving this
difficulty to Mr. Godwin, let us ex-
amine a few of the appearances f rom

which the probable immortality of
man is inferred.
To prove the power of the mind

over the body, Mr. Godwin oberves,
How often do we find a piece of
good news disipating a ditemper?
How common is the remark that thoe
accidents which are to the indolent a
ource of dieae are forgotten and ex-
tirpated in the buy and active? I walk
twenty miles in an indolent and half
determined temper and am extreme-
ly fatigued. I walk twenty miles full
of ardour, and with a motive that en-
groes my oul, and I come in as f reh
and as alert as when I began my jour-
ney. Emotion excited by ome unex-
pected word, by a letter that is de-
livered to us, occasions the mot ex-
traordinary revolutions in our f rame,
accelerates the circulation, caues the
heart to palpitate, the tongue to refue

its office, and has been known to oc-
casion death by extreme anguih or
extreme joy. There is nothing indeed
of which the physician is more aware
than of the power of the mind in
asiting or reading convalecence.
The intances here mentioned are

chiefly intances of the effects of men-
tal timulants on the bodily f rame. No
peron has ever for a moment doubted
the near, though myterious, connec-
tion of mind and body. But it is argu-
ing totally without knowledge of the
nature of timulants to uppoe, either
that they can be applied continually
with equal trength, or if they could be
o applied, for a time, that they would
not exhaut and wear out the ubject.
In ome of the caes here noticed, the
trength of the timulus depends upon
its novelty and unexpectednes. Such
a timulus cannot, f rom its nature, be

repeated often with the ame effect, as
it would by repetition loe that prop-
erty which gives it its trength.
In the other caes, the argument is

f rom a mall and partial effect, to a
great and general effect, which will in
numberles intances be found to be
a very fallacious mode of reaoning.
The buy and active man may in ome
degree counteract, or what is perhaps
nearer the truth, may di regard thoe
light diorders of f rame which fix the
attention of a man who has nothing
ele to think of ; but this does not tend
to prove that activity of mind will en-
able a man to di regard a high fever,
the mallpox, or the plague.
The man who walks twenty miles

with a motive that engroes his oul
does not attend to his light fatigue of
body when he comes in ; but double

his motive, and et him to walk anoth-
er twenty miles, quadruple it, and let
him tart a third time, and o on ; and
the length of his walk will ultimate-
ly depend upon mucle and not mind.
Powell, for a motive of ten guineas,
would have walked further probably
than Mr. Godwin, for a motive of
half a million. A motive of uncommon
power acting upon a f rame of moder-
ate trength would, perhaps, make the
man kill himelf by his exertions, but
it would not make him walk a hun-
dred miles in twenty-four hours. This
tatement of the cae hews the fallacy
of upposing that the peron was real-
ly not at all tired in his firt walk of
twenty miles, becaue he did not ap-
pear to be o, or, perhaps, carcely felt
any fatigue himelf. The mind can-
not fix its attention trongly on more
than one object at once. The twen-
ty thouand pounds o engroed his

thoughts that he did not attend to any
light orenes of foot, or tiffnes of
limb. But had he been really as f reh
and as alert, as when he firt et off,
he would be able to go the econd
twenty miles with as much eae as the
firt, and o on, the third, &c. Which
leads to a palpable aburdity. When
a hore of pirit is nearly half tired,
by the timulus of the pur, added to
the proper management of the bit, he
may be put o much upon his mettle,
that he would appear to a tanderby,
as f reh and as high pirited as if he
had not gone a mile. Nay, probably,
the hore himelf, while in the heat
and pasion occasioned by this tim-
ulus, would not feel any fatigue ; but
it would be trangely contrary to all
reaon and experience, to argue f rom
uch an appearance that, if the tim-
ulus were continued, the hore would
never be tired. The cry of a pack of

hounds will make ome hores, after a
journey of forty miles on the road, ap-
pear as f reh, and as lively, as when
they firt et out. Were they then to
be hunted, no perceptible abatement
would at firt be felt by their riders
in their trength and pirits, but to-
wards the end of a hard day, the previ-
ous fatigue would have its full weight
and effect, and make them tire ooner.
When I have taken a long walk with
my gun, and met with no ucces, I
have f requently returned home feeling
a considerable degree of uncomfort-
ablenes f rom fatigue. Another day,
perhaps, going over nearly the ame
extent of ground with a good deal of
port, I have come home f reh, and
alert. The difference in the enation
of fatigue upon coming in, on the dif-
ferent days, may have been very trik-
ing, but on the following mornings I
have found no uch difference. I have

not perceived that I was les tiff in my
limbs, or les footore, on the morning
after the day of the port, than on the
other morning.
In all thee caes, timulants upon

the mind eem to act rather by taking
off the attention f rom the bodily fa-
tigue, than by really and truly coun-
teracting it. If the energy of my mind
had really counteracted the fatigue of
my body, why hould I feel tired the
next morning? if the timulus of the
hounds had as completely overcome
the fatigue of the journey in reality, as
it did in appearance, why hould the
hore be tired ooner than if he had
not gone the forty mile? I happen to
have a very bad fit of the toothache
at the time I am writing this. In the
eagernes of composition, I every now
and then, for a moment or two, forget
it. Yet I cannot help thinking that the

proces, which caues the pain, is till
going forwards, and that the nerves
which carry the information of it to
the brain are even during thee mo-
ments demanding attention and room
for their appropriate vibrations. The
multiplicity of vibrations of another
kind may perhaps prevent their ad-
mision, or overcome them for a time
when admitted, till a hoot of extra-
ordinary energy puts all other vibra-
tion to the rout, detroys the vividnes
of my argumentative conceptions, and
rides triumphant in the brain. In this
cae, as in the others, the mind eems
to have little or no power in coun-
teracting or curing the diorder, but
merely poees a power, if trongly
excited, of fixing its attention on other
ubjects.
I do not, however, mean to ay that

a ound and vigorous mind has no ten-
dency whatever to keep the body in a
similar tate. So cloe and intimate is
the union of mind and body that it
would be highly extraordinary if they
did not mutually asit each others
functions. But, perhaps, upon a com-
parion, the body has more effect up-
on the mind than the mind upon the
body. The firt object of the mind is
to act as purveyor to the wants of the
body. When thee wants are complete-
ly atified, an active mind is indeed
apt to wander further, to range over
the fields of cience, or port in the
regions of. Imagination, to fancy that
it has huffled off this mortal coil,
and is eeking its kindred element. But
all thee efforts are like the vain ex-
ertions of the hare in the fable. The
lowly moving tortoie, the body, nev-
er fails to overtake the mind, howev-
er widely and extensively it may have

ranged, and the brightet and mot en-
ergetic intellects, unwillingly as they
may attend to the firt or econd um-
mons, mut ultimately yield the empire
of the brain to the calls of hunger, or
sink with the exhauted body in leep.
It eems as if one might ay with

certainty that if a medicine could be
found to immortalize the body there
would be no fear of its [not] being ac-
companied by the immortality of the
mind. But the immortality of the
mind by no means eems to infer the
immortality of the body. On the con-
trary, the greatet conceivable energy
of mind would probably exhaut and
detroy the trength of the body. A
temperate vigour of mind appears to
be favourable to health, but very great
intellectual exertions tend rather, as
has been often oberved, to wear out
the cabbard. Mot of the intances

which Mr. Godwin has brought to
prove the power of the mind over the
body, and the conequent probability
of the immortality of man, are of this
latter decription, and could uch tim-
ulants be continually applied, intead
of tending to immortalize, they would
tend very rapidly to detroy the human
f rame.
The probable increae of the vol-

untary power of man over his animal
f rame comes next under Mr. Godwins
consideration, and he concludes by
aying, that the voluntary power of
ome men, in this repect, is found
to extend to various articles in which
other men are impotent. But this is
reaoning againt an almot univeral
rule f rom a few exceptions ; and thee
exceptions eem to be rather tricks,
than powers that may be exerted to
any good purpoe. I have never heard

of any man who could regulate his
pule in a fever, and doubt much, if
any of the perons here alluded to have
made the mallet perceptible progres
in the regular correction of the
diorders of their f rames and the
conequent prolongation of their lives.
Mr. Godwin ays, Nothing can be

more unphiloophical than to con-
clude, that, becaue a certain pecies
of power is beyond the train of our
preent obervation, that it is beyond
the limits of the human mind. I own
my ideas of philoophy are in this
repect widely different f rom Mr.
Godwins. The only ditinction that I
ee, between a philoophical conjec-
ture, and the aertions of the Prophet
Mr. Brothers, is, that one is founded
upon indications arising f rom the
train of our preent obervations, and
the other has no foundation at all. I

expect that great dicoveries are yet to
take place in all the branches of hu-
man cience, particularly in physics ;
but the moment we leave pat expe-
rience as the foundation of our con-
jectures concerning the future, and,
till more, if our conjectures abolutely
contradict pat experience, we are
thrown upon a wide field of uncertain-
ty, and any one upposition is then jut
as good as another. If a peron were
to tell me that men would ultimately
have eyes and hands behind them as
well as before them, I hould admit the
uefulnes of the addition, but hould
give as a reaon for my dibelief of it,
that I aw no indications whatever in
the pat f rom which I could infer the
mallet probability of uch a change.
If this be not allowed a valid objec-
tion, all conjectures are alike, and all
equally philoophical. I own it appears
to me that in the train of our preent

obervations, there are no more gen-
uine indications that man will become
immortal upon earth than that he will
have four eyes and four hands, or that
trees will grow horizontally intead of
perpendicularly.
It will be aid, perhaps, that many

dicoveries have already taken place in
the world that were totally unforeeen
and unexpected. This I grant to be
true ; but if a peron had predicted
thee dicoveries without being guided
by any analogies or indications f rom
pat facts, he would deerve the name
of eer or prophet, but not of philoo-
pher. The wonder that ome of our
modern dicoveries would excite in the
avage inhabitants of Europe in the
times of Theeus and Achilles, proves
but little. Perons almot entirely un-
acquainted with the powers of a ma-
chine cannot be expected to gues at

its effects. I am far f rom aying, that
we are at preent by any means fully
acquainted with the powers of the hu-
man mind ; but we certainly know
more of this intrument than was
known four thouand years ago ; and
therefore, though not to be called
competent judges, we are certainly
much better able than avages to ay
what is, or is not, within its grap. A
watch would trike a avage with as
much urprie as a perpetual motion ;
yet one is to us a mot familiar piece
of mechanim, and the other has con-
tantly eluded the efforts of the mot
acute intellects. In many intances we
are now able to perceive the caues,
which prevent an unlimited improve-
ment in thoe inventions, which
eemed to promie fairly for it at firt.
The original improvers of telecopes
would probably think, that as long as
the size of the pecula and the length

of the tubes could be increaed, the
powers and advantages of the intru-
ment would increae ; but experience
has since taught us, that the mallnes
of the field, the deficiency of light,
and the circumtance of the at-
mophere being magnified, prevent the
beneficial reults that were to be ex-
pected f rom telecopes of extraordi-
nary size and power. In many parts of
knowledge, man has been almot con-
tantly making ome progres ; in other
parts, his efforts have been invariably
baffled. The avage would not prob-
ably be able to gues at the caues
of this mighty difference. Our further
experience has given us ome little in-
sight into thee caues, and has there-
fore enabled us better to judge, if not
of what we are to expect in future,
at leat of what we are not to expect,
which, though negative, is a very ue-

ful piece of information.
As the necesity of leep eems

rather to depend upon the body than
the mind, it does not appear how the
improvement of the mind can tend
very greatly to uperede this
conpicuous infirmity. A man who
by great excitements on his mind is
able to pas two or three nights with-
out leep, proportionably exhauts the
vigour of his body, and this diminu-
tion of health and trength will oon
diturb the operations of his under-
tanding, o that by thee great efforts
he appears to have made no real pro-
gres whatever in upereding the
necesity of this pecies of ret.
There is certainly a ufficiently

marked difference in the various char-
acters of which we have ome knowl-
edge, relative to the energies of their

minds, their benevolent puruits, &c.,
to enable us to judge whether the op-
erations of intellect have any decided
effect in prolonging the duration of
human life. It is certain that no de-
cided effect of this kind has yet been
oberved. Though no attention of any
kind has ever produced uch an effect
as could be contrued into the mallet
emblance of an approach towards im-
mortality, yet of the two, a certain
attention to the body eems to have
more effect in this repect than an at-
tention to the mind. The man who
takes his temperate meals and his bod-
ily exercie, with crupulous regularity,
will generally be found more healthy
than the man who, very deeply en-
gaged in intellectual puruits, often
forgets for a time thee bodily crav-
ings. The citizen who has retired, and
whoe ideas, perhaps, carcely oar
above or extend beyond his little gar-

den, puddling all the morning about
his borders of box, will, perhaps, live
as long as the philoopher whoe range
of intellect is the mot extensive, and
whoe views are the clearet of any of
his contemporaries. It has been posi-
tively oberved by thoe who have at-
tended to the bills of mortality that
women live longer upon an average
than men, and, though I would not
by any means ay that their intellectual
faculties are inferior, yet, I think, it
mut be allowed that, f rom their dif-
ferent education, there are not o
many women as men, who are excited
to vigorous mental exertion.
As in thee and similar intances, or

to take a larger range, as in the great
diversity of characters that have exited
during ome thouand years, no decid-
ed difference has been oberved in the
duration of human life f rom the oper-

ation of intellect, the mortality of man
on earth eems to be as completely
etablihed, and exactly upon the ame
grounds, as any one, the mot con-
tant, of the laws of nature. An im-
mediate act of power in the Creator
of the Univere might, indeed, change
one or all of thee laws, either udden-
ly or gradually, but without ome indi-
cations of uch a change, and uch in-
dications do not exit, it. Is jut as un-
philoophical to uppoe that the life
of man may be prolonged beyond any
asignable limits, as to uppoe that
the attraction of the earth will grad-
ually be changed into repulsion and
that tones will ultimately rie intead
of fall or that the earth will fly off at
a certain period to ome more genial
and warmer un.
The conclusion of this chapter

preents us, undoubtedly, with a very
beautiful and desirable picture, but
like ome of the landcapes drawn
f rom fancy and not imagined with
truth, it fails of that interet in the
heart which nature and probability can
alone give.
I cannot quit this ubject without

taking notice of thee conjectures of
Mr. Godwin and Mr. Condorcet con-
cerning the indefinite prolongation of
human life, as a very curious intance
of the longing of the oul after im-
mortality. Both thee gentlemen have
rejected the light of revelation which
abolutely promies eternal life in an-
other tate. They have alo rejected the
light of natural religion, which to the
ablet intellects in all ages has indicat-
ed the future exitence of the oul. Yet
o congenial is the idea of immortali-
ty to the mind of man that they can-

not conent entirely to throw it out of
their ytems. After all their fatidious
cepticims concerning the only prob-
able mode of immortality, they intro-
duce a pecies of immortality of their
own, not only completely contradicto-
ry to every law of philoophical prob-
ability, but in itelf in the highet de-
gree narrow, partial, and unjut. They
uppoe that all the great, virtuous,
and exalted minds that have ever ex-
ited or that may exit for ome
thouands, perhaps millions of years,
will be unk in annihilation, and that
only a few beings, not greater in num-
ber than can exit at once upon the
earth, will be ultimately crowned with
immortality. Had uch a tenet been
advanced as a tenet of revelation I am
very ure that all the enemies of re-
ligion, and probably Mr. Godwin and
Mr. Condorcet among the ret, would
have exhauted the whole force of their

ridicule upon it, as the mot puerile,
the mot aburd, the pooret, the mot
pitiful, the mot iniquitouly unjut,
and, conequently, the mot unworthy
of the Deity that the upertitious folly
of man could invent.
What a trange and curious proof

do thee conjectures exhibit of the in-
consitency of cepticim! For it hould
be oberved, that there is a very trik-
ing and eential difference between
believing an aertion which abolutely
contradicts the mot uniform experi-
ence, and an aertion which contra-
dicts nothing, but is merely beyond
the power of our preent obervation
and knowledge. So diversified are the
natural objects around us, o many in-
tances of mighty power daily offer
themelves to our view, that we may
fairly preume, that there are many
forms and operations of nature which

we have not yet oberved, or which,
perhaps, we are not capable of oberv-
ing with our preent confined inlets of
knowledge. The reurrection of a piri-
tual body f rom a natural body does not
appear in itelf a more wonderful in-
tance of power than the germination
of a blade of wheat f rom the grain,
or of an oak f rom an acorn. Could we
conceive an intelligent being, o placed
as to be converant only with inani-
mate or full grown objects, and never
to have witneed the proces of veg-
etation and growth ; and were anoth-
er being to hew him two little pieces
of matter, a grain of wheat, and an
acorn, to desire him to examine them,
to analye them if he pleaed, and en-
deavour to find out their properties
and eences ; and then to tell him,
that however trifling thee little bits of
matter might appear to him, that they
poeed uch curious powers of elec-

tion, combination, arrangement, and
almot of creation, that upon being put
into the ground, they would chooe,
amongt all the dirt and moiture that
urrounded them, thoe parts which
bet uited their purpoe, that they
would collect and arrange thee parts
with wonderful tate, judgement, and
execution, and would rie up into
beautiful forms, carcely in any repect
analogous to the little bits of matter
which were firt placed in the earth.
I feel very little doubt that the imag-
inary being which I have uppoed
would hesitate more, would require
better authority, and tronger proofs,
before he believed thee trange aer-
tions, than if he had been told, that a
being of mighty power, who had been
the caue of all that he aw around
him, and of that exitence of which
he himelf was concious, would, by a
great act of power upon the death and

corruption of human creatures, raie
up the eence of thought in an in-
corporeal, or at leat invisible form, to
give it a happier exitence in another
tate.
The only difference, with regard to

our own apprehensions, that is not in
favour of the latter aertion is that the
firt miracle we have repeatedly een,
and the lat miracle we have not een.
I admit the full weight of this prodi-
gious difference, but urely no man
can hesitate a moment in aying that,
putting Revelation out of the quetion,
the reurrection of a piritual body
f rom a natural body, which may be
merely one among the many opera-
tions of nature which we cannot ee,
is an event indefinitely more probable
than the immortality of man on earth,
which is not only an event of which no
ymptoms or indications have yet ap-

peared, but is a positive contradiction
to one of the mot contant of the laws
of nature that has ever come within
the obervation of man.
When we extend our view beyond

this life, it is evident that we can
have no other guides than authority,
or conjecture, and perhaps, indeed, an
obcure and undefined feeling. What I
ay here, therefore, does not appear to
me in any repect to contradict what
I aid before, when I oberved that
it was unphiloophical to expect any
pecifick event that was not indicated
by ome kind of analogy in the pat.
In ranging beyond the bourne f rom
which no traveller returns, we mut
necearily quit this rule ; but with re-
gard to events that may be expected
to happen on earth, we can eldom
quit it consitently with true philoo-
phy. Analogy has, however, as I con-

ceive, great latitude. For intance, man
has dicovered many of the laws of na-
ture ? analogy eems to indicate that
he will dicover many more ; but no
analogy eems to indicate that he will
dicover a sixth ene, or a new pecies
of power in the human mind, entirely
beyond the train of our preent ober-
vations.
The powers of election, combina-

tion, and tranmutation, which every
eed hews, are truly miraculous. Who
can imagine that thee wonderful fac-
ulties are contained in thee little bits
of matter? To me it appears much
more philoophical to uppoe that the
mighty God of nature is preent in full
energy in all thee operations. To this
all powerful Being, it would be equally
eay to raie an oak without an acorn
as with one. The preparatory proces
of putting eeds into the ground is

merely ordained for the ue of man,
as one among the various other ex-
citements neceary to awaken matter
into mind. It is an idea that will be
found consitent, equally with the nat-
ural phenomena around us, with the
various events of human life, and with
the uccesive revelations of God to
man, to uppoe that the world is a
mighty proces for the creation and
formation of mind. Many veels will
necearily come out of this great fur-
nace in wrong hapes. Thee will be
broken and thrown aside as ueles ;
while thoe veels whoe forms are full
of truth, grace, and lovelines, will be
wafted into happier situations, nearer
the preence of the mighty maker.
I ought perhaps again to make an

apology to my readers for dwelling o
long upon a conjecture which many, I
know, will think too aburd and im-

probable to require the leat dicu-
sion. But if it be as improbable and
as contrary to the genuine pirit of
philoophy as I own I think it is, why
hould it not be hewn to be o in
a candid examination? A conjecture,
however improbable on the firt view
of it, advanced by able and ingenious
men, eems at leat to deerve inveti-
gation. For my own part I feel no dis-
inclination whatever to give that de-
gree of credit to the opinion of the
probable immortality of man on earth,
which the appearances that can be
brought in upport of it deerve. Be-
fore we decide upon the utter im-
probability of uch an event, it is but
fair impartially to examine thee ap-
pearances ; and f rom uch an exami-
nation I think we may conclude, that
we have rather les reaon for uppos-
ing that the life of man may be indef-
initely prolonged, than that trees may

be made to grow indefinitely high,
or potatoes indefinitely large. Though
Mr. Godwin advances the idea of the
indefinite prolongation of human life
merely as a conjecture, yet as he has
produced ome appearances, which in
his conception favour the upposition,
he mut certainly intend that thee ap-
pearances hould be examined and this
is all that I have meant to do.
CHAP T ER XI I I.
Error of Mr. Godwin is considering man too much

in the light of a being merely rational.In the
compound being, man, the pasions will always
act as diturbing forces in the decisions of the
undertanding.Reaonings of Mr. Godwin on
the ubject of coercion.Some truths of a nature
not to be communicated f rom one man to an-
other.
In the chapter which I have been

examining, Mr. Godwin profees to
consider the objection to his ytem of
equality f rom the principle of popu-
lation. It has appeared, I think clear-
ly, that he is greatly erroneous in his
tatement of the ditance of this dif-
ficulty, and that intead of myriads of
centuries, it is really not thirty years,
or even thirty days, ditant f rom us.
The upposition of the approach of
man to immortality on earth is cer-
tainly not of a kind to often the dif-
ficulty. The only argument, therefore,
in the chapter which has any tendency

to remove the objection is the conjec-
ture concerning the extinction of the
pasion between the exes, but as this
is a mere conjecture, unupported by
the mallet hadow of proof, the force
of the objection may be fairly aid
to remain unimpaired, and it is un-
doubtedly of ufficient weight of itelf
completely to overturn Mr. Godwins
whole ytem of equality. I will, how-
ever, make one or two obervations on
a few of the prominent parts of Mr.
Godwins reaonings which will con-
tribute to place in a till clearer point
of view the little hope that we can
reaonably entertain of thoe vat im-
provements in the nature of man and
of ociety which he holds up to our
admiring gaze in his Political Jutice.
Mr. Godwin considers man too

much in the light of a being merely
intellectual. This error, at leat uch I

conceive it to be, pervades his whole
work and mixes itelf with all his
reaonings. The voluntary actions of
men may originate in their opinions,
but thee opinions will be very differ-
ently modified in creatures compound-
ed of a rational faculty and corporal
propensities f rom what they would be
in beings wholly intellectual. Mr.
Godwin, in proving that ound reaon-
ing and truth are capable of being ad-
equately communicated, examines the
proposition firt practically, and then
adds, Such is the appearance which
this proposition aumes, when exam-
ined in a looe and practical view. In
trict consideration it will not admit of
debate. Man is a rational being, &c. *
So far f rom calling this a trict consid-
eration of the ubject, I own I hould
* B I. C. 5. P. 89.
call it the looet, and mot erroneous,

way posible, of considering it. It is
the calculating the velocity of a falling
body in vacuo, and persiting in it, that
it would be the ame through whatever
resiting mediums it might fall. This
was not Newtons mode of philoo-
phizing. Very few general propositions
are jut in application to a particular
ubject. The moon is not kept in her
orbit round the earth, nor the earth in
her orbit round the un, by a force that
varies merely in the invere ratio of
the quares of the ditances. To make
the general theory jut in application
to the revolutions of thee bodies, it
was neceary to calculate accurately
the diturbing force of the un upon
the moon, and of the moon upon the
earth ; and till thee diturbing forces
were properly etimated, actual ober-
vations on the motions of thee bodies
would have proved that the theory was

not accurately true.
I am willing to allow that every vol-

untary act is preceded by a decision
of the mind, but it is trangely oppo-
site to what I hould conceive to be
the jut theory upon the ubject, and
a palpable contradiction to all experi-
ence, to ay that the corporal propen-
sities of man do not act very power-
fully, as diturbing forces, in thee de-
cisions. The quetion, therefore, does
not merely depend upon whether a
man may be made to undertand a dit-
inct proposition or be convinced by an
unanwerable argument. A truth may
be brought home to his conviction as
a rational being, though he may deter-
mine to act contrary to it, as a com-
pound being. The cravings of hunger,
the love of liquor, the desire of
poesing a beautiful woman, will urge
men to actions, of the fatal cone-

quences of which, to the general in-
terets of ociety, they are perfectly
well convinced, even at the very time
they commit them. Remove their bod-
ily cravings, and they would not hesi-
tate a moment in determining againt
uch actions. Ak them their opinion
of the ame conduct in another peron,
and they would immediately reprobate
it. But in their own cae, and under
all the circumtances of their situation
with thee bodily cravings, the deci-
sion of the compound being is differ-
ent f rom the conviction of the rational
being.
If this be the jut view of the ub-

ject, and both theory and experience
unite to prove that it is, almot all
Mr. Godwins reaonings on the ub-
ject of coercion in his eventh chapter,
will appear to be founded on error.
He pends ome time in placing in a

ridiculous point of view the attempt
to convince a mans undertanding and
to clear up a doubtful proposition in
his mind, by blows. Undoubtedly it
is both ridiculous and barbarous, and
o is cock-fighting, but one has little
more to do with the real object of
human punihments than the other.
One f requent (indeed much too f re-
quent) mode of punihment is death.
Mr. Godwin will hardly think this in-
tended for conviction, at leat it does
not appear how the individual or the
ociety could reap much future benefit
f rom an undertanding enlightened in
this manner.
The principal objects which human

punihments have in view are un-
doubtedly retraint and example ; re-
traint, or removal, of an individual
member whoe vicious habits are likely
to be prejudicial to the ociety ; and

example, which by expresing the ene
of the community with regard to a
particular crime, and by aociating
more nearly and visibly crime and
punihment, holds out a moral motive
to diuade others f rom the commi-
sion of it.
Retraint, Mr. Godwin thinks, may

be permitted as a temporary expedi-
ent, though he reprobates olitary im-
prionment, which has certainly been
the mot ucceful, and, indeed, almot
the only attempt towards the moral
amelioration of offenders. He talks of
the elfih pasions that are fotered
by olitude and of the virtues generat-
ed in ociety. But urely thee virtues
are not generated in the ociety of
a prion. Were the offender confined
to the ociety of able and virtuous
men he would probably be more im-
proved than in olitude. But is this

practicable? Mr. Godwins ingenuity is
more f requently employed in finding
out evils than in uggeting practical
remedies.
Punihment, for example, is totally

reprobated. By endeavouring to make
examples too impresive and terrible,
nations have, indeed, been led into
the mot barbarous cruelties, but the
abue of any practice is not a good ar-
gument againt its ue. The indefati-
gable pains taken in this country to
find out a murder, and the certainty
of its punihment, has powerfully con-
tributed to generate that entiment
which is f requent in the mouths of
the common people, that a murder will
ooner or later come to light ; and
the habitual horror in which murder
is in conequence held will make a
man, in the agony of pasion, throw
down his knife for fear he hould be

tempted to ue it in the gratification
of his revenge. In Italy, where mur-
derers, by flying to a anctuary, are al-
lowed more f requently to ecape, the
crime has never been held in the ame
detetation and has conequently been
more f requent. No man, who is at all
aware of the operation of moral mo-
tives, can doubt for a moment, that if
every murder in Italy had been invari-
ably punihed, the ue of the tiletto in
tranports of pasion would have been
comparatively but little known.
That human laws either do, or can,

proportion the punihment accurately
to the offence, no peron will have the
folly to aert. From the incrutability
of motives the thing is abolutely im-
posible, but this imperfection, though
it may be called a pecies of injutice,
is no valid argument againt human
laws. It is the lot of man, that he will

f requently have to chooe between two
evils ; and it is a ufficient reaon for
the adoption of any intitution, that
it is the bet mode that uggets itelf
of preventing greater evils. A continu-
al endeavour hould undoubtedly pre-
vail to make thee intitutions as per-
fect as the nature of them will admit.
But nothing is o eay as to find fault
with human intitutions ; nothing o
difficult as to ugget adequate practi-
cal improvements. It is to be lament-
ed, that more men of talents employ
their time in the former occupation
than in the latter.
The f requency of crime among

men, who, as the common aying is,
know better, ufficiently proves, that
ome truths may be brought home to
the conviction of the mind without al-
ways producing the proper effect up-
on the conduct. There are other truths

of a nature that perhaps never can
be adequately communicated f rom one
man to another. The uperiority of
the pleaures of intellect to thoe of
ene, Mr. Godwin considers as a fun-
damental truth. Taking all circum-
tances into consideration, I hould be
dipoed to agree with him ; but how
am I to communicate this truth to a
peron who has carcely ever felt in-
tellectual pleaure? I may as well at-
tempt to explain the nature and beauty
of colours to a blind man. If I am ever
o laborious, patient, and clear, and
have the mot repeated opportunities
of expotulation, any real progres to-
ward the accomplihment of my pur-
poe eems abolutely hopeles. There
is no common meaure between us. I
cannot proceed tep by tep.. It is a
truth of a nature abolutely incapable
of demontration. All that I can ay
is, that the wiet and bet men in all

ages had agreed in giving the pref-
erence, very greatly, to the pleaures
of intellect ; and that my own expe-
rience completely confirmed the truth
of their decisions ; that I had found
enual pleaures vain, transient, and
continually attended with tedium and
digut ; but that intellectual pleaures
appeared to me ever f reh and young,
filled up all my hours atifactorily,
gave a new zet to life, and diffued
a lating erenity over my mind. If he
believe me, it can only be f rom repect
and veneration for my authority. It is
credulity, and not conviction. I have
not aid any thing, nor can any thing
be aid, of a nature to produce real
conviction. The affair is not an affair
of reaoning, but of experience. He
would probably oberve in reply, what
you ay may be very true with regard
to yourelf and many other good men,
but for my own part I feel very dif-

ferently upon the ubject. I have very
f requently taken up a book and almot
as f requently gone to leep over it ; but
when I pas an evening with a gay par-
ty, or a pretty woman, I feel alive, and
in pirits, and truly enjoy my exitence.
Under uch circumtances, reaon-

ing and arguments are not intruments
f rom which ucces can be expected.
At ome future time perhaps, real ati-
ety of enual pleaures, or ome acci-
dental impresions that awakened the
energies of his mind, might effect
that, in a month, which the mot pa-
tient and able expotulations might be
incapable of effecting in forty years.
C H A P T E R X I V.
Mr. Godwins f ive propositions repecting political

truth, on which his whole work hinges, not
etablihed.Reaons we have for upposing,
f rom the ditres occasioned by the principle of
population, that the vices and moral weaknes
of man can never be wholly eradicated.Per-
fectibility, in the ene in which Mr. Godwin
ues the term, not applicable to man.Nature
of the real perfectibility of man illutrated.
If the reaonings of the preceding

chapter are jut, the corollaries
repecting political truth, which Mr.
Godwin draws f rom the proposition,
that the voluntary actions of men orig-
inate in their opinions, will not appear
to be clearly etablihed. Thee corol-
laries are, Sound reaoning and
truth, when adequately communicat-
ed, mut always be victorious over er-
ror ? Sound reaoning and truth are
capable of being o communicated ?
Truth is omnipotent ? The vices and
moral weaknes of man are not invin-

cible ? Man is perfectible, or in oth-
er words, uceptible of perpetual im-
provement.
The firt three propositions may be

considered a complete yllogim. If by
adequately communicated, be meant
uch a conviction as to produce an ad-
equate effect upon the conduct, the
major may be allowed and the minor
denied. The conequent, or the om-
nipotence of truth, of coure falls to
the ground. If by adequately commu-
nicated be meant merely the convic-
tion of the rational faculty, the major
mut be denied, the minor will be on-
ly true in caes capable of demontra-
tion, and the conequent equally falls.
The fourth proposition Mr. Godwin
calls the preceding proposition, with
a light variation in the tatement. If
o, it mut accompany the preceding
proposition in its fall. But it may be

worth while to inquire, with reference
to the principal argument of this eay,
into the particular reaons which we
have for upposing that the vices and
moral weaknes of man can never be
wholly overcome in this world.
Man, according to Mr. Godwin, is a

creature formed what he is by the uc-
cesive impresions which he has re-
ceived, f rom the firt moment that the
germ f rom which he prung was ani-
mated. Could he be placed in a situ-
ation, where he was ubject to no evil
impresions whatever, though it might
be doubted whether in uch a situation
virtue could exit, vice would certain-
ly be banihed. The great bent of Mr.
Godwins work on Political Jutice, if
I undertand it rightly, is to hew that
the greater part of the vices and
weaknees of men proceed f rom the
injutice of their political and ocial

intitutions, and that if thee were re-
moved and the undertandings of men
more enlightened, there would be lit-
tle or no temptation in the world to
evil. As it has been clearly proved,
however, (at leat as I think) that this
is entirely a fale conception, and that,
independent of any political or ocial
intitutions whatever, the greater part
of mankind, f rom the fixed and un-
alterable laws of nature, mut ever be
ubject to the evil temptations arising
f rom want, besides other pasions, it
follows f rom Mr. Godwins definition
of man that uch impresions, and
combinations of impresions, cannot
be afloat in the world without gener-
ating a variety of bad men. According
to Mr. Godwins own conception of
the formation of character, it is urely
as improbable that under uch circum-
tances all men will be virtuous as that
sixes will come up a hundred times

following upon the dice. The great va-
riety of combinations upon the dice
in a repeated uccesion of throws ap-
pears to me not inaptly to repreent
the great variety of character that mut
necearily exit in the world, uppos-
ing every individual to be formed what
he is by that combination of impre-
sions which he has received since his
firt exitence. And this comparion
will, in ome meaure, hew the abur-
dity of upposing, that exceptions will
ever become general rules ; that ex-
traordinary and unuual combinations
will be f requent ; or that the individ-
ual intances of great virtue which had
appeared in all ages of the world will
ever prevail univerally.
I am aware that Mr. Godwin might

ay that the comparion is in one
repect inaccurate, that in the cae of
the dice, the preceding caues, or

rather the chances repecting the pre-
ceding caues, were always the ame,
and that, therefore, I could have no
good reaon for upposing that a
greater number of sixes would come up
in the next hundred times of throw-
ing than in the preceding ame num-
ber of throws. But, that man had in
ome ort a power of influencing thoe
caues that formed character, and that
every good and virtuous man that was
produced, by the influence which he
mut necearily have, rather increaed
the probability that another uch vir-
tuous character would be generated,
whereas the coming up of sixes upon
the dice once, would certainly not in-
creae the probability of their coming
up a econd time. I admit this objec-
tion to the accuracy of the comparion,
but it is only partially valid. Repeated
experience has aured us, that the in-
fluence of the mot virtuous character

will rarely prevail againt very trong
temptations to evil. It will undoubted-
ly affect ome, but it will fail with a
much greater number. Had Mr. God-
win ucceeded in his attempt to prove
that thee temptations to evil could by
the exertions of man be removed, I
would give up the comparion ; or at
leat allow, that a man might be o far
enlightened with regard to the mode
of haking his elbow, that he would
be able to throw sixes every time. But
as long as a great number of thoe
impresions which form character, like
the nice motions of the arm, remain
abolutely independent of the will of
man, though it would be the height
of folly and preumption to attempt
to calculate the relative proportions of
virtue and vice at the future periods
of the world, it may be afely aerted
that the vices and moral weaknes of
mankind, taken in the mas, are invin-

cible.
The fifth proposition is the general

deduction f rom the four former and
will conequently fall, as the founda-
tions which upport it have given way.
In the ene in which Mr. Godwin un-
dertands the term perfectible, the
perfectibility of man cannot be aert-
ed, unles the preceding propositions
could have been clearly etablihed.
There is, however, one ene, which
the term will bear, in which it is, per-
haps, jut. It may be aid with truth
that man is always uceptible of im-
provement, or that there never has
been, or will be, a period of his hi-
tory, in which he can be aid to have
reached his posible acme of perfec-
tion. Yet it does not by any means
follow f rom this, that our efforts to
improve man will always ucceed, or
even that he will ever make, in the

greatet number of ages, any extraor-
dinary trides towards perfection. The
only inference that can be drawn is
that the precie limit of his improve-
ment cannot posibly be known. And I
cannot help again reminding the read-
er of a ditinction which, it appears to
me, ought particularly to be attended
to in the preent quetion ? I mean,
the eential difference there is be-
tween an unlimited improvement and
an improvement the limit of which
cannot be acertained. The former is
an improvement not applicable to man
under the preent laws of his nature.
The latter, undoubtedly, is applicable.
The real perfectibility of man may

be illutrated, as I have mentioned be-
fore, by the perfectibility of a plant.
The object of the enterprising florit
is, as I conceive, to unite size, ym-
metry, and beauty of colour. It would

urely be preumptuous in the mot
ucceful improver to affirm, that he
poeed a carnation in which thee
qualities exited in the greatet posible
tate of perfection. However beautiful
his flower may be, other care, other
oil, or other uns, might produce one
till more beautiful.
Yet, although he may be aware of

the aburdity of upposing that he has
reached perfection, and though he may
know by what means he attained that
degree of beauty in the flower which
he at preent poees, yet he cannot
be ure that by puruing similar means,
rather increaed in trength, he will
obtain a more beautiful bloom. By
endeavouring to improve one quality,
he may impair the beauty of another.
The richer mould which he would em-
ploy to increae the size of his plant
would probably burt the calyx, and

detroy at once its ymmetry. In a sim-
ilar manner, the forcing manure ued
to bring about the French Revolution,
and to give a greater f reedom and en-
ergy to the human mind, has burt
the calyx of humanity, the retraining
bond of all ociety ; and, however large
the eparate petals have grown, how-
ever trongly, or even beautifully, a few
of them have been marked, the whole
is at preent a looe, deformed,
dijointed mas, without union, ym-
metry, or harmony of colouring.
Were it of conequence to improve

pinks and carnations, though we could
have no hope of raising them as large
as cabbages, we might undoubtedly
expect, by uccesive efforts, to obtain
more beautiful pecimens than we at
preent poes. No peron can deny
the importance of improving the hap-
pines of the human pecies. Every the

leat advance in this repect is highly
valuable. But an experiment with the
human race is not like an experiment
upon inanimate objects. The burting
of a flower may be a trifle. Anoth-
er will oon ucceed it. But the burt-
ing of the bonds of ociety is uch
a eparation of parts as cannot take
place without giving the mot acute
pain to thouands ? and a long time
may elape, and much miery may be
endured, before the wound grows up
again.
As the five propositions which I

have been examining may be consid-
ered as the corner tones of Mr. God-
wins fanciful tructure, and, indeed,
as expresing the aim and bent of his
whole work, however excellent much
of his detached reaoning may be, he
mut be considered as having failed in
the great object of his undertaking.

Besides the difficulties arising f rom
the compound nature of man, which
he has by no means ufficiently
moothed, the principal argument
againt the perfectibility of man and
ociety remains whole and unimpaired
f rom any thing that he has advanced.
And as far as I can trut my own
judgement, this argument appears to
be conclusive, not only againt the
perfectibility of man, in the enlarged
ene in which Mr. Godwin under-
tands the term, but againt any very
marked and triking change for the
better, in the form and tructure of
general ociety ; by which I mean any
great and decided amelioration of the
condition of the lower claes of
mankind, the mot numerous, and,
conequently, in a general view of the
ubject, the mot important part of the
human race. Were I to live a thouand
years, and the laws of nature to remain

the ame, I hould little fear, or rather
little hope, a contradiction f rom ex-
perience in aerting that no posible
acrifices or exertions of the rich, in a
country which had been long inhabit-
ed, could for any time place the low-
er claes of the community in a sit-
uation equal, with regard to circum-
tances, to the situation of the common
people about thirty years ago in the
northern States of America.
The lower claes of people in Eu-

rope may at ome future period be
much better intructed than they are
at preent ; they may be taught to em-
ploy the little pare time they have
in many better ways than at the ale-
houe ; they may live under better and
more equal laws than they have ever
hitherto done, perhaps, in any coun-
try ; and I even conceive it posible,
though not probable that they may

have more leiure ; but it is not in
the nature of things that they can be
awarded uch a quantity of money or
ubsitence as will allow them all to
marry early, in the full confidence that
they hall be able to provide with eae
for a numerous family.
C H A P T E R X V.
Models too perfect may ometimes rather impede

than promote improvement.Mr. Godwins
eay on avarice and profusion.Imposibility
of dividing the neceary labour of a ociety
amicably among all.Invectives againt labour
may produce preent evil, with little or no
chance of producing future good.An accesion
to the mas of agricultural labour mut always
be an advantage to the labourer.
M r. Godwin in the preface to his

Enquirer, drops a few expresions
which eem to hint at ome change in
his opinions since he wrote the Polit-
ical Jutice ; and as this is a work now
of ome years tanding, I hould cer-
tainly think that I had been arguing
againt opinions which the author had
himelf een reaon to alter, but that
in ome of the eays of the Enquirer,
Mr. Godwins peculiar mode of think-
ing appears in as triking a light as
ever.
It has been f requently oberved that

though we cannot hope to reach per-
fection in any thing, yet that it mut
always be advantageous to us to place
before our eyes the mot perfect mod-
els. This obervation has a plausible
appearance, but is very far f rom being
generally true. I even doubt its truth
in one of the mot obvious exempli-
fications that would occur. I doubt
whether a very young painter would
receive o much benefit, f rom an at-
tempt to copy a highly finihed and
perfect picture, as f rom copying one
where the outlines were more trongly
marked and the manner of laying on
the colours was more easily dicover-
able. But in caes where the perfec-
tion of the model is a perfection of
a different and uperior nature f rom
that towards which we hould natural-
ly advance, we hall not always fail in
making any progres towards it, but we
hall in all probability impede the pro-

gres which we might have expected to
make had we not fixed our eyes up-
on o perfect a model. A highly intel-
lectual being, exempt f rom the infirm
calls of hunger or leep, is undoubted-
ly a much more perfect exitence than
man, but were man to attempt to copy
uch a model, he would not only fail
in making any advances towards it ;
but by unwiely training to imitate
what was inimitable, he would proba-
bly detroy the little intellect which he
was endeavouring to improve.
The form and tructure of ociety

which Mr. Godwin decribes is as
eentially ditinct f rom any forms of
ociety which have hitherto prevailed
in the world as a being that can live
without food or leep is f rom a man.
By improving ociety in its preent
form, we are making no more advances
towards uch a tate of things as he

pictures than we hould make ap-
proaches towards a line, with regard
to which we were walking parallel.
The quetion, therefore, is whether, by
looking to uch a form of ociety as
our polar tar, we are likely to ad-
vance or retard the improvement of
the human pecie? Mr. Godwin ap-
pears to me to have decided this que-
tion againt himelf in his eay on
avarice and profusion in the Enquirer.
Dr Adam Smith has very jutly

oberved that nations as well as in-
dividuals grow rich by parsimony and
poor by profusion, and that, therefore,
every f rugal man was a f riend and
every pendthrift an enemy to his
country. The reaon he gives is that
what is aved f rom revenue is always
added to tock, and is therefore taken
f rom the maintenance of labour that is
generally unproductive and employed

in the maintenance of labour that real-
izes itelf in valuable commodities. No
obervation can be more evidently jut.
The ubject of Mr. Godwins eay is a
little similar in its firt appearance, but
in eence is as ditinct as posible. He
considers the michief of profusion as
an acknowledged truth, and therefore
makes his comparion between the
avaricious man, and the man who
pends his income. But the avaricious
man of Mr. Godwin is totally a dit-
inct character, at leat with regard to
his effect upon the properity of the
tate, f rom the f rugal man of Dr Adam
Smith. The f rugal man in order to
make more money aves f rom his in-
come and adds to his capital, and this
capital he either employs himelf in
the maintenance of productive labour,
or he lends it to ome other peron
who will probably employ it in this
way. He benefits the tate becaue he

adds to its general capital, and becaue
wealth employed as capital not only
ets in motion more labour than when
pent as income, but the labour is be-
sides of a more valuable kind. But the
avaricious man of Mr. Godwin locks
up his wealth in a chet and ets in
motion no labour of any kind, either
productive or unproductive. This is o
eential a difference that Mr. God-
wins decision in his eay appears at
once as evidently fale as Dr Adam
Smiths position is evidently true. It
could not, indeed, but occur to Mr.
Godwin that ome preent inconve-
nience might arie to the poor f rom
thus locking up the funds detined for
the maintenance of labour. The only
way, therefore, he had of weakening
this objection was to compare the two
characters chiefly with regard to their
tendency to accelerate the approach of
that happy tate of cultivated equality,

on which he ays we ought always to
fix our eyes as our polar tar.
I think it has been proved in the

former parts of this eay that uch a
tate of ociety is abolutely imprac-
ticable. What conequences then are
we to expect f rom looking to uch a
point as our guide and polar tar in the
great ea of political dicovery? Reaon
would teach us to expect no other than
winds perpetually advere, contant but
f ruitles toil, f requent hipwreck, and
certain miery. We hall not only fail
in making the mallet real approach
towards uch a perfect form of ociety ;
but by wating our trength of mind
and body, in a direction in which it is
imposible to proceed, and by the f re-
quent ditres which we mut necear-
ily occasion by our repeated failures,
we hall evidently impede that degree
of improvement in ociety, which is re-

ally attainable.
It has appeared that a ociety

contituted according to Mr. Godwins
ytem mut, f rom the inevitable laws
of our nature, degenerate into a clas
of proprietors and a clas of labourers,
and that the ubtitution of benevo-
lence for elf-love as the moving prin-
ciple of ociety, intead of producing
the happy effects that might be ex-
pected f rom o fair a name, would
caue the ame preure of want to be
felt by the whole of ociety, which is
now felt only by a part. It is to the
etablihed adminitration of property
and to the apparently narrow princi-
ple of elf-love that we are indebted
for all the noblet exertions of human
genius, all the finer and more delicate
emotions of the oul, for everything,
indeed, that ditinguihes the civilized
f rom the avage tate ; and no uffi-

cient change has as yet taken place in
the nature of civilized man to enable
us to ay that he either is, or ever will
be, in a tate when he may afely throw
down the ladder by which he has rien
to this eminence.
If in every ociety that has advanced

beyond the avage tate, a clas of pro-
prietors and a clas of labourer * , mut
necearily exit, it is evident that, as
labour is the only property of the clas
of labourers, every thing that tends
to diminih the value of this property
* It hould be oberved that the principal ar-

gument of this Eay only goes to prove the
necesity of a clas of proprietors, and a clas
of labourers, but by no means infers that the
preent great inequality of property is either
neceary or ueful to ociety. On the contrary,
it mut certainly be considered as an evil, and
every intitution that promotes it is eentially
bad and impolitic. But whether a government
mut tend to diminih the poesion of

this part of ociety. The only way that
a poor man has of upporting himelf
in independence is by the exertion of
his bodily trength. This is the only
commodity he has to give in exchange
for the necearies of life. It would
hardly appear then that you benefit
him by narrowing the market for this
commodity, by decreasing the demand
for labour, and leening the value of
the only property that he poees.
Mr. Godwin would perhaps ay that

the whole ytem of barter and ex-
change is a vile and iniquitous traffic.
If you would eentially relieve the
could with advantage to ociety actively inter-

fere to repres inequality of fortunes may be a
matter of doubt. Perhaps the generous ytem
of perfect liberty adopted by Dr Adam Smith
and the French conomits would be ill ex-
changed for any ytem of retraint.
poor man, you hould take a part of

his labour upon yourelf, or give him
your money, without exacting o evere
a return for it. In anwer to the firt
method propoed, it may be oberved,
that even if the rich could be peruad-
ed to asit the poor in this way, the
value of the asitance would be com-
paratively trifling. The rich, though
they think themelves of great impor-
tance, bear but a mall proportion in
point of numbers to the poor, and
would, therefore, relieve them but of a
mall part of their burdens by taking
a hare. Were all thoe that are em-
ployed in the labours of luxuries added
to the number of thoe employed in
producing necearies, and could thee
neceary labours be amicably divided
among all, each mans hare might in-
deed be comparatively light ; but de-
sirable as uch an amicable division
would undoubtedly be, I cannot con-
ceive any practical principle * accord-

ing to which it could take place. It has
been hewn, that the pirit of benev-
olence, guided by the trict impartial
jutice that Mr. Godwin decribes,
would, if vigorouly acted upon, de-
pres in want and miery the whole
human race. Let us examine what
would be the conequence, if the pro-
prietor were to retain a decent hare
for himelf, but to give the ret away
to the poor, without exacting a tak
f rom them in return. Not to mention
the idlenes and the vice that uch a
proceeding, if general, would proba-
bly create in the preent tate of oci-
* Mr. Godwin eems to have but little repect

for practical principles ; but I own it appears
to me, that he is a much greater benefactor
to mankind, who points out how an inferior
good may be attained, than he who merely ex-
patiates on the deformity of the preent tate
of ociety, and the beauty of a different tate,
without pointing out a practical method, that
ety, and the great rik there would be,

of diminihing the produce of land, as
well as the labours of luxury, another
objection yet remains.
It has appeared that f rom the prin-

ciple of population more will always
be in want than can be adequately up-
plied. The urplus of the rich man
might be ufficient for three, but four
will be desirous to obtain it. He can-
not make this election of three out
of the four without conferring a great
favour on thoe that are the objects of
his choice. Thee perons mut consid-
er themelves as under a great oblig-
ation to him and as dependent upon
him for their upport. The rich man
would feel his power and the poor man
his dependence, and the evil effects of
thee two impresions on the human
might be immediately applied, of accelerating

our advances f rom the one, to the other.
heart are well known. Though I per-

fectly agree with Mr. Godwin there-
fore in the evil of hard labour, yet I
till think it a les evil, and les cal-
culated to debae the human mind,
than dependence, and every hitory of
man that we have ever read places in
a trong point of view the danger to
which that mind is expoed which is
entruted with contant power.
In the preent tate of things, and

particularly when labour is in requet,
the man who does a days work for me
confers full as great an obligation up-
on me as I do upon him. I poes what
he wants, he poees what I want. We
make an amicable exchange. The poor
man walks erect in concious indepen-
dence ; and the mind of his employer
is not vitiated by a ene of power.
Three or four hundred years ago

there was undoubtedly much les
labour in England, in proportion to
the population, than at preent, but
there was much more dependence, and
we probably hould not now enjoy our
preent degree of civil liberty if the
poor, by the introduction of manufac-
tures, had not been enabled to give
omething in exchange for the provi-
sions of the great Lords, intead of
being dependent upon their bounty.
Even the greatet enemies of trade and
manufactures, and I do not reckon
myelf a very determined f riend to
them, mut allow that when they were
introduced into England, liberty came
in their train.
Nothing that has been aid tends in

the mot remote degree to underval-
ue the principle of benevolence. It is
one of the noblet and mot godlike
qualities of the human heart, generat-

ed, perhaps, lowly and gradually f rom
elf-love, and afterwards intended to
act as a general law, whoe kind office
it hould be, to often the partial de-
formities, to correct the aperities, and
to mooth the wrinkles of its parent ?
and this eems to be the analog of all
nature. Perhaps there is no one gener-
al law of nature that will not appear,
to us at leat, to produce partial evil ;
and we f requently oberve at the ame
time, ome bountiful provision which,
acting as another general law, corrects
the inequalities of the firt.
The proper office of benevolence is

to often the partial evils arising f rom
elf-love, but it can never be ubti-
tuted in its place. If no man were to
allow himelf to act till he had com-
pletely determined that the action he
was about to perform was more con-
ducive than any other to the gener-

al good, the mot enlightened minds
would hesitate in perplexity and
amazement ; and the unenlightened
would be continually committing the
groet mitakes.
As Mr. Godwin, therefore, has not

laid down any practical principle ac-
cording to which the neceary labours
of agriculture might be amicably
hared among the whole clas of
labourers, by general invectives againt
employing the poor he appears to
purue an unattainable good through
much preent evil. For if every man
who employs the poor ought to be
considered as their enemy, and as
adding to the weight of their oppre-
sions, and if the mier is for this
reaon to be preferred to the man who
pends his income, it follows that any
number of men who now pend their
incomes might, to the advantage of o-

ciety, be converted into miers. Sup-
poe then that a hundred thouand
perons who now employ ten men each
were to lock up their wealth f rom gen-
eral ue, it is evident, that a million of
working men of different kinds would
be completely thrown out of all em-
ployment. The extensive miery that
uch an event would produce in the
preent tate of ociety Mr. Godwin
himelf could hardly refue to ac-
knowledge, and I quetion whether he
might not find ome difficulty in prov-
ing that a conduct of this kind tended
more than the conduct of thoe who
pend their incomes to place human
beings in the condition in which they
ought to be placed. But Mr. Godwin
ays that the mier really locks up
nothing, that the point has not been
rightly undertood, and that the true
development and definition of the na-
ture of wealth have not been applied

to illutrate it. Having defined there-
fore wealth, very jutly, to be the com-
modities raied and fotered by human
labour, he oberves that the mier
locks up neither corn, nor oxen, nor
clothes, nor houes. Undoubtedly he
does not really lock up thee articles,
but he locks up the power of pro-
ducing them, which is virtually the
ame. Thee things are certainly ued
and conumed by his contemporaries,
as truly, and to as great an extent,
as if he were a beggar ; but not to
as great an extent as if he had em-
ployed his wealth in turning up more
land, in breeding more oxen, in em-
ploying more tailors, and in building
more houes. But upposing, for a mo-
ment, that the conduct of the mier
did not tend to check any really ueful
produce, how are all thoe who are
thrown out of employment to obtain
patents which they may hew in order

to be awarded a proper hare of the
food and raiment produced by the o-
ciety? This is the unconquerable diffi-
culty.
I am perfectly willing to concede

to Mr. Godwin that there is much
more labour in the world than is really
neceary, and that, if the lower claes
of ociety could agree among
themelves never to work more than
six or even hours in the day, the com-
modities eential to human happines
might till be produced in as great
abundance as at preent. But it is al-
mot imposible to conceive that uch
an agreement could be adhered to.
From the principle of population,
ome would necearily be more in
want than others. Thoe that had large
families would naturally be desirous of
exchanging two hours more of their
labour for an ampler quantity of ub-

sitence. How are they to be prevented
f rom making this exchange? it would
be a violation of the firt and mot a-
cred property that a man poees to
attempt, by positive intitutions, to in-
terfere with his command over his own
labour.
Till Mr. Godwin, therefore, can

point out ome practical plan accord-
ing to which the neceary labour in
a ociety might be equitably divided,
his invectives againt labour, if they
were attended to, would certainly pro-
duce much preent evil without ap-
proximating us to that tate of culti-
vated equality to which he looks for-
ward as his polar tar, and which, he
eems to think, hould at preent be
our guide in determining the nature
and tendency of human actions. A
mariner guided by uch a polar tar is

in danger of hipwreck.
Perhaps there is no posible way in

which wealth could in general be em-
ployed o beneficially to a tate, and
particularly to the lower orders of it,
as by improving and rendering pro-
ductive that land which to a farmer
would not anwer the expene of cul-
tivation. Had Mr. Godwin exerted his
energetic eloquence in painting the u-
perior worth and uefulnes of the
character who employed the poor in
this way, to him who employed them
in narrow luxuries, every enlightened
man mut have applauded his efforts.
The increasing demand for agricultur-
al labour mut always tend to better
the condition of the poor ; and if the
accesion of work be of this kind, o
far is it f rom being true that the poor
would be obliged to work ten hours for
the ame price that they before worked

eight, that the very revere would be
the fact ; and a labourer might then
upport his wife and family as well by
the labour of six hours as he could be-
fore by the labour of eight.
The labour created by luxuries,

though ueful in ditributing the pro-
duce of the country, without vitiating
the proprietor by power, or debasing
the labourer by dependence, has not,
indeed, the ame beneficial effects on
the tate of the poor. A great accesion
of work f rom manufacturers, though
it may raie the price of labour even
more than an increasing demand for
agricultural labour, yet, as in this cae
the quantity of food in the country
may not be proportionably increasing,
the advantage to the poor will be but
temporary, as the price of provisions
mut necearily rie in proportion to
the price of labour. Relative to this

ubject, I cannot avoid venturing a few
remarks on a part of Dr Adam Smiths
Wealth of Nations, peaking at the
ame time with that diffidence which
I ought certainly to feel in differing
f rom a peron o jutly celebrated in
the political world.
CHAP T ER XVI.
Probable error of Dr Adam Smith in repreenting

every increae of the revenue or tock of a ociety
as an increae in the funds for the maintenance
of labour.Intances where an increae of
wealth can have no tendency to better the con-
dition of the labouring poor.England has in-
creaed in riches without a proportional increae
in the funds for the maintenance of labour.
The tate of the poor in China would not be im-
proved by an increae of wealth f rom manufac-
tures.
T he profeed object of Dr Adam

Smiths inquiry is the nature and
caues of the wealth of nations. There
is another inquiry, however, perhaps
till more intereting, which he occa-
sionally mixes with it ; I mean an in-
quiry into the caues which affect the
happines of nations or the happines
and comfort of the lower orders of
ociety, which is the mot numerous
clas in every nation. I am ufficiency
aware of the near connection of thee
two ubjects, and that the caues which

tend to increae the wealth of a tate
tend alo, generally peaking, to in-
creae the happines of the lower
claes of the people. But perhaps Dr
Adam Smith has considered thee two
inquiries as till more nearly connected
than they really are ; at leat, he has
not topped to take notice of thoe in-
tances where the wealth of a ociety
may increae (according to his defini-
tion of wealth ) without having any
tendency to increae the comforts of
the labouring part of it. I do not mean
to enter into a philoophical dicusion
of what contitutes the proper hap-
pines of man, but hall merely con-
sider two univerally acknowledged in-
gredients, health, and the command
of the necearies and conveniences of
life.
Little or no doubt can exit that the

comforts of the labouring poor depend
upon the increae of the funds detined
for the maintenance of labour, and
will be very exactly in proportion to
the rapidity of this increae. The de-
mand for labour which uch increae
would occasion, by creating a compe-
tition in the market, mut necearily
raie the value of labour, and, till the
additional number of hands required
were reared, the increaed funds would
be ditributed to the ame number of
perons as before the increae, and
therefore every labourer would live
comparatively at his eae. But perhaps
Dr Adam Smith errs in repreenting
every increae of the revenue or tock
of a ociety as an increae of thee
funds. Such urplus tock or revenue
will, indeed, always be considered by
the individual poesing it as an addi-
tional fund f rom which he may main-
tain more labour ? but it will not be

a real and effectual fund for the main-
tenance of an additional number of
labourers, unles the whole, or at leat
a great part of this increae of the
tock or revenue of the ociety, be con-
vertible into a proportional quantity of
provisions ; and it will not be o con-
vertible where the increae has arien
merely f rom the produce of labour,
and not f rom the produce of land.
A ditinction will in this cae occur,
between the number of hands which
the tock of the ociety could employ,
and the number which its territory can
maintain.
To explain myelf by an intance.

Dr Adam Smith defines the wealth
of a nation to consit. In the annual
produce of its land and labour. This
definition evidently includes manufac-
tured produce, as well as the produce
of the land. Now upposing a nation

for a coure of years was to add what
it aved f rom its yearly revenue to its
manufacturing capital olely, and not
to its capital employed upon land, it is
evident that it might grow richer ac-
cording to the above definition, with-
out a power of upporting a greater
number of labourers, and, therefore,
without an increae in the real funds
for the maintenance of labour. There
would, notwithtanding, be a demand
for labour f rom the power which each
manufacturer would poes, or at leat
think he poeed, of extending his old
tock in trade or of etting up f reh
works. This demand would of coure
raie the price of labour, but if the
yearly tock of provisions in the coun-
try was not increasing, this rie would
oon turn out to be merely nominal, as
the price of provisions mut neceari-
ly rie with it. The demand for manu-
facturing labourers might, indeed, en-

tice many f rom agriculture and thus
tend to diminih the annual produce
of the land, but we will uppoe any
effect of this kind to be compenated
by improvements in the intruments of
agriculture, and the quantity of pro-
visions therefore to remain the ame.
Improvements in manufacturing ma-
chinery would of coure take place,
and this circumtance, added to the
greater number of hands employed in
manufactures, would caue the annual
produce of the labour of the country
to be upon the whole greatly in-
creaed. The wealth therefore of the
country would be increasing annually,
according to the definition, and might
not, perhaps, be increasing very lowly.
The quetion is whether wealth, in-

creasing in this way, has any tendency
to better the condition of the labour-
ing poor. It is a elf-evident proposi-

tion that any general rie in the price
of labour, the tock of provisions re-
maining the ame, can only be a nom-
inal rie, as it mut very hortly be
followed by a proportional rie in the
price of provisions. The increae in the
price of labour, therefore, which we
have uppoed, would have little or no
effect in giving the labouring poor a
greater command over the necearies
and conveniences of life. In this
repect they would be nearly in the
ame tate as before. In one other
repect they would be in a wore tate.
A greater proportion of them would be
employed in manufactures, and few-
er, conequently, in agriculture. And
this exchange of profesions will be al-
lowed, I think, by all, to be very un-
favourable in repect of health, one
eential ingredient of happines, be-
sides the greater uncertainty of man-
ufacturing labour, arising f rom the

capricious tate of man, the accidents
of war, and other caues.
It may be aid, perhaps, that uch

an intance as I have uppoed could
not occur, becaue the rie in the price
of provisions would immediately turn
ome additional capital into the chan-
nel of agriculture. But this is an event
which may take place very lowly, as it
hould be remarked that a rie in the
price of labour had preceded the rie
of provisions, and would, therefore,
impede the good effects upon agricul-
ture, which the increaed value of the
produce of the land might otherwie
have occasioned.
It might alo be aid, that the addi-

tional capital of the nation would en-
able it to import provisions ufficient
for the maintenance of thoe whom
its tock could employ. A mall coun-

try with a large navy, and great inland
accommodations for carriage, uch as
Holland, may, indeed, import and
ditribute an effectual quantity of pro-
visions ; but the price of provisions
mut be very high to make uch an
importation and ditribution anwer in
large countries les advantageouly cir-
cumtanced in this repect.
An intance, accurately uch as I

have uppoed, may not, perhaps, ever
have occurred, but I have little doubt
that intances nearly approximating to
it may be found without any very labo-
rious earch. Indeed I am trongly in-
clined to think that England herelf,
since the Revolution, affords a very
triking elucidation of the argument in
quetion.
The commerce of this country, in-

ternal as well as external, has certainly
been rapidly advancing during the lat
century. The exchangeable value in the
market of Europe of the annual pro-
duce of its land and labour has, with-
out doubt, increaed very considerably.
But, upon examination, it will be
found that the increae has been
chiefly in the produce of labour and
not in the produce of land, and there-
fore, though the wealth of the nation
has been advancing with a quick pace,
the effectual funds for the mainte-
nance of labour have been increasing
very lowly, and the reult is uch as
might be expected. The increasing
wealth of the nation has had little or
no tendency to better the condition
of the labouring poor. They have not,
I believe, a greater command of the
necearies and conveniences of life,
and a much greater proportion of
them than at the period of the Rev-

olution is employed in manufactures
and crowded together in cloe and un-
wholeome rooms.
Could we believe the tatement of

Dr. Price that the population of Eng-
land has decreaed since the Revolu-
tion, it would even appear that the ef-
fectual funds for the maintenance of
labour had been declining during the
progres of wealth in other repects.
For I conceive that it may be laid
down as a general rule that if the
effectual funds for the maintenance
of labour are increasing, that is, if
the territory can maintain as well as
the tock employ a greater number of
labourers, this additional number will
quickly pring up, even in pite of uch
wars as Dr. Price enumerates. And,
conequently, if the population of any
country has been tationary, or declin-
ing, we may afely infer, that, however

it may have advanced in manufactur-
ing wealth, its effectual funds for the
maintenance of labour cannot have in-
creaed.
It is difficult, however, to conceive

that the population of England has
been declining since the Revolution,
though every tetimony concurs to
prove that its increae, if it has in-
creaed, has been very low. In the
controvery which the quetion has oc-
casioned, Dr. Price undoubtedly ap-
pears to be much more completely
mater of his ubject, and to poes
more accurate information, than his
opponents. Judging simply f rom this
controvery, I think one hould ay that
Dr. Prices point is nearer being
proved than Mr. Howletts. Truth,
probably, lies between the two tate-
ments, but this upposition makes the
increae of population since the Revo-

lution to have been very low in com-
parion with the increae of wealth.
That the produce of the land has

been decreasing, or even that it has
been abolutely tationary during the
lat century, few will be dipoed to be-
lieve. The encloure of commons and
wate lands certainly tends to increae
the food of the country, but it has
been aerted with confidence that the
encloure of common fields has f re-
quently had a contrary effect, and that
large tracts of land which formerly
produced great quantities of corn, by
being converted into pature both em-
ploy fewer hands and feed fewer
mouths than before their encloure.
It is, indeed, an acknowledged truth,
that pature land produces a maller
quantity of human ubsitence than
corn land of the ame natural fertility,
and could it be clearly acertained that

f rom the increaed demand for
butcher meat of the bet quality, and
its increaed price in conequence, a
greater quantity of good land has an-
nually been employed in grazing, the
diminution of human ubsitence,
which this circumtance would occa-
sion, might have counterbalanced the
advantages derived f rom the encloure
of wate lands, and the general im-
provements in hubandry.
It carcely need be remarked that

the high price of butcher meat at
preent, and its low price formerly,
were not caued by the carcity in the
one cae or the plenty in the other,
but by the different expene utained
at the different periods, in preparing
cattle for the market. It is, however,
posible, that there might have been
more cattle a hundred years ago in
the country than at preent ; but no

doubt can be entertained, that there is
much more meat of a uperior quali-
ty brought to market at preent than
ever there was. When the price of
butcher meat was very low, cattle
were reared chiefly upon wate lands ;
and except for ome of the principal
markets, were probably killed with but
little other fatting. The veal that is
old o cheap in ome ditant counties
at preent bears little other reem-
blance than the name, to that which
is bought in London. Formerly, the
price of butchers, meat would not pay
for rearing, and carcely for feeding,
cattle on land that would anwer in
tillage ; but the preent price will not
only pay for fatting cattle on the very
bet land, but will even allow of the
rearing many, on land that would bear
good crops of corn. The ame number
of cattle, or even the ame weight of
cattle at the different periods when

killed, will have conumed (if I may
be allowed the expresion) very dif-
ferent quantities of human ubtance.
A fatted beat may in ome repects
be considered, in the language of the
French conomits, as an unproduc-
tive labourer ? he has added nothing
to the value of the raw produce that
he has conumed. The preent ytem
of grating, undoubtedly tends more
than the former ytem to diminih the
quantity of human ubsitence in the
country, in proportion to the general
fertility of the land.
I would not by any means be under-

tood to ay that the former ytem ei-
ther could or ought to have continued.
The increasing price of butcher meat
is a natural and inevitable conequence
of the general progres of cultivation ;
but I cannot help thinking, that the
preent great demand for butcher

meat of the bet quality, and the quan-
tity of good land that is in cone-
quence annually employed to produce
it, together with the great number of
hores at preent kept for pleaure, are
the chief caues that have prevented
the quantity of human food in the
country f rom keeping pace with the
generally increaed fertility of the
oil ; and a change of cutom in thee
repects would, I have little doubt,
have a very ensible effect on the
quantity of ubsitence in the country,
and conequently on its population.
The employment of much of the

mot fertile land in grating, the im-
provements in agricultural intru-
ments, the increae of large farms, and
particularly the diminution of the
number of cottages throughout the
kingdom, all concur to prove, that
there are not probably o many perons

employed in agricultural labour now
as at the period of the Revolution.
Whatever increae of population,
therefore, has taken place, mut be
employed almot wholly in manufac-
tures, and it is well known that the
failure of ome of thee manufactures,
merely f rom the caprice of fahion,
uch as the adoption of mulins intead
of silks, or of hoe-trings and covered
buttons, intead of buckles and metal
buttons, combined with the retraints
in the market of labour arising f rom
corporation and parih laws, have f re-
quently driven thouands on charity
for upport. The great increae of the
poor rates is, indeed, of itelf a trong
evidence that the poor have not a
greater command of the necearies
and conveniences of life, and if to the
consideration, that their condition in
this repect is rather wore than bet-
ter, be added the circumtance, that

a much greater proportion of them is
employed in large manufactories, un-
favourable both to health and virtue,
it mut be acknowledged, that the in-
creae of wealth of late years has had
no tendency to increae the happines
of the labouring poor.
That every increae of the tock or

revenue of a nation cannot be consid-
ered as an increae of the real funds for
the maintenance of labour and, there-
fore, cannot have the ame good effect
upon the condition of the poor, will
appear in a trong light if the argu-
ment be applied to China.
Dr Adam Smith oberves that Chi-

na has probably long been as rich as
the nature of her laws and intitutions
will admit, but that with other laws
and intitutions, and if foreign com-
merce were had in honour, he might

till be much richer. The quetion is,
would uch an increae of wealth be an
increae of the real funds for the main-
tenance of labour, and conequently
tend to place the lower claes of peo-
ple in China in a tate of greater plen-
ty?
It is evident, that if trade and for-

eign commerce were held in great ho-
nour in China, f rom the plenty of
labourers, and the cheapnes of labour,
he might work up manufactures for
foreign ale to an immene amount. It
is equally evident that f rom the great
bulk of provisions and the amazing ex-
tent of her inland territory he could
not in return import uch a quanti-
ty as would be any ensible addition
to the annual tock of ubsitence in
the country. Her immene amount of
manufactures, therefore, he would ex-
change, chiefly, for luxuries collected

f rom all parts of the world. At preent,
it appears, that no labour whatever is
pared in the production of food. The
country is rather over-people in pro-
portion to what its tock can employ,
and labour is, therefore, o abundant,
that no pains are taken to abridge it.
The conequence of this is, probably,
the greatet production of food that
the oil can posibly afford, for it will
be generally oberved, that procees
for abridging labour, though they may
enable a farmer to bring a certain
quantity of grain cheaper to market,
tend rather to diminih than increae
the whole produce ; and in agriculture,
therefore, may, in ome repects, be
considered rather as private than pub-
lic advantages.
An immene capital could not be

employed in China in preparing man-
ufactures for foreign trade without

taking off o many labourers f rom
agriculture as to alter this tate of
things, and in ome degree to diminih
the produce of the country. The de-
mand for manufacturing labourers
would naturally raie the price of
labour, but as the quantity of ubsi-
tence would not be increaed, the price
of provisions would keep pace with it,
or even more than keep pace with it
if the quantity of provisions were re-
ally decreasing. The country would be
evidently advancing in wealth, the ex-
changeable value of the annual pro-
duce of its land and labour would be
annually augmented, yet the real funds
for the maintenance of labour would
be tationary, or even declining, and,
conequently, the increasing wealth of
the nation would rather tend to de-
pres than to raie the condition of
the poor. With regard to the command
over the necearies and comforts of

life, they would be in the ame or
rather wore tate than before ; and
a great part of them would have ex-
changed the healthy labours of agri-
culture for the unhealthy occupations
of manufacturing indutry.
The argument, perhaps, appears

clearer when applied to China, becaue
it is generally allowed that the wealth
of China has been long tationary.
With regard to any other country it
might be always a matter of dipute at
which of the two periods, compared,
wealth was increasing the fatet, as it
is upon the rapidity of the increae
of wealth at any particular period that
Dr Adam Smith ays the condition
of the poor depends. It is evident,
however, that two nations might in-
creae exactly with the ame rapidity
in the exchangeable value of the an-
nual produce of their land and labour,

yet if one had applied itelf chiefly
to agriculture, and the other chiefly
to commerce, the funds for the main-
tenance of labour, and conequently
the effect of the increae of wealth in
each nation, would be extremely dif-
ferent. In that which had applied itelf
chiefly to agriculture, the poor would
live in great plenty, and population
would rapidly increae. In that which
had applied itelf chiefly to commerce,
the poor would be comparatively but
little benefited and conequently pop-
ulation would increae lowly.
CHAP T ER XVI I.
Quetion of the proper def inition of the wealth of

a tate.Reaon given by the French conomits
for considering all manufacturers as unproduc-
tive labourers, not the true reaon.The labour
of artif icers and manufacturers uff iciently pro-
ductive to individuals, though not to the tate.
A remarkable paage in Dr. Prices two vol-
umes of Obervations.Error of Dr. Price in
attributing the happines and rapid population
of America, chiefly, to its peculiar tate of civ-
ilization.No advantage can be expected f rom
hutting our eyes to the diff iculties in the way
to the improvement of ociety.
A q ue st ion eems naturally to arie

here whether the exchangeable value
of the annual produce of the land and
labour be the proper definition of the
wealth of a country, or whether the
gros produce of the land, according
to the French conomits, may not be
a more accurate definition. Certain it
is that every increae of wealth, ac-
cording to the definition of the
conomits, will be an increae of the

funds for the maintenance of labour,
and conequently will always tend to
ameliorate the condition of the
labouring poor, though an increae of
wealth, according to Dr Adam Smiths
definition, will by no means invariably
have the ame tendency. And yet it
may not follow f rom this considera-
tion that Dr Adam Smiths definition
is not jut. It eems in many repects
improper to exclude the clothing and
lodging of a whole people f rom any
part of their revenue. Much of it may,
indeed, be of very trivial and unimpor-
tant value in comparion with the food
of the country, yet till it may be fair-
ly considered as a part of its revenue ;
and, therefore, the only point in which
I hould differ f rom Dr Adam Smith
is where he eems to consider every in-
creae of the revenue or tock of a o-
ciety as an increae of the funds for
the maintenance of labour, and cone-

quently as tending always to amelio-
rate the condition of the poor.
The fine silks and cottons, the

laces, and other ornamental luxuries
of a rich country, may contribute very
considerably to augment the ex-
changeable value of its annual pro-
duce ; yet they contribute but in a very
mall degree to augment the mas of
happines in the ociety, and it appears
to me that it is with ome view to
the real utility of the produce that we
ought to etimate the productivenes
or unproductivenes of different orts
of labour. The French conomits
consider all labour employed in manu-
factures as unproductive. Comparing it
with the labour employed upon land,
I hould be perfectly dipoed to agree
with them, but not exactly for the
reaons which they give. They ay that
labour employed upon land is produc-

tive becaue the produce, over and
above completely paying the labourer
and the farmer, affords a clear rent
to the landlord, and that the labour
employed upon a piece of lace is un-
productive becaue it merely replaces
the provisions that the workman had
conumed, and the tock of his em-
ployer, without affording any clear
rent whatever. But upposing the value
of the wrought lace to be uch as that,
besides paying in the mot complete
manner the workman and his employ-
er, it could afford a clear rent to a
third peron, it appears to me that,
in comparion with the labour em-
ployed upon land, it would be till
as unproductive as ever. Though, ac-
cording to the reaoning ued by the
French conomits, the man employed
in the manufacture of lace would, in
this cae, eem to be a productive
labourer. Yet according to their def-

inition of the wealth of a tate, he
ought not to be considered in that
light. He will have added nothing to
the gros produce of the land ? he
has conumed a portion of this gros
produce, and has left a bit of lace in
return ; and though he may ell this
bit of lace for three times the quan-
tity of provisions that he conumed
whilt he was making it, and thus be
a very productive labourer with regard
to himelf, yet he cannot be considered
as having added by his labour to any
eential part of the riches of the tate.
The clear rent, therefore, that a cer-
tain produce can afford, after paying
the expenes of procuring it, does not
appear to be the ole criterion, by
which to judge of the productivenes
or unproductivenes to a tate of any
particular pecies of labour.
Suppoe that two hundred thouand

men, who are now employed in pro-
ducing manufactures that only tend to
gratify the vanity of a few rich peo-
ple, were to be employed upon ome
barren and uncultivated lands, and to
produce only half the quantity of food
that they themelves conumed ; they
would be till more productive labour-
ers with regard to the tate than they
were before, though their labour, o
far f rom affording a rent to a third
peron, would but half replace the pro-
visions ued in obtaining the produce.
In their former employment they
conumed a certain portion of the food
of the country and left in return ome
silks and laces. In their latter employ-
ment they conumed the ame quan-
tity of food and left in return pro-
vision for a hundred thouand men.
There can be little doubt which of
the two legacies would be the mot
really beneficial to the country, and

it will, I think, be allowed that the
wealth which upported the two hun-
dred thouand men while they were
producing silks and laces would have
been more uefully employed in up-
porting them while they were produc-
ing the additional quantity of food.
A capital employed upon land may

be unproductive to the individual that
employs it and yet be highly produc-
tive to the ociety. A capital employed
in trade, on the contrary, may be high-
ly productive to the individual, and
yet be almot totally unproductive to
the ociety ? and this is the reaon
why I hould call manufacturing labour
unproductive, in comparion of that
which is employed in agriculture, and
not for the reaon given by the French
conomits. It is, indeed, almot im-
posible to ee the great fortunes that
are made in trade, and the liberality

with which o many merchants live,
and yet agree in the tatement of the
conomits, that manufacturers can
only grow rich by depriving themelves
of the funds detined for their upport.
In many branches of trade the profits
are o great as would allow of a clear
rent to a third peron ; but as there is
no third peron in the cae, and as all
the profits centre in the mater manu-
facturer, or merchant, he eems to have
a fair chance of growing rich, without
much privation ; and we conequently
ee large fortunes acquired in trade by
perons who have not been remarked
for their parsimony.
Daily experience proves that the

labour employed in trade and man-
ufactures is ufficiently productive to
individuals, but it certainly is not pro-
ductive in the ame degree to the tate.
Every accesion to the food of a coun-

try tends to the immediate benefit of
the whole ociety ; but the fortunes
made in trade tend but in a remote
and uncertain manner to the ame end,
and in ome repects have even a con-
trary tendency. The home trade of
conumption is by far the mot im-
portant trade of every nation. China
is the richet country in the world,
without any other. Putting then, for
a moment, foreign trade out of the
quetion, the man who, by an inge-
nious manufacture, obtains a double
portion out of the old tock of provi-
sions, will certainly not to be o ue-
ful to the tate as the man who, by his
labour, adds a single hare to the for-
mer tock. The conumable commodi-
ties of silks, laces, trinkets, and expen-
sive furniture, are undoubtedly a part
of the revenue of the ociety ; but they
are the revenue only of the rich, and
not of the ociety in general. An in-

creae in this part of the revenue of
a tate, cannot, therefore, be consid-
ered of the ame importance as an in-
creae of food, which forms the prin-
cipal revenue of the great mas of the
people.
Foreign commerce adds to the

wealth of a tate, according to Dr
Adam Smiths definition, though not
according to the definition of the
conomits. Its principal ue, and the
reaon, probably, that it has in general
been held in uch high etimation is
that it adds greatly to the external
power of a nation or to its power of
commanding the labour of other coun-
tries ; but it will be found, upon a near
examination, to contribute but little to
the increae of the internal funds for
the maintenance of labour, and cone-
quently but little to the happines of
the greatet part of ociety. In the nat-

ural progres of a tate towards riches,
manufactures, and foreign commerce
would follow, in their order, the high
cultivation of the oil. In Europe, this
natural order of things has been in-
verted, and the oil has been cultivated
f rom the redundancy of manufacturing
capital, intead of manufactures rising
f rom the redundancy of capital em-
ployed upon land. The uperior en-
couragement that has been given to
the indutry of the towns, and the
conequent higher price that is paid
for the labour of artificers than for
the labour of thoe employed in
hubandry, are probably the reaons
why o much oil in Europe remains
uncultivated. Had a different policy
been purued throughout Europe, it
might undoubtedly have been much
more populous than at preent, and yet
not be more incumbered by its popu-

lation.
I cannot quit this curious ubject

of the difficulty arising f rom popu-
lation, a ubject that appears to me
to deerve a minute invetigation and
able dicusion much beyond my power
to give it, without taking notice of
an extraordinary paage in Dr. Prices
two volumes of Obervations. Having
given ome tables on the probabilities
of life, in towns and in the country,
he ays, * From this comparion, it
appears with how much truth great
cities have been called the graves of
mankind. It mut alo convince all who
consider it, that according to the
obervation, at the end of the fourth
eay, in the former volume, it is by
no means trictly proper to consider
* ( Vol. II, p. 243)

our dieaes as the original intention

of nature. They are, without doubt, in
general our own creation. Were there a
country where the inhabitants led lives
entirely natural and virtuous, few of
them would die without meauring out
the whole period of preent exitence al-
lotted to them ; pain and ditemper
would be unknown among them, and
death would come upon them like a leep,
in conequence of no other caue than
gradual and unavoidable decay.
I own that I felt myelf obliged to

draw a very opposite conclusion f rom
the facts advanced in Dr. Prices two
volumes. I had for ome time been
aware that population and food in-
creaed in different ratios, and a vague
opinion had been floating in my mind
that they could only be kept equal by
ome pecies of miery or vice, but the
perual of Dr Prices two volumes of
Obervations, after that opinion had

been conceived, raied it at once to
conviction. With o many facts in his
view to prove the extraordinary ra-
pidity with which population increaes
when unchecked, and with uch a body
of evidence before him to elucidate
even the manner by which the general
laws of nature repres a redundant
population, it is perfectly inconceiv-
able to me how he could write the
paage that I have quoted. He was a
trenuous advocate for early marriages,
as the bet preervative againt vicious
manners. He had no fanciful concep-
tions about the extinction of the pa-
sion between the exes, like Mr. God-
win, nor did he ever think of eluding
the difficulty in the ways hinted at by
Mr. Condorcet. He f requently talks of
giving the prolifick powers of nature
room to exert themelves. Yet with
thee ideas, that his undertanding
could ecape f rom the obvious and

neceary inference that an unchecked
population would increae, beyond
comparion, fater than the earth, by
the bet directed exertions of man,
could produce food for its upport, ap-
pears to me as atonihing as if he had
resited the conclusion of one of the
plainet propositions of Euclid.
Dr. Price, peaking of the different

tages of the civilized tate, ays, The
firt, or simple tages of civilization,
are thoe which favour mot the in-
creae and the happines of mankind.
He then intances the American
colonies, as being at that time in the
firt and happiet of the tates that he
had decribed, and as affording a very
triking proof of the effects of the dif-
ferent tages of civilization on popu-
lation. But he does not eem to be
aware that the happines of the Amer-
icans depended much les upon their

peculiar degree of civilization than up-
on the peculiarity of their situation,
as new colonies, upon their having
a great plenty of fertile uncultivated
land. In parts of Norway, Denmark,
or Sweden, or in this country, two
or three hundred years ago, he might
have found perhaps nearly the ame
degree of civilization, but by no means
the ame happines or the ame in-
creae of population. He quotes
himelf a tatute of Henry the Eighth,
complaining of the decay of tillage,
and the enhanced price of provisions,
whereby a marvellous number of
people were rendered incapable of
maintaining themelves and families.
The uperior degree of civil liberty
which prevailed in America con-
tributed, without doubt, its hare to
promote the indutry, happines, and
population of thee tates, but even
civil liberty, all powerful as it is, will

not create f reh land. The Americans
may be aid, perhaps, to enjoy a
greater degree of civil liberty, now
they are an independent people, than
while they were in ubjection in Eng-
land, but we may be perfectly ure that
population will not long continue to
increae with the ame rapidity as it
did then.
A peron who contemplated the

happy tate of the lower claes of peo-
ple in America twenty years ago would
naturally wih to retain them for ever
in that tate, and might think, per-
haps, that by preventing the introduc-
tion of manufactures and luxury he
might effect his purpoe, but he might
as reaonably expect to prevent a wife
or mitres f rom growing old by never
exposing her to the un or air. The sit-
uation of new colonies, well governed,
is a bloom of youth that no efforts can

arret. There are, indeed, many modes
of treatment in the political, as well as
animal, body, that contribute to accel-
erate or retard the approaches of age,
but there can be no chance of ucces,
in any mode that could be devied,
for keeping either of them in perpetu-
al youth. By encouraging the indutry
of the towns more than the indutry
of the country, Europe may be aid,
perhaps, to have brought on a pre-
mature old age. A different policy in
this repect would infue f reh life and
vigour into every tate. While f rom
the law of primogeniture, and other
European cutoms, land bears a mo-
nopoly price, a capital can never be
employed in it with much advantage
to the individual ; and, therefore, it
is not probable that the oil hould
be properly cultivated. And, though
in every civilized tate a clas of pro-
prietors and a clas of labourers mut

exit, yet one permanent advantage
would always reult f rom a nearer
equalization of property. The greater
the number of proprietors, the maller
mut be the number of labourers ? a
greater part of ociety would be in
the happy tate of poesing proper-
ty ? and a maller part in the unhappy
tate of poesing no other property
than their labour. But the bet directed
exertions, though they may alleviate,
can never remove the preure of want,
and it will be difficult for any peron
who contemplates the genuine situa-
tion of man on earth, and the general
laws of nature, to uppoe it posible
that any, the mot enlightened, efforts
could place mankind in a tate where
few would die without meauring out
the whole period of preent exitence
allotted to them ; where pain and
ditemper would be unknown among
them ; and death would come upon

them like a leep, in conequence of no
other caue than gradual and unavoid-
able decay.
It is, undoubtedly, a mot diheart-

ening reflection that the great obtacle
in the way to any extraordinary im-
provement in ociety is of a nature that
we can never hope to overcome. The
perpetual tendency in the race of man
to increae beyond the means of ub-
sitence is one of the general laws of
animated nature which we can have no
reaon to expect will change. Yet, di-
couraging as the contemplation of this
difficulty mut be to thoe whoe exer-
tions are laudably directed to the im-
provement of the human pecies, it is
evident that no posible good can ar-
ie f rom any endeavours to lur it over
or keep it in the background. On the
contrary, the mot baleful michiefs
may be expected f rom the unmanly

conduct of not daring to face truth be-
caue it is unpleasing. Independently
of what relates to this great obtacle,
ufficient yet remains to be done for
mankind to animate us to the mot un-
remitted exertion. But if we proceed
without a thorough knowledge and ac-
curate comprehension of the nature,
extent, and magnitude of the difficul-
ties we have to encounter, or if we
unwiely direct our efforts towards an
object in which we cannot hope for
ucces, we hall not only exhaut our
trength in f ruitles exertions and re-
main at as great a ditance as ever
f rom the ummit of our wihes, but we
hall be perpetually cruhed by the re-
coil of this rock of Siyphus.
CHAP T ER XVI I I.
The contant preure of ditres on man, f rom the

principle of population, eems to direct our hopes
to the future.State of trial inconsitent with
our ideas of the foreknowledge of God.The
world, probably, a mighty proces for awaken-
ing matter into mind.Theory of the formation
of mind.Excitements f rom the wants of the
body.Excitements f rom the operation of gen-
eral laws.Excitements f rom the diff iculties of
life arising f rom the principle of population.
T he view of human life which reults

f rom the contemplation of the con-
tant preure of ditres on man f rom
the difficulty of ubsitence, by hew-
ing the little expectation that he can
reaonably entertain of perfectibility
on earth, eems trongly to point his
hopes to the future. And the tempta-
tions to which he mut necearily be
expoed, f rom the operation of thoe
laws of nature which we have been ex-
amining, would eem to repreent the
world in the light in which it has been

f requently considered, as a tate of tri-
al and chool of virtue preparatory to a
uperior tate of happines. But I hope
I hall be pardoned if I attempt to
give a view in ome degree different of
the situation of man on earth, which
appears to me to be more consitent
with the various phenomena of nature
which we oberve around us and more
cononant to our ideas of the pow-
er, goodnes, and foreknowledge of the
Deity.
It cannot be considered as an unim-

proving exercie of the human mind to
endeavour to
vindicate the ways of God to

man
if we proceed with a proper ditrut
of our own undertandings and a jut
ene of our inufficiency to compre-
hend the reaon of all we ee, if we

hail every ray of light with gratitude,
and, when no light appears, think that
the darknes is f rom within and not
f rom without, and bow with humble
deference to the upreme widom of
him whoe thoughts are above our
thoughts, as the heavens are high
above the earth.
In all our feeble attempts, however,

to find out the Almighty to per-
fection, it eems abolutely neceary
that we hould reaon f rom nature up
to natures God and not preume to
reaon f rom God to nature. The mo-
ment we allow ourelves to ak why
ome things are not otherwie, intead
of endeavouring to account for them
as they are, we hall never know where
to top, we hall be led into the groet
and mot childih aburdities, all pro-
gres in the knowledge of the ways of
Providence mut necearily be at an

end, and the tudy will even ceae to
be an improving exercie of the human
mind. Infinite power is o vat and in-
comprehensible an idea that the mind
of man mut necearily be bewildered
in the contemplation of it. With the
crude and puerile conceptions which
we ometimes form of this attribute
of the Deity, we might imagine that
God could call into being myriads and
myriads of exitences, all f ree f rom
pain and imperfection, all eminent in
goodnes and widom, all capable of
the highet enjoyments, and unnum-
bered as the points throughout infi-
nite pace. But when f rom thee vain
and extravagant dreams of fancy, we
turn our eyes to the book of nature,
where alone we can read God as he
is, we ee a contant uccesion of en-
tient beings, rising apparently f rom o
many pecks of matter, going through
a long and ometimes painful proces

in this world, but many of them at-
taining, ere the termination of it, uch
high qualities and powers as eem to
indicate their fitnes for ome uperior
tate. Ought we not then to correct
our crude and puerile ideas of infinite
Power f rom the contemplation of what
we actually ee exiting? Can we judge
of the Creator but f rom his creation?
And, unles we wih to exalt the power
of God at the expene of his goodnes,
ought we not to conclude that even to
the great Creator, almighty as he is,
a certain proces may be neceary, a
certain time (or at leat what appears
to us as time) may be requisite, in or-
der to form beings with thoe exalted
qualities of mind which will fit them
for his high purpoe?
A tate of trial eems to imply a pre-

viouly formed exitence that does not
agree with the appearance of man in

infancy and indicates omething like
upicion and want of foreknowledge,
inconsitent with thoe ideas which we
wih to cherih of the Supreme Being.
I hould be inclined, therefore, as I
have hinted before, to consider the
world and this life as the mighty pro-
ces of God, not for the trial, but for
the creation and formation of mind,
a proces neceary to awaken inert,
chaotic matter into pirit, to ublimate
the dut of the earth into oul, to elicit
an ethereal park f rom the clod of clay.
And in this view of the ubject, the
various impresions and excitements
which man receives through life may
be considered as the forming hand of
his Creator, acting by general laws,
and awakening his luggih exitence,
by the animating touches of the Di-
vinity, into a capacity of uperior en-
joyment. The original sin of man is
the torpor and corruption of the

chaotic matter in which he may be aid
to be born.
It could anwer no good purpoe to

enter into the quetion whether mind
be a ditinct ubtance f rom matter, or
only a finer form of it. The quetion
is, perhaps, after all, a quetion merely
of words. Mind is as eentially mind,
whether formed f rom matter or any
other ubtance. We know f rom expe-
rience that oul and body are mot in-
timately united, and every appearance
eems to indicate that they grow f rom
infancy together. It would be a uppo-
sition attended with very little prob-
ability to believe that a complete and
full formed pirit exited in every in-
fant, but that it was clogged and im-
peded in its operations during the firt
twenty years of life by the weaknes,
or hebetude, of the organs in which
it was encloed. As we hall all be

dipoed to agree that God is the cre-
ator of mind as well as of body, and as
they both eem to be forming and un-
folding themelves at the ame time, it
cannot appear inconsitent either with
reaon or revelation, if it appear to be
consitent with phenomena of nature,
to uppoe that God is contantly oc-
cupied in forming mind out of matter
and that the various impresions that
man receives through life is the pro-
ces for that purpoe. The employment
is urely worthy of the highet attrib-
utes of the Deity.
This view of the tate of man on

earth will not eem to be unattended
with probability, if, judging f rom the
little experience we have of the nature
of mind, it hall appear upon inveti-
gation that the phenomena around us,
and the various events of human life,
eem peculiarly calculated to promote

this great end, and epecially if, upon
this upposition, we can account, even
to our own narrow undertandings, for
many of thoe roughnees and in-
equalities in life which querulous man
too f requently makes the ubject of his
complaint againt the God of nature.
The firt great awakeners of the

mind eem to be the wants of the
body. * . They are the firt timulants
that roue the brain of infant man
into entient activity, and uch eems
to be the luggihnes of original mat-
* It was my intention to have entered at ome

length into this ubject as a kind of econd part
to the Eay. A long interruption, f rom par-
ticular busines, has obliged me to lay aside
this intention, at leat for the preent. I hall
now, therefore, only give a ketch of a few of
the leading circumtances that appear to me to
favour the general upposition that I have ad-
vanced.
ter that unles by a peculiar coure of

excitements other wants, equally pow-
erful, are generated, thee timulants
eem, even afterwards, to be neceary
to continue that activity which they
firt awakened. The avage would
lumber for ever under his tree unles
he were roued f rom his torpor by
the cravings of hunger or the pinch-
ings of cold, and the exertions that he
makes to avoid thee evils, by procur-
ing food, and building himelf a cover-
ing, are the exercies which form and
keep in motion his faculties, which
otherwie would sink into litles in-
activity. From all that experience has
taught us concerning the tructure of
the human mind, if thoe timulants
to exertion which arie f rom the wants
of the body were removed f rom the
mas of mankind, we have much more
reaon to think that they would be
unk to the level of brutes, f rom a de-
ficiency of excitements, than that they

would be raied to the rank of philoo-
phers by the poesion of leiure. In
thoe countries where nature is the
mot redundant in pontaneous pro-
duce the inhabitants will not be found
the mot remarkable for acutenes of
intellect. Necesity has been with great
truth called the mother of invention.
Some of the noblet exertions of the
human mind have been et in motion
by the necesity of atifying the wants
of the body. Want has not unf requent-
ly given wings to the imagination of
the poet, pointed the flowing periods
of the hitorian, and added acutenes
to the reearches of the philoopher,
and though there are undoubtedly
many minds at preent o far improved
by the various excitements of knowl-
edge, or of ocial ympathy, that they
would not relape into litlenes if
their bodily timulants were removed,
yet it can carcely be doubted that

thee timulants could not be with-
drawn f rom the mas of mankind
without producing a general and fatal
torpor, detructive of all the germs of
future improvement.
Locke, if I recollect, ays that the

endeavour to avoid pain rather than
the puruit of pleaure is the great
timulus to action in life ? and that
in looking to any particular pleaure,
we hall not be roued into action in
order to obtain it, till the contempla-
tion of it has continued o long as to
amount to a enation of pain or un-
easines under the abence of it. To
avoid evil and to purue good eem
to be the great duty and busines of
man, and this world appears to be pe-
culiarly calculated to afford opportu-
nity of the mot unremitted exertion of
this kind, and it is by this exertion, by
thee timulants, that mind is formed.

If Lockes idea be jut, and there is
great reaon to think that it is, evil
eems to be neceary to create ex-
ertion, and exertion eems evidently
neceary to create mind.
The necesity of food for the up-

port of life gives rie, probably, to a
greater quantity of exertion than any
other want, bodily or mental. The
Supreme Being has ordained that the
earth hall not produce good in great
quantities till much preparatory labour
and ingenuity has been exercied upon
its urface. There is no conceivable
connection to our comprehensions, be-
tween the eed and the plant or tree
that ries f rom it. The Supreme Cre-
ator might, undoubtedly, raie up
plants of all kinds, for the ue of his
creatures, without the asitance of
thoe little bits of matter, which we
call eed, or even without the asiting

labour and attention of man. The pro-
cees of ploughing and clearing the
ground, of collecting and owing eeds,
are not urely for the asitance of God
in his creation, but are made previ-
ouly neceary to the enjoyment of
the blesings of life, in order to roue
man into action, and form his mind to
reaon.
To furnih the mot unremitted ex-

citements of this kind, and to urge
man to further the gracious designs of
Providence by the full cultivation of
the earth, it has been ordained that
population hould increae much fater
than food. This general law (as it has
appeared in the former parts of this
Eay) undoubtedly produces much
partial evil, but a little reflection may,
perhaps, atify us, that it produces a
great overbalance of good. Strong ex-
citements eem neceary to create ex-

ertion, and to direct this exertion, and
form the reaoning faculty, it eems
abolutely neceary, that the Supreme
Being hould act always according to
general laws. The contancy of the
laws of nature, or the certainty with
which we may expect the ame effects
f rom the ame caues, is the founda-
tion of the faculty of reaon. If in
the ordinary coure of things, the fin-
ger of God were f requently visible, or
to peak more correctly, if God were
f requently to change his purpoe (for
the finger of God is, indeed, visible
in every blade of gras that we ee), a
general and fatal torpor of the human
faculties would probably enue ; even
the bodily wants of mankind would
ceae to timulate them to exertion,
could they not reaonably expect that
if their efforts were well directed they
would be crowned with ucces. The
contancy of the laws of nature is the

foundation of the indutry and fore-
sight of the hubandman, the indefati-
gable ingenuity of the artificer, the k-
ilful reearches of the physician and
anatomit, and the watchful oberva-
tion and patient invetigation of the
natural philoopher. To this contancy
we owe all the greatet and noblet ef-
forts of intellect. To this contancy we
owe the immortal mind of a Newton.
As the reaons, therefore, for the

contancy of the laws of nature eem,
even to our undertandings, obvious
and triking ; if we return to the prin-
ciple of population and consider man
as he really is, inert, luggih, and
avere f rom labour, unles compelled
by necesity (and it is urely the height
of folly to talk of man, according to
our crude fancies of what he might
be), we may pronounce with certainty
that the world would not have been

peopled, but for the uperiority of the
power of population to the means of
ubsitence. Strong and contantly op-
erative as this timulus is on man to
urge him to the cultivation of the
earth, if we till ee that cultivation
proceeds very lowly, we may fairly
conclude that a les timulus would
have been inufficient. Even under the
operation of this contant excitement,
avages will inhabit countries of the
greatet natural fertility for a long pe-
riod before they betake themelves to
paturage or agriculture. Had popula-
tion and food increaed in the ame
ratio, it is probable that man might
never have emerged f rom the avage
tate. But upposing the earth once
well peopled, an Alexander, a Julius
Caear, a Tamberlane, or a bloody rev-
olution might irrecoverably thin the
human race, and defeat the great de-
signs of the Creator. The ravages of a

contagious diorder would be felt for
ages ; and an earthquake might un-
people a region for ever. The princi-
ple, according to which population in-
creaes, prevents the vices of mankind,
or the accidents of nature, the partial
evils arising f rom general laws, f rom
obtructing the high purpoe of the
creation. It keeps the inhabitants of
the earth always fully up to the level of
the means of ubsitence ; and is con-
tantly acting upon man as a power-
ful timulus, urging him to the further
cultivation of the earth, and to enable
it, conequently, to upport a more ex-
tended population. But it is imposi-
ble that this law can operate, and pro-
duce the effects apparently intended
by the Supreme Being, without occa-
sioning partial evil. Unles the prin-
ciple of population were to be altered
according to the circumtances of each
eparate country (which would not on-

ly be contrary to our univeral expe-
rience, with regard to the laws of na-
ture, but would contradict even our
own reaon, which ees the abolute
necesity of general laws for the for-
mation of intellect ;) it is evident that
the ame principle which, econded by
indutry, will people a fertile region in
a few years mut produce ditres in
countries that have been long inhabit-
ed.
It eems, however, every way prob-

able that even the acknowledged diffi-
culties occasioned by the law of pop-
ulation tend rather to promote than
impede the general purpoe of Prov-
idence. They excite univeral exertion
and contribute to that infinite variety
of situations, and conequently of im-
presions, which eems upon the whole
favourable to the growth of mind. It
is probable, that too great or too little

excitement, extreme poverty, or too
great riches may be alike unfavourable
in this repect. The middle regions of
ociety eem to be bet uited to intel-
lectual improvement, but it is contrary
to the analogy of all nature to expect
that the whole of ociety can be a mid-
dle region. The temperate zones of the
earth eem to be the mot favourable
to the mental and corporal energies
of man, but all cannot be temper-
ate zones. A world, warmed and en-
lightened but by one un, mut f rom
the laws of matter have ome parts
chilled by perpetual f rots and oth-
ers corched by perpetual heats. Every
piece of matter lying on a urface mut
have an upper and an under side, all
the particles cannot be in the middle.
The mot valuable parts of an oak, to
a timber merchant, are not either the
roots or the branches, but thee are
abolutely neceary to the exitence of

the middle part, or tem, which is the
object in requet. The timber merchant
could not posibly expect to make an
oak grow without roots or branches,
but if he could find out a mode of
cultivation which would caue more of
the ubtance to go to tem, and les to
root and branch, he would be right to
exert himelf in bringing uch a ytem
into general ue.
In the ame manner, though we

cannot posibly expect to exclude rich-
es and poverty f rom ociety, yet if
we could find out a mode of govern-
ment by which the numbers in the ex-
treme regions would be leened and
the numbers in the middle regions in-
creaed, it would be undoubtedly our
duty to adopt it. It is not, however,
improbable that as in the oak, the
roots and branches could not be di-
minihed very greatly without weaken-

ing the vigorous circulation of the ap
in the tem, o in ociety the extreme
parts could not be diminihed beyond
a certain degree without leening that
animated exertion throughout the
middle parts, which is the very caue
that they are the mot favourable to
the growth of intellect. If no man
could hope to rie or fear to fall, in o-
ciety, if indutry did not bring with it
its reward and idlenes its punihment,
the middle parts would not certain-
ly be what they now are. In reaoning
upon this ubject, it is evident that we
ought to consider chiefly the mas of
mankind and not individual intances.
There are undoubtedly many minds,
and there ought to be many, accord-
ing to the chances out of o great a
mas, that, having been vivified ear-
ly by a peculiar coure of excitements,
would not need the contant action of
narrow motives to continue them in

activity. But if we were to review the
various ueful dicoveries, the valuable
writings, and other laudable exertions
of mankind, I believe we hould find
that more were to be attributed to the
narrow motives that operate upon the
many than to the apparently more en-
larged motives that operate upon the
few.
Leiure is, without doubt, highly

valuable to man, but taking man as
he is, the probability eems to be that
in the greater number of intances it
will produce evil rather than good. It
has been not inf requently remarked
that talents are more common among
younger brothers than among elder
brothers, but it can carcely be imag-
ined that younger brothers are, upon
an average, born with a greater orig-
inal uceptibility of parts. The dif-
ference, if there really is any oberv-

able difference, can only arie f rom
their different situations. Exertion and
activity are in general abolutely
neceary in one cae and are only op-
tional in the other.
That the difficulties of life con-

tribute to generate talents, every days
experience mut convince us. The ex-
ertions that men find it neceary to
make, in order to upport themelves
or families, f requently awaken facul-
ties that might otherwie have lain for
ever dormant, and it has been com-
monly remarked that new and extra-
ordinary situations generally create
minds adequate to grapple with the
difficulties in which they are involved.
CHAP T ER XIX.
The orrows of life neceary to often and humanize

the heart.The excitement of ocial ympathy
often produce characters of a higher order than
the mere poeors of talents.Moral evil prob-
ably neceary to the production of moral ex-
cellence.Excitements f rom intellectual wants
continually kept up by the inf inite variety of
nature, and the obcurity that involves meta-
physical ubjects.The diff iculties in revelation
to be accounted for upon this principle.The
degree of evidence which the criptures contain,
probably, bet uited to the improvements of the
human faculties, and the moral amelioration of
mankind.The idea that mind is created by ex-
citements eems to account for the exitence of
natural and moral evil.
T he orrows and ditrees of life

form another clas of excitements,
which eem to be neceary, by a pecu-
liar train of impresions, to often and
humanize the heart, to awaken ocial
ympathy, to generate all the Chrit-
ian virtues, and to afford cope for the
ample exertion of benevolence. The
general tendency of an uniform coure

of properity is rather to degrade than
exalt the character. The heart that has
never known orrow itelf will eldom
be feelingly alive to the pains and
pleaures, the wants and wihes, of its
fellow beings. It will eldom be over-
flowing with that warmth of brotherly
love, thoe kind and amiable affec-
tions, which dignify the human char-
acter even more than the poesion
of the highet talents. Talents, indeed,
though undoubtedly a very prominent
and fine feature of mind, can by no
means be considered as contituting
the whole of it. There are many minds
which have not been expoed to thoe
excitements that uually form talents,
that have yet been vivified to a high
degree by the excitements of ocial
ympathy. In every rank of life, in the
lowet as f requently as in the high-
et, characters are to be found over-
flowing with the milk of human kind-

nes, breathing love towards God and
man, and, though without thoe pecu-
liar powers of mind called talents, ev-
idently holding a higher rank in the
cale of beings than many who poes
them. Evangelical charity, meeknes,
piety, and all that clas of virtues
ditinguihed particularly by the name
of Chritian virtues do not eem
necearily to include abilities ; yet a
oul poeed of thee amiable quali-
ties, a oul awakened and vivified by
thee delightful ympathies, eems to
hold a nearer commerce with the kies
than mere acutenes of intellect.
The greatet talents have been f re-

quently miapplied and have produced
evil proportionate to the extent of
their powers. Both reaon and rev-
elation eem to aure us that uch
minds will be condemned to eternal
death, but while on earth, thee vi-

cious intruments performed their part
in the great mas of impresions, by
the digut and abhorrence which they
excited. It eems highly probable that
moral evil is abolutely neceary to
the production of moral excellence. A
being with only good placed in view
may be jutly aid to be impelled by a
blind necesity. The puruit of good in
this cae can be no indication of vir-
tuous propensities. It might be aid,
perhaps, that infinite Widom cannot
want uch an indication as outward ac-
tion, but would foreknow with cer-
tainly whether the being would chooe
good or evil. This might be a plausible
argument againt a tate of trial, but
will not hold againt the upposition
that mind in this world is in a tate
of formation. Upon this idea, the be-
ing that has een moral evil and has
felt diapprobation and digut at it
is eentially different f rom the being

that has een only good. They are
pieces of clay that have received dit-
inct impresions ? they mut, there-
fore, necearily be in different hapes ;
or, even if we allow them both to have
the ame lovely form of virtue, it mut
be acknowledged that one has under-
gone the further proces, neceary to
give firmnes and durability to its
ubtance, while the other is till ex-
poed to injury, and liable to be broken
by every accidental impule. An ardent
love and admiration of virtue eems to
imply the exitence of omething op-
posite to it, and it eems highly prob-
able that the ame beauty of form and
ubtance, the ame perfection of char-
acter, could not be generated with-
out the impresions of diapprobation
which arie f rom the pectacle of
moral evil.
When the mind has been awakened

into activity by the pasions, and the
wants of the body, intellectual wants
arie ; and the desire of knowledge,
and the impatience under ignorance,
form a new and important clas of ex-
citements. Every part of nature eems
peculiarly calculated to furnih timu-
lants to mental exertion of this kind,
and to offer inexhautible food for the
mot unremitted inquiry. Our mortal
Bard ays of Cleopatra
Cutom cannot tale

Her infinite variety.
The expresion, when applied to

any one object, may be considered as
a poetical amplification, but it is accu-
rately true when applied to nature. In-
finite variety eems, indeed, eminently
her characteritic feature. The hades
that are here and there blended in
the picture give pirit, life, and promi-

nence to her exuberant beauties, and
thoe roughnees and inequalities,
thoe inferior parts that upport the
uperior, though they ometimes of-
fend the fatidious microcopic eye of
hort-sighted man, contribute to the
ymmetry, grace, and fair proportion
of the whole.
The infinite variety of the forms

and operations of nature, besides
tending immediately to awaken and
improve the mind by the variety of
impresions that it creates, opens other
fertile ources of improvement by of-
fering o wide and extensive a field for
invetigation and reearch. Uniform,
undiversified perfection could not
poes the ame awakening powers.
When we endeavour then to contem-
plate the ytem of the univere, when
we think of the tars as the uns of
other ytems cattered throughout in-

finite pace, when we reflect that we
do not probably ee a millionth part
of thoe bright orbs that are beaming
light and life to unnumbered worlds,
when our minds, unable to grap the
immeaurable conception, sink, lot
and confounded, in admiration at the
mighty incomprehensible power of the
Creator, let us not querulouly com-
plain that all climates are not equally
genial, that perpetual pring does not
reign throughout the year, that Gods
creatures do not poes the ame ad-
vantages, that clouds and tempets
ometimes darken the natural world
and vice and miery the moral world,
and that all the works of the creation
are not formed with equal perfection.
Both reaon and experience eem to
indicate to us that the infinite variety
of nature (and variety cannot exit
without inferior parts, or apparent
blemihe ) is admirably adapted to

further the high purpoe of the cre-
ation and to produce the greatet
posible quantity of good.
The obcurity that involves all

metaphysical ubjects appears to me,
in the ame manner, peculiarly calcu-
lated to add to that clas of excite-
ments which arie f rom the thirt of
knowledge. It is probable that man,
while on earth, will never be able to
attain complete atifaction on thee
ubjects ; but this is by no means a
reaon that he hould not engage in
them. The darknes that urrounds
thee intereting topics of human cu-
riosity may be intended to furnih
endles motives to intellectual activity
and exertion. The contant effort to
dipel this darknes, even if it fail of
ucces, invigorates and improves the
thinking faculty. If the ubjects of hu-
man inquiry were once exhauted,

mind would probably tagnate ; but
the infinitely diversified forms and op-
erations of nature, together with the
endles food for peculation which
metaphysical ubjects offer, prevent
the posibility that uch a period
hould ever arrive.
It is by no means one of the wiet

ayings of Solomon that there is no
new thing under the un. On the
contrary, it is probable that were the
preent ytem to continue for millions
of years, continual additions would be
making to the mas of human knowl-
edge, and yet, perhaps, it may be a
matter of doubt whether what may be
called the capacity of mind be in any
marked and decided manner increas-
ing. A Socrates, a Plato, or an Ari-
totle, however confeedly inferior in
knowledge to the philoophers of the
preent day, do not appear to have

been much below them in intellectual
capacity. Intellect ries f rom a peck,
continues in vigour only for a certain
period, and will not perhaps admit
while on earth of above a certain num-
ber of impresions. Thee impresions
may, indeed, be infinitely modified,
and f rom thee various modifications,
added probably to a difference in the
uceptibility of the original germ * ,
arie the endles diversity of character
that we ee in the world ; but reaon
and experience eem both to aure us
that the capacity of individual minds
* It is probable that no two grains of wheat

are exactly alike. Soil undoubtedly makes the
principal difference in the blades that pring
up, but probably not all. It eems natural to
uppoe ome ort of difference in the original
germs that are afterwards awakened into
thought, and the extraordinary difference of
uceptibility in very young children eems to
confirm the upposition.
does not increae in proportion to the

mas of exiting knowledge.
The finet minds eem to be formed

rather by efforts at original thinking,
by endeavours to form new combina-
tions, and to dicover new truths, than
by pasively receiving the impresions
of other mens ideas. Could we uppoe
the period arrived, when there was not
further hope of future dicoveries, and
the only employment of mind was to
acquire pre-exiting knowledge, with-
out any efforts to form new and orig-
inal combinations, though the mas
of human knowledge were a thouand
times greater than it is at preent, yet
it is evident that one of the noblet
timulants to mental exertion would
have ceaed ; the finet feature of in-
tellect would be lot ; everything allied
to genius would be at an end ; and it
appears to be imposible, that, under
uch circumtances, any individuals

could poes the ame intellectual en-
ergies as were poeed by a Locke, a
Newton, or a Shakepeare, or even by
a Socrates, a Plato, an Aritotle or a
Homer.
If a revelation f rom heaven of

which no peron could feel the mallet
doubt were to dipel the mits that
now hang over metaphysical ubjects,
were to explain the nature and truc-
ture of mind, the affections and
eences of all ubtances, the mode
in which the Supreme Being operates
in the works of the creation, and the
whole plan and cheme of the Uni-
vere, uch an accesion of knowledge
o obtained, intead of giving addi-
tional vigour and activity to the hu-
man mind, would in all probability
tend to repres future exertion and to
damp the oaring wings of intellect.
For this reaon I have never con-

sidered the doubts and difficulties that
involve ome parts of the acred writ-
ings as any ardent againt their divine
original. The Supreme Being might,
undoubtedly, have accompanied his
revelations to man by uch a uccesion
of miracles, and of uch a nature, as
would have produced univeral over-
powering conviction and have put an
end at once to all hesitation and
dicusion. But weak as our reaon is
to comprehend the plans of the great
Creator, it is yet ufficiently trong to
ee the mot triking objections to uch
a revelation. From the little we know
of the tructure of the human under-
tanding, we mut be convinced that an
overpowering conviction of this kind,
intead of tending to the improvement
and moral amelioration of man, would
act like the touch of a torpedo on
all intellectual exertion and would al-
mot put an end to the exitence of

virtue. If the criptural denunciations
of eternal punihment were brought
home with the ame certainty to every
mans mind as that the night will fol-
low the day, this one vat and gloomy
idea would take uch full poesion
of the human faculties as to leave no
room for any other conceptions, the
external actions of men would be all
nearly alike, virtuous conduct would
be no indication of virtuous diposi-
tion, vice and virtue would be blend-
ed together in one common mas, and
though the all-eeing eye of God
might ditinguih them they mut
necearily make the ame impresions
on man, who can judge only f rom
external appearances. Under uch a
dipenation, it is difficult to conceive
how human beings could be formed to
a detetation of moral evil, and a love
and admiration of God, and of moral

excellence.
Our ideas of virtue and vice are

not, perhaps, very accurate and well-
defined ; but few, I think, would call
an action really virtuous which was
performed simply and olely f rom the
dread of a very great punihment or
the expectation of a very great reward.
The fear of the Lord is very jutly
aid to be the beginning of widom,
but the end of widom is the love
of the Lord and the admiration of
moral good. The denunciations of fu-
ture punihment contained in the
criptures eem to be well calculated to
arret the progres of the vicious and
awaken the attention of the careles,
but we ee f rom repeated experience
that they are not accompanied with
evidence of uch a nature as to over-
power the human will and to make
men lead virtuous lives with vicious

dipositions, merely f rom a dread of
hereafter. A genuine faith, by which I
mean a faith that hews itelf in it the
virtues of a truly Chritian life, may
generally be considered as an indica-
tion of an amiable and virtuous di-
position, operated upon more by love
than by pure unmixed fear.
When we reflect on the temptations

to which man mut necearily be ex-
poed in this world, f rom the tructure
of his f rame, and the operation of
the laws of nature, and the conequent
moral certainty that many veels will
come out of this mighty creative fur-
nace in wrong hapes, it is perfectly
imposible to conceive that any of
thee creatures of Gods hand can be
condemned to eternal uffering. Could
we once admit uch an idea, it our
natural conceptions of goodnes and
jutice would be completely over-

thrown, and we could no longer look
up to God as a merciful and righteous
Being. But the doctrine of life and
Mortality which was brought to light
by the gopel, the doctrine that the
end of righteounes is everlating life,
but that the wages of sin are death, is
in every repect jut and merciful, and
worthy of the great Creator. Noth-
ing can appear more cononant to our
reaon than that thoe beings which
come out of the creative proces of
the world in lovely and beautiful forms
hould be crowned with immortality,
while thoe which come out
mihapen, thoe whoe minds are not
uited to a purer and happier tate of
exitence, hould perih and be con-
demned to mix again with their origi-
nal clay. Eternal condemnation of this
kind may be considered as a pecies
of eternal punihment, and it is not
wonderful that it hould be repreent-

ed, ometimes, under images of uffer-
ing. But life and death, alvation and
detruction, are more f requently op-
poed to each other in the New Teta-
ment than happines and miery. The
Supreme Being would appear to us
in a very different view if we were
to consider him as puruing the crea-
tures that had offended him with eter-
nal hate and torture, intead of merely
condemning to their original inensi-
bility thoe beings that, by the oper-
ation of general laws, had not been
formed with qualities uited to a purer
tate of happines.
Life is, generally peaking, a bles-

ing independent of a future tate. It is
a gift which the vicious would not al-
ways be ready to throw away, even if
they had no fear of death. The par-
tial pain, therefore, that is inflicted by
the upreme Creator, while he is form-

ing numberles beings to a capacity of
the highet enjoyments, is but as the
dut of the balance in comparion of
the happines that is communicated,
and we have every reaon to think that
there is no more evil in the world than
what is abolutely neceary as one of
the ingredients in the mighty proces.
The triking necesity of general

laws for the formation of intellect will
not in any repect be contradicted by
one or two exceptions, and thee ev-
idently not intended for partial pur-
poes, but calculated to operate upon
a great part of mankind, and through
many ages. Upon the idea that I have
given of the formation of mind, the
inf ringement of the general law of na-
ture, by a divine revelation, will appear
in the light of the immediate hand
of God mixing new ingredients in the
mighty mas, uited to the particular

tate of the proces, and calculated to
give rie to a new and powerful train
of impresions, tending to purify, ex-
alt, and improve the human mind. The
miracles that accompanied thee reve-
lations when they had once excited the
attention of mankind, and rendered it
a matter of mot intereting dicusion,
whether the doctrine was f rom God
or man, had performed their part, had
anwered the purpoe of the Creator,
and thee communications of the di-
vine will were afterwards left to make
their way by their own intrinsic excel-
lence ; and, by operating as moral mo-
tives, gradually to influence and im-
prove, and not to overpower and tag-
nate the faculties of man.
It would be, undoubtedly, preump-

tuous to ay that the Supreme Being
could not posibly have effected his
purpoe in any other way than that

which he has choen, but as the rev-
elation of the divine will which we
poes is attended with ome doubts
and difficulties, and as our reaon
points out to us the tronget objec-
tions to a revelation which would force
immediate, implicit, univeral belief,
we have urely jut caue to think that
thee doubts and difficulties are no ar-
gument againt the divine origin of the
criptures, and that the pecies of ev-
idence which they poes is bet uit-
ed to the improvement of the human
faculties and the moral amelioration of
mankind.
The idea that the impresions and

excitements of this world are the in-
truments with which the Supreme
Being forms matter into mind, and
that the necesity of contant exertion
to avoid evil and to purue good is the
principal pring of thee impresions

and excitements, eems to mooth
many of the difficulties that occur in
a contemplation of human life, and
appears to me to give a atifactory
reaon for the exitence of natural and
moral evil, and, conequently, for that
part of both, and it certainly is not a
very mall part, which aries f rom the
principle of population. But, though,
upon this upposition, it eems highly
improbable that evil hould ever be re-
moved f rom the world ; yet it is ev-
ident that this impresion would not
anwer the apparent purpoe of the
Creator ; it would not act o power-
fully as an excitement to exertion, if
the quantity of it did not diminih or
increae with the activity or the indo-
lence of man. The continual variations
in the weight and in the ditribution of
this preure keep alive a contant ex-
pectation of throwing it off.
Hope prings eternal in the Human breat,

Man never is, but always to be blet.
Evil exits in the world not to create

depair but activity. We are not pa-
tiently to ubmit to it, but to exert
ourelves to avoid it. It is not only the
interet but the duty of every individ-
ual to ue his utmot efforts to remove
evil f rom himelf and f rom as large
a circle as he can influence, and the
more he exercies himelf in this du-
ty, the more wiely he directs his ef-
forts, and the more ucceful thee ef-
forts are ; the more he will probably
improve and exalt his own mind, and
the more completely does he appear to
fulfil the will of his Creator.
F I N I S .

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PRIN CIPLE OF POPUL ATION,

the future improvement of society.

on the speculations of mr. godwin,

and other writers.

printed for j. johnson, in st. paul's

T he following Eay owes its origin

The Eay might, undoubtedly,

It is an obvious truth, which has

to believe what he wihes, without ev-

The view which he has given of

If he hould ucceed in drawing the

in the way to the improvement of o-

propoedThe abolute imposibility, f rom the

of nations Famine, the lat and mot dreadful

uff icientMr. Godwins beautiful ytem of

produce preent evil, with little or no chance of

attributing the happines and rapid population

the obcurity that involves metaphysical ubjects

PRIN CIPLE OF POPUL ATION,

Q uetion tated.Little propect of a determina-

T he great and unlooked for dicover-

been thrown on political ubjects

It has been aid that the great que-

and after every effort remain till at

Yet, anxiouly as every f riend of

The advocate for the preent order

preach up ardent benevolence and

The advocate for the perfectibility

who cannot ee above five yards before

In this unamicable contet the caue

The f riend of the preent order of

The peculative philoopher equally

theory be pronounced jut, till all the

I have read ome of the peculations

The mot important argument that

The caue of this neglect on the

dorcet. I am unwilling to doubt their

fer was not really what I conceived it

In entering upon the argument I

lot time and lot eloquence to expa-

I think I may fairly make two po-

Firt, That food is neceary to the

Secondly, That the pasion between

Thee two laws, ever since we have

pear to have been fixed laws of our na-

I do not know that any writer has

that he has already made f rom the av-

Auming then, my potulata as

Population, when unchecked, in-

By that law of our nature which

This implies a trong and contantly

Through the animal and vegetable

fue and liberal hand. She has been

abolutely neceary conequence. The

This natural inequality of the two

eae, happines, and comparative

Conequently, if the premies are

I have thus ketched the general

The different ratio in which population and food

I s aid that population, when

Let us examine whether this posi-

has exited to early marriages, among

Whether the law of marriage be in-