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THE

PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION.

BOOK I.

VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, WITH ITS EFFECTS ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory Remarks.

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THE Principle of Population in its moral and political effects, or in its practical operation upon the condition and interests of mankind, may be said to constitute a new science. Till within these few years has been treated either as a matter of curious historical research, unconnected with inferences for the regulation of the conduct of nations and individuals; or as a subject upon which no ground of dispute existed, inasmuch as every practice, having an apparent tendency to increase the numbers of mankind, was assumed, on that account only, to merit the encouragement of statesmen. It is not surprising that, with such views of the subject, many unsatisfactory conclusions should have been arrived at, and much political mischief produced; nor that such men as Mr.

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Hume and Mr. Wallace should have held notions so indistinct concerning the connexion of the Principle of Population with the progress of society, as to assert; the former, that in small republics, where each man has his little house and field to himself, population may go on doubling every generation; and the latter, that great political advantages would ensue, were all the persons now employed as manufacturers to quit their present pursuits and to be equally industrious in raising grain and breeding cattle. The first of these positions seems tantamount to the declaration, that men in each succeeding generation can subsist upon the half of that which supported their fathers; and this down to the lowest point to which the infinite divisibility of matter can reduce their pittance: the last seems to assume, on the contrary, that the only healthy condition of society is that, wherein every citizen raises not only food enough for the support of himself and his family, but a surplus store sufficient for four or five other families. There must evidently have been a great want of science and of clearness in the conception of a subject, upon which men so ingenious could have come to conclusions so strange, and so discordant.

In proportion, therefore, to the deficiency that existed, is the merit of those who have in any degree supplied it: for no man, I apprehend, will be disposed to deny that the question involves considerations emphatically interesting to the welfare of his species, and is conversant with the most important departments of morals and politics. On these grounds, too much can scarcely be said in commendation of Mr. Malthus's Essay upon Population. at once raised an important object, from the confu

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