S

ARTES
1817
SCIENTIA
LIBRARY
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PLURIBUS UNUM
TUEBOR
QUÆRIS PENINSULAM AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
HILI!
THIS BOOK
FORMS PART OF THE
ORIGINAL LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
BOUGHT IN EUROPE
1838 TO 1839
BY
ASA GRAY
!
1
DISSERTATIONS ON MAN.
↓
1
DISSERTATIONS
ON
MAN.
PHILOSOPHICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND POLITICAL;
IN ANSWER TO
MR. MALTHUS's
"Essay on the Principle of Population."
BY
T. JARROLD, M.D.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR CADELL AND DAVIS, STRAND, AND
BURDITT, PATERNOSTER-row.
1806.
PREFACE.
WHEN I formed the idea of writing an
Answer to Mr. MALTHUS's Essay, it was my
design to have examined the reasoning and the
facts in each of the chapters, and candidly to
have enquired how far they applied to the sub-
ject; but, on further consideration, the present
contracted plan appeared more eligible.
As the theory advanced by Mr. Malthus is
new, and as it involves many points of the
greatest interest to the Theologian, the Politi-
cian, and the Philosopher, it might have been ex-
pected that men of established reputation would
have favored the world with their remarks; but
as hitherto nothing of consequence has appeared,
I, who have no name with the public, or any
expectation of exciting much attention, have
taken up the subject, under the hope, that, by
keeping it in some measure before the public,
vi
we may at length obtain just and consistent
views of it.
That the present Dissertations are without
errors, or that they will reclaim those who have
acknowledged their conviction of the truth of
Mr. Malthus's theory, I am not vain enough to
expect; but should it provoke further attention,
and writers of sufficient talents engage in the
discussion, no doubt remains with me that the
friends of freedom and of man will gain an
important triumph.
The present Dissertations have been long
written, and would sooner have appeared had
they not been unavoidably delayed; should
they meet with any favor from the public, other
Dissertations will be put to the press.
STOCKPORT, July 25, 1806.
1
CONTENTS.
Dissertation on Population. Introduction.
An Enquiry into the Truth of Mr. Malthus's second
Page
9
}
Proposition
Of Drunkenness
Of Prostitution
Of Celibacy
Of unwholesome Occupations
Of Misery
¦
Of the Checks to Population among the American Indians
Of the Checks to Population among the ancient Inha-
bitants of the North of Europe
Of the Checks to Population in Siberia
Of the Checks to Population in Norway
Of the Checks to Population in Switzerland
}
24
38
48
41
59
67
75
}
}
¦
I
104
124
134
144
Of the Effects of Epidemic Years on Population
}
156
Of the Checks to Population in various Countries
173
Further Considerations of the Principles of Population.
Introduction
193
Of the Duration of the Life of Man --
199
Of the Increase of Animals
228
Of the Checks to the Increase of the Human Race
245
The same Subject continued
254
Of Fecundity
275
Of Sterility
!
Of Hereditary Diseases
General Observations
Of the Doctrine of Providence
Conclusion
}
}
}
}
289
300
306
}
}
;
314
361
DISSERTATION
ON POPULATION.
INTRODUCTION.
THE publication on which I am about to make
a few remarks, has gained its author some cele-
brity as a writer on political economy; but
thinking, as I do, that the principles advanced
are erroneous, and their tendency injurious, I
need make no further apology to the public for
attempting to counteract their influence.
Mr. Malthus has enforced and illustrated
his principles in a large quarto volume, but the
principles themselves may be comprised in a few
sentences, and nearly in his own words, as fol-
lows:
B
L
10
1
**
"The principal object of the present essay,'
says Mr. M. "is to examine the effects of one great
cause intimately united with the very nature of
man, which, though it has been constantly and
powerfully operating since the commencement of
society, has been little noticed by the writers who
have treated on this subject.*---The cause to
which I allude, is the constant tendency in all
animated life to increase beyond the nourish-
ment prepared for it.---That population has
this constant tendency to increase beyond the
means of subsistence, will sufficiently appear
from a review of the different states of society
in which man has existed. But before we pro-
ceed to this review, the subject will perhaps be
seen in a clearer light, if we endeavour to ascer-
tain what would be the natural increase of popu-
lation, if left to exert itself with perfect freedom;
and what might be expected to be the rate of
increase in the productions of the earth, under
the most favorable circumstances of human in-
dustry. A comparison of these two rates will
enable us to judge of the force of that tendency
in population to increase beyond the means of
subsistence which has been stated to exist.
1
* Malthus' Essays, page 1.
† Page 2.
+ Page 3.
11
*
"In the northern states of America, where
the means of subsistence have been more ample,
the manners of the people more pure, and the
checks to early marriages fewer, than in any of
the modern states of Europe, the population'
was found to double itself for some successive
periods every twenty-five years; yet even during
these periods, in some of the towns, the deaths
exceeded the births, and they consequently re-
quired a continued supply from the country to
support their population.*---According to a ta-
ble of Euler, calculated on a mortality of 1 in 36,
if the births be to the deaths in the proportion
of 3 to 1, the period of doubling will be only
123 years; and these proportions are not only
possible suppositions, but have actually occurred,
for short periods, in more countries than one.
Sir Win. Petty supposes a doubling possible in
so short a time as ten years. But to be perfectly
sure that we are far within the truth, we will
take the slowest of these rates of increase; a rate
in which all concurring testimonies agree, and
which has been repeatedly ascertained to be from
procreation only. It may safely be pronounced,
therefore, that population, when unchecked, goes
4
5
* Page 4.
12
2
on doubling itself every 25 years, or increases in
a geometrical ratio;* (suppose a population of one
million of people, in one period of 25 years they
will increase to two millions, in the second period
to four millions, in the third to eight, and so on):
but the increase of subsistence cannot be at the
same rate; if, by good management, the quan-
tity be doubled in 25 years, in the next period
of 25 years it cannot be quadrupled. The rate
of doubling in the population is geometrical, but
in the subsistence it is only arithmetical.
"The necessary effects of these two rates of
increase, when brought together, will be striking.
Let us call the population of this island 11 mil-
lions, and suppose the present produce equal to
the easy support of such a number; in the first
25 years the population will be 22 millions, and
the food being also doubled, the means of sub-·
sistence would be equal to this increase; in the
next 25 years the population would be 44 mil-
lions, and the means of subsistence only equal
to the support of 33 millions; in the next pc-
riod the population would be 88 millions, and
the means of subsistence just equal to the sup-
port of half that number; and, at the conclusion
* Page 5.
13
of the first century, the population would be
176 millions, and the means of subsistence equal
only to the support of 55 millions, leaving a
population of 121 millions totally unprovided
for. The human species would increase as thé
numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256; and
subsistence, as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. In this
supposition no limits whatever are placed to the
produce of the earth, yet still the power of
population being in every period so much supe-
rior, the increase of the human species can only
be kept down to the level of the means of sub-
sistence by the constant operation of the strong
law of necessity, acting as a check upon the
greater power.
"*
The way in which this acts may be classed
under two general heads---the preventive, and
the positive: by the preventive, is understood
celibacy; by the positive, is comprehended "all
unwholesome occupations, severe labour and
exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad
nursing of children, great towns, excesses of all
kinds, the whole train of common diseases and
epidemics, wars, pestilence, plague, and famine;
to these are added, promiscuous intercourse,
* Page 8.
14
1
unnatural passions, violations of the marriage
bed, and improper acts to conceal the conse-
quences of irregular connexions."---Such are the
checks which keep down the population of the
world to the subsistence in it, and which may
be resolved into moral restraint, vice, and misery.
With three such powerful agents at command,
Mr. Malthus lays down the following proposi-
tions: "1. Population is necessarily limited by
the means of subsistence. (Granted.) 2. Popu-
lation invariably increases where the means of
subsistence increase, unless prevented by some
very powerful and obvious checks. 3. These
checks, and the checks which repress the supe-
rior power of population, and keep its effects
on a level with the means of subsistence, are
all resolvable into moral restraint, vice, and
misery."*
1
Such is a general but just view of the theory
advanced by Mr. Malthus: as we go along,
our author's sentiments, and his illustrations of
them, will be more developed.
On perusing the foregoing sketch, the atten-
tion is roused and strongly interested by the state-
ment, that the principle of increase in population
1
* Page 16.
.
15
is stronger than the possible increase of subsist-
ence. This idea, so calculated to startle and con-
found---which at once seems to have its origin in
nature, but is contradicted by experience---which
accounts for the population of the globe by in-
crease from a single pair, but excludes the Deity
from the government of it; this idea, I say,
which is so important in its consequences, so
plausible in its relation, and in every way so
interesting, claims a fair, a full, and an impartial.
investigation.
To the just prosecution of this subject, it is
proper some country, whose increase in popula-
tion and in the means of supporting it, is known,
should be mentioned, as a standard by which to
compare others. Mr. M. has selected America;
and at once assumes it as a fact, that the natural
power of increase, in every country, in every age,
and in every stage of civilization, is the same as
in America; in this assumption, I apprehend,
he has committed his leading error: but through
his book he urges it as a fact, that the population
of every state which does not increase at the
rate of doubling its numbers in 25 years, is pre-
vented by the operation of vice, misery, or moral
restraint; and, consequently, that in the state in
which the increase in population is the slowest,
16
vice, misery, and moral restraint the most pre-
vail. But on making an impartial estimate of
the degree of evil with which various nations
have been visited, such an inference does not
follow: for instance, the Jews, when captives in
Egypt, suffered all the miseries of slavery, their
food was scanty and their labour excessive,
which, doubtless, shortened the lives of some
and prevented the births of others, yet they
doubled their numbers, by actual increase, in
15 years.
The American colonists, whom
Mr. M. selects as a standard for the whole
world, were not under more favorable circum-
stances than the generality of persons in Europe,
yet in Europe a doubling is not effected in fewer
than 500 years. The colonists were exposed to
a climate injurious to their health, and had to
contend with numerous tribes of fierce and bar-
barous natives, who sought their extermination;
they also suffered from the injurious privations
incident to a thin population and a foreign
country in Europe, evils greater than these are
seldom felt; and there have been periods of 15
or 25 years, in particular states, when all the
felicity, and all the plenty, America in her best.
years could boast of, were enjoyed in them, with-
out a similar increase in population following.
་༑
17
If we pass from Europe to Asia, and ask
what China knows of vice, misery, and moral
restraint more than America? an answer will
with difficulty be found. China, for many suc-
cessive years, has suffered nothing from war,
from famine, or from pestilence; but whilst
America makes rapid advances in population,
China remains without increase. If what is
here advanced be correct, the principles Mr. M.
supports, have not that influence on population
he contends for: but let us examine his positions
a little more minutely.
Common diseases and inclement seasons are
mentioned in connexion with war, with unwhole-
some occupations, and a long catalogue of other
evils, as if they all depended on the same cause.
Common diseases and unwholesome seasons are
beyond the controul of man; human foresight
can neither prevent their approach, nor ward off
their effects; but war is a voluntary act: this,
however, is a distinction Mr. M. doss not seem
disposed to make. The life of man is of limited.
duration; when he has waited his appointed
time, he is taken from his post, and another
occupies it; the means by which this is effected
we term natural death, but by Mr. M's. way of
reasoning, all deaths are natural, because all the
C
18
evils that are in the world are necessary to the.
proper administration of its laws. War is ne-
cessary; for if there were no wars, there must be
more misery in some other way, consequently
those that die by war, die by a law of nature.---
It would add considerably to the perspicuity
of Mr. M's. reasoning, if he had made a distinc-
tion between the natural tendency to death,
implanted in the constitution, and the accelera-
tion of it by war and other calamities; but the
natural progress to the grave is, in his estima-
tion, so slow, and the principle of life so vigorous,
that common diseases are of little consideration;
the gap they make, is not half wide enough to
receive the numbers that are constantly pressing
towards it.
Mr. Malthus is angry with Mr. Godwin
for imputing much of the misery of the world
to the civil governors of it; such an idea
appears to him ridiculous, and he fully excul-
pates them by his theory. "A great part of
Mr. Godwin's book," says Mr. Malthus, "con-
sists of an abuse of human institutions, as pro-
ductive of all or most of the evils which affect
society. The consideration of a new and totally
unconsidered cause of misery, would evidently
alter the state of these arguments, and make it
19
absolutely necessary that they should be either
new modelled or entirely rejected."*---Mr. God-
3
win attaches blame to the institutions of man,
but Mr. Malthus fixes it on the laws of nature;
the one accuses the civil government, the other
the government of the universe. Our author
having, as he flatters himself, traced the checks
to population, which he enumerates under the
heads of vice and misery, and fixed them among
the laws of nature, is so anxious for the full
exercise of their power, that in his zeal he pleads
for murder, in some circumstances, not as a dis-
cretionary, but a necessary act ;---as follows:
•
"If a child is born into a world already pos-
sessed, if he cannot get subsistence from his
parents, on whom he has a just demand, and
if the society do not want his labour, he has
no claim of right to the smallest portion of food,
and in fact has no business, to be where he is.
At nature's mighty feast there is no vacant cover
for him; she tells him to be gone, and will
quickly execute her own orders, if he do not
work on the compassion of some of her guests;
if these guests get up and make room for him,
other intruders immediately appear, demanding
the same favor. The report of a provision for
* Page 380.
20
12
1
all that come, fills the hall with numerous claim-
ants; the order and harmony of the feast is
disturbed, and plenty that before reigned, is
changed into scarcity, and the happiness of the
guests is destroyed by the spectacle of misery
and dependence in every part of the hall, and by
the clamorous importunity of those who are
justly enraged at not finding the provision which
they had been taught to expect. The guests
learn too late their error in counteracting those
strict orders to all intruders issued by the great
mistress of the feast, who, wishing that all her
guests should have plenty, and knowing that she
could not provide for unlimited numbers, hu-
manely refused to admit fresh comers when her
table was already full."*
This sentence might have been applauded in
the councils of Nero, or in the camps of Attilla
or of Cortez; for the indiscriminate murders
committed by the orders of these chiefs could
not fail to produce in their minds an idea that
the conduct they had sanctioned and commanded
would be deemed monstrous by the bulk of man-
kind; how must they then be gratified at finding
that, in place of an execrable, they had acted a
* Page 531.
21
meritorious part; and that the numbers they had
slain, were only the unprotected guests, who
craved admittance to a table already full, to take
which away from the hall, was to render those
who remained an acceptable service.
That such sentiments would be agreeable to
such characters cannot be doubted, but that
Mr. M. should dare to advance thém, excites
my surprise; had he been in a sportive humour,
and ironically attempted to compare what he
conceived to be the government of the world
with the management of a diocese, and the feast
of nature with a visitation dinner, the conceit
might have amused us. A bishop has a right to
say to a curate, striving to thrust himself into a
bencfice, that he may partake of a feast, “Begone!
there is no empty cover for you!" The curate
might say he was starving, "that is no consi-
deration of mine; your friends, to whom you
have a right to look, cannot assist you, and I
will not. Porter, do your office, and thrust
this friendless suppliant from the door."
Such language, on such an occasion, it is
possible to conceive, may have happened. But
at nature's mighty feast, none are bishops, but all
are men; there is no distinction; all that are
invited are at liberty to partake, and the life of
22
a guest is sacred; to be invited to the same table,
implies equality; and to possess life, is to possess
the invitation. The table is not spread by any
set of men, they only pluck the fruit; the
Master himself presides, and all he invites are
equally welcome. Nor is it the prerogative of
one guest to dismiss another from the hall, the
Master calls on whom he will to vacate a seat,
and his voice is irresistibly heard. Should an
arrogant guest say, at our last feast we had
greater plenty, and were better accommodated;
the strangers that are introduced have changed
the face of our affairs, and converted an abun-
dance into a scarcity:---It may be asked, has
all the fruit been gathered? is it not possible
to provide another cover, and to lengthen the
table? The same ill-tempered individual may
reply, that cannot be done without trouble, and
these intruding strangers will never render us
any service. Suppose they do not, they will
never do you an injury: you can allow them to
labour and gain their living; they are willing to
cultivate the waste lands, and they have a right
to them; it is the vacant cover naturę has pro-
vided, as their share of the feast. And when the
time arrives that there is no waste land to break
up, it will be proper to enquire whether the
1
23
great Master of the feast continues to press
guests into the hall; if he does, Mr. M. may then
come forward and charge his Maker with folly.
Had Mr. M. written a quarto volume, to
prove, from present appearances, that some event
would happen at a future period of the world, he
might have received his share of compliment
among other ingenious theorists; but when he
attempts to prove that, on the plan of the world,
the end and the means do not even now agree---
that a power of increase is given, without the
possibility of subsistence being equal to it---other
sentiments and other feelings are excited, and
an enquiry is naturally made into the authority
by which man holds his life.
譬
​*
24
>
AN ENQUIRY
INTO THE TRUTH OF
MR. MALTHUS'S SECOND PROPOSITION:
"That population invariably increases where the
means of subsistence increase, unless prevented
by some very powerful and obvious checks."
A
IN the view I take of the subject,---The
world is the gift of God to man, for his
accommodation and support; it is his own; its
productions are at his disposal, and subservient
to his pleasure; but to possess and enjoy them,
he must labour; it is the tenure by which he
holds the gift; life, without labour, is promised
neither in revelation or by nature. The grass,
indeed, springs spontaneously, and the beasts of
the forest satisfy their wants without their care;
but thorns and briars are the offerings of nature
to man; these he must remove by the labour of
+
25
his hands, and sow in their place seeds of more
kindly growth, these again he must watch with
incessant care, and patiently wait their maturing.
The conditions on which an animal holds its life
are very different from those on which man holds
his: an animal that is wild is under the guidance
of instinct, and is seldom pinched with want;
if it submit to the authority of man, he under-
takes to supply it with food; thus it exercises
no thought, and feels no anxiety about its
subsistence.
But man is not, nor can be, subject to
any earthly being; no one can supply his wants;
he receives laws and does homage to his Maker
alone, who early appointed, and the appointment
cannot be revoked, that the sweat of the brow
shall be the means of his subsistence. By re-
sisting this condition, the right to life is forfeited,
and the evils Mr. M. speaks of, are made the
executioners of the penalty; famine follows idle-
ness, and pestilence accompanies famine. But
suppose this law is fulfilled; suppose the required
labour is bestowed on the ground, and that an
abundant crop is the consequence, is this, in the
nature of things, to excite the principle of in-
crease in such a way as to occasion the birth of
more children than the most abundant harvests
D
26
•
can feed? If so, the Lawgiver has no authority;
he commands, but a power stronger than his,
frustrates his purposes; this power, Mr. M.
says, is vice or misery. If this doctrine be true,
the human race are in a more miserable situation
than the most desponding believe them to be.
The breaker of a law may justly expect punish-
ment, but to keep a law and be subject to still
more severe and wide-spread evil, is to be sub-
ject to the cruelest despotism, such as the world
cannot be governed by. If Mr. M. has only
considered the penal laws which hang over the
human race, he knows but little of the nature
of the government he is under; any more than
he would know of the laws of this country
by studying a particular branch of them: to
attend to only such parts as suit our inclination,
implies prejudice and leads to error.
The bounty of nature is as liberal as her
laws are strict; harvest follows seed time with
the same certainty as punishment follows idle-
ness. Nature knows the wants of all her guests,
and is pledged to supply them, provided her
laws are not violated; she never invites to a
feast, and then mocks her guests with an
empty plate; but when she bids to an entertain-
ment, she bids also to the preparation for it. It
27
is weakness, or worse, to complain that the hall
in which the whole human race partakes is too
small for the guests, till every part is full.
Myriads of acres have never yet supplied a
single cover, or stationed a single family; and
until this is done, it is improper to say the
bounty of Providence is not fully equal to the
wants of man.
In the circuit Mr. M. takes round the world,
to enquire which of the checks watches over
each country, and bars its population from fur-
ther increase, he notices the want of bread as
the general cause; the want of bread, is the
unceasing, unavailing cry, he hears in nearly every
country, and its echo sounds so constantly in his
cars, that the corn and wine which might, with
the proper exercise of that care and labour
enjoined on man, be procured, never appears to
engage his attention; his mind is wholly di-
rected to the quantity of subsistence actually
possessed, and on it he founds his reasoning.
In his estimation, the Indians, thinly scattered
over the vast continent of North America, are as
completely prevented from increasing in number,
by impending scarcity, as the comparatively full
peopled empire of China; and the same check
which keeps down the population of these coun-
28
tries operates in every other. In other terms, as
the present generation has no surplus of food, an
increase in the next is impossible. Such is our
author's reasoning.
J
I grant, the Americans collect no more food
than they consume, neither do the Chinese, or
any other people on the globe; for where would
be its utility? But they could collect more if they
pleased, and would if they wanted it. The
Americans have not emptied their rivers of fish,
their forests of game, or by labour fertilized all
their country. The Chinese have not planted
the bread-fruit tree; and although their land is
well cultivated, it admits of further improvement;
in its present state, the soil is rich, the crops
more frequent, and more abundant, than in Eu-
rope, and the population not above one third
greater than that of France, in proportion to the
extent of country; and we know that France, with
prodigious forests, and a bad system of argricul-
ture, has a full supply of corn for the wants of her
own people, and has often a surplus for foreign
markets.
In saying that population increases where the
means of subsistence increase, Mr. M. has not
only overlooked the charter by which the world
is held, and the obligations which are imposed on
i
29
man as the price of his existence, but he has
also overlooked the principle which binds man to
man in civil contact, I mean, mutual assistance.
Were an artisan to resolve on being a farmer,when
his labour was not wanted, he would render him-
self at least useless; and were the whole commu-
nity to form the like determination, in what
would they benefit each other? But as men
must labour, every society has endeavoured to
make it lighter by dividing it: one is a farmer,
another is a manufacturer; one contributes to
the necessary, another to the artificial wants;
and thus the service of each individual tends to
the public good. If one department is inadequate-
ly supplied, young persons are invited to engage
in it, and the common study is to provide enough,
but not a redundancy, to answer every want a
civilized people feel.
But on the plan of reasoning Mr. M. adopts,
the common necessaries of life are as little un-
der human direction, as the wind or rain; he
knows of no means to increase their quantity, but
considers them as natural productions, unas-
sisted by art, or, at least, as incapable of admitting
the further application of well-directed industry.
But the farmer is not governed by these prin-
ciples; to increase his crop, he labours: as he
30
cannot command the seasons, he patiently
waits their change. But to stock a market is a
trade, entered into with a view to profit, and aban-
doned when it can no longer be obtained. As the
life of a farmer is a life of labour, and as labour
is a duty, not a privilege, he expects a compen-
sation for all his services beyond the require-
ments of his own family, and he finds it in the
sale of his crop: he does not grow corn to be
stored up, but to be sold, of course no market
will ever be regularly supplied with more than
there are regular purchasers to take off.
Let a new market be opened, or increase the
demand in the old one, and the public attention is
immediately excited; emulation is fired, and new
and superior modes of husbandry are sought after.
It is reversing the order established in the world,
to increase the quantity of subsistence, under an
idea that at some future period children will be
born to consume it. In place of saying, popula-
tion increases where subsistence increases, it
would be more correct to say, subsistence in-
creases because population increases: but this
would be to destroy the doctrine Mr. M.
labours with so much pains to establish. Sup
pose in England there was a considerable in-
érease in children, what would be the conse-
31
quence? must they starve because no corn is laid
up
in store for them? the experience of the coun-
try controverts such an idea: however great their
number, they are welcome to our world: at first
their wants are small, and are scarcely felt, but
these gradually increase, and the farmer soon finds
a quicker demand for the produce of his land; it
excites no alarm--the low and secret whisper of
an approaching famine is not heard--but, on the
contrary, all rejoice; and the farmer, fully satis-
fied with his propects of gain, resolves to pur-
chase manure to increase the fertility of his
ground, and to break up unproductive wastes,
over which the plowshare had never passed.---
Thus the supply is occasioned by the demand.
There is in every town a call for an increase
of trade: "Give us more trade!" is the language
of many;---the same call is made by the farmer,
"Give me a good market, and give me waste
land." In that part of nature's storehouse is laid
up subsistence for millions, which requires only
the accustomed expenditure of labour to bring
into use.
"Present me with suitable motives,
and I will solicit nature to yield her increase.".
So much is agriculture conducted in the spirit
of trade, that a farmer commonly turns it over in
his mind by what kind of produce he can gain the
32
f
largest profit: if he lives near a town, he sends to
market no other article than milk; if his resi-
dence be at a distance, he calculates accurately
whether the growing of corn will pay more than
the fatting of cattle, and he acts accordingly.
The farmer, in fact, is, the servant of the public;
he knows the wants that will in the ensuing year
be felt, and he endeavours to meet them: but
it is not required of him to provide twice the
quantity wanted, in order, as Mr. M. argues, to
excite the want.
The principle on which he serves, is that on
which a merchant traffics; the motive in both is
profit and as there is no increase of subsistence
without an increase of labour; and as no man
will labour for nothing, or on a chance of being
paid at some future time,---so the farmer must
have a present reward.
Under the best agricultural management,
blighted crops occasionally lessen the average
produce; and so nearly do the supply and the
demand, in common years, balance each other,
that a small deficiency is sensibly felt. But it
is not the province of the farmer to calculate on
such occurrences; to him the quantity is of no
moment, for if the crop be scanty the price is ad-
vanced; the farmer has done all that can be
38
required of him when he has brought his crop
to market; it is the duty of the government,
not the business of the farmer, to provide against
years of scarcity. An evil foreseen ought to ve
guarded against: it is folly to complain of scar-
city, if no means have been taken to prevent it.
In Egypt, and through the east, granaries were
in early use, and to this day they are in many
places continued; in commercial countries they
are not of such importance, because corn is an
article of merchandize, and may be purchased
when it cannot be grown: but it is an indispen-
sible obligation in all governments to watch over
this circumstance.
To anticipate evil is natural to man; the plan
of life is founded on this principle, and so is the
plan of government. Do we not lay up in
prosperity, to meet adversity? Is it not part of
that labour, that service we pay for our lives?
Foresight and providence are necessary to the
supply of human wants; to waste on the present
moment, and on our own persons, the supply
of future years, is irrational; for the cares of a
generation extend from the beginning to the
close of it. The decrepitude of age is as much
entitled to kindness and protection, as the imbe-
cility of childhood; both these states have a
E
34
claim on the labour of others. But it does not
concern one generation to abridge the toil of
the succeeding, or to live in celibacy lest they.
should be too numerous. The measure of our
labour is not the measure of theirs: as are the
wants, so must be the exertion to remove
them.
If Mr. M. had said, that population is equal
to the cotton or woollen cloth, and endeavouring
to get beyond it, and if more children were born
they must go naked, the conceit would be
laughed at: but really there is no difference in
principle, between saying the population presses
hard upon the cotton or woollen cloth, or upon
the subsistence; all are articles in common use,
and of limited production; and as the country
has sufficient confidence in her manufacturers to
be under no anxiety about the supply of cloth,
why not rely on her farmers in like manner?
The world is in as great danger of a scarcity of
clothing as of corn, but hitherto the increase in
sheep has kept pace with the increase of people,
and dispels all fears upon that subject, at least
from the present generation. In the existing state
.of the world, if more cotton or more corn were
wanted, more would be grown; all the soil is
not cultivated, and it is indifferent to the great
35
&
bulk of the people how they are occupied; they
plant cotton, or sow corn, or throw the shuttle,
just as they are directed.
Suppose it was known at Manchester, that
twice as many yards of muslin would be wanted
to purchase in a few years as at present are
brought to market, would it be consistent with
the well-earned character for assiduity and enter-
prise of the merchants of that town, phlegmati-
cally to say, the demand cannot be supplied;
no more goods are in the market than are
regularly purchased by old customers, and we
shall not abridge their orders to accommodate
strangers? Or would they not rather be induced
to greater exertion, under a prospect of an in-
crease of gain? One merchant would inform
the growers, who in consequence would engage
more servants and more land; another lays
plans for an acceleration of carriage; another
invites strangers to the manufactories by an in-
crease of wages: thus the demand is met by the
supply. It is exactly in the same way, and on
the same principles, a market is stocked with
provisions, Was the demand instantaneous
and peremptory, it could not be supplied; but
the increase is gradual, and it is anticipated.
Suppose a colony sent to a distant country,
36
in which the natives were hostile to them, how
must they live? The answer is not difficult :
they have a claim on the mother country for the
corn they contributed to raise, and which they
would have consumed had they not emigrated;
and, by the next harvest, their own labour will
furnish them an abundant supply. In this case,
an increase of population was not invited by an
increase of subsistence,---but an increase in
population has occasioned an increase of subsist-
ence. The very reverse of Mr. M's. second
proposition.
Again, if a town is built on a waste, as has
been done in Scotland, the offers of easy rents
and advantageous terms, fill it with people, who
convert the waste to a garden: they accept the
offer under no idea of finding plenty gathered
to their hands; they calculate on nothing but
a reward for their labour.---Or if barracks are
built on an uncultivated heath, barrenness gives
way to fertility; and land, that before was of
little value, now yields an abundant crop. Such
are the uniform consequences of an increase of
people, in countries protected by laws.
But there must arrive a period, when, if
population continues to double itself in any
given number of years, all the land will be cul-
37
tivated, all the produce consumed, and a further
addition to population impossible. To this
period Mr. M. looks with so much confidence,
that he represents his arguments formed on it,
as impregnable. It is to this point,---this bul-
wark of Mr. M's. theory,---that I shall princi-
pally direct my attention. But before disclosing
my sentiments, it may be proper briefly to no-
tice the leading subjects treated of by him.
1
7
38
OF DRUNKENNESS.
THAT vice of any description, is a check
to population, cannot be denied; but its extent,
taken in the aggregate, is less than is generally
apprehended: of this, Mr. M. appears conscious;
for, though he places vice foremost among the
scourges of mankind, he makes but little use of
it when he speaks practically of the evils by
which the world is desolated.
Of all vices, drunkenness and debauchery
are most common, and most destructive. They
are the vices of social dispositions; the concealed
rocks on which a bad education precipitates a
generous temper. But the disposition which
leads to vice, prompts to inarriage. The drun-
kard marries from a love of society; the
debauchee, because he is disgusted at himself
and his associates: it seldom happens that a
drunkard is a bachelor, or a debauchee unmar-
39
ried, at the age of forty. Drunkenness, though
much too often practised by young men, is sel-
dom carried to that excess which breaks up the
constitution, until the approach of old age has
already undermined it. Excess in wine soon
deranges the female economy, and occasions
sterility; but, happily, the instances are rare.
On the other hand, a young man, fond of his
bottle, is commonly the father of many children.
Drunkenness has not so speedy, nor so extensive
an influence in the latter case as in the former.
The Americans were, at once, celebrated for
drunkenness and for fruitfulness.
If the body suffers from habitual excess, and
the increase of population be slightly checked,
by this means the mind suffers much more,
and the edge of happiness is sooner blunted.
It is a wrong idea we form, when we imagine,
if the body be strong enough to resist the effects
of intoxication, all its effects are resisted. It is
Drunkenness is the vice of social dis-
positions, but it destroys the social affections:
an habitual drunkard cannot love; the warm
and generous affection of a husband for his wife,
the tender fondness of a father for his child,
cease to be felt; this deplorable vice has dis-
solved the tie, by destroying the sense of it.
not so.
1
40
1
A drunkard loses all relish for life with his cha-
racter in it; his dignity, his happiness, and his
public spirit, are driven away by its influence.
If he speak of generosity, in his cups, in his
sober moments, he doubts whether the principle
exists in nature.
A drunkard is seldom the promoter of bene-
volent actions. Thus the liberal youth becomes
a churl: he can now no more rejoice with his
friend; he cannot weep with him; his habits
have robbed him of the atom of deity that was
in him; the mind is dead, while yet the body
lives and crawls about on the surface of the
earth, without feeling an interest in it: it is a
noble mansion, once the abode of hospitality
and kindness, now untenanted.
Drunkenness is not a local vice, but is prac-
tised in every nation on the globe: the Turks,
and all Mahometans, excite it by the use of
opium; in China and the East-Indies, distilleries
of arrac supply, in part, the place of this drug;
in countries blessed with a more moderate cli-
mate, the vine is cultivated, and yields a pleasing
and more safe delirium; in states rude and
uncivilized, tobacco, and a variety of roots and
herbs, unpleasant in themselves, but possessing
an intoxicating property, are eagerly sought
41
after: but by the inhabitants of the north of
Europe, all nature is ransacked, that the means
of drunkenness may be diversified. The east
and the west give up their drugs, opium and
tobacco are used and abused in a variety of ways.
Distilleries, vineyards, brewhouses, are all im-
pressed into this service: but, notwithstanding,
the civilized parts of the north of Europe abound
in children.
When drunkenness may be said to com-
mence, or what constitutes that excess in diet
which in any measure abridges the period of
human life, or in any way lessens the principle
of increase, it is difficult to ascertain. Under
certain circumstances, the plainest and most
common food has the effect of ardent spirits,
and if frequently repeated, would as soon break
up
the constitution. A bason of broth is too
strong for a person who has been starved; it
occasions giddiness, and every symptom of intox-
ication: Dr. Beddoes relates the circumstance
of a collier, who had been confined three days
in a coal-pit, on whom a mess of broth had this
effect. Many similar facts are related by other
authors: the most striking of which is, the
case of Capt. Bligh, who was sent to Otaheite
to obtain some plants of the bread-fruit tree,
F
香
​42
and convey them to the West-Indies. The
crew mutinied on the passage, and forced the
captain, and those who adhered to him, into the
boat, with a very small stock of provisions, and
abandoned them: an ounce of bread a day was
all they subsisted on for some time. On the for-
tieth day they arrived at New Holland, where
some of the men got on shore, and ate a few
berries, which so intoxicated them that the
captain believed they were poisoned; but was
soon convinced of the innocent nature of the
fruit, by seeing some birds eat of the same, and
in a little time the men awoke from their stupor.
Opposed to this irritable condition, is the
state of the man who can drink a bottle of strong
wine without sensible effect. The one is too
soon moved, the other with too much difficulty.
Health, enjoyment, and usefulness are lessened
in both: he, whom an onion intoxicates, has
neither the strength of body or the vigour and
firmness of mind, proper to man; on the other
hand, when a bottle of wine does not exhilarate,
a stimulus has become familiar which is already
injurious, and soon will be destructive. There
is a proper mean to be observed; health is an
object of the first consideration, and nature
points out the method of its preservation; rest
43
and food are both necessary to the recovery
of lost strength; consequently, one should be in
proportion to the other, and it is impossible to
lay down rules on this head.
In England, animal food once a day, with a
pint of beer, is in general sufficient for all the
wants of nature: by being thus limited, work
does not soon fatigue; health and vigour are
long preserved; a cumbersome load of flesh is
guarded against; and the mind is not oppressed
by itself. A much stronger diet induces feeble-
ness; those who indulge in it, find it necessary
to walk slowly, because their breath is short, their
strength is soon overcome, and they seek the
shade because heat oppresses them. Thus life
is first rendered unpleasant, and then destroyed,
and population receives a slight check.
:
The diet suited to this climate, is improper
elsewhere in the East-Indies, vegetables are
sufficiently nutritious, and a large proportion of
the people confine themselves to their use; the
religion of Bramah forbids its votaries animal
food, and both inclination and duty enforce the
injunction but Bramah legislated only for a
particular country, and his injunctions can only
be observed by the people among whom he lived;
had he any followers at Kamschatka, they would
1
the
44
perish for want, though fully supplied with the
greatest variety of the most nutritious veget-
ables.
Russians, going on fishing or hunting expe-
ditions, are sometimes detained, through the
winter, in the northern provinces of that empire,
and find it necessary to abandon all vegetable
substances, and to betake themselves to the
strongest animal food; hence the custom of
drinking fish oil, so common in that country;
the great nourishment it imparts, overcomes its
loathsomeness. The expenditure of animal heat
and life being great, the supply must also be
great; hence, in the country we are speaking of,
during the winter, flesh meat and wine are ad-
vantageously used, at every meal.
In infancy and childhood, in every region
of the globe, the powers of nature are weak, and
life needs to be solicited to remain in a tenement
in which it can exert itself so little; and, conse-
quently, an invigorating diet is proper: in youth,
the powers of life are strong, and the plainest
food is the most useful: in the decline of life,
nature requires a prop, but if it has been pre-
viously used, the weight of years soon breaks it.
The practice of this country is not conformed
to this view of the wants of nature in infancy,
}
45
the least nutritious food is given in youth,
when the passions require to be moderated, they
are fanned by animal food and fermented liquors:
many a mother, who is afraid of giving meat to
a child, will give brandy to a youth. The pre-
sent custom of the country may render the
observance of any particular rule somewhat dif
ficult; but the parents, as the moral guardians
of their children, may, and ought to exert their
authority.
Youth is the season of happiness; it requires
no addition from the pleasures of the table.
Water is the proper beverage of youth; with the
sole use of it, health, cheerfulness, and character
are best preserved. The judgment is weak; and
is it not madness to make it weaker by inflaming
the passions with fermented liquors and strong
animal food? Our treatment of the brute crea-
tion is directed with more wisdom, and the object
in view is better obtained. A good farmer feeds
his young colts with his best fodder, and in the
first winter, adds a little corn to it; in the second,
he is more sparing; and in the third, the mean-
est and cheapest food is sufficiently nutritious.
The practice of the farmer, is an example which
parents ought well to consider.
Again, when a person, fatigued by a hard
46
:
day's work, eats an ordinary meal, he is refreshed;
if he drinks a little wine, he is still more vigorous
and animated; but if he repeats his draught, his
vigour is destroyed; like a bow bent too far, the
string receives an injury.
The animation occasioned by eating, is the
first stage of intoxication; could the stomach
contain more food, the mind might, by this
means alone, be pushed on to delirium: but a
sympathy between the mouth and stomach is
called into exercise in mastication, and occasions
loathing as soon as the wants of nature are satis-
fied; but which is not excited by swallowing
fluids: hence wine and ardent spirits are drank
when food cannot be eaten, and form the after
part to all our feasts.
In the first exhilarating glow of vigour, in
that sensation of health and energy which a pro-
per repast occasions, reason has the command
of the actions; but, by a repetition of stimuli,
the animal spirits are pushed beyond reason, and
overpower it. To preserve a proper equilibrium
should be the study of every one, because the
dignity of man can only be preserved in that
state; by neglecting this study, life is robbed of
much of its comfort, lessened of its usefulness,
and shortened in its duration.
i
47
's
So various are the wants of the body, in
different regions of the globe, that no other
general rule can be given, than this one :---Keep
up the vigour of the system by the smallest pos-
sible stimulus. Of this, each individual must
judge for himself. The diet of an East-Indian
would be death to a Greenlander: and the diet
which most men can bear, without injury, would
be pernicious to a woman.
1
48
OF PROSTITUTION.
1
}
J
THE bad effects of this vice, on population,
like that last treated of, are not great. Those
unhappy females, who sacrifice their own cha-
racters, and betray the honour of the sex, are
not only a loss to society, but a pest to it; having
rendered themselves incapable of being mothers,
and unworthy of becoming wives, they are pitied
and despised by the wise and good; but they are,
happily, few in number, as it respects the whole
population of a country: London may reckon
thousands, and smaller cities hundreds, of such
pitiable outcasts. But if it be taken into the
account, that in Europe, and in every civilized
country, the men, in consequence of greater
exposure to accidental and violent death, are
fewer in number than the women, there must
necessarily be some who are unproductive. I do
not design to apologize for vice, I merely relate
娑
​!
!
49
a fact, generally acknowledged, nor does the
conduct of many of my single countrywomen
need an apology, if moralists pass them by,---if
lighter writers hold them up to ridicule,---if
men, who ought to have been better informed,
represent the whole sex as destitute of moral
principles, as rakes at heart, as shielded in their
virtue only by the fear of infamy,---if even more
injurious things are said, the conduct of many,
who pass unmarried through life, proves the
whole to be calumny; and they may be referred
to, not as rare and unexpected exceptions to a
general rule, but as the standard of the moraÌ
principle among the sex.
The virtue of the unmarried, is the virtue of
the whole they have not the privilege of being
mothers, but they have the high office of instruct-
ing, by their example, the rising generation, and
the honour of convincing every one, that in the
female character there is much true dignity;
they, indeed, walk singly and alone through the
world, but the rectitude of their conduct enlivens
and cheers the way, whilst detestation and
loathing are the sure and just consequences of
prostitution.
It would not be an easy task, to point out
the nation in Europe in which prostitution is
G
1
50
{
most prevalent: the English accuse the French,
and the French the Neapolitans; but no civi-
lized country, not even America, is exempt
from this vice: and if in any nation the extent
diminishes, it is to the honour of the government
and the happiness of the people.
Drunkenness destroys the worth and shortens
the period of human life, and is most practised
by men; prostitution still more, if possible, de-
grades and debases the female character: but
neither of these vices essentially affect popula-
tion. Were there no drunkards, and no prosti-
tutes, there would not be many more children;
and besides these, no other vice has any direct
effect a thief, or a perjurer, are not less prolific
in consequence of their crimes. I shall, there-
fore, close my remarks on vice, as a check to
population, and pass on to the consideration of
another subject.
1
51
1
OF CELIBACY.
THE civil and religious institutions of the
cast, and especially of China, so powerfully
promote marriage, that the influence of celibacy
is looked for in vain. Mr. Hume is of opinion,
that few men are unmarried, in China, at the
age of twenty; so completely is the principle of
increase called into exercise. But, in the esti-
mation of Mr. Malthus, the infrequency of
marriage is the most powerful of the checks
which, in modern Europe, keep down the popu-
lation to the means of subsistence; and, in
speaking of England, some motives are urged
in justification of this conduct. "A man", says
our author, "of a liberal education and small
fortune, cannot marry without giving up the
society of gentlemen, and ranking with farmers
and tradesmen."+
*
Mr. M's. Essays, page 351. + Page 301.
52
i
Ought such an one ever to have been
the associate of gentlemen? He who has just
money enough to live in idleness, yet presumes
to an equality with the affluent, is a mean and
injurious character. Has he good sense? so
have farmers and tradesmen; has he a sense of
honour? so have they; and his proper and only
fit associates are among them. If he aspire
higher, he is esteemed a servant, and feels him-
self a slave.
is
Another motive is, the fear of poverty. It
proper that a due regard be paid to. this. sub-
ject; but what is the fact? Do the poor calcu-
late with nicety? Do they divide, as Mr. M.
represents, their daily earnings, which is just
enough to support themselves, between four or
five others, and shrink from marriage? Is the
period of love with them the period of calcula-
tion; and the fear of evil believed to be more
than an imaginary fear? It would increase their
happiness were it so: but the poor are always.
inconsiderate. Is their climate inhospitable and
rude, and their subsistence mean and tasteless,.
they are not induced to relinquish the hope of
finding pleasure in a family. The natural and
necessary difficulty in obtaining one description
of good, is not a reason with them to abandon
53
another. The fear of poverty is never felt by a
poor man, it is the rich who are in bondage to
it. A year of bad trade, or a reduction in wages
from any cause, may, for a time, suspend a
marriage; but habitual poverty, however great,
has not this effect: no person, who has never
been richer, thinks himself too poor to marry.
Thus it appears that celibacy is not practised
by the great inass of society, from the fear of
the consequences of marriage. In the middle
rank of life, the fear of poverty is strongly felt;
but is it even here a motive for celibacy? Is it a
a motive with the female sex? poverty to the
wife is more dreadful than to her husband: it
is of the mother the children ask their food; it
is she who attends them in sickness, and then
to be without the means of assisting, is to her
the worst form of misery, it is to stand by the
margin of a river, and see a calm, still current.
engulph her child, from which her arm was
once strong enough to have rescued it. It is:
the wife whose eyes are constantly met by the
sad tokens of her situation, all around her speaks
poverty. But are many women deterred from:
marriage by the fear of these evils? if they are
not, I presume none are. The advice of friends,
or the inordinate love of riches, or vicious habits,
54
may deter some; but the virtuous, the indus-
trious, and the moderate, of either sex, seldom
dread poverty, nor have they cause.
:
Conjugal infelicity is another motive to celi-
bacy; it is not urged by Mr. M., but I thought
it proper to mention it: it certainly exists in
many instances. But there is also an infelicity
in celibacy to the bachelor two alternatives
present themselves, either to live in a perpetual
conflict of the passions, or in the vicious indul-
gence of them if the first be preferred, the
health is injured, the mind oppressed, and the
best feelings of the heart never called into exer-
cise: if the other, the unhappy votary soon finds
that a brutal passion degrades him; disgusted
at his conduct, he laments at once the loss of
character and of happiness; the affections, which
are so well calculated to refine, to animate, and
to dignify the man, are unfelt by him, for love
is destroyed by lust; he foolishly imagined that
sensual gratification was the chief, if not the
only pleasure, in sexual intercourse; he has
tried it, and been deceived; he has bartered
away pleasures, which would have increased with
his years, for a gratification which never lasts;
a void is felt which drunkenness cannot fill, and
marriage is contracted when it cannot be happy,
}
55
even setting aside the compunctions of con-
science.
The virtuous bachelor has by far the advan-
tage: he hears the voice of nature and starts
back frighted: reasons, which have been men-
tioned, and which he thinks prudent, present
themselves, and he resolves to follow them, and
gains a character, of which, to say the best, is
not of the highest order. The man who loses
one of his senses is an object of pity, but more
so is he who locks up the best feelings of his
heart in perpetual ice, and refuses to enjoy the
happiness his nature is capable of. The cup is
presented, of which he is afraid to drink: but
his sentiments may, and commonly do, alter,
and the good he refused is enjoyed.
The debauchee, on the other hand, is a mere
spendthrift, who, for a present gratification,
throws away all prospect of future good; he
cuts down the tree that he may pluck the fruit;
virtue is a stranger to his thoughts, and the
pleasures of mutual affection can never be en-
joyed; he has cast away the more valuable, and
retained the meaner part; both might have been
enjoyed.
Such is celibacy: but marriage is the natural
condition of man'; it was designed and is calcu-
56
·
lated for happiness, but it may be abused, and thus
its end is not always answered.---To enter into
the causes of matrimonial infelicity, does not suit
my present purpose; I shall satisfy myself with
saying, that the principal cause is, a struggle
for power: the mutual study to please, which is
the charm of courtship, by not being made the
business of life, is the principal source of the
evil of it.
I have been induced to make these remarks,
because Mr. M. so frequently speaks of celibacy
with approbation; and considers it as an obli-
gation of such easy performance, that a few pru-
dential maxims are all that are necessary to
oppose to the strong laws of nature. But nature
is not soon conquered; nor is happiness so
easily possessed, when means designed by nature
to promote it, are dispensed with. But that
part of this subject which most affect the leading
arguments of Mr. M's. publication, is the check
celibacy is of to population.
That the principle of increase is not called
fully into exercise in any European state, cannot
be denied; nor is it in America; and it is only by
comparison that we are to judge. The baneful
institutions in catholic states, which interdict
marriage; and the military establishments in
57
all, have a somewhat similar effect on the
morals and population of a country. America
has had neither of these evils to contend with,
yet she has not been wholly exempt from the
effects of celibacy. When the spirit of enter-
prise and the love of liberty colonised America
with Europeans, the natural timidity of the
female sex would operate as a hinderance to
their embarking in equal number with the men ;
even at this day, when the hardships the first
settlers experienced are removed, the number of
female emigrants is not very great: consequently,
in the early periods of the American states,
celibacy was not an optional but a necessary
act: what proportion this number bore to
the unmarried in Europe, I have not the
means of ascertaining, nor is it very important;
for we have a striking instance in China, that it
is not to celibacy that we are to look for the
leading, the permanent check to population,
for China suffers a mere nothing from this cause,
yet her population does not increase.
The motives to celibacy, though they often
arise from a love of gain, or of dissipation, yet
in some the motive is of the most honorable
nature; it may be to administer comfort to an
aged parent, or to prosecute some useful study,
H
+
58
}
}
or to accomplish some beneficial purpose; in
either of these cases, celibacy is a virtue. There
are others who remain single from the want of
those passions which lead to marriage; others,
from the fear of propagating diseases which
themselves are subject to; and others from va-
rious motives. But on the whole, we may
conclude, in the language of Anacharsis,---that
very weighty reasons may authorise a Spartan
not to marry, but in his old age he must not
expect to be treated with the same respect as
the other citizens. Vol. 2. p. 487.
X
1
59
OF
UNWHOLESOME OCCUPATIONS.
UNWHOLESOME occupations are frequently
mentioned by Mr. M., but no definition is given,
no precise meaning affixed to the term. With-
out entering into a discussion of the subject, I
may venture to say, that very few occupations
are necessarily unwholesome; but as they are
now conducted, all such as confine the persons
employed in them to their houses, are of this
description, and such as are sedentary, are the
most so: at the head of this list may be placed
shoemakers, tailors, basket-makers, &c. But
the occupation to which the eyes of the public.
are directed with the most watchful jealousy, is
the manufacturing of cotton or woollen cloth:
in the buildings in which these manufactories
are conducted, disease, in a thousand forms, is
supposed to be engendered, and to lurk in every
apartment.
60
The question is confined to a narrow point:
Is the employment prejudicial to health, or is
it not? To answer this question requires per-
sonal knowledge; I shall therefore be excused
in saying, that during three years I have attended
with considerable care to the diseases of the
poor of the town of Stockport, and in that
period have not seen fewer than five thousand
sick persons, who then were or had been employ-
ed in manufacturing cotton, and I have endea-
voured to investigate the nature and origin of
their complaints.
As children are admitted to work at the age
of eight or ten years, it might be expected that
the injurious influence of their occupation would
at that tender age be most apparent; on this
account I have attended much to them, and I
do not scruple to declare, that children so em-
ployed are as healthful as those of the poor
brought up in great towns usually are, and more
so than those that are apprenticed to tailors,
shoemakers, or basket-makers: it is true, their
countenances are pale and delicate, so are all
children kept within doors; their clothes, cover-
ed with cotton, give them a forlorn appearance,
but their health is not injured by their work.
61
What has been said of children applies with
equal force to adults.
But there is one circumstance respecting
cotton factories, which the public, even from
the above statement, is not prepared to expect:
It is well known that a warm climate is favorable
to health, and especially to the health of those
whose constitutions are delicate and inclined to
consumption; for whom, physicians of the sound-
est judgment recommend, if a foreign climate
cannot be visited, to produce an artificial atmos-
phere of due heat and of improved salubrity,
which is effected by increasing the proportion
of carbonic acid gas. What is thus attained
with considerable expense and continued care,
is the very air, the very circumstance of some
of the rooms of a cotton factory, the best of
which is the winding room; the air of this room
is rendered warm for the accommodation of
those employed in it, and receives carbonic
acid gas from the fermenting flour in which the
yarn is boiled previously to the process of wind-
ing: Thus health appears where disease was
looked for.
The proprietors of a cotton factory a few
miles from Manchester, between three and four
years since, engaged a number of children from
}
62
the workhouses in London and other places, to
be employed in their service; they now amount
to nearly 200: when they first came down, their
countenances were sallow, and their whole ap-
pearance betokened ill health; they are now
fine, vigorous, healthy children, not one of
whom has died, yet the air they have breathed
has been that of a cotton factory: and when any
are out of health, especially if marks of consump-
tion appear, they are employed in the winding
room, and a return to health is anticipated with
more confidence than in the most commodious
dwelling house: the rooms allotted to other
processes are more or less healthy as they are
more or less dusty. But I am unacquainted
with any process more dusty than the thrashing
or grinding of corn, or the dust more injurious.
On the wholé, cotton factories, as they are now
conducted, are not unfriendly to health.
me:
But it is proper I should give some account
of the 5000 sick persons who have applied to
They were not children, worn down with
labour and dying of their hardships, a very small
proportion of my applicants were at that pe-
riod of life, perhaps not more than there would
have been had there been no manufactories;
nor have they been men, whose constitutions.
63
had suffered by their long services; but they
were in by far the greater proportion married
women, who, having spent their youth without
acquiring a taste or even a knowledge of domes-
tic affairs, pass their time in the most complete
ennuj imaginable; to beguile which, various in-
jurious habits are fallen into; to which, and not
to their previous labour in the cotton factories,
they owe their frequent need of medicine.
Occupations more or less injurious to health,
or that expose to accidental death, are pursued
in every country; bùt perhaps in America some-
what less so than in Europe; but this is ques-
tionable, for if in that country there are no
mines, there are bogs and morasses that require
draining; if the people are not confined to their
houses, their lives are more exposed to sudden
death by the nature of their labour.
This subject I here quit for the present, but
design at a future period to renew, in an essay
on the effects of manufactories on the health,
the morals, and the manners of a people.
But before closing this chapter, there is one
remark I wish to make, which is of the highest
consequence to Mr. M's. theory: if the popula-
tion of America increase at a rate of at least
twenty times as fast as the population of Europe,
{
64
on account of the checks to population in that
country being so much fewer, the Americans must
live to a greater age than Europeans. What is
understood by the operation of vice and misery,
is premature death; if the Americans are in a
great degree exempt from the causes of prema-
ture death, it follows, of course, that they live
nearly the full term of human life.
Suppose a thousand persons, or say the
whole population of a state, live, on an average,
to the same age as a thousand persons, or the
whole population of another state, the checks
to population, the causes of their death, how-
ever various, when taken in the aggregate, must
consequently have the same force. But if a
thousand persons of one country live longer
than the same number of another country, it is
a proof that premature death is less frequent
among them.
And I challenge Mr. Malthus
to shew, on his principles, an increase in the
population of one country to be greater than of
another, without shewing fewer instances of
premature death: if this be shewn, he shews
also a longer average term of life. To make
this matter clear, let us state two other cases:
suppose two countries of equal population, the
one of which has one fourth of its population,
65
in the course of a generation, cut off by war,
famine and pestilence; but the population of the
other live out the natural term of their lives;
when the sum of the life of each individual of
both countries is taken, the people of that
country will certainly count the greater number
of years which has suffered nothing from pre-
mature death. Here, then, follows the ques-
tion,---are the people of America, taken as a
whole, longer lived than those of Europe? If
they are not, and I know of no statement
which represent them as such, Mr. M. may show
how widely spread vice and misery are over the
surface of the globe, but he cannot prove that
their smaller operation in America is the cause
of the rapid increase in the population of that
country: yet, it is a fact that needs no illustra-
tion, that if vice and misery are but little known
in America, and if Mr. M's. theory be true, the
registers of that country, however imperfectly
kept, will show a people more healthy and
longer lived than any in the world besides.---
I am prepared to expect that Mr. M. will say,
that the greater disposition to celibacy in Europe
is the leading cause of the difference in the rate
of increase of the population of these two quar-
ters of the globe; but he has not shown this,
I
{
66
1
and I profess myself ignorant of any material
difference in this respect.
It must occur to the recollection of many
of my readers, that Mr. M., when speaking of
Switzerland and several other countries, takes it
for granted, and indeed the case is self-evident,
that in proportion as pestilence, or any other
powerful check, became less frequent, without
regard to the influence of celibacy, the average
duration of the lives of the people became greater.
All I ask of Mr. M. is, an application of this
principle to the people of America.
•
67
!
OF MISERY.
→0000
UNDER the term misery, Mr. M. comprises
a host of evils, formidable in their nature, and
so extensive in their influence, as to appear
capable not only of checking the increase, but
of destroying the whole race of man. The
direct injury done by vice, is but as a drop in
the bucket, compared with that done by misery.
During the long period of six thousand years in
which it has taken up its abode in our world,
it has shown its horrid form to every generation;
no sooner has one been hurried by it from its
proper station than it seizes on another, and
forces it down the current of time, grappling
with all the evils its name imports; another and
another have succeeded, and shared the same
fate.
But, happily for man, this prevalent and
powerful evil is of his own creating misery is
not forced upon us, it forms no part, it has no
68
1
place in the laws by which man is governed.
War, famine, pestilence, unwholesome occupa-
tions, and a long train of other evils which
Mr. M. enumerates under this head, do not
constitute a natural or a necessary part in the
government of the world.
There is no physical cause of war, none of
famine, none of pestilence: when did there a
war happen that could not have been prevented?
or a famine, that might not have been guarded
against? Are hot millions of acres of fertile
land at the service of man? if they are allowed
to lie waste; if that labour is not bestowed upon
them which was stipulated in the gift, famine
inevitably follows, for the earth is not spontane-
ously fruitful: but a voluntary evil is distinct
from a natural one. Is not indolence a reproach
to an individual, because it ends in want? so
scarcity, as the consequence of indolence, is a
reproach to a government: the people will labour
if they are sufficiently protected. It is a disgrace
to a nation to want bread; to say so, would be
impious, were it not given to us in as great an
abundance as we stretch out our hands to receive:
we have only to cultivate a sufficient extent of
land, and a store may be laid up for many suc-
ceeding years.
69
Pestilence commonly arises out of some act
of human folly, or is the consequence of igno
rance. War is the parent of pestilence; it
follows in its train as one attached to it, as the
history of the world too fully testifies. Improve-
ments in the arts of peace have always driven
away pestilence, even when it had had long
possession of a country. When Bengal was first
occupied by the British, the life of a man was
not worth more than two monsoons; but the
goodness of the situation made its retention
desirable; and by discovering the cause of the
malady to be in the undrained state of the land,
by remedying it the effect ceased, and Bengal is
now as healthful as any town in China. The
middle states of Europe, about a century and a
half ago, and for many preceding years, were
visited by frequent returns of pestilential sea-
sons, but now these scourges are happily un-
known; the advancement of cultivation, and
the generally improved condition of the people,
are the causes that have produced this important
change. Constantinople, the mother of plagues,
was not wasted by them when the sceptre of
the Roman government was retained in her
palaces; and her present bondage to them, we
may fairly infer, originates not in a permanent,
.70
}
immoveable cause, but in one which it is the
duty of the government to enquire into and
remedy. The people of the coast of America
are almost the yearly victims of this grievous
evil, but the interior of that country is free from
it; ingenuity will, I doubt not, discover the
cause of its local existence, and foresight guard
against or prevent it. The West-Indies, the
coast of Africa, the Pontian Marshes near
Rome, are all nurseries of pestilence; but there
is a cause for each, and the cause is in general
known.
England, Switzerland, France, are no more
naturally exempt from pestilence now, than
they were a century and a half ago, yet these
scourges approach not the borders of these
countries; the same, in another hundred and
fifty years, will probably be said of America, and
every other place now visited by them, if in that
time an improvement takes place in the face of
those countries.
There are many other important considera-
tions connected with this subject, which I de-
sign to state in a future dissertation. It is suffi-
cient for the present to say, that the world is
not visited by plagues at irregular but fixed and
certain periods: a comet observes its course, and
71
"approaches our horizon at the time when its
appearance is expected; but this cannot be said
of plagues, no calculation can be made concern-
ing them, unless from considering the manners
and customs of a country.
Plagues are sometimes mentioned in the
scriptures, as indicating the displeasure of God;
so are wars, and so is famine; but I am not
speaking of them in that light, my object is, to
consider their ordinary cause. That the subject
may be left as free from embarrassment as possi-
ble, let the history of the world be read over,
and the misery that hath at various times pressed
hard upon it be noted down, and the cause
enquired into, and I apprehend very little of it
will be found to attach to the appointment of
God; on the contrary, inan will be found at
once the cause and the instrument of his own
destruction.
Famine and pestilence are the consequences
of indolence, and war of selfishness, but neither
indolence or selfishness are directed to be the
rules of our conduct. At the eventful period of
the overthrow of the Roman empire, in which
the world lost half its population by war, famine,
and pestilence, no supernatural power was called
into exercise; the irruption of the barbarians
72
F
was the cause, and the evils spoken of, were the
consequence: the calamity did not originate in
a law of nature, but was contrived in a camp of
barbarians. When the Spaniards cut off millions
of Americans, by their unmanly and disgraceful
conduct towards them, they were alone answer-
able for their conduct. And when the Saracens
scattered misery and death in Poland, and
wherever their arms reached, was not this a
human act? and might not all the consequences
of it have been spared the world? In this way
we might argue of other periods of calamity;
but enough has been said.
If the condition of the world be such, that
the principle of increase cannot be called into
full exercise, or if called into exercise, that in a
few generations the number of mankind would
be so great as not to be able even to stand on
the surface of the globe, the preceding remarks
cannot be truc. Again, if vice, pestilence, or
any other evil, included under the general term
misery be natural, they cannot be prevented!
A community, directed by the precepts and in-
fluenced by the spirit of the christian religion,
would not be more exempt from vice and misery
than others. Allowing this to be the case, the
world is not governed at all, or the laws are
73
insufficient and bad; for if laws be enacted and
obeyed, and their intended purpose not answered,
it stamps imperfection upon them; which brings
the subject to this test, either man is not a
moral agent, and vice and misery are laws of
nature, or his obeying the laws under which
he is placed will procure him a peaceable, a plea-
sant, and a safe existence in this world; so that
the point Mr. M. has to establish is, that vice,
misery, and moral restraint are not of our own
procuring, but essential to our interest, and that
without their aid there is no means of keeping
the population of the world within due bounds,
no check that can operate without being inju-
rious to our welfare and happiness; it is not
enough to say that misery does exist, its neces-
sity must be proved. Any thing less than this
cannot answer our author's purpose, or render
his principles even plausible.
In the general view I take of the subject,
man has sufficient liberty, sufficient power, to
keep down the population of any country to any
standard he may please by violence and blood-
shed; but God has not appointed him to that
task; he is not an executioner by nature; and
the office never becomes him. A man, covered
with blood, destroying the labour of the hus-
K
74
bandman, and sowing the seeds of pestilence, is
not acting a useful, consequently not a natural
or becoming part. If the pages of history are
sullied with such characters, their dependents
are to be pitied, and they execrated.
I have now followed Mr. M. through the
outlines of his theory, and briefly discussed the
leading circumstances on which it is founded.
My next object is, to follow him into the facts
and evidences he adduces in support of it; but
I have not thought it necessary to attend
our author page by page, but have confined
myself to such chapters as are most interesting,
and which best illustrate the subject.
75
OF THE
CHECKS TO POPULATION
AMONG THE
AMERICAN INDIANS.
THE object Mr. M. has in view in the
chapter which treats of the subject before us,
and in several that succeed, is to give examples.
of the truth of the theory he advances: to this
end, he transcribes from a variety of authors
such instances of the operation of vice, misery,
and moral restraint, as are best adapted to his
purpose.
In this chapter he presents his readers with
an epitome of Dr. Robinson's History of the
Customs of the Americans, with the addition
of a few extracts from other authors. But I
shall not do justice to Mr. Malthus if I represent
his chapters as mere strings of quotations; many
of them contain information which imply much
76
{
1
patient research, and which I believe have
been thought of considerable weight by the
greater number who have read them. But, be-
fore entering upon the subject, it may not be
improper to enquire into the validity of the
authorities from which Dr. Robinson drew the
materials for his History of America, and Mr. M.
for his chapter on the checks to population in
that country.
The earlier historians of America were either
Spaniards or in the interest of Spain; their
works were designed to be read only by
Spaniards, and related to the conduct of their
countrymen; and, as a further argument against
their ingenuousness, Dr. Robinson informs us,
they were mostly illiterate and prejudiced adven-
turers. B.4, p.48.---The deeds they had to relate
were not those of humanity and kindness, but
of blood; their office was not to speak of the
progress of the human understanding, of happi-
ness, and of honour, but of ignorance, perfidy,
and crimes they doubtless concealed many of
the transactions of their countrymen, and put a
false gloss on others, but still their general con-
duct was made public, which, on reaching, was
execrated in Europe, and the Spanish character
received a foul and indelible stain.
}
77
The merchants, ashamed of the conduct
they had promoted, but enriched by the fruits
of it, applied to the pope to declare the
Americans an inferior species of men; crea-
tures that formed a link between the lordly
Spaniard and the brute; but this request, by the
interposition of the priests, was not complied
with. In a struggle of this kind, impartiality
could not reasonably be expected in the adhe-
rents of either party: but, setting aside the con-
troversy, impartiality was not a feature of those
times.
The merchants, and those in their interest,
exaggerated the vices, and represented as hideous.
the customs of the Americans, in order to palliate
the crimes committed against them; but the
priests, who seem to have been actuated by pure
and honourable motives, represent them as ami-
able and interesting characters, and in this they
are supported by Columbus, but they may have
gone somewhat into the opposite extreme.
Dr. Robinson, though aware of the extra-
vagant notions and false representations which
had been given, has drank too much into
their spirit; and with all the softening which
his good sense would direct him to give, has,
notwithstanding, drawn a picture of the state of
78
society and manners among the Indians, in
colours calculated to excite disgust and abhor-
rence; and in the same account, rendered still
more pointed and partial by the selection of
Mr. M., we are struck with horror at their
misery.
But besides the partiality with which all
events are related when the interest of a party is
to be served, there is another source of error
not sufficiently noticed, I mean, the spirit of
the times and the state of information when a
narrative is written. To give a clear idea of
what I mean, and to show how it bears on the
present argument, I must enquire into the spirit
of those writers of any nation who have given
to their countrymen the first account of a foreign
people:
As soon as a nation emerges from the dark-
ness, and is secure from the alarms and dangers
of a savage state, the mind. expands and is
inquisitive. A wish to know something of the
inhabitants of distant countries is felt, not that
any expectation is formed, or hope indulged, of
improving in useful knowledge by the acquaint-
ance, but such curiosity is common to man.
Travellers are soon found, who, if they are
not distinguished for wisdom, cannot be without
79
enthusiasm, and, strange as it may appear, of
whatever country they may be, the same spirit
actuates the whole, the same train of incidents,
the same marvellous stories, the same monstrous
people, are by all mentioned.
As a fair example of what may be found in
such writers, I refer to the narrative of Joan -
de Plano, ambassador to the Tartars in the year
1246: see Hakluyt's Coll. v. 1, p.61. He writes
thus: "Occody Cham built the city of Chamyl,
near which is a desert, in which are men who
cannot speak, and are destitute of joints to their
legs.---Men, resembling dogs, the women being
of proper form, are reported to live between
Tartary and India.---In the reign of Occody the
Russians attacked the Hungarians and Poles,
and were defeated; returning from thence, they
caine to the Perossitie, who, having little sto-
machs and small mouths, eat not at all, but
seething the flesh, receive the steam. They
next came to the Samogite, who live by hunt-
ing: from thence they proceeded into a country
lying near the sea, where they found certain
monsters, who, of all things, resembled the shape
of inen, saving that their feet were like the feet
of an ox, and they had men's heads and dogs'
faces; they spoke indeed two words like men,
80
1
but at the third, they barked like dogs. This
nation being conquered,
conquered, duke Cyrpondon
marched with his forces southward against the
Armenians; and travelling through certain desert
places, they found monsters in the shape of men,
who had each of them but one arm and one
hand, growing out of the midst of their breast,
and but one foot."
Strange and ridiculous as these stories may
appear, they are common, as hath been men-
tioned, to every country; in every language
they are told; and by every people, in a half
civilized state, believed.
In histories of great antiquity we read of cen-
taurs, sphinxes, and a variety of other monstrous
forms; indeed, the further back we go, the
more were such notions propagated and credited.
The stories told by Joan de Plano, of the Tartars,
were told of the people to the north of the Caspian
sea by the Greeks: Anacharsis, v. 2, p. 200.---
And the Roman soldiers were terrified at the ac-
counts given of the Germans by the Gauls, and
had nearly revolted, rather than meet them in
battle.*---Nor were the Jews exempt from this
* Dum paucos dies ad Vesontionem, rei frumentariae
commeatusque causa, moratur ; ex percunctatione nostrorum,
vocibusque Gallorum, ac mercatorum, qui ingenti magni-
81
credulity; for the men who were sent as spies
to Canaan, worked powerfully on the minds of
their countrymen, by telling them that they had
seen giants.---Of the East-Indians, and of the
Americans, the same frightful relations were
given; and in applying them to the natives of the
Cape of Good Hope, they were, if possible, made
more hideous and degrading.---In the island of
Ceylon, the natives are said to have ears so long,
that when they lie down to sleep, one serves as
a bed and the other as a covering.
Many other illustrations might be given, for
early histories are full of them: but enough has
been said to show what may be expected of
travellers who write for prejudiced or ignorant
persons.
The next race of travellers soften the strong
colouring of this frightful picture, and represent
the people they have visited, as not absolutely
hideous, but as very uncommon human beings:
some with breasts of prodigious length, as
tudine corporum Germanos, incredibili vertute, atque exer-
citatione in armis esse praedicabant, saepenumero sese cum iis
congressos, ne vultum quidem atque aciem oculorum ferre
potuisse; tantus subito timor omnem exercitum occupavit,
ut non mediocriter omnium mentes animosque pertubaret.
Vulgo totis castris testamenta obsignabantur.
Caesar's de Bel. Gal. Lib. 1. cap. 39.
L
82
Lithgow relates of the Irish; or as resembling in
their persons the letter S, and running faster
than a horse, as is noticed by others, of the
Hottentots. But on still more correct infor-
mation being gained, those who were believed
to be monsters are found to be men.
That the same stories should be told and
believed in every country, is a striking proof
that the mind of man is every where the same.
The very publication of Joan de Plano, respect-
ing the Tartars, would do extremely well for a
Tartar to publish, as containing his travels to
some recently discovered country; and whether
he adopts it or not, I can venture to predict a
striking resemblance between them.---I wish
not, however, to be considered as speaking dis-
respectfully of travellers; those of them who
write for the well informed, relate only what
they have witnessed; but such as address them-
selves to the populace, endeavour to interest
them, and are themselves often first deceived,
expecting to see strange things, they the more
readily credit the stories they hear; and where
none are informed, it is not difficult to conjec-
ture the nature of the narrative. The travels of
Mungo Park are not very popular in our en-
lightened age and country, for no other reason,
83
I apprehend, than because they are not more full
of marvellous incidents.
Let us carry these ideas with us to the Spanish
writers on America: the age in which they wrote
was not that in which stories of monsters most
delighted, or were most enquired after, or doubt-
less more would have been found than were; but
it was the age of chivalry. Fired with high and
romantic notions of the female character, the
Spaniards viewed with contempt and abhor-
rence the stern conduct of the Americans to
their women. Tales of their apparently cold
indifference, were well calculated to justify
to the mother country the conduct of her
colonists a want of gallantry was a want of
every virtue; it was the monstrosity of that day.
The stories with which the writings of the
colonists abound, would never have been related,
and could scarcely have been imagined, had it
not been for the chivalrous character of the
mother country; they were to Spain then, what
stories of monsters had been formerly.
:
Dr. Robinson speaks of the great caution
that should be used in reading the Spanish wri-
ters; but with all the care which he, as an
historian who designed fidelity, has of course
observed, his judgment appears to have been
1
84
imposed upon, and the customs of the Indians,
even as represented by him, are highly impro-
bable. "The condition," he says, "of the
women is so peculiarly grievous, and their de-
pression so complete, that servitude is a name
too mild to describe their wretched state. A
wife, among most tribes, is no better than a beast
of burden, destined to every office of labour and
fatigue. While the men loiter out the day in
sloth, or spend it in amusement, the women are
condemned to incessant toil. Tasks are imposed
upon them without pity, and services are received
without complacence or gratitude. They must
approach their lords with reverence; they must.
regard them as more exalted beings, and are not
permitted to eat in their presence. There are
districts in America where this dominion is so
grievous and so sensibly felt, that some women,
in a wild emotion of maternal tenderness, have
destroyed their female children in their infancy,
in order to deliver them from that intolerable
bondage to which they knew they were doomed."
Book 4, p. 92.
Mr. Malthus quotes the above passage ver-
batim, with the exception of the last sentence,
which he writes thus: "There are some dis-
tricts in America where this state of degradation
*
$5
has been so severely felt, that mothers have de-
stroyed their female infants to deliver them at
once from a life in which they were doomed to
such miserable slavery."* Whether this alte-
ration in the sense be allowable, I submit to the
candour of our author: a fit of wild emotion is
very distinct from a deliberate act.
Such a picture of female wretchedness and
misery as is here drawn, had nothing more been
related by the Spanish writers, was enough to
rouse a nation of chivaliers to madness; but the
present sober-minded generation require matters
of fact, or at least, of probability. Children may
have been murdered in passion, or even by de-
sign, but if the practice of infanticide had been
so gencral as to be worthy the notice of an
historian, a small state must soon have exter-
minated itself; and, besides, the disposition to it
is contradicted by the established character of
the Americans. Dr. Robinsor expressly de-
clares, that, "so long as their
"so long as their progeny continue
fecble and helpless, no people exceed them in
tenderness and care." B. 4, p. 91.
As to their women, they are in the situation
of all savages, tyrannized over for the protection
* Page 27.
}
86
they receive; but they never knew a better state,
and they see no one to envy, and much of the
misery of civilized societies arises from such
comparisons: nor is their happiness lessened by
their husbands being below them in education,
or different in their habits of life.---Considering
the men as in the lowest stage of civilization, I
do not know that they can be esteemed either
more morose or distant than belongs to that
state. Our error in judging of the Americans.
arises from comparing them with ourselves:
they have no suavity in their manners, there is
no interchange of courtesies among themselves;
their manners are not European, but such as
they are, they are common to both sexes, and
to the whole tribe, which excludes repining
from the minds of the women: how can a wo-
man repine at her condition, who never knew
or never heard of a female superior to herself?
In their affections, the men are warm and
benevolent; they are strangers to avarice; if
their views are narrow, their attachment is firm
and constant: the whole tribe have but one
hope, one fear, one object. Like the ancient
Germans, who are celebrated as kind husbands,
they admit the women to the public deliberations
of the nation; and when war is determined on,
87
they take a lively interest in it: to animate the
warriors, they accompany them through the first
day's march; and when the battle is over, the
men dispatch a messenger to acquaint the wo-
men of their. return; and on reaching their
habitations, they sing with the heart-felt pleasure
of an European,---" Where can a man be better
than in the bosom of his family."
Such marks of mutual affection could
not be shown were the women unhappy,
or if they were of no consideration with the
men.
That the American women, like other sa-
vages, are in a servile and degraded state, is
perfectly true, but in what does their incessant
employment consist? Neither the chase nor the
battle devolve on them. They manage the do-
mestic concerns; but can these occupy their
time? Their children are few, and go naked;
their houses and furniture are of the humblest
kind, and require but little care; their husbands'
dress and their own do not call for labour; they
cook the victuals, they fetch home the game,
and they assist in cultivating, in a rude and
careless manner, a piece of ground, not many
yards square, which they plant with Indian corn
or manioc, with plantain or potatoes, and this is
89
all that can be required of them. The labour
that can possibly be expended on the establish-
ment of an American Indian, compared with
the toil of an European housemaid, admits of
no resemblance. All labour, indeed, is irksome
to a savage, but the utmost that any one can
find or be compelled to do in their own fami-
lies, will neither shorten life nor lessen fecundity;
and they never work for hire; yet their state is
represented as "peculiarly grievous.”
From the condition of the female sex, as
thus described, Mr. M. derives the first check to
the population of that people. Their depression,
hardship, and labour, he imagines, with Dr. Ro-
binson, to be unfriendly to the office of child-
bearing. But it is not, as has been hinted,
in the nature of things, that the concerns of
a small family should have this effect; besides,
were the labour of the American women inces-
sant, and felt to be grievous, whatever effect
it might have on their fecundity, they must long
since have civilized their country. Constant
labour invariably gives birth to ingenious expe-
dients to abridge it, and one invention arises.
out of another: the improver of an useful art is
complimented for his skill, and feels his supe-
riority; others are excited to emulation, and
89
f
the path to knowledge is made broad and easy.
A few discoveries, made by the Incas of South
America, led at once to the civilization of that
country; and the incessant labour of the women
would infallibly have done the same in the
north.
The next check mentioned by Mr. Malthus,
is, the libertine lives of the young women,*
which all writers allow to be general; but in
opposition to this, many very grave historians
tell us, that the men have hardly any sexual
appetite, and Mr. M. believes them: thus we
learn that the young women are prostitutes, but
the men are stocks. Such ridiculous nonsense
suited the spirit of the times when it was written,
but it is high time to have done with it.
Love, among savages, is not a refined passion;
it is not felt as such; it does not produce that
courteous respect to the women which is paid
to them when their worth is better known but
polished manners are distinct from passion.
The very notion of libertinage in one sex,
supposes it in the other. Allowing, then, that
the conduct of the young Americans is extremely
licentious, what influence has it on population ?
M
* Page 27.
:
90
A
Abortion is said to be procured in case of preg-
nancy; that may be the fact; but Europeans
are ignorant of any means of effecting it within
the command of the Americans. But granting
this to be partially true, what is the general
effect of such conduct? Is it the same as prosti-
tution in Europe? Does it in most instances
incapacitate for child-bearing? Certainly not.
If we connect the effects of prostitution in
Europe with the libertinage of the Indians,
we form an erroneous judgment. The Americans.
are so little informed, and their understandings
are so much debased, that they suffer no dis-
grace, and feel no shame: sentiment has no
connexion with their conduct; their intercourse
is nothing more than mere animal instinct, which
does not lessen fecundity.
If the Americans have no passions, why do
they marry? They are not urged to it from a
spirit of knight-errantry; nor is it that they may
gratify their lusts, for they are unrestrained in
this; but they are prompted by the noble and
dignified passion of being a husband and a father:
a passion distinct from lust, though connected
with it. Lust is the corruption of this passion.
Mr. M., not content with the paradoxes of
the Spanish and French writers, makes one of
01
A
his own: he informs us, that, "one of the
missionaries, speaking of the common practice
among the Natchez, of changing their wives,
adds, unless they have children by them; a plain
proof (says our author) that their marriages
were in general unfruitful."* Pray how does it
happen, where marriages are generally unfruitful,
that a state keeps up its population? A moment's
consideration ought to have convinced Mr. M.,
that his "plain proof" could not possibly be
true.
The next check mentioned by Mr. M. is,
the long period an American mother suckles a
child. If this be a check to population, it cer-
tainly is a very slight one. Suppose a mother
nurses her child three or four years, and in most
cases the capacity of suckling has ceased by that
time; so that if we take three years as the average
period, there is, in an ordinary life, sufficient
space for the rearing a pretty numerous family.
The other checks that operate in preventing
the birth, or in afterwards destroying the infant,
are slight, but cannot be entirely passed over,
and are the following: When a mother dies.
who is suckling an infant, the helpless child is
* Page 27.
92
buried with her, as no one can be found who
will afford to it that protection and care the
helplessness of infancy so peculiarly requires;
which is at once a loss to the community, and
a dreadful consequence of savage manners.---
Again, when a child is deformed, there is reason
to believe it is exposed; but the number of
deformed children born in America cannot be
imagined to be greater than elsewhere: but
Mr. M. wishes to convey an idea, that their
number is much greater, and quotes the autho-
rity of Dr. Robinson, who says, "In the Spanish
provinces, where the Indians do not live so labo-
rious a life, and are prevented from destroying
their children, great numbers of them are de-
formed, dwarfish, mutilated, blind, and deaf."*
I have not an opportunity of consulting Don
Ulloa's writings, who is the authority for the
remark, but Mr. Winterbotham, referring to
the same circumstance, conveys a very different
idea, and on authority equally as good. He
writes, "The Abbe Clavigero, having made
some enquiry respecting this singularity of the
Quintans, found that such defects were neither
caused by bad humours nor by the climate, but
.* Page 29.
93
by the mistaken and blind humanity of their
parents; who, in order to free their children
from the hardships and toils to which the healthy
Indians are subjected by the Spaniards, fix some
deformity or weakness upon them, that they
may become useless. A circumstance of misery
which does not happen in other countries of
America; nor in those places of the same king-
dom of Quito where the Indians are under no
such oppression. Hist. Amer. v. 1. p. 113.
Having enumerated the many risques an
American runs, either of not having children,
or of not being able to foster and protect them
in their infancy, Mr. M. goes on to say, that,
"when a young savage, by a fortunate train of
circumstances, has passed safely through the
perils of his childhood, other dangers, scarcely
less formidable, await him."* By the language
Mr. M. makes use of, we might suppose the
mortality of children in America much greater
than in Europe, but that is not the case; I
have enumerated all the dangers Mr. M. states a
young savage to be exposed to, and are they likely
to involve so large a proportion in death as
to entitle those who escape to be called fortu
* Page 30.
1
94
nate? Let Mr. M. reflect, that a marriage of
American Indians is seldom known to produce
more than three children; and then let him
show, if the perils of childhood be so great, in
what way the tribes are supported.
But what are the dangers which are scarcely
less formidable which await him on his approach
to manhood? We are informed, they are com-
mon diseases; which originate partly from the
gluttony the Americans indulge in when the
chase has been successful, and in the abstinence
they are obliged to practise when the game elude
their cunning or their skill. Another source of
disease is, the swampy ground, which generates
epidemic diseases. The small-pox also, since their
acquaintance with Europeans, has been intro-
duced among them and they are said to be
ignorant of the cure of some of the diseases to
which they are subject. All this may be perfectly
true, but is not an European youth also exposed
to many diseases? and is his constitution more
able to resist them? Nursed in the lap of ease,
and in the midst of plenty, sickness, in a variety
of complicated forms, assails his constitution,
from which the young savage is entirely exempt.
The children of the Scotch highland peasants
are not much more delicately treated, or more
95
exempt from disease, than the young Indians,
yet we do not hear that it is by mere good
fortune that they escape the dangers of their
childhood and youth.
Capt. Vancouver is next quoted, to show the
extent and fatal consequences of epidemics among
the Indians. The captain traversed, from New
Dungeness, 150 miles of coast, without seeing
the same number of inhabitants, but deşerted
villages were frequently observed. About Port
Discovery, the skulls, limbs, ribs, backbones, and
some other vestiges of the human body, were
scattered promiscuously in great numbers.*
Allowing this to be the case, the survivors
must have been, on Mr. M's. theory, in the
highest possible state of happiness; subsistence
would now be in the greatest abundance, and
the population would double itself in a very few
years. But how can this have been with only
three children to a marriage? and I know of no
writer that states them at a greater number:
Mr. M. says, "their marriages seldom produce
above two or three children;" and in support
of the fact, quotes Robinson, Burk, Charlevoix,
and Latifau.
* Page 32. § Page 25.
96
We are next informed, that "those who
escape the dangers of infancy and disease are
constantly exposed to the chances of war."*
War is the worst and most destructive scourge
that afflicts the human race, because it is the
parent of many others, and is detestable every
where; but among savages it is perhaps less so
than among polished people; they cannot be
degraded, they cannot be corrupted; but whilst
it is the natural tendency of other affections to
improve the morals of a refined people. When
the iron car of war is drawn over a land, mora-
lity shrinks and withers before it. A civilized
people also are in greater danger of famine and
pestilence from it. But as to the direct and
immediate effects of war, I do not know whether
the savage or the civilized nation feels it the
most severely: nor do I know that it is of any
consequence, as to the blood shed in war, with
what weapons two combating states are armed,
provided both are armed alike; tomehawks,
or clubs, or bayonets, are all equally fatal, if
directed with skill, The American mode of
warfare, and their notion of honour, tends
much to screen their persons; but the frequency
* Page 33.
97
of their engaging in it, made the number of those
who fell, very considerable.
T
It is unnecessary to enquire further into this
subject, for, however sanguinary their wars may
have been, it is their permanent effect on the po-
pulation of a nation, that interest us. Mén, by
being most exposed, are by far the greatest suf-
ferers by war.
In America polygamy is allowed
of, so that if the women are more numerous than
the men, they are still mothers; and thus the
loss of population by war, is greatly lessened in
its ultimate consequence. It is on this principle
that the late sanguinary conflict in France did
not lessen the actual population of that country.
Chastity, which never had been considered a
virtue in Greece, now ceased to be one in France,
and unmarried mothers became very numerous;
before the revolution, they bore a proportion to
the married of 1 in 47, but during its continu-
ance they increased to 1 in 11.
*
+
In
Another check to the population of the
American Indians, is stated to be, famine.
the larger islands of America, and in those parts
of the southern continent where corn had, before
the Spaniards took possession of them, for some
time been the principal support of the inhabi-
tants, it is highly probable that, notwithstanding
N
98
the excellent agricultural regulations of their
respective governments, that famine occasionally
swept off part of the inhabitants. But the ruder
states of North America, to which Mr. M. in
a great measure confines his attention, are, by
their mode of living, less exposed to this evil.
Agriculture is practised to supply but a part
of their wants, hunting and fishing serve as
their chief support. Should their crop of corn
fail, or be destroyed in war, the forest is still
well stocked with game, and the rivers with fish.
A hunter, overcome in war and driven from his
village, can never be deprived of subsistence; he
is always in the midst of that supply on which
he depends. And it does not appear that sub-
sistence is difficult to procure; for, as often as
the British colonies were on good terms with
the natives, they cheerfully supplied them with
provisions, and seemed themselves not to know
of scarcity; Mr. M. speaks of famine, and
doubtless their improvidence exposed them to
want, but as they could procure subsistence in
exchange for trinkets, they could command it
to satisfy their own necessities.---Corn is uncer-
tain in its increase, and precarious in its preser-
vation, and the warlike nation that depends upon
it for subsistence, is in danger of suffering want ;
99
but game and fish produce their young in their
season, and are caught when they are required
for food; the forest and the river always give
them protection; they are not affected by wars,
in which the labour of the husbandman is de-
stroyed. And in the country of which we are
now speaking, they are not much molested by
animals of prey, such as exist are few and feeble.
In these forests the deer is almost as safe as
under the protection of man, and its fawn skips
and gambols by its side with almost as little
annoyance. Nor are their rivers ever forsaken
by the thousands of fish that are bred in
them.
Such are the checks Mr. M. enumerates, as
those which prevent an increase of population
among the American Indians. By their means
the population is always kept down to the level
of the subsistence; or, in other terms, is made
stationary; or if there are any oscillations, the
stationary point is never exceeded. But in this
very country, in the immediate vicinity of these
very people, were situated the British colonies,
composed of individuals from most of the states
of Europe, and of characters as diversified as
the nature of man admits: they were exposed to
the hardships of an untried climate and an uncul-
A
100
tivated country, themselves in danger from the
diseases engendered in the swamps, of which
Mr. Malthus speaks, and their children to equal
if not greater hazard than the young savages:
if they passed through the perils of their child-
hood, other evils also awaited them, they were
now called to assist their parents, who were
exposed, not only to the evils mentioned, but to
repeated attacks of the natives.
If the History of America be carefully read
over, an impartial person will have no hesitation
in saying, that the lives of the natives were
equally as secure, and the probability of their
increasing in number as great, as of those who
had but recently taken up their abode among
them.
21
But there is something unpleasant, some-
thing that does not comport with the dignity
of philosophy, to poise and balance sums of ini-
sery against each other. Nor does this mode of
judging satisfy the mind; for, independent of
the principles it involves, we never can obtain
by it any satisfactory, explanation of the fact.
That a few persons leaving their native country,
and exposing themselves to many new and un-
guarded dangers in a distant land, should mul-
tiply faster than they would have done at home,
}
101
or than those who had long been accustomed to
the climate, (this is an exception to Mr. M's.
principles so strong, as to amount of itself almost
to a refutation of them), there is then some
hidden cause that remains to be developed, some
fixed and fundamental principle of the human
economy yet to be explained.
I am far from wishing that any of the pre-
ceding remarks should be construed into an ap-
proval of the sentiments of those gentlemen.
who have represented the manners and the
feelings of persons in the lowest stage of civili-
zation, as objects of imitation and desire; on the
contrary, I would say, to be ignorant, ill informed,
and barbarous, is not to be in the road to hap
piness. A savage is a man, but without the
blessings common to humanity; a dull round of
pursuits, of little utility, occupy his life; the
trust committed to him, that of breaking up
and cultivating the ground, he but ill discharges;
and until this be done, he is not in the way, he
has no claim to happiness. With him a day of
labour is succeeded by a week of idleness; and
idleness, with anxious care, is misery: and
such is the life of a savage. See him
"retire unseen,
"To ponder o'er his gather'd spleen,
"And meditate revenge."
102
And a better idea will be formed of the cause
of the thin population of America at the time of
its discovery, than by prying into and analysing
the evils Mr. M. has represented that country a
prey to.
I shall now close my remarks on this chapter,
which appears to me one of the most important
in the whole of our author's publication. I have
not thought it necessary, on any point, to bring
forward a weight of opposite testimony to that
Mr. M. has produced, for this would have left
the matter in suspense; but I have confined my
observations to the principles of things, and to
the nature of man. Whether I have done justice
to the subject I am uncertain; but I am per-
suaded, if Mr. M's. chapter be attentively con-
sidered, whether the preceding remarks be re-
ceived or not, so many objections to it will arise,
as to shake the confidence of that gentleman's
firmest adherents. The picture he draws is so
overcharged, the facts are so distorted, and the
whole is a tale of such unmixed woe, that it can
only be read in connexion with eastern allegories,
as a fiction, the work of a heated imagination,
embodying misery, and directing to its residence.
But even allowing that a fair and correct reprc-
sentation has been given of the American Indians,
103
the leading principles the work was written to
establish are refuted: a great mortality is, in a
hundred places, stated to be a sure pledge of an
increase in marriages and in children; it is an
unceasing theme, alluded to in every chapter,
and vauntingly made the test of the truth of
what is advanced. But in America, death, in a
thousand forms, is made to do its office: but no
writer ever noticed even a temporary improve-
ment in the state of the people; no period when
marriages became more frequent, or children
more numerous; no period when former evils,
which is Mr. M's. doctrine, increased their pre-
sent comforts.
*
104
OF THE
CHECKS TO POPULATION
AMONG THE
Ancient Inhabitants of the North of Europe.
;
{
*
3
1
•
THEORY, founded on truth, gains support
by every examination to which it can be sub-
mitted; if the facts on which it rests are placed
in different connexions, and viewed under various
circumstances, still the same leading features
present themselves. In the chapter before us,
Mr. Malthus has an opportunity of trying the
theory he advances by this test. The ancient
Germans, of whom he principally treats, lived
under the same laws, observed the same customs,
subsisted by the same means, and were exposed
to the same calamities, as the North American
Indians. Like them, too, they were just learning
the rudiments of civilization; and were there no
other, this circumstance alone would produce a
resemblance in character; for the rudiments of
4
105
government, like those of science, admit, in the
subjects of them, of no distinction. Enter a school,
where the alphabet can scarcely be repeated, and
as there is no scope for the display of talent, so
none is expected; a future Newton, should there
be one, is not distinguished from the most arrant
blockhead. Let the idea of a school be transferred
to a nation, while yet rude and barbarous ;
during that age the same common character
runs through the whole, and applies to every
nation not better informed.
In the first giving way of midnight darkness,
in the first glimmering of light, all remote
objects are involved in obscurity; no one can see
them more clearly than another; and the slight
knowledge gained rather tends to confound than
to direct. Thus circumstanced, no one attempts
to deviate from the common track; the footsteps
of one are a guide to the whole. But when
more knowledge is acquired, when the sun has
risen above the horizon, the prospect enlarges,
objects are scen more distinctly; the footsteps
of another are no longer sought after, which lays
the foundation of a diversity of opinions, and
gives loose to a variety of tastes and inclinations.
It is now that the man of genius is discerned:
now the rudiments of the republic or the
0
106
monarchy are laid, and every succeeding age
increases the difference between them. But in
darkness there is no distinction.
The Germans, described by Cæsar and
Tacitus, and the Americans by Columbus,
Charlevoix, Ulloa, and others, are so nearly alike
in the state of their knowledge, in their charac
ter, and in their conduct, that the same pen
describes both. The light each had attained
was so little, that it is impossible they could
widely have differed. The miseries of Germany
were the miseries of America; the enjoyments
of Germany were the enjoyments of America.
Mr. M., charmed with the condition of the
Germans, has translated from Tacitus part of
what he relates concerning them; to which, by
way of comparison, I shall connect what is
known of the American Indians, on the same
subjects.
•
"The Germans," he translates, "do not in-
habit cities, or even admit of contiguous settle-
ments." The same may be said of the Ameri-
cans.---" Every German surrounds his house
with a vacant space." If they are not contiguous,
it cannot be otherwise.---"They (the Germans)
content themselves almost universally with one
wife." So do the Americans; but polygamy was
}
107
allowed of in both countries.---" Their (the
German) matrimonial bond is strict and severe,
and their manners, in this respect, deserve the
highest praise." The same applies to the Ame-
ricans.---"
"They live in a state of well-guarded
chastity; corrupted by no seducing spectacles,
or convivial incitements." The Americans have
no seducing spectacles, and their women are not
allowed to be present at a feast.---" Adultery
is extremely rare." So it is among the Ameri-
cans.---"No indulgence is shown to a prostitute,
neither youth, beauty, nor riches can procure
her a husband; for none there look on vice with
a smile, nor calls mutual seduction the way of
the world." In America the morals are less
pure, but more friendly to population.---" To
limit the increase of children, or put to death
any of the husband's blood, is accounted infa-
mous; and virtuous manners there, have more
efficacy than good laws elsewhere." The Ame-
ricans are very tender over their offspring, and
every tribe is rejoiced at an increase of its num-
ber, though Mr. M. informs us, some of the
ruder: tribes make a point of not rearing more
than two of their offspring*. As it is impossible
* Page 28.
108
}
•
66
this should be the case for many successive gene-
rations, I pass on to the next observation.---
"Every mother (in Germany) suckles her own
children,and does not deliver them into the hands
of servants and nurses." The same is true of the
Americans. The youths partake late of the
sensual intercourse." The Americans do not
greatly differ in this respect.---" The more nu-
merous a man's kinsmen and relations are, the
more comfortable is his old age; nor is it any
advantage to be childless."* And is it an advan-
tage any where?
Here Mr. Malthus terminates his translation
of the account given by Tacitus: had he gone
on and traced the manners of the Germans even
to the burial of the dead, a counterpart might
have been produced in the customs of the Ame-
ricans. But as our author has satisfied himself,
it next follows that we attend to his inferences
from this representation of their manners.
He thinks the state of the Germans so pros-
perous and happy, that "it is difficult to con-
ceive a society with a stronger principle of in-
crease in it." A little further on, where it is
designed to show the capacity of Germany to
* Page 77.
+ Page 78.
109
sustain the drains made on her population,
Mr. M. says, the succession of human beings
appears to have been most rapid; and as fast as
some were disposed of in colonies, or mowed
down by the scythe of war and famine, others
rose in increased numbers to supply their place."*
And concludes with this general observation,
that, from the above premises, "the north never
could have been exhausted."+
In particularizing the account, our author
informs us,
"The rate at which the Germans
increased was the same as that of the European
colonists in America." And he goes on to say,
"the propriety and even necessity of applying.
this rate strikingly appear from that valuable
picture of their manners," which has just been
given. But, unfortunately for our author, in
'the' very next page he informs us, "It is not
probable for two successive periods together, or
even for one, the population within the confines
of Germany ever doubled itself in 25 years."||
If they never doubled their number in 25 years,
they never increased at the rate of the American
colonies, which has been stated to be
proper and
necessary. But I will not dwell on little incon-
Il
* Page 79. ↑ Pa. 77. ↑ Pa. 77.
Pa. 77. Pa. 78.
110
1
sistencies, as all authors are liable to them; my
object is, to attend to the main scope of the
argument.
From the above statement, it is evident that
Mr. M. thinks the circuinstances of the ancient
Germans extremely friendly to population; and
the question naturally arises, why has not the
same reasoning been applied, and the same infe-
rences drawn, from the state of the American
Indians? A similarity in all the great outlines of
their affairs, and in general in the detail of the
minutest circumstance, suppose a coincidence
of events, an uniformity of consequences; but
it has not suited Mr. M's. theory so to state
the subject. Whilst the German population,
like a torrent, overflows or breaks down, its
banks, and deluges the neighbouring country,
the American moves slowly on, and the slightes
resistance keeps it in its course: the one can
lose half its whole amount without permanent
diminution, the stream by which it is fed flows
with such rapidity, as very soon to make up the
loss; the other passes languidly on, almost
lost among the rocks and breakers which form
its bed, and if a small stream were diverted, its
loss could never be supplied. The messengers
of death are not half powerful enough in Ger-
1
111
many to restrain the population within due
bounds; but in America the population can
with difficulty make head against them.---Such
are the pictures drawn, the representations
given, of these two countries.
But before we finally decide on this sub-
ject, or accuse Mr. M. of unfairness, it may
be proper to enquire what effect the various bo-
dies of emigrants, that went from Germany, had
on the state of those who were left. Whether
the checks to the increase of their numbers be-
came less; and whether by this means some
advantage was not gained over the Americans.
When the Roman empire attracted the no-
tice of the inhabitants of the north of Europe,
the principal part of whom lived within the con-
fines of Germany, and the idea of a rich booty
and a fertile soil animated their desires, many
were eager to seize upon them, and a numerous
body of armed men, with their wives, their chil
dren, and their cattle, left their native country,
no more to return. Formerly the Germans
had been accustomed to wars among them-
selves; did this prevent their recurrence, by
diverting their attention, or directing it to new
objects? Certainly not. The forty states, into
which the country was divided, continued dis-
112
tinct and separate, at least till towards the close
of the contest; among whom the same anti-
pathies were retained, the same inclination to
war continued, and the same motives to it
existed that had ever prevailed, and new grounds
of contest arose: for after various colonies: had
precipitated themselves upon, and were lost in
the adjacent provinces, Tacitus mentions it tỏ
have been the policy and practice of the Romans
to foment discord between the states; and in
onè battle, in consequence of such an intrigue,
40000 fell.---War was the common; delight of
the Germans; it was the business of their lives;
no loss of numbers in any way abated the zeal or
daunted the courage of a tribe: they retained
the love of war, and the practice of it, as
well among themselves as against the Romans,
through the whole period of that part of their
history we are speaking of. Thus we find the
spirit of emigration did not produce harmony,
But was it not beneficial in some other way ?
I apprehend not. Scarcity. still threatened the
land. If those who emigrated were influenced
by the hope of meeting with countries spread
over with plenty, in which they might riot,
those who remained behind had only the pro-
duce of Germany, which the others had aban-
113
doned, and which was extremely scanty and in-
sufficient, unless procured by the toil of the
husbandman or the vigilance of the hunter; and
had not such labour been irksome, the whole
tribe might have lived together in the enjoyment
of the greatest plenty, for their numbers were
few.
At the outset of the struggle with Rome,
Gibbon informs us, the fighting men in the
whole north of Europe may be computed at a
million, who, like the Americans, subsisted by
hunting and agriculture. The systems on which
these were conducted it is now useless to enquire
into; but so far as we know of them, they claim
but little superiority over those on which the
Americans acted. One observance of the Ger-
mans would, so long as it was continued, inevit-
ably keep them on an equality with the most
savage nations, though they lived in the vicinity
of the most civilized; I allude to the custom of
permitting the same plot of ground to remain in
the hands of one person for no longer time than
a year, lest he should become too much attached
to it and grow careless of war. No custom
could have been better adapted for continuing
the brutality of a people. Improvements in
farming were by this system wholly excluded;
P
t
114
and the study of this art seems to have been
that which gave rise to the civilization of the
world; it is the first token that is given of an
advance from barbarism, and it denotes the
progress that is made. What nation ever gained
in civilization that neglected agriculture? It is
from the agriculturalists that a town is supplied
with people; and if the fountain be poisonous,
its streams will injure where they flow, and assi-
milate a stagnant pool to itself. To forbid the
farmer to improve his land, is to exclude know-
ledge; and the states of Germany acted on this
principle. There was one circumstance, how-
ever, in which the Germans had a superiority
over the Americans, their forests gave shelter
to cattle that were easily domesticated, and
became private property, of which the Ame-
ricans had none.
But it is unnecessary to make comparisons
of this kind; for the great and leading pursuit of
both being war, every circumstance of their lives,
by having a reference to this object, could not
fail of producing the greatest similarity of cha-
racter; and any partial advantages would be
swallowed up and lost in this prevailing bias of
their minds.
Of the million of fighting men, suppose half
115
emigrated with their wives and families, and
suppose a scarcity of subsistence to have been in
part their motive for this conduct, what effect
would it produce on the circumstances of those
who remained behind?. The spontaneous pro-
ductions of nature would not be greater, and if
they were, they could not be used as articles of
human food; labour was still an obligation which
could not be dispensed with, and was not
abridged: those who had emigrated took with
them their flocks, and they left no corn, it was
still as much as ever the business of each indi-
vidual to provide subsistence for his family:
and as there never was a want of land to culti
vate, so a thinner population gave them no ad-
vantage. Was any one disposed to exchange
labour for subsistence, the nature of the exchange
would no more have been understood than it was
in America, for both were ignorant of the
mechanical arts and of the use of money, and
had no medium of exchange whatever. A dis-
continuance of the chase, a smaller competition
in hunting, was the only bequest made by the
emigrants; it was the only way in which the
situation of those who remained was improved,
and this was to be defended by arms, for being
reduced in number, the neighbouring tribes, as
116
was their custom, disputed with them the right
to the ground, and most likely, in many in-
stances, deprived them of it.
"An accession of strength," says Mr. M.,
when speaking of the American Indians, but
which he here overlooks, "in one tribe, opens
to it new sources of subsistence, in the weakness
of its adversaries; and, on the contrary, a dimi-
nution of its numbers, so far from giving greater
plenty to the remaining members, subjects them
to extirpation and famine, from the irruption of
their stronger neighbours." ""*
So that on the whole, emigration was an injury
rather than a benefit to a tribe. Besides, who
were the persons that emigrated? were they the
old and infirm, or the indolent? No: emigration
was a voluntary act, and would be made choice
of by the young and middle-aged; by the most
active, enterprising, and robust; by those who,
being able to attack one country, were competent
to the defence of another. Those then who
remained would consequently be the infirm, the
young, the fearful, and the decrepid.
Under such circumstances Mr. M. supposes
population to have gone on increasing at a most
* Page 37.
1
117
rapid rate, and in a very few years to have filled
up the places of those who had abandoned them.
But even if what has been advanced be of no
weight, such a statement is not congenial to the
character of the Germans, or the nature of
things. An increase in children supposes an
increase of care and toil, food must be provided
for them; but to furnish the means of subsistence
to a numerous family of unproductive members
would not be deemed, by a barbarous German, or
by a savage of any nation, an improvement in his
condition; he would feel indignant at the task.
The labour he willingly bestowed, was never
more than sufficient to supply the wants of a
small family, to double which, without a change
of habits, was impossible, and a change of habits
implies a change of character; a people once
accustomed to industry, lose their fierceness, and
cease to be barbarous: had the Germans grown
fond of labour, Rome would not have fallen by
their arms. To emigrate was a voluntary act,
but the motive to it would have been lost if the
love of war had been exchanged for that of a
domestic nature-if a delight in carnage gave
place to that of a numerous offspring.
But, to continue the supposition, that half
the population of a country had left it, is it
118
rational to expect that the remaining half would
produce and rear as many children as the
whole body when together? especially if it be
taken into the account, that one motive for emi-
grating was not a want of room, but an unwilling- -
ness by labour to procure the means of subsist-
ence. Did the fecundity of the women increase
by the circumstance? Or were the children
more healthy or better treated? Or by what new
means were they nurtured and brought up in
such increased numbers? The blood of a Ger-
man was always respected, and no restriction
was ever put, by the customs of the country, on
the number of their offspring; but some im-
provement must have taken place in their
management, some increase in the fecundity, of
the women, if the event Mr. M. speaks of had •
been accomplished.
*
If the German states were not more exempt
from war or famine, in consequence of their con
test with the Roman power, it follows, of course,
that they were not from pestilence. Hence
arises another question: in what way was the
population of these states kept within the means
of subsistence before the invasion of the
Roman provinces? Mr. M. expressly declares,
that the north never could have been emptied of
119
people, notwithstanding the many drains that
were made from it: the principle of increase he
supposes, for it is only supposition, to have been
so great, that the stream which had flown for
200 years, and emptied its foul stream on the
fairest portion of the globe, would flow on to the
end of time undiminished at the fountain.
Robinson, Gibbon, Mallet, and other philo-
sophers and historians, are of a contrary opinion,
and speak of the north as in some parts an entire
desert from emigration. But without enquiring
into this subject, what became of this mighty
river before it overflowed its banks? Mr. M. is
silent on this subject. But if it can be shown
that the states of Germany, during a certain
period, doubled their population in 25 years,
something ought to be said to prove that they
did not increase so fast at an earlier period.
Did vice, misery, and moral restraint prevent it?
in that case the diminished influence of such
agents might be shown when they received a
new tlirection, and the same end was attained by
a diversity in the means. But this has not been
done; and therefore I conclude that the state
of the population of Germany is not explained
by the principles advanced by Mr. M.
I have now followed Mr. M. through the
120
leading facts and arguments contained in two
chapters, expressly written to exemplify and illus-
trate his theory; and, on a hasty perusal, the
design in both appears to have been accomplished.
But on a more attentive consideration, that which
dazzled the imagination and confounded the
judgment, is discovered to be not the strength
and force of the argument, but the ability of the
author, exciting a sentiment which the facts,
considered in themselves, do not convey. The
research of the philosopher, extracting truth
from doubtful evidence, does not appear; in
place of it, I fancy I am reading the speech of
a pleader, who is endeavouring to say all that
is favorable of his friends, and all that is dis-
creditable of his antagonists.
Our author, to keep up the idea of a coun-
sellor, is retained on two causes, resembling each
other in all their leading circumstances, but on
opposite sides; and has to prove, that being
murdered or starved´in Germany, is by no means
the same thing as being murdered or starved in
America; and however difficult the task may
appear,. he acquits himself with dexterity: and
the hearer, being governed by the impression of
his eloquence, rather than by the weight of his
reasoning, will give him the credit of having
121
succeeded in both causes. If his German friends
are fallen on and half murdered, he represents
them as the better for it. Like an oak, cut
down, it gives occasion and makes room for
young sprouts, which shoot with vigour, and
increase in number: the young are improved
and benefitted by the fall of the old. But a
mere puff destroys an American; the roots are
torn up by the falling of the trunk; the place it
occupied is made vacant, and there is no pros-
pect of its being filled again. The young subsist
by the old, and receive no collateral aid; con-
sequently, if the tree withers, their nourishment
is gone, and they die.
3
Divesting our author of the character of a
pleader, I ask him, in what essential point the
ancient Germans and modern American Indians
differ from each other? I ask him, why he has
described, and even exaggerated, the evils that
exist in America, and concealed their very name
when speaking of Germany? The Black Forest
might have been paradise ; in describing its inha-
bitants, not a word is said of vice and misery; and
only once, war is mentioned, in an incidental
way:
death might never have interrupted their peace, or
disturbed their happiness or order. But America
is represented as a place of skulls; misery is a
122
guest even at their pastimes; they know of no
respite from sorrow and sufferings. One coun-
try is described as in the highest manner friendly
to the increase of its inhabitants; the other, as
the very seat of misery and woe.
C
From such decisions, I appeal, and refer both
causes to a man of a sober, unbiassed mind, who,
I conceive, would argue thus: The climate of
America is liable to great extremes of heat and
cold, but is on the whole, friendly to vegetation,
and is superior in this respect to Germany;
which, at the time of which we speak, was con-
siderably colder and more inclement than now,
and much more so than many parts of America.
Virgil, speaking of the countries on the banks
of the Danube, says,
"Sic jacet ageribus niveis informis, et alto
"Terra gelu late, septemque assurgit in ulnas
rr
Semper hyems semper spirantes frigora cauri."
Of the soil and natural productions of the
trans-atlantic continent there is a decided. prefe--
rence to be given. Indian corn and potatoes
are indigenous in that quarter of the globe,
and afforded an easy and abundant crop; but,
were unknown, and would not have lived, in
Germany. In their place sprung up moss, which
satisfied the hunger of the rein deer, an animal
+
123
which delights only in the most inclement re-
gions of the earth.
The wars of the Americans were not more
bloody, nor more frequent, than those of the
Germans.---The Americans were less exposed
to famine, because they relied less on agricul-
ture for their subsistence; the produce of which
was in danger of being wrested from them in war.
---Pestilence and common diseases were, it is
probable, equally frequent and destructive in both
places: and their domestic manners were so
much alike as to have a similar influence on po-
pulation and on happiness.
From such statements, a candid reader would
be disposed to say, that the advantage was not
great on either side, but preponderated towards
the American.
Believing, as I do, that this is a just opi-
nion, it excites my astonishment that Mr. M.
should attempt to derive such opposite conclu-
sions from premises so similar.
Д
1
3
124
•
t
OF THE
CHECKS TO POPULATION
IN SIBERIA.
:『,,
IT was not my design to have noticed any
other chapter that treats of ancient or rude
nations, but at once to have gone on to a con-
:} :
sideration of some of the modern states of
Europe, but the observations of Mr. M. on the
nature of the checks to population in this pro-
vince of the Russian empire, are so singular and
so unexpected, that I cannot pass them by in
silence.
Mr. M. assures us, on the authority of
M. Pallas, "that the soil of Siberia consists in
general of a fine black mould, of so rich a nature,
as not to require, or even to bear dressing.
Buck wheat, which is a common culture, is
sown very thin, yet one sowing will last five or
six years; and produce every year twelve or
1
}
125
fifteen times the original quantity. The seed
which falls during the time of harvest is suffi-
cient for the next year; and it is only necessary
to pass a harrow once over it in the spring."
Here, then, is the very country in which to
exemplify Mr. M's. theory, and to show at what
rate the human race are capable of increasing.
Corn is in the greatest abundance, inviting its
consumption; consequently, marriages are early
and children numerous. No! says Mr. M.,
this is not the country in which to exemplify
my principles. "The fertility of the soil is coun-
terbalanced (by what?) by the little demand for
manual labour." This remark I was not pre-
pared to expect, and I call the attention of the
reader particularly to it; for in countries, the
soil of which is poor and unproductive, Mr. M.
never once mentions manual labour as the means
of overcoming that evil; but calls loudly for
some messenger of death to take off part of the
population.
I agree with Mr. M. that labour is a duty
of indispensible obligation, as it is the mean of
subsistence, but not the procuring cause of a
full population. An individual, independent of
* Page 120.
126
4
น
manual labour, is not on that account deprived
of the prospect of a family; and what is true of
one, is applicable to a community. But mere
drudgery is not the whole of labour; when the
means of subsistence are secured, works of in-
genuity and taste call for and engage the atten-
tion.---But, on the supposition that these are
despised and neglected, and the inhabitants sink
almost to the level of mere animals, their food
growing round them, requiring only to be con-
sumed, which is the state Mr. M. describes the
Siberians to be in, would this prevent their in-
crease? Yes! says Mr. M.; such countries
seem to be under that moral impossibility of
increasing which is well described by Sir James
Steward; when he says, "Man, though he may
often be produced without a sufficient demand
for him, cannot readily multiply and prosper
unless his labour be wanted; and the reason that
population goes on so slowly in these countries
is, that there is very little demand for men.'
1
}
Thus it seems, that population cannot in-
crease where labour is necessary to the produc-
tion of a good crop, nor where it is not.---
Mr. M. might have suspected the justness of his
*Page 118.
127
principles from the contradiction they imply.
But our author goes on to say, "If, from ob-
serving the deficiency of population compared
with the fertility of the soil, we were to endea
vour to remedy it, by giving a bounty on chil-
dren, and thus enabling the labourer to rear up
a greater number, what would be the conse-
quence? Nobody would want the work of these
supernumerary labourers that were thus brought
into the market. Though the ample subsist-
ence of a man for a day might be purchased for
a penny, yet nobody will give these people a
farthing for their labour. (Consequently) they
are as completely without the means of subsist-
ence as if they were living upon a barren sand,
and must either emigrate to some place where
their work is wanted, or perish miserably of
poverty."*
I remember, when a boy, to have thought
the punishment of Tantalus remarkably grievous,
but I was not prepared to cast my eyes to a cor-
ner of this earth to behold its execution. Water
continually flowing just below lips parched
with thirst, of which they were not suffered to
taste; the cravings of hunger, aggravated by
* Page 120.
文
​128
3
1
1
the sight of the most agreeable food, never to be
enjoyed, are sufferings the ancients presented to
the imagination; but Mr. M. has discovered
their reality, and given to a fiction the import-
ance of truth.
The unfortunate individual who is doomed
to spend the remainder of his days in Siberia,
receives the sentence as a punishment; he goes
as a criminal to reside among criminals; but still
he expects to be under the laws of heaven. If
he can command land, he expects by his indus
try to command bread: it would never occur to
him that corn was already in such abundance
that nobody would eat it, or only a few privi-
leged individuals; and because the want of him
had not previously been felt, therefore he must
perish of poverty. Such, however, is the opi-
nion Mr. M. advances. But a fertile soil, as a
check to population, does not come under the
heads either of vice, misery, or moral restraint:
In another edition of his work, Mr. M. will,
doubtless, give it its proper place.
A little further on in this chapter we are
informed, that population can never increase with
great rapidity but where the price of labour is
very high, as in America.*
If this be true,
* Page 125.
129
what becomes of Mr. M's. long chapter on the
checks to population among the ancient inhabi-
tants of the north of Europe, among whom
labour was never paid for at all, and by whom
servants were no more wanted than in Siberia,
but who are represented as increasing as fast as
the inhabitants of the United States?
Again, if a soil which yields an abundant crop
with little of the labour of the husbandman be a
check to population, what becomes of Mr. M's.
second proposition? "That population invaria-
bly increases where the means of subsistence
increase, unless prevented by some very powerful
and obvious checks." An increase of subsistence
is not a powerful or an obvious check. In Siberia
hired labourers may not be wanted, but the man
must be despised who cannot borrow as much
seed as he wants: forty pounds of flour are
sold for five farthings; and he can subsist till
harvest on the waste of a family that can pur-
chase an ox for five shillings.*
But if husbandry be unpleasant, or labour in
this way unnecessary, Siberia is celebrated for
the richness of the furs of the animals that are
bred in its woods; which holds out an induce-
*Page 122.
R
130
ment to labour, at once pleasant and profitable:
the man who can kill a fox may purchase flour.
When North America was colonised, and
for many successive generations, when the dis-
tinction of master and servant was not much
better attended to than in Siberia, neither the
richness of the soil, nor the abundance of game,
nor the little demand for labourers, checked the
increase of population. What would have been
thought of the man, who, in the early days of
America, went there under an expectation of
being hired as a servant, but nobody wanting his
services, he was offered land to cultivate for
himself, which he refused? Would not such a
man have been thought insane? But, from
Mr. M's. account, of such a description are a
large proportion of the Siberians. The horn of
plenty is emptied into their laps, but they will
not accept of its contents, because it has not cost
them labour in procuring.
But Mr. M. is yet at a loss fully to account for
the slow increase of the population of Siberia. It
is a country in which neither the armies of con-
tending empires, nor bands of robbers, nor
natives, dispossessed of their property, and thirst-
ing for revenge, interrupt its tranquillity. It is
a land of peace, and of fruitfulness: a land which
131
pestilence spares, and is freest of all others from
those evils that are destructive to life: a land
in which luxury and want are both unknown:
But Mr. M., determined to find some cause of
misery, seeks it among their blessings.--After
dwelling on the difficulties that are in the way of
an increase of people from the want of labour,
our author suddenly turns round, forgets his
theory, and, as his custom is, describes the actual
state of the country. He says, the well-directed
efforts of the late Empress, added to what had
been done by Peter the 1st, had, as might be
expected, a considerable effect, (in increasing
the population of Russia). Though the popu-
lation of the more fertile provinces of Siberia be
still very inadequate to the richness of the soil,
yet in some of them agriculture flourishes in no
inconsiderable degree, and great quantities of
corn are grown. In the general dearth, which
happened in 1769, the province of Isitsk was
able, notwithstanding a scanty harvest, to supply,
in the usual manner, the founderies and forges
of Ural, besides preserving from the horrors of
famine all the neighbouring provinces.---The
time at which this happened cannot have been
far remote, if it was not at the precise instant, of
which Mr. M. speaks, when men, it is said,
132
could not exist because they could not be em-
ployed. I leave the reader to make his own
comments.
Before our author concludes his chapter on
Siberia, as his great and leading checks to popu-
lation do not apply to the state of that country,
he wholly unloads his quiver of the lesser.
Some places are too dry, others are too wet and
marshy; some places are even too full of inha-
bitants; in another a disease among the horned
cattle is ranked among the checks to population.
"In the flourishing colony of the Moravian
brethren at Serepta, it is said, that the young
people cannot marry without the consent of
their priests, and that their consent is not in
general granted till late. It would appear, there-
fore, that among the obstacles to the increase of
population, even in these new colonies, the pre-
ventive check has its share."*
The influence such checks have on the popu-
lation of a country it is useless to enquire into.
In a large province there will be a variety in the
soil, and in the most healthful region of the
globe there are tracks of country that do not
merit this character. But that a disease among
* Page 125,
133
horned cattle has an influence on population I
am not prepared to admit. As to the Moravian
brethren, I understand it is usual for the priests,
or some other officers in their church, to appoint
the wives of their young men, in every country
where they have a settlement, but it is not
considered as a check to population."
134
i
OF THE
CHECKS TO POPULATION
IN NORWAY.
THE chapter which treats of the popula-
tion of Norway, is entitled to particular atten-
tion; because in it our author has detailed his
sentiments in a clear and intelligible manner,
incapable of being misunderstood; but especially
because it contains a statement on which depends
many of the inferences and conclusions in the
subsequent chapters, the whole of which I shall
attempt to prove erroneous.
Mr. Malthus remarks," that Norway, during
nearly the whole of the last century, was in a
peculiar degree exempt from the drains of people
by war. The climate," he goes on to say, "is
remarkably free from epidemic sicknesses; and,
in common years, the mortality is less than in
any other country in Europe, the registers of
$
135
}
which are known to be correct.---Yet the popu
lation of Norway never seems to have increased
with great rapidity.---And we," continues our
author, "feel assured, that, as the positive
checks to its population have been so small, the
preventive check must have been proportionably
great."*
This view of the subject, Mr. M. conceives
he has fully established, by proving, that the
average term of life is greater in Norway, and
that the marriages are fewer, in proportion to
the population, than appears in the registers of
any other nation, except Switzerland. From
this clear and explicit statement, we are led at
once to the conclusion, that the infrequency of
marriages is the only cause of the very slow in-
crease of population in Norway. Confident of
the truth of this opinion, Mr. M. enters upon
the proof of it. The first bar in the way of
marriage, is the authority of the military officers
and priests over the common soldiers; no one of
whom can marry without having obtained their
permission.---
This is certainly a very considerable hardship
on the individuals, but as a check to population
* Page 184.
† Pa. 185.
136
:
1
1
it is insignificant. The Norwegian soldiers are
not very numerous; and it is of little conse-
quence to the population of any state, whether
the soldiers are married or not, for few children
are born in camps, and the regiment may be
deemed prolific that rears its own drummers.
Unless, therefore, Mr. M. be prepared to
prove that a larger standing army is kept up in
Norway than in other states, in proportion to its
population, this check is not entitled to further
consideration.
The next preventive to marriage, noticed by
Mr. M., is the want of manufacturing towns to
take off the overflowing population of the
country.* Our author might have recollected,
that manufacturing towns are never established
in states as little civilized as Norway. There
are no manufacturing towns in Tartary, nor are
any wanted the population of such countries
do not require such drains.
Mr. Malthus next passes on to the manage-
ment of the land, and in it he discovers another
powerful preventive to marriage. It appears,
that on every farm in Norway there are a num
ber of cottage houses, in which part of the ser
* Page 186.
137
}
vants live, others are boarded with the farmer: to
each of these cottages is attached sufficient land to
keep from one to six cows, which is considered
in part as a compensation for service. These
cottagers are called housemen, and from the
nature of their engagement it is requisite they
should be married.---Having tenanted these
houses, Mr. M. cannot discover any other means
by which a wife and family can be maintained,
except in the vicinity of the towns or on the
sea-coast; the vacancy of "a place of this kind
(a houseman's place, he expressly declares) is
the only prospect which presents itself of keep-
ing a family."*
It is the custom in Scotland, and I believe
has been so in every country in Europe, before
money, as a medium of exchange, became well
understood and in abundance, for farmers to pay
their servants in part from the produce of the
land: a load of meal, the keep of a cow or two,
a house, and the carriage of fuel, are very com-
mon stipulations even at this day in the northern
parts of this kingdom: But those who are not
thus paid are recompensed in a different but
an equal manner.---If to obtain a houseman's
*Page 186.
$
ד
1
138
1
Ի
place was to gain a fortune, it would then be an
object of strife, and every young man would
marry, and submit to much temporary inconve-
nience, under the hope of some time obtaining
such a situation. It does not, however, appear
that the housemen are better remunerated than
the other servants. But are there no cottages in
Norway but those attached to farms? and would
it be impossible for a married man to obtain a
house by paying a rent, and to subsist by his wa-
ges, as in England? Are there no forests or mines
in Norway, by labouring in which a competency
for a man and his family might be obtained?
Certainly there are. On this view of the subject
it does not therefore appear that the hinderances
to the marriage of a Norwegian peasant are so
great and insurmountable as Mr. M. represents
them to be.
Our author next informs his readers, that in
every gentleman's family there are a much greater
proportion of servants than the work seems to
require.* Industry is an acquirement which it
is exceedingly probable the Norwegian peasants
have not yet attained.
The next remark of our author's respects the
* Page 187.
139
markets, in which not even a pound of butter
can at all times be purchased. This, however,
is not a check to population but a mark of bar-
barism; markets are only established and regu-
larly supplied when population has made consi-
derable progress.
After passing some compliments on the pru-
dence of the peasants in not marrying lest the
country should be over-peopled, our author goes
on to speak of the nature of the soil. Here it
is unnecessary to follow him, for whether the
land be good or bad, it is the concurring testi-
mony
of all travellers, that the Norwegian pea-
sant lives in the full enjoyment of the common
necessaries of life.
Such are the various circumstances mentioned
by Mr. M., as influencing, or rather compelling,
a greater number of peasants to live unmarried
in Norway than elsewhere. Comparing them
with the hinderances in the way of an English
peasant, they appear inadequate to this end.
But Mr. M. attempts to prove their truth in
another way, to which great attention is requi-
site, for it is a main pillar in our author's theory.
The annual marriages in Norway, he finds, are
hot in a greater proportion than 1 to 130 of the
inhabitants; from hence it is concluded that
}
140
7
they are contracted by persons advanced in life,
and that consequently the preventive check has
great force. It is very easy for a theorist to
deceive himself; Mr. M., in his calculation, has
entirely overlooked the age to which the people
of Norway live, and has mistaken the proof of a
long life for a late marriage. To place this in a
clear light, I shall mention the age attained, and
the proportion the annual marriages bear to the
population in the following countries:
Annual Marriages.
1 in 130 persons.
Norway,
Age.
48,
England,
- 40,
1
Sweden,
34,
Switzerland,
45,
according to Sus- 23,
milch,
22 Dutch Villages,
123
112
140
64
In France the registers are not correct; but Mr. M.
says, both the mortality and tendency to mar-
riage are much greater than in Switzerland.
may be
If the registers of the above countries
relied on, they show a very considerable relation
between the healthfulness of a place and the
proportion of marriages in it; Switzerland is
somewhat of an exception, but it ought to be
remembered that the emigration of males is
greater from that country than from any of the
others.
141
To confine the subject to as small a compass
as possible, let us suppose five marriages to have
been contracted between ten persons all at the
age of twenty, and that these marriages yielded
ten children, but the parents died when the
children were young; if they intermarry, there
will still be only five marriages and ten persons.
The inferences to be drawn from these facts are,
that the parents were short-lived, and that the
number of marriages were very great
in propor-
tion to the population, but there is no proof of
the ages the parties were of at the time their
marriages were contracted.
Again,---Suppose five other marriages yielded
the same number of children, whose parents
lived to see them married; in this case there
would be five marriages and twenty persons; ten
parents and ten children. The facts proved are,
that the parents lived to a good age, and that
the number of marriages to the population was
much fewer than in the other case; but it does
not prove which marriages were contracted
latest in life.
Let us apply these observations to a nation:
if the people are healthy and live long, at every
marriage that is contracted, the old married
persons being enumerated, make the number of
142
annual marriages appear very small; were these
omitted, the proportion of marriages would rise.
In order to show, by this mode of reasoning,
that marriages are contracted later in life in one
country than in another, Mr.M. ought to have
reduced the term of life to the same standard in
both places, and then have shown his facts: the
people who live to 48 years will certainly possess
more existing marriages than those who live only
to 28. The youths of a marriageable age in
Switzerland, and those in Holland, it is probable,
are equally inclined to marriage.
The problem on which Mr. M's. reasoning
turns, is this, if the parents be living at the time
of the marriages of their children, will the pro-
portion of marriages, to the individuals composing
that family, be greater than if the parents were
dead? In this form the problem is of easy
solution. After attentively considering the sub-
ject, I cannot discover that the facts brought
forward by Mr. M. admit of any other:
At Augsburg, in 1510, the proportion of
marriages to the population was as 1 to 86; in
1750, as 1 to 123. In Dantzic, in the year
1705, the proportion was as 1 to 89; in 1745,
as 1 to 118. Many other places show similar re-
sults; and from them, Mr. M. argues, that
143
marriages were contracted at a more advanced
age in the later than in the earlier periods. But
the fact is, that in every place alluded to, there
has been an improvement in longevity sufficient
to account for the difference in the proportion of
the marriages. The marriageable age is nearly
the same in every country in Europe: it would
be cruelty, both to the parents and children, to
lay such restrictions in the way of marriage that
the death of the parents could alone remove
them; and this is Mr. M's. idea. It is not
agreeable to the nature of man that this should
be the case
and any less restriction, it is pra
bable, would be broken through.
If celibacy be a check to the population of
Norway, so it is to other countries, and it is only
by comparison that its influence can be judged
of. Celibacy is felt in Norway with very little
more force than in England; but in England
many other, and much more powerful, means of
lessening population prevail. The check of celi-
bacy presses with nearly equal force in both
countries; but population increases in England
and does not in Norway, consequently the opi-
nion Mr. M. advances, respecting that country,
is erroneous.
144
:
Σ
OF THE
CHECKS TO POPULATION
IN SWITZERLAND.
1
ABOUT forty years ago the evidently de-
clining state of the population of Switzerland
excited the attention, and alarmed the fears of
that people. On this occasion several memoirs.
were presented to the economic society at Berne,
acknowledging the fact, and proposing to remedy
it by calling in new settlers, by giving dowries
to young women, by préventing emigration, and
by aiding the beneficial operation of these plans
by other regulations of an inferior nature.---
Mons. Muret, minister of Vivey, greatly to his
credit, attended, with much perseverance and
care, to the subject, with the design of ascer-
taining the extent of the evil complained of;
and as the registers in Switzerland had been kept
from their establishment, a period of 210 years,
he had ample means of information before him.
145
Seventeen parishes, which do not appear to have
been under any circumstances peculiar to them-
selves, are particularly noticed; and after divid-
ing the registers into three parts, of 70 years
each, M. Muret next ascertained the sum of
births in each period; the first of which ended
in 1620, the second in 1690, and the third in
1760. In the first term the sum of the births
was 49860, or 712 annually; in the last, only
43910, which would be only 626 annually. From
these and similar facts M. Muret coincided in
the general opinion, that the population had
decreased and was decreasing; and the view of
the subject he then took, went some way in
pointing out the rate at which the declension
had been made. But Mr. Malthus says, that
Mons. Muret, and the people of Switzerland,
were all deceived, and had mistaken a rapid
increase for a gradual decline. He argues thus:
During the first, and to near the end of the
second period, the country was visited by fre-
quent returns of epidemic and sickly seasons;
but in the last 90 years, the people enjoyed
better health. In the sickly period of 120 years
he supposes the annual mortality to have been
1 in 26 in the healthy period he supposes it to
have risen to 1 in 36. In the first period.
T
靠
​1
146
there were 720 children born annually; and as
their lives could only be computed at 26 years,
by multiplying the births, 712 by 26, the proba-
ble number of years they would live, it makes
the number of inhabitants 18512. In the healthy
period there were only 626 annual births, but the
lives of the Swiss at that time being supposed
on an average ten years longer than those of
the former period, indicate a population of
22536, that is, 626 multiplied by 36 give
that number.
By these calculations, which certainly are
extremely plausible, Mr. M. conceives he has
overthrown the accurate investigation of Mons.
Muret, and the common opinion of the inhabi-
tants of Switzerland; but it does not unfrequently
happen that the most specious conjectures are
fallacious. It is scarcely possible a people should
increase from 18 to 22000 and not to be con-
scious of it: the old inhabitants must have
witnessed the building of houses, the inclosing
of waste lands, the general increase of accom.
modations over the country, the extension of
manufactories; and what they had seen they
would speak of; but the very reverse was their
testimony: they lamented the decay of towns
and villages, the declension of the arts, the lan-
147
guid state of agriculture and commerce, the
frequency of emigration; in short, the face of
the country indicated a declining population.
A very superficial acquaintance with the pre-
sent and former state of Europe, conveys an idea
that its population hath in the last centuries in-
creased; and by those political arithmeticians
who have paid attention to the subject, it has
been ascertained that it has even doubled in the
last 500 years but on the calculation of Mr. M.
the population of Switzerland has gone on at a
more rapid rate, which the people, neither by
investigation nor by the general appearance of
the country, could discover.
Were there no other facts than these on
which to form a judgment, I should not hesitate
to conclude that Mr. Malthus had fallen into
an error. But M. Muret, by additional evidence,
places this matter beyond all doubt. He informs
us, in the town of Berne, from the year 1583 to
1654, the sovereign council admitted into the
Bourgeoisie 487 families, of which 379 became
extinct in the space of two centuries; in 1783
only 108 of them remained. During the hun-
dred years, from 1684 to 1784, 207 Bernoise
families became extinct. From 1624 to 1712,
the Bourgeoisie was given to 80 families. In
148
!
1623, the sovereign council united the members
of 112 families, of which 58 only remain.*
Şuch facts are conclusive, as far as relates
to the town of Berne; and as it is not large,
or the occupation of its inhabitants unhealthy,
it is fair to suppose other towns, and even the
country at large, partook of the like declension:
many of the families inentioned, doubtless became
extinct, in the proper sense of the term; others
might emigrate, and in this way be accounted
dead by the government; but in either case, the
idea of an increasing population does not present
itself.
It may not be improper here to enquire into
the consistency of the reasoning in this, com-
pared with the foregoing chapter, and with the
general tendency and spirit of the work. Popu-
lation, Mr. M. considers, as every where op-
pressed and kept down by some violent cause,
especially the want of a suitable situation in which
to obtain the means of subsistence for a family;
but as often as a plague, or some other affliction,
makes room for the full power of increase, popu-
lation rebounds to its former level, like a bow
which had been bent. A sickly climate is de-
}
Page 278.
149
clared to be the greatest promoter of marriage, and
the most certain pledge of a numerous progeny.
"We know, (says our author) from the registers of
other countries, which have been already noticed,
and more particularly from that of Prussia, that
the period of the greatest mortality naturally
produces a greater number of births." And in
corroboration of this remark, we are told, that in
twenty-two Dutch villages, marriages and births
succeeded each other in the most rapid succes**
sion, because the country is unhealthy.* But
in Switzerland, which was also unhealthy, having
been wasted by one plague after another for up-
wards of a century, the number of births were
not at any time increased beyond former years;
the period of the greatest mortality did not there
naturally produce a greater number of births,
but, on the contrary, from the very termination
of the sickly seasons, a gradual declension was
observed. Thus, neither health nor sickness
removed from Switzerland the weight which was
sinking its population.
But, for the sake of placing the subject under
as many points of view as possible, let it be
granted to Mr. M. that his opinion of the state
* Page 242.
150
•
of the population of that country is correct;
and that for several generations the inhabitants
had increased at the rate of doubling themselves
in two or three hundred years. This is still a
very slow rate compared with that of the Ame-
rican states; and Mr. M. has yet to assign a
reason, why the population of Switzerland, for
short periods, when the country was healthy,
and the government, by its maxims and policy,
promoted the population of the state, did not
increase at least as rapidly as the American
colonies. This objection to his reasoning
Mr. M. appears to have overlooked, or very
slightly attended to: he has not summoned to
his aid, during the healthy seasons, a host of
evils, and encamped them in the vallies of Swit-
zerland The effects of vice and misery, in the
last ninety years of which Mr. M. speaks, were
not greater than in America; some other check
must therefore be sought for, and our author
thinks he has discovered it in the strong attach-
ment of the Swiss to a life of celibacy, by which
he gives up all his former opinions on this sub-
ject. We are not now told that new inarriages
are contracted immediately on the dissolution of
old ones, but that the proportion of unmarried
persons in Berne, including widows and widowers,
1
I
151
1
is considerably above the half of the adults; and
the proportion of those below sixteen to those
above, is nearly as 1 to 3.*
It is a remarkable circumstance, that above
half the adults in a town should be unmarried;
the men might be mohawks, who are described
to be without sexual appetite; their passions
might be in unison with the frozen regions of
the arctic circles, and their sympathies with.
those timid animals that are frightened at their
own resemblance, and who never fancy them-
selves safe but when in solitude---they eat their'
morsels alone, and call it happiness.
But before censuring the bachelors of Berne,
it is fair to enquire into the truth of the charge
against them. As it now stands, the fact is a
most striking one. But at what age does Mr. M.
consider the people of Berne as adult? Is it at
sixteen? If so, the remark loses its force; for
other cities have as many unmarried inhabitants
above that age.---I must here beg leave to draw
the attention of the reader to this subject.
Mr. M. speaks of the marriageable age in Swit-
zerland in such a manner as to convey an idea of
its being the same as in England; but in the
* Page 277
152
next page he proves that this is not the case.
The population of the Pays de Vaud, M. Muret
estimates at 113000, (I here transcribe from
Mr. M.), of which 76000 are adults; 76000
is rather more than two-thirds of 113000, there
is of course only one-third of the population that
have not arrived at this period; who these are
Mr. M. has just informed us, they are the chil
dren beneath the age of sixteen, so that the
adults are reckoned to be all above sixteen; and
Mr. M. uses as synonymous the terms adult and
marriageable.---I hope he has not often attempted
to impose on his readers in this manner. It
must have been known to him, when he spoke
of the marriageable age in Switzerland, that it
would not convey the idea of a lad of sixteen,
and it was incumbent on him not to have misled
the public.
Among the 76000 adults there aré 19000
subsisting marriages, consequently 38000 mar-
ried persons, or exactly the half. Besides these,
there are 9000 widows and widowers.*
This estimate for the whole country does
away with the impression the statement respect-
ing the people of Berne was calculated to make.
- * Page 277.
153
1
and there is still another circumstance which
proves that celibacy was not more common in
Switzerland than in other European states.
In the neighbouring country of France, which
Mr. M. represents as being as much disposed as
the Swiss are averse to marriage, there were,
according to M. Peuchet, 1451063 males, about
the middle of the revolution; the account was
published in 1800, in an essay, entitled, Essai
d'une Statitisque Generale. At the same period,
the author calculates, there were five millions of
males in the whole, between the ages of 18 and
50*. If to the 1451063 males of the military
age, be added the youths between 16 and 18,
and the old men above 50; and if to this be
also added the larger proportion of unmarried
men who composed the armies of France, and
who fell in the unprecedented conflict which
continued to the middle of the revolution, the
proportion of unmarried persons in France and
Switzerland will be found nearly equal.
But I am unwilling to press this subject any
further, for the statements of Mr. M. are so di-
rectly opposite to each other, that it is impossible
to ascertain his sentiments. After writing seve-
* Page 287.
$54
ral pages, and drawing inferences from the facts
related, with a view to prove that the preventive
check operated very forcibly in Switzerland, our
author gallops away to the Lac de Joux, a few
stages from Berne, where he forgets the preven-
tive check, and enters into a discussion with his
landlady on his doctrines of population. This
good lady, who seems to have embraced the ge-
neral principles advanced by Mr. M., is very
far from charging the Swiss with apathy, on the
contrary, she laments with much bitterness that
boys and girls were marrying who ought to have
been at school; and she told Mr. M., if this
habit of early marriages continued, they should
always be wretched, and distressed for sub-
sistence.*
Dismissing this good lady, our author pre-
sently after meets with a labourer, who had a
turn for politics, and to whom Mr. M. pays
some handsome compliments; in his opinion,
early marriages were le vice du pays; and that a
law ought to be made, restraining men from
entering into the marriage state before they were
forty years of age, and then allowing it only
with "des vielles filles."†
* Page 281. † Pa. 282.
155
As these statements are wholly irreconcilable
with what is said of the city of Berne, and as
the chapter does not afford matter for any fur-
ther observations, I pass on.
156
Of the Effects of Epidemic Years on Population.
IT is an axiom with Mr. Malthus, of uni-
versal application, that an epidemic disease, or
any other calamity, that takes off at a stroke
part of the population of a country, not only
makes room for, but invites to, new marriages;
and the number of unmarried youths of both
sexes are represented as being in every country
so great, that the remnant left by the most
destructive plague, is sufficient to reoccupy every
place made vacant, and their willingness to do
so is so general, that in a very few years not a
trace of the mischief inflicted can be found.
So important is this circumstance to Mr. M's.
doctrine, that he publishes a table from Susmilch
to prove its truth. "The way," says our au-
thor, "in which these periods of mortality affect
all the general proportions of births, deaths, and
marriages, is strikingly illustrated in the table
for Prussia and Lithuania, from the year 1692
to the year 1757:"* As the table is interesting,
I have copied it.
* Page 252.

Proportion Proportion of
Annual average.
Marriages.
Births.
Deaths.
of births to
marriages.
deaths
to births.
5 yrs. to 1697
.5747
19715
14862
10:34
100: 132
5 yrs.
1702
6070
24112 14474
10: 39
100: 165
6 yrs.
1708
6082
26890 16430
10:44
100: 163
Number
In 1709 and 1710 a plague destroyed 247733
lin 2 years.
In 1711
12029
32522 .10131
10:27
100: 320
In 1712
6267
22970
10445
10:30
100: 220
5 yrs. to 1716
4968
21603
11984
10: 43
100 180
5 yrs.
1721
4324
21396
12249
10:49
100: 177
5 yrs.
1726
4719
21452
12863
10: 45
100: 166
5 yrs.
1731
4808
2955-4
12825
10: 42
100: 160
4 yrs.
1735
5424
22092
15475
10 41
100: 146
In 1736
$280
21859
26371 Epidemic
In 1737
-5765
18930
2-44480 years.
5 yrs. to 1742
5582
22099
15255
10: 39
100 144
4 yrs.
1746
5-169
25275
15117
10: 46
100: 167
5 yrs.
1751 6423
28235
17272
10: 43
100: 163
5 yrs.
1756
5599
28392
19154
10:50
100: 1-18
In the 16 yrs. be-
fore the plague. 95585
380516 245763
10:39
100: 154
In 46 yrs. after
248777
1083872 690324
10: 43
100: 157
the plague.
In 62 good years
146-4388
344361
936087
936087
10: 43
100: 150
More born than
528301
died
In the 2 plague
years
5177
23977 247733
In all the 64 yrs in-
cluding the plague
340838
*1488365
1183820
1183920
10: 42
100 : 125
More born than
304745
died
158
Y
६
From this view of the effects of a plague, it
is impossible not to consider it as the greatest
blessing that can happen to a nation.---In the
years 1711 and 1712, Susmilch calculates that
one-third of the whole population were cut off,
to the evident benefit of the survivors; but he
has overlooked one circumstance: In epidemic
fevers, children do not suffer more than adults,
of course the havoc made in families must have
been exceeding great. The ties of nature and
affection, in a thousand instances, would have
been rent asunder; every eye, big with tears,
and every heart weighed down with anguish,
would sufficiently testify the general affliction,
and suspend for a time all plans of future hap-
piness. But Mr. M. represents the Prussians as
void of natural affection; as hard hearted. Nei-
ther of which characters belong to man. There
is a mourning for the dead, really felt; which the
Prussians must have violated, and with it the
common decencies of life. The bonds of nature
are no sooner broken, than the remembrance is
lost, and the breach is healed; like bees, whose
nest has been injured, the evil is forgotten in
the endeavour to remedy it.---I think the Prus-
sians will not thank Mr. Malthus for his cha-
racter of them.
159
1
In the very year after the plague, the number
of marriages were almost double those of
any of
the six preceding years; which Mr. M. accounts
for very easily, on the principles already advanced.
He supposes that almost all who were of a mar-
riageable age, strongly excited by the demand
for labour and the number of vacant employ-
ments, immediately entered into that state*:
Truly, they lost no time; but this is not all in
the very same year: the first after the plague,
they not only married, but became parents. In
the year preceding this calamity there were
26896 births, but in the year after, when the
population was reduced one third, the births
were increased to 32522. It is impossible to
conceive of facts that more strongly illustrate our
author's theory; but is there no error in the
registers have not the births of the two plague
years been added to those which immediately
followed them? There is ground to suspect this
has been the case; for in the succeeding year,
the second after the plague, the births were only
22970. And in the subsequent plague, which
happened in 1736 and 1737, which was indeed
not severe, but sufficiently so to show the
* Page 254.
160
operation of the principle, the number of mar-
riages appear not to have been affected, and the
number of births were lessened.
Taking the subject as Mr. M. represents it,
it is impossible a permanent loss in population
should be sustained. Cut off a third of the
people at a stroke, and on this plan you render
the surviving two thirds a kindness: they are
so relieved from the influence of vice, misery,
and moral restraint, and live in so much ease,
surrounded by plenty, that they bring up as
many children as the whole could have done.
But here the benefit of the plague ceases; these
young persons, when grown to maturity, being as
numerous as those before the plague, are con-
sequently subjected to similar evils; and to en-
joy the same blessings as their parents, another
plague must sweep off one third of them; for
the instant the places made vacant are again
occupied, the struggle begins between vice, mi-
sery, and moral restraint, and the principle of
increase; and must go on, till war or pestilence.
once more thin the land, and bring back peace,
happiness and plenty. On this view of the sub-
ject, the arm of the assassin is lifted in bene-
volence,---war is humanity,--and pestilence a
blessing.
161
The picture Mr. Malthus has drawn of the
government of the world, and the state of man, -
cannot be contemplated without horror! Death,
surrounded by a legion of common diseases, is
insufficient for his office; and the world, over
which his influence extends, cannot enjoy tran-
quillity, unless an unnatural aid be given this
common enemy, and man becomes the mur-
derer of himself! Death dispatches his messen-
gers, and thousands fall, but their fall is gentle,
being prepared to expect it. But the guests at
nature's table, finding the deed of death only
half performed, come forward, and seizing on
the weakest of their brethren, thrust them into
the sepulchre, and close its mouth: death had
no warrant against them. But, apprehending a
scarcity of subsistence, the guests judged it
better that a part should suffer, rather than the
whole should live in an unceasing conflict with
misery, confusion, and vice.---Thus the servant
usurps the place of his Master and thus
Mr. M. represents the government of the world
we live in.
:
In the opinion formed by our author, of the
great utility and general good of epidemic dis-
eases, have not their natural and common effects
been overlooked? and has not his opinion been
X
162
formed on the imperfect statement of registers?
A loss may be proved by them to have been soon
recovered; but whether by actual increase, or
by emigrants, they afford no evidence.
That this subject, about which Mr. Malthus
has written so much, and is so desirous of
establishing, may be stript of all the blandish-
ments of sophistry, and the aid of false docu-
ments, let us examine the natural consequences
of an epidemic disease on the population of a
town, from which emigrants are excluded:---
Suppose the town to contain 20000 inhabitants,
2000 of whom are suddenly removed by death;
in such a town there may be conjectured to be
20 grocers, 20 drapers, 10 attornies, 10 surgeons,
and, if it be not a cathedral town, 10 clergymen,
of all denominations. This proportion I men-
tion, not as absolutely correct, but as an approx-
imation to the truth.---If 2000 out of the 20000
be cut off, 2 grocers, 2 drapers, 1 attorney,
1 surgeon, and I clergyman will form a part,
and the whole be completed from other classes
of the community. Those who escape from the
malady will bear the same proportion to each
other that the whole did. The loss of two gro-
cers, and their customers, presents no induce-
ment to two young men to marry, that they may
163
F
occupy their places; the shops, indeed, may be
obtained, but the customers are dead; and those
that could be attracted by them, would be those
that properly belonged to the 18 previously
established. If the town presented another
situation for a grocer, it was before the plague,
for 20 can divide better than a less number.
Houses made empty by a general calamity, do
not promise a prosperous trade to those who
shall next inhabit them; but, on the contrary,
their occupation, before the town was replenished
with inhabitants, would tend to impoverish
every individual in the same line of business;
and thus retard, rather than promote, mar-
riages.
If we assent to the statement of Mr. M.,
that in every town there are a number of young
persons, of a marriageable age, waiting with
impatience the death of others, that they
find suitable situations for the support of
families; they would be greatly disappointed, if
they imagined a plague, or any other severe
calamity, opened to them such situations.
may
Suppose, after 2000 were cut off, that as
many instantly married, to supply their places,
there are still no more than 18000 persons in the
whole, and each new married pair must be sub-
164
ject to more difficulties in procuring a situation.
now, than before the plague.
Were the 18 surviving grocers, under an
idea of excluding competitors, to purchase the
stocks of the deceased, they evidently would not
increase the consumption of the articles pur-
chased; the town would be to them as if nothing
had happened; and before they can have the
increase of a single customer, children must be
born and grow up. And when this young gene-
ration are about to take their stations in the
world, the time which had elapsed since the
decrease in population took place, would have
so new-modelled the state of society, that the
town would be as unprepared for their reception
as if the population had never exceeded 18000.
Venice and Antwerp once flourised in all
the pride of commerce, and in all the splendour
of eastern magnificence, but they have fallen
into decay, and lost many of their inhabitants;
no matter from what cause, they are gone; and
should a like number now endeavour to occupy
their places, the old houses would cost as much
to repair, as building of new ones; and trade
would with as much difficulty be gained, as if
Antwerp and Venice had never been celebrated
for their commerce.
165
1
The loss of a part does not benefit the survi-
vors, or present new stations for the support of
families. I will venture to say, that long before
the children, born after the calamity we have
been speaking of, were grown to maturity, and
increased the population of any town to its for-
mer standard, the old inhabitants would not only
be reconciled to their half empty streets, but be
pleased with them, and fancy themselves great
and dignified, because they were without com-
petitors. Like birds of ill omen, they would
prefer a house in ruins to its being inhabited by
those who might disturb their repose: the si-
lence of desolation is to them preferable to the
din of men: They would say to all strangers,
Begone! we do not require your service, and
will not be interrupted by your insolence. The
stranger, by importunity, might work a little on
their compassion, and they might say, in the
language of mildness, if you occupy one of these
houses you must starve, we can with difficulty
support ourselves; the population is quite equal
to the means of subsistence, and if we assist you
we injure others.
A young married couple, seeking to obtain a
living by industry, have a much better prospect
of success at London than at York; at Man-
166
}
chester than at Norwich. York and Norwich
are in the situation of towns that have lost part
of their population, and are the very places
Mr. Malthus,would point out, as inviting to an
increase of marriages, and ensuring an increase
of births. Houses may be obtained, and there
are vacant stations in which families have been
supported, but this is, in fact, of little considera-
tion; the habits of the people determine the
eligibility of the place. London and Manchester
are increasing in inhabitants, whose industry is
a pledge of abundance. An active people are
never too numerous; but indolence has never
room enough.
From the above remarks, it does not appear
that the places made empty by pestilence are
beneficial to a town; nor is it, in the nature of
things, that they should be at once reoccupied,
if emigrants be excluded. Pestilence does not,
like a gardener, pluck up the injurious and of
fensive, that the useful plants may dart their
tendrils, and fill up their places; but, like a blast,
it indiscriminately withers all over which it
passes; and none, even at a distance, are bene-
fited.
A sickly population is not more a token of
early marriages, contracted because places were
167
made vacant by the death of others, than
blighted plant promises an abundant crop.
It has sometimes happened, that a plague,
breaking out on the continent, has swept off one
third of the population; but in England it has
seldom taken off more than one fifth. Between
the years 1582 and 1682, there were five great
plagues in England; one in the year 1592,
1603, 1625, 1636, and 1666, (Sir Wm. Petty,
Polit. Arith. p. 39.)---Thus we find, that about
every 20 years a plague destroyed about a fifth
of the population.---In the same period of which
we are speaking, there were ten years of civil
wars, the like of which, Sir W. Petty observes,
there hath not been of several ages before, which
took away one fortieth of the whole popula-
tion. Polit. Arith. p. 49.
I mention this circumstance, because it marks
the extent of the check by war. If we strike off
the whole number of persons lost to the state
by these means, and then enquire why the sur-
vivors did not increase at least as fast as the
American colonists, we shall again find that
Mr. Malthus's theory is not supported by the
facts he imagines.
If it be allowed that the Americans suffered
neither from war or pestilence during the period
168
of their most rapid increase, we shall be justified
in supposing that the other checks to population
operated in as great force as in England. In
other terms, if we take the whole of the popu-
lation of America, at the period we are speaking
of, and that part of the population of England
which war and pestilence had spared, we place
them on an equal footing, and are entitled to
expect that their increase will be equal. But in
the space of 100 years, during which the Ame-
rican population doubled itself four times, in a
geometrical ratio, and increased from one to
eight, the English did not increase more than
from one to one and a quarter.
Sir W. Petty states, that, during the period
of which he had been speaking, the rate of
doubling, for the whole of England, was once in
369 years, (p. 59.) But there is no apparent.
reason why the surviving four fifths, or three
fourths, did not double themselves, or nearly so,
in the intermediate space. If the population,
before the plague, was 100000, after the plague
it would be 80000; which, in 20 years, should
have increased to 140000 ;---these again reduced
onc fifth, leaves 110000; which, in 20 years
more, should have been nearly 200000. Thus,
it appears, notwithstanding the devastation by
16g
pestilence and war, the population of England
ought to have doubled itself in about 60 years.
Dismissing this branch of the subject, let us
attend to one of still more importance to our
author's theory, and to which he alludes in al-
most every page; and of which, when he speaks
in direct terms, his language is so positive, that,
without doubt, he thinks himself unanswerable.
That I may not misrepresent his ideas, I shall
give his words.
"In Norway, the mortality is 1 in 48, and
the marriages 1 in 130. In the Dutch villages,
the mortality 1 in 23, and the marriages 1 in 64.
The difference both in the marriages and deaths
is above double. They maintain their relative
proportions in a very exact manner, and show
how much the deaths and marriages mutually
depend upon each other, and that, except where
some sudden start in the agriculture of a country
enlarges the means of subsistence, an increase
of marriages will only produce an increase of
mortality, and vice versa."*
This sentiment not only accords with Mr. M's.
general theory, but, as has already been said,
is the very soul of it. Misery is his polar star.
* Page 243.
Y
170
An
It leads him to happiness. And unless it broods
over a country, nothing is desirable in it.
end must be put to the life of one person, to
increase the felicity of another. The more
deaths, the more marriages; the more marriages,
the more deaths,---is our author's unceasing
strain. Misery leads the way. Misery governs
the world.
But how does he prove the truth of these
remarks? He proves it thus: In Norway, the
life of a man is worth 48 years; and 1 marriage
is contracted annually in 130 persons: but in
Holland, where life is only worth 23 years, 1
marriage is contracted in 64 persons: conse-
quently, there is a dependence of the marriages
on the deaths; the latter must take place, to
make way for the former.
To show the fallacy of these inferences, let
us take another view of the subject. Two per-
sons in every 130 annually marry, and live, on
an average of the whole population of the coun-
try, to 48 years; consequently, 48 marriages
will be formed in the lifetime of one person; or,
in 48 years, 96 persons in 130 will marry;
which reduces the unmarried to 34.---In the
Dutch villages, every 32nd person is married
annually, and every 23rd dies: in other terms,
171
one third only, as in Norway, die unmarried.
A proportion, by far too small, to render the cir-
cumstance even probable; for, a larger than this
proportion of the born, die before they arrive at the
marriageable age, in the most healthy district in
Europe.
To this objection, all Mr. Malthus's laboured
calculations are liable, which completely over-
turns his reasoning. The thing itself being im
possible, the premises of course are erroneous.---
But, suppose his statements true, what do they
prove? Do they prove, that more adults die
unmarried in Norway than in Holland? Cer-
tainly not. Then the obstacles in the way of
marriage cannot be greater. Had there been a
greater proportion of marriages to the popula
tion in one country than the other, the relation
between the mortality and the marriages could
not have been so nicely maintained.
Suppose, in Norway, one third of the born
live to marry, the mortality being 1 in 48, of
130 persons 43 would at some period of their
lives marry. Suppose, in Holland, more than
one third of the born live to marry, say two
thirds, it would then appear, that, the mortality
being 1 in 23, of 64 persons 42 would marry.---
Could Mr. M. prove the truth of a statement
172
similar to this, he would, in some measure,
establish the doctrine he advances. But, in
saying that there is an agreement between the
deaths and marriages, corresponding in different
countries, he proves nothing that he wishes to
prove. A marriage implies two persons, con-
sequently, if there be in a town 50 annual mar-
riages, and 150 annual births, 50 of the born
die unmarried. But can it, from this statement,
be ascertained that they do not die in infancy.
According to Mr. M., in Norway, only 34 of
every 130 of the born, die unmarried; and in
Holland, only 36 of 128.
By such statements, he shows a remarkable
equality in the proportion of marriages; a re-
markable similarity in the number of those who
die in childhood, and in celibacy; which is the
reverse of what he designed.
173
OF THE
CHECKS TO POPULATION
In various Countries.
BESIDES the chapters I have noticed,
Mr. Malthus's work contains many others, none
of which have any thing either sufficiently
striking or novel to recommend them to parti-
cular attention; I shall therefore pass them has-
tily over.
The first chapter treats of the checks to po-
pulation in the lowest stage of human society;
particularizing the natives of Terra del Fuego,
of Van Diemen's land, of the islands of Anda-
man, and of New Holland; and to the lovers
of the marvellous, it affords a rich feast.---
Among other strange stories, we are told, that
the people of New Holland are so pinched with
want, that "they are compelled to climb the
tallest trees after honey, and the smaller animals,
such as the flying squirrel and the opossum.
·
174
When the stems are of great height, and with-
out branches, which is generally the case, in
thick forests, this is a process of great labour,
and is effected by cutting a notch with their
stone hatchets for each foot successively, while
their left arm embraces the tree. Trees were
observed notched in this manner to the height
of eighty feet before the first branch, where the
hungry savage could hope to meet with any
reward for so much toil.”*
Can Mr. M. credit such tales. Is not a tree
of eighty feet without a branch too large to be
clasped with one arm, while the hungry Hol-
lander cuts notches with the other? Are not
all savages disinclined to such severe labour;
and are they not too cunning to be made dupes
of? The flying squirrel, in all probability, reached
the branches by jumping from another tree, and
might very easily jump back again: but sup-
pose this was not the case, who could approach
near enough the extremity of the branches to
catch it. Thus it appears, after all his toil, the
hungry Hollander would be in danger of losing
his reward. But our acquaintance with these
countries is very sliglit; and as but little is known,
* Mr. Malthus's Essays, p. 19.'
175
any thing is credited by certain readers; it is
with them the age of the marvellous, and
Mr. M. has availed himself of their credulity in
support of his theory. When we are better
informed, the thin population of these countries
will, I have no doubt, be more rationally ac-
counted for.
Our author next describes the miseries of
the American Indians, and then directs his
course to the islands of the South Sea, of which
Otaheite attracts his greatest attention. The
first check to the population of that people, is
the systematic licentiousness of the higher or-
ders; by whom societies are formed, under the
name of Eareeoie, for the express purpose of
promiscuous intercourse among the members;
and under the engagement, that, all the children
born in the society be murdered.
po-
Giving full credit to the account, the object
of our attention is, the extent of the abominable
practice, and its influence, as a check to the
pulation of the island, which must necessarily be
very small, for these societies are limited to the
higher classes.
The next check mentioned, is that of infan-
ticide. Here Mr. M. argues with Mr. Hume,
"that the permission of infanticide generally con-
176
tributes to increase the population of a country.
By removing the fears of too numerous a family,
it encourages marriage, and the powerful yearn-
ings of nature prevent parents from resorting to
so cruel an expedient, except in extreme cases."*
But Mr. M. thinks, in Otaheite there are no
yearnings of nature, and that it is probable
children are murdered rather as a fashion, than
a resort of necessity. Such a surmise is be-
neath a reply. It is a gross insult to the human
The fashion of one country may have
been, or may become, the fashion of another.
Had Mr. M. been a father, he would not have
thought so meanly of parental feelings.
race.
The next check noticed by our author, is,
the wantonness of the women; and there is
something, not quite agreeable to Mr. M's. no-
tions, in the marriage ceremony, which consists
of a present from the man to the parents of the
girl. "The checks to population from such a
state of society would alone appear sufficient to
counteract the effects of the most delightful cli-
mate and the most exuberant plenty."+
Let my readers ask themselves, whether the
yices of the great, which the bulk of the people
1
* Page 52. † P. 52.
P. 53.
1
177
do not imitate, can possibly stop the current of
population? or whether a crime, at which a
mother's feelings recoil, can become a fashion?
or whether the licentiousness of the women at
Otaheite can lessen the number of their children?
As adjutors to the above, war, human sacri-
fices, and famine, are mentioned; but as they
hold only a secondary place in Mr. M's. estima-
tion, it is unnecessary to dwell on them.
The checks to population among pastoral
nations, Mr. M. states to be, inability to pur-
chase a wife, vicious customs, with respect to
women, epidemics, wars, famine, and the dis-
eases arising from extreme poverty. These
checks are assuredly sufficient to keep down the
population of any state; but whether their ope-
rations are felt more powerfully in Tartary than in
America, I shall not attempt to decide. Thus
much, however, I may say, that the pastoral life
does not seem to expose to want, or to pesti-
lence, or to present any very formidable bars to
marriage.
In speaking of the checks to population in
different parts of Africa, our author directs his
readers, as usual, to war, famine, and pestilence;
but not a word is mentioned of the slave trade.
British ships alone, transport from that country,
Z
178
I
70 or 80000 of its youths annually; which must
act as a check to its population; and of such an
extent as but few countries sustain from all the
evils of war, famine, and pestilence, taken toge
ther. How is it that Mr. M., who is so sharp-
sighted as often to see misery where others speak
of happiness, should overlook this source of it.
I hope he is not afraid of giving offence, by
speaking the truth. A gap is made, but we do
not learn how it is filled up, if filled at all. It
is a check Mr. M. does not choose to notice.
Whether Africa presents a yawning chasm,
frightful to an European to contemplate; and
whether the manners of the people are improved
by their long intercourse with those who trade
in their blood, and in this way receive a little
compensation for their loss, remain to be told.
In Turkey, and Persia, the influence of the
civil government, in discouraging agriculture,
and thus producing famine and its consequences,
forces itself on Mr. M's. notice. A people pe-
rishing for want, in a country that may well be
called the garden of the world, carries the mind
so directly to the maxims and policy of the go-
vernment, that it is impossible for Mr. M. to
screen it, by accusing the laws of nature.
The countries next noticed by our author,
179
are, Indostan and Tibet. But here there is very
little for the extraordinary ministers of death to
do. Neither war, famine, or pestilence are no-
ticed, but in the way of conjecture. There are
beggars, hence he supposes there is scarcity;
and epidemics are said to be the consequences
of scarcity and bad nourishment.
Here
Mr. M. ascribes to epidemics their true origin.
There are also some customs common to these
countries, which Mr. M. thinks are hinderances
to the increase of population.---Allowing to
Mr. M. the full force of all his observations, it
does not appear, that the people of Tibet suffer,
from vice, misery, and moral restraint, in an equal
proportion with other countries. Indostan is
full of people, and, on Mr. M's. general principle,
ought to furnish its quota of victims. Mr. M.,
indeed, mentions celibacy as a check affecting
some casts; but celibacy is a check to population
in all countries, especially to those in which the
catholic religion is professed; yet in them, war,
famine, and pestilence perform the principal
part in lessening the population, and in keeping
it, as Mr. M. says, on a level with the sub-
sistence. Why the east, especially China, does
* Page 143.
+ Pa. 139.
180
not suffer in proportion to the other quarters of
the globe, is a problem Mr. M's. theory does
not solve: it is not because of celibacy, for the
institutions of the country particularly encourage
marriage; nor can Mr. M. fix it on any other
check.
The chapters on the checks to population in
Greece and Rome, are not sufficiently interesting
to engage our attention; we shall therefore pass
on to those which follow,---Norway and Sweden.
Of Norway, some remarks have already been
made; the present respect Sweden.
So long as Mr. M, treated of remote or
barbarous countries, the assertion, that, war,
famine, or pestilence, operated with such force.
as to keep down the population to a level with
the actual quantity of subsistence, was almost
sufficient to satisfy the mind of its truth.
These evils are well known to have existed, and
Mr. M. has fixed their extent to be exactly
equal to the tendency to increase; and as more
accurate information could not be obtained, its
incorrectness could not be demonstrated; except
by comparing the checks which operate in one
country with those which affect another, and
such, from the nature of things, as have been
attempted. But we have now entered on the
181
examination of chapters which treat of civilized
nations; in which every circumstance relating
to population is registered with a correctness
sufficiently nice for general inferences.
Sweden, Mr. M. informs us, is, in many
respects, in a similar state to Norway.* A very
large proportion of its population being in the
same manner employed in agriculture, of course
the same effect follows, and celibacy is the prin-
cipal check to population in Sweden, as it is
stated to be in Norway.
But Mr. M. does not
assent to this inference. He says, the check
by celibacy is not so complete as in Norway;
and, consequently, the positive checks operate
more forcibly. His leading proof is, that, in
Sweden, the yearly average mortality is to the
population as 1 to 34 and three fourths; and
the yearly marriages as 1 to 112. Here the
period of life is shorter, and the proportion of
marriages less, than in Norway. From hence,
Mr. M. infers, that the marriages are contracted
at an earlier age; an inference, of which this is
no proof. On the contrary, it would not be
difficult to make it appear, that marriages are
entered into at nearly the same age in every
* P. 196.
P. 197.
182
country in Europe. But it suits Mr. M's. the-
ory, to show, that famine and pestilence were
actively concerned in diminishing the population.
of Sweden. It so happens, however, that all
that is said of Sweden applies also to Norway.
A few cargoes of corn are imported into Sweden,
for the use of the distilleries; but, on the other
hand, fish are exported. If bread is not so abun-
dant as in other countries, it is not so much
wanted; a minore nutritious diet than bread is
suited to the climate. It is not so much a scar-
city of corn which constitutes a famine in these
countries, as a scarcity of fish, of cheese, of milk,
and of meat.
Here I may notice a circumstance worthy
some attention, In these countries, flesh is
preserved fit for use, without the application of
salt, by being cut into thin slices and thoroughly
dried. This custom is also practised by the in-
habitants of Davis's Streights: and I have been
informed, that the minister of the French ma-
rine, some time since, ordered a trial of it to be
made, for the use of the navy. Should it suc-
ceed, it will be of benefit to sailors on long
voyages; but especially to those who may have
the means of obtaining provisions, but have no
salt to preserve them.
183
As to epidemic diseases, it is not probable
that two contiguous nations, resembling each
other in manners, should be unlike in this re-
spect. A line of demarkation is not observed
by pestilence.
Of the Checks to Population in Russia. If
the registers of this country are to be relied on,
there are more female children die than male.
In the period from 1781 to 1785, of 1000 boys
born, in Petersburgh, 147 only, died within the
first year, but of the same number of girls 310.*
This, I expected, would have been noticed as a
very operative check, but Mr. M. passes it over;
as he does also a long account of the foundling
hospital, which appears, in Russia, as in every
other nation where they are established, to be
more injurious than beneficial; and fixes his
attention on the government. Russia, he says,
wants nothing but greater freedom of industrious
exertion, and an adequate vent for its commo-
dities in the interior parts of the country, to
occasion an increase of population astonishingly
rapid. Here Mr. Malthus adopts an idea,
which, if he had pursued, would have led him
to the principles I hope to establish. But he
* P. 214.
† P. 220.
1
184
has confounded the population of a country
with its commerce. Rome was never a com-
mercial city. Poland supplies many markets
with her corn, but an increase in population
does not follow. Commerce greatly promotes
civilization, but is not essential to it: but there
is a connection between civilization and popu-
lation, which is essential, which is uniform, and
which is permanent.
The next chapter treats of the Fruitfulness
of Marriages. On this chapter Mr. M. has
bestowed considerable labour; but its merits.
chiefly concern, and will be best appreciated by,
the political arithmetician. It presents nothing
which claims our consideration. It does not
lead one step forward in natural philosophy.
Facts are mentioned, but their cause is not
pointed out. The incorrectness of registers are
shown; but the well-known fact, that the wo-
men of some countries are more prolific than
of others, is not attempted to be explained.
Of the Checks to Population in the middle
Parts of Europe. The principal design of this
chapter, is, to show the dependence of the mar-
riages on the deaths. But I have already made
so many remarks on this subject, as to render
it unnecessary again to enter minutely into it.
185
The axiom Mr. M. lays down, is, that marriages
and deaths mutually influence each other;*
and he quotes, in its support, the authority of
Susmilch, who appears to have had considerable
opportunities, and to have bestowed much
labour in making the registers of different coun-
tries speak the same language. The fact that
most attracts Mr. M's. notice, and which he
thinks most forcibly illustrates his principles, is
that of 22 Dutch villages, before noticed, of
which he writes thus: "In them, according to
Susmilch, out of 64 persons there is one annual
marriage. When I first saw this number men-
tioned, not having then adverted to the mortality
in these villages, I was much astonished, and
very little satisfied with Susmilch's attempt to
account for it, by talking of the great number
of trades, and the various means of getting a
livelihood, in Holland, as it is evident, that,
the country having been long in the same state,
there would be no reason to expect any great
yearly accession of new trades and new means of
subsistence, and the old ones would of course
all be full. But the difficulty was immediately
solved, when it appeared that the mortality was
* Page 245.
да
186
between 1 in 22 and 1 in 23, instead of being
1 in 36, as is usual when the marriages are in
the proportion of 1 in 108. The births and
deaths were nearly equal. The extraordinary
number of marriages was not caused by the
opening of any new sources of subsistence, and
therefore produced no increase of population.
It was merely occasioned by the rapid dissolu-
tion of the old marriages by death, and the con-
sequent vacancy of some employment by which
a family might be supported."*
C
This sentence contains at once an epitome
of our author's sentiments, and one of his most.
striking illustrations, the old situations', he
says, would, of course, be full; by which he
means, the principle of increase is so strong,
that a situation, capable of giving subsistence to
a family, will never want an occupier. But it
happens, very unfortunately for Mr. M., that
the statement he relies so much upon, cannot
be true, in the very nature of things, as he
proves. - Speaking of England, he says, "It will
not, I believe, be very far from the truth, to say,
that, in this country, not more than half of the
prolific power of nature is called into action,
* Pa. 241.
1
t
}
187
霉
​yet, that there are more children born than the
country can possibly support. If we suppose
that the yearly births were one twentieth part of
the population, a proportion, which, for short
periods, obtains frequently on the continent, and
constantly, perhaps, in many parts of America;
and allowing one third for the mortality under
20, which is a moderate supposition, as, accord-
ing to Dr. Short, this mortality, in some places,
is only one fifth or one fourth; then if all were
to marry at 20, which is by no means so early
an age as is possible, one thirtieth part of the
population would, in that case, marry annually;
that is, there would be one annual marriage out
of 60 persons.
""*
If it be but just possible, under a combina-
tion of the most favourable circumstances of
health, age, and fruitfulness, that annual mar-
riages should be contracted at the rate of one to
бо persons, when the unhealthfulness of the cli-
mate of Holland is taken into the account, the
whole, statement, respecting the 22 Dutch vil-
fages, falls to the ground. It never can happen,
in any country, that every individual will marry
at 20; that two thirds of the born live to be
* P. 303.
188
}
married; and that the annual mortality is one
in 23. Extreme healthiness, and extreme mor-
tality, can never meet.
Of the Checks to Population in France. Our
author makes no remarks in consequence of the
incorrectness of the registers in that country;
but he enters into a calculation, to prove, that
France can send 150000 men annually to her
armies, without diminishing her population.
The chapter which treats of the Checks to
Population in England, is very long, but not
easy to understand. I suppose our author
means, that celibacy is the check to popula-
tion. But the chief part is taken up in the
examination of registers, which have but little
relation to the subject.
Our author next treats of the Checks to Popu
lation in Scotland and Ireland. The statistical
account of Scotland, lately published, is, in the
estimation of Mr. Malthus, replete with facts
illustrative of his theory. After detaining the
reader with an unnecessary enquiry whether
marriages are entered into earlier or later than
formerly, which question he cannot decide, and
after a few other investigations of as little interest,
our author finds himself seated on his favourite
stalking horse, the dread of famine. I am very
A
189
far from questioning the truth of the statements"
produced; the question is not, whether a state,
at any time, has lost part of its population by
war, famine, or pestilence,---but whether their
recurrence have been sufficiently often, and suf-
ficiently intense, to act as a perpetual check on
its increase in population. That this has not
been the case in Scotland might be proved;
but I have designedly avoided enlarging my
chapters by a multiplicity of quotations, and have
rather confined myself to the natural conse-
quences that arise from the operation of the
check to population under discussion.
J
In this chapter, the leading check is famine;
and I argue, that it cannot often have been
felt by the Scotch. First, because their shores
are much frequented by fish, and their land
well stocked with cattle; and especially, because
certain articles of food, common in other coun-
tries, are not used in Scotland. A Highlander
would, at this day, as soon eat a crocodile as
an eel, or any part of a hog. It is the nature
of the frequent pressure of scarcity to overcome
such antipathies; and when once overcome, if
the articles loathed are proper food, they soon
become common. The French entertained an
idea that potatoes were poisonous, but the scar-
190
city they sustained in the late war, compelled
the use of them; and it is presumed the appre-
hension of poison has ceased, never to be revived.
The Danes, in the spring, mix saw-dust with
flour, and do not repine at such food. An army
besieged, and in distress for the means of sub-
sistence, eat their horses; and however reluctant
they may be to taste the first morsel, afterwards
they will not suffer hunger if they can satisfy it
in that manner. Reflecting on these facts, I am
induced to believe, the Scotch have never lived
in the dread of famine, nor often felt its force.
For an acquaintance with the other subjects
treated of by Mr. Malthus, as they are rather
inferences and deductions from the parts of his
work which have been noticed, I refer to the
book itself. I might have gone on pointing
out our author's inconsistencies, and detecting
his errors, but I should have received no plea-
sure, nor the argument much force, by such
exposures. It is the principles the work was
written to support, that I seek to expose and
refute; they are to me extremely offensive, as
they are wholly incompatible with revelation, as
they forbid the expectation of any improvement
in the condition of man, and as they sanction
the worst of rulers in the worst of crimes.
191
As to the execution of the book, it has been
a work of some labour. But the illustrations of
the subject are arranged in a way to perplex,
rather than direct. We see the confusion of a
wood, rather than the order of a vista. `And not
unfrequently the most contradictory circum-
stances are related in the same chapter. But
were the principles tenable, a little of that appli-
cation the author appears capable of, would
rectify such blemishes.
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS
OF THE
Principles of Population.
&
INTRODUCTION.
As I have criticised the arguments with free-
dom, and totally objected to the principles,
advanced by Mr. Malthus, it is but fair that I
state my own sentiments on the subject. Pre-
paratory to which, I shall take a hasty glance at
the history of the world. The precise circum-
Stances of the human race before the flood,
the then state of civilization and knowledge, are
for ever lost; but, from the general facts that are
recorded, we learn that calamities and crimes
were, in those remote ages, at least as common,
and their consequences as fatal, as are now
experienced.
B b
194
Already I find myself at variance with
Mr. Malthus, for that which is necessary can-
not be criminal; however, I shall persevere in
calling vice by that epithet. Since the flood,
events have been more minutely recorded, which
has enabled us to judge, in some measure, of
the transactions of every generation.
In the first ages after the flood, the life of
man embraced a much longer period than is ever
now attained, and population in consequence
made rapid progress. After living as one family
nearly 300 years, and becoming numerous, the
human race separated; after which, we read,
that the checks to population Mr. M. applies so
generally, and considers as first principles in
government, were severely felt. War, with its
consequences, thinned the world of its people,
and darkened the fair page of history with its
horrid recitals. But under the pressure of many
evils population increased; and, it is probable,
in 1000 years after the flood, the world had
recovered its inhabitants; such was the force
of the principle of increase. But as Mr. Hume
has written a very learned and ingenious essay,
to prove that the ideas usually entertained of the
population of the world, at the period I am
speaking of, are incorrect, I shall suppose ano-
195
ther 1000 years to have rolled on, which brings
us to the birth of Christ, when we have the most
indubitable testimony that the world was well
peopled.
At that period, the whole range of country,
from the Alps to the Ganges, including Spain,
Barbary, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Persia,
were extremely populous. Egypt alone, if her
historians can be credited, contained as many
people as the whole track does now. At that
period, also, India, China, and Tartary, were
probably as full of inhabitants as at present.
Africa and America were either wholly unknown,
or very imperfectly so; but it does not appear
that these quarters of the globe were more
thinly peopled than now. The inhabitants
of the islands more recently discovered, trace
their origin to a period anterior to the birth of
Christ. Europe alone has gained in population.
So that, on the whole, we shall not exceed the
truth by saying, that, 1800 years ago, the world
was as populous as in the days in which we live.
An enquiry into the cause of the decrease of
population in some countries, its stationary state
in others, and its gradual increase in a few, has
long been instituted; and, by the politician to
whom the enquiry has been principally confined,
1
196
the nature and administration of the laws of
civil government have been thought sufficient to
account for the disproportion which exists.---
They argue, that all arbitrary and bad governors,
if strong enough, delight in war; if too weak
to undertake a foreign war, the despot turns
his power against his subjects; and agriculture,
arts, and commerce languish, as in Turkey,
while famine and pestilence, the certain consc-
quences of such conduct, desolate the country.
But, on the other hand, they represent a good
government under the similitude of a parent
who provides for the wants of every child, and
secures the whole under one roof; equal happi-
ness, and equal safety, are felt and enjoyed by
each.
This view of the subject is satisfactory and
pleasing, as far as it carries us, but it rather
shows the responsibility and influence of govern-
ments, than determines by what laws the increase
itself is directed. To protect a people is the
duty of a magistrate, but this is not the principle
of increase. There is something to be explained.
previously to the civil governor's assuming his
authority.
Mr. Malthus has aimed at going a step fur-
ther than the politician, and endeavours to
197
trace the subject to its first principles; in doing
so, whatever responsibility may before have been
attached to civil magistrates, so jealous is he of
their honour, that he discharges them from all
obligation, and rather than accuse them of being
in any measure the cause of the evils that are
felt in the world, he fixes his theory on princi-
ples that reduce man to a cipher,---a mere ma-
chine, which is impelled forward by some hidden
cause, till it reaches a certain point, from whence
it is thrust back: again it moves on, and again is
returned. Such are the outlines of the two
theories.
Mr. Malthus tells us, that population is al-
ways pressing hard upon the subsistence, and
often gets beyond it; and that it is of no con-
sequence what form of government a nation
adopts, or how wisely it is administered, if
population be not kept down by some rugged
means, within the power of the magistrate, the
whole world must become the abode of stilk
greater wretchedness. The politician says, that.
a government adapted to the genius and temper
of a people, is a certain token of an increasing
population. Mr. Malthus, on the contrary,
leads us to believe, that the government which
attempts to promote the happiness of the people,
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198
by diffusing knowledge and encouraging industry
and virtue, are pursuing a measure that must end
in destruction.
It is evident, that neither of these theories
are defensible. The politician confines himself
wholly to secondary causes; Mr. Malthus, in
endeavouring to carry his ideas further, dis-
honours the first,---and, by so doing, sanctions
despotism, and promotes infidelity!
What other principles are adapted to explain
the nature, and to regulate the increase of the
human race, will be the subject of the following
chapters.
199
Of the Duration of the Life of Man.
HAD opinions, similar to those Mr. Malthus
has expressed, been published to the world 1500
years before the birth of Christ, they might have
excited alarm. Population was rolling forward
like a torrent, and covering the earth; and be-
fore this time, it might have been calculated
from facts that the earth would not be large
enough for one generation to stand upon, much
less to supply it with the means of subsistence.
A principle of increase so strong was well calcu-
lated to fill the world with people, which being
accomplished, its utility would cease; and some
measure became necessary to prevent that which
had been a good, from becoming the greatest
evil. A measure was appointed. The grievous
evils that are now in the world were in being
then, and were they the natural checks to popu-
lation, would, doubtless, have been called into
200
1
exercise; but they were passed by, their force
was not increased.
The age of man, at that period, is stated to
have been ten times as long as at present, con-
sequently, had vice, misery, and moral restraint
been the checks to population, they must have
been ten times as powerful as we experience; some
one or other of them would constantly have
presented its horrid form, terrifying whilst it
destroyed, and almost every individual must have
fallen a sacrifice in the midst of his days. But
it is doubted whether the natural life of man
was longer, immediately after the deluge, than
at the time in which we live. The objection is
too important not to be attended to.
To prevent a long discussion, I shall confine
myself to two remarks. First, the rate at which
the world was repeopled; and, secondly, the
progress made in civilization.
"There are plain traces, as well as tradition, of
an universal deluge," (Hume, Essay xi). This
being granted, the period when it happened
cannot have been extremely remote, otherwise
there would have been no tradition of it, for the
most important events are forgotten in time.
Many nations have no tradition of the country
from whence they emigrated, though this, doubt-
201
less, would have been retained many genera-
tions; and events of still greater importance, in
a longer period, would share the same fate.
Hence, I argue, that, considering the account
given by Moses of this event, as merely human
authority, it cannot, in point of time, have
been far from the truth.
This being granted, it is easy to prove, that
eight persons cannot have increased to eight
hundred millions in two thousand years, under
the many evils to which the page of history
informs us they were subject, without some ad-
vantage which we have not. They were either
more prolific, or lived to a greater age, than the
present generation: that they were not more
prolific is almost certain; some were barren, and
we read of none who bore.more children than
is common now. The only remaining inference,
therefore, is, that their lives were of longer
duration.
The other remark relates to the progress
made in civilization. A country thinly peo-
pled is never civilized, because the service of
every individual is directed towards the means of
subsistence and defence; hence they have nei-
ther leisure, security, or emulation to devote
much time to study.
CC
202
3
·
A thin population is incompatible with great
attainments; emigrants feel its force, and lose
their civilization, their knowledge, and their
zeal, under such circumstances. But the arts
and sciences were early in use in Egypt and
through the east; it was their birth-place.
Had a few people been thinly scattered over this
vast extent of country, they would scarcely have
felt the want of the sciences, much less have
been led to the discovery of them.---A ques-
tion naturally occurs: What gave rise to the
early population, and conséquent civilization,
of those parts? War, famine, and pestilence,
raged among the people, who doubtless sustained
all the checks that are at present felt, and
which now keep the population of the globe
nearly stationary, but then the current flowed
rapidly on. Did not some power, founded in
the constitution, buoy up the principle of in-
crease amidst all its obstacles, and enable it to
triumph over them; what could this have been
but the extended duration of life? I ask for
another explanation of the fact.
I ask, on
what other principle the early population of
the world can be accounted for?
But should a thin population not retard civi-
lization, would it have been possible, with the
$
203
abilities man is endowed with, for the world
ever to have been civilized, had his life never
exceeded its present limits? We see Africa,
America, and the isles of late discovery, all in
barbarisın; the inhabitants have had time to
invent and improve the useful arts, and they have
felt the want of such improvement by occasion-
ally seeing others in their enjoyment, their
natural,abilities are not defective, but, through
the many ages they have existed as distinct
nations, they have continued in ignorance. The
fault is not in them. I will venture to say, that
no nation, since the birth of Christ, has ever
become civilized, but by being acquainted with
the discoveries that were made in the first ages
after the deluge. Europeans possess a knowledge
of these discoveries, but it is almost incredible at
how slow a rate they have improved them; they
manifest an inferiority; like the African, they
appear unable to have taught themselves :---
To invent, is more difficult than to improve.
But in what consisted the advantages of the
ancients? Did they possess talents we do not?
Had they stronger motives to study than we?
No. How, then, can their superior attain-
ments be accounted for, but by their enjoying a
longer period of study.
204
Taking it for granted, that the life of man
was as long as the scriptures represent it to
have been, it is impossible that vice, misery,
and moral restraint can have been applicable to
man, in that state, for the purpose Mr. Malthus
assigns them. These checks are all of the most
distressing and afflictive kind, the capacity to
bear which is limited; man can only sustain
a certain portion of evil, and that portion is
now felt.
Increase its intenseness; imagine
the vigour of a constitution adapted to last
many centuries, and vice, misery, and moral
restraint, the only checks to keep down popu-
lation. As the world was never adapted to the
support of a greater number of inhabitants,
what would avail the strength of their con-
stitutions? It would avail them nothing; it
would render the struggle between the principle
of increase, and the checks to it, the more vio-
lent; they are always grievous, but then they
must have been insupportable. The induce-
ments which operate to keep a people together
must have been insufficient for that purpose.
Look upon a country, checked in the increase of
its population by these agents, and mark the
effect. Look on Turkey; human existence is
not highly valued there, because they abound,
I
205
and the evils of life exceed the good. Imagine
the life of man in Turkey to be naturally as
long again as ours, to keep the population to
its present level, must not the afflictions of that
people increase, and the unequal struggle deso-
late the land, by breaking the bonds of society?
---Any daring robber can draw round him a
number of adherents, who are willing to under-
take the most hazardous enterprises; had these
men been happy they would not have abandoned
their homes. The existence of a banditti always
implies the abounding of the checks to popula-
tion; it implies that society is attended by an
evil which counterbalances the good of it: what
besides could tempt their abandoning of it? It
cannot be the love of honour, for no honour
attaches to such conduct.---The mere circum-
stance of a people's being willing to return from
a fixed and settled to a wandering and predatory
way of life, is a proof of their wretchedness; it
is a proof that the tie by which society is bound
together, is not strong enough to resist the
attacks made upon it. It is of no avail to accuse
the government with remissness and a breach of
duty, for if the age of man was as long as
formerly, no government, however wisely con-
stituted, could prevent an increase of the force
206
1
of the checks to population beyond what are
endured in Turkey.
Again. A savage is well known to meet.
death, in its worst and most lingering forms,
with fortitude: it is of no moment whether
the victim be born in a hot or a cold region;
if he be a man in the lowest and most degraded
state in which the human race exist, he will
sustain that character; what is common to all,
must have a common origin, which will be
found in the little pleasure life affords.----
Speaking of the negroes, Mr. Edwards says,
"This contempt of death, or indifference about
life, they bring with them to the West-Indies;
but if fortunately they fall into good hands, and
become well settled, they acquire by degrees
other sentiments and notions. Nature assumes
her lawful influence over them. With the
consciousness of security, the love of existence
also, amidst all the evils that attend it in a state
of slavery, gains admission to their bosoms;
they feel it, and such is the force of habitual
barbarity, seem ashamed of their own weakness.
A gentleman of Jamaica, visiting a valuable.
negro that was sick, and perceiving that he was
thoughtful and dejected, endeavoured, by sooth-
ing and encouraging language, to raise his
207
drooping spirits: Massa, said the negro, in a
tone of self reproach and conscious degeneracy,
since me come to white man's country,. me
lub life too much." (Hist. of West-Ind. p. 70.)---
Thus it appears that enjoyment is unfriendly to
fortitude. But what most interests us is, the
little value a negro sets on his life, and the
direct reference to the little enjoyment in it as
the cause. Remove the cause only in a slight
degree, and the natural fondness for existence
revives; increase it, and the extinction of the
race must be the consequence---for that which is
not valued is not protected: existence, under
such circumstances, is disregarded and aban-
doned, by neglecting the duties essential to its
continuance.---A people, suffering the afflictions
endured in Africa, cannot improve their condi-
tion were the means in their power, for no
motive to laudable ambition can be presented to
their minds; despair would weigh them down
as a perpetual load, which hope never lightens :
and the whole world must have been in a still
more wretched state, had the strong principle
of increase which doubtless existed after the
flood been checked only by the evils Mr. Mal-
thus presents to our view as of invariable appli-
cation and irresistible force.
208
But these may be deemed extreme and re-
mote cases, and such as are inapplicable to the
world at large; which, taken as a whole, may
still be the abode of happiness. To this I reply,
that man is not a solitary but a social being;
The seeks pleasure in that state only, and the
acquisition of pleasure increases the capacity for
it, together with the susceptibility of pain. The
rumour of a pestilential fever breaks these
bonds, and drives a people into the most retired
places, where their nearest relations are beheld
with dread: the approach of a hostile army,
or any other evil, begets a desire for individual
safety, and the general good is abandoned.
Thus it appears, that man, in any stage of civi-
lization, encounters as much evil as is compatible
with his existence in that state.
It may be further observed, in the present
state of man, and under the best regulated go-
vernments, that it is doubtful, with some, whe-
ther the silence and solitude of a desert be not
preferable to the busy hum and social intercourse
of a populous country. Though to associate is
natural, in confirmation of this idea, every old
inan tells us, he does not wish to live his life
over again, in all the circumstances of it.
Others, after looking for happiness in the world,
1
209
age
of
and finding none, refer us back to the
ignorance, as if it dwelt there. Dr. Price,
and other philosophers, justly celebrated both
for wisdom and benevolence, have formed an
opinion, that the sum of happiness is greater
than that of misery; consequently it might bear
some abridgment, without the order of society
being materially deranged: but, from the facts
just stated, I differ from these gentlemen. I
contend, that happiness is nowhere in excess,
yet, that misery is unnatural to man; it is a
punishment inflicted, not the consequence of a
law to be obeyed, it cannot be accumulated
beyond a certain measure, and that measure is
now full; in society man can bear no more: he
was formed for happiness, every part of his
economy points to this interesting fact. Pain,
or suffering of any kind, when once past, is
forgotten; it seems foreign to our nature;
and is the reverse of what Mr. Malthus repre-
sents it to be: the mind takes no hold of it.
But pleasure, once experienced, is afterwards
revived, and plays in the imagination, enliven-
ing time that in itself possesses no agreeable
object. Remembrance is a source of joy, but
corporeal affliction is not thus a source of misery,
nor can it be, in the nature of man. The sailor
Dd
210
forgets the sufferings of his voyage, the privation
of food, the danger of shipwreck, as soon as he
makes his destined port. A mother forgets her
sufferings on nursing her infant. No association
of ideas can convey a feeling similar to that expe-
rienced in the gout, though a fit had but
recently been endured. Hence, I argue, that
misery is foreign to man ; it is not adapted to
him: it is either actually present, or he has not
a proper conception of it; and if present, that
weight of it could not be sustained which would
be sufficient to keep population from increasing,
when the tendency to it was as strong as it is
represented to have been.
With all these illusions, these advantages
over the real state of our existence, there is so
much of actual suffering as to overbalance the
good, and to make the stoutest heart sometimes
weary of life, and bear it from the dread of a
worse, or the hope of a better. If such be
the state of our existence under its best cir-
cumstances, what must it have been when life
was drawn out to 700 years? Had vice, misery,
and moral restraint been the only checks by
which this strong principle of increase could be
kept within the limits of the means of subsist-
ence, with such an increase of the force of these
}
211
checks as such vigour in the constitution sup-
poses, could the affairs of the world have gone
on? Would it ever have been civilized? Would
man have sought to have known his Maker,
that he might worship him? would he not ra-
ther have taken up his abode with the beasts
of the field, and have lived like them, a prey to
each other.
When the world was repeopled, and vice and
misery, on Mr. Malthus's theory, were about to
exert their full influence, the life of man was short-
ened by the Giver of it; how unlike the calling
in the aid of vice and misery. In this check there
was nothing afflictive; the feelings of no one
were injured; dismay and desolation were not
scattered by the hand of violence, nor was the
progress of knowledge wholly interrupted: it
had received its direction, and went forward:
one individual sunk to his grave earlier than his
predecessors, but equally as old in constitution,
and as incapable of enjoying the pleasures of
life: to an old man death does not appear as an
enemy, and a broken constitution is old age.---
Although I speak of shortening the duration
of life as the appointment of God, it does not
follow that it was effected in any other way than
by the operation of the laws of nature: it was
212
gradual: the seed of this event might have been
sown in the constitution as well as the seed of
death. It is not uncommon for a person to grow
old sooner than his father; and the only remark
it occasions is, that he had a weaker constitution.
The constitutions of the generations that flou
rished immediately after the flood, might, in
like manner, one after another, become less
robust, and less capable of resisting so great a
weight of years.---To those who persist in the
idea, that the patriarchs lived no longer than we
do, and as the bible is probably a book of no
authority with such, I refer to Sancthoniatho,
Berosus, Diodorus, Siculus, and other ancient
authors, who relate the same fact.
I have dwelt the longer on this subject, in
the hope of establishing two points: first, that
man, as a social being, cannot sustain any con-
siderable increase of evil, consequently, that it
cannot be applied under all circumstances; and,
secondly, that the momentum given to the
principle of increase, when greater than was con-
sistent with permanent utility, was checked in
an unobserved, undistressing, but decisive and
sufficient manner. These points being granted,
their application to Mr. Malthus's theory is
obvious.
213
Whether the life of man, which was reduced
to threescore years and ten at the time David
wrote, be not further shortened, is a considera-
tion entitled to notice. By the age of man, it
is evident David meant the age of activity and
usefulness, not the extreme period of life, when
every nerve is unstrung, and the mind is as
feeble as the body: in the description he gives,
it is not till after threescore years and ten the
infirmities of old age break in upon the consti-
tution, and commence the period in which la-
bour and sorrow announce approaching death.
By the life of man, cannot be intended the life
of here and there an individual; if so, it might
with equal propriety have been fixed at a much
shorter or even a longer period; but I appre→
hend David meant the attainable age of nearly
the whole of the human race, and that in the
full exercise of their faculties, and with a good
portion of bodily vigour. We say of a horse,
that its life is 32 years; by which is meant, that
horses, whose health has not been injured by
hard work, by unreasonable confinement or
improper food, generally live so many years.
In the same way, I apprehend, we are to consider
what is said of the human race.
As we are without any extensive means of
214
ascertaining to what age the people of different
countries lived, at the time we are speaking of,
as we have no registers to refer to, we must
content ourselves with such facts as are recorded.
On turning over Anacharsis's travels, I noted
down the ages of eighteen Greeks, which were
successively presented, and on casting up the
amount, although some died by the hands of
the executioner, yet one with another they lived
above 70 years.* The same author, speaking of
the Egyptians, says, their priests, by cultivating
the most beneficial part of medicine, or that
which is more employed to prevent than to cure
diseases, have at all times procured themselves a
long and tranquil life. V. 4. p. 186.---It would
be possible to glean from ancient authors many
facts in support of the opinion, that 70 years
was a period attained by a considerable part of
the population of the early ages. But it con-
cerns us most to enquire, whether the life
of man has not been again shortened, the re-
gisters of the European states make it only 36
years, which is little more than the half of what
*Theseus lived 62 years, Lycurgus 85, Solon 80,
Pythagoras 90, Simonides 90, Æschylus 69, Pindar 65,
Anexagoras 72, Sophocles 91, Demochretus 90, Euripides
78, Thucydides 80, Socrates 70, Isocrates 98, Plato $2,
Demosthenes 63, Aristotle 62, Themestocles 65.
215
I apprehend it should be. This most alarm-
ing consideration ought to excite a serious en-
quiry whether this shortness of life be in con-
sequence of our misconduct, or whether our
constitutions will admit of its being no longer.
A large proportion of the deaths being in child-
hood and youth, reduce the probability of life
below what a casual observer would estimate it
at; but I apprehend no person now would cal-
culate the life of man at more than 50 years, if
he judged only of the adults. But there are
some facts that point this out as not being the
full term that might be attained: the registers
of some villages, kept with considerable atten-
tion, make the life of all the born above 60
years for the whole kingdom of Norway it
is 48; and Dr. Percival communicated to Dr.
Price the registers of some parishes, by which it
appeared that only 1 in 75 died annually. But
all these modes of estimating life are liable to
deceive, either by omissions, or by some circum-
stance which affected the population being kept
out of sight; they are therefore not sufficient
authority.
The next fact I shall mention is liable to
fewer objections; I mean the advanced age to
which the nobility and gentry of this kingdom
216
arrive; their elevated rank holds them up to so
much public notice, that the truth of any gene-
ral remark respecting them is easily ascertained;
it is impossible to be deceived on the subject.
Sir George Staunton says, "it has been calcu-
lated, upon the authority of facts and observa-
tions, that, notwithstanding the baneful luxu-
ries in which the European rich indulge, and
the disorders of repletion, inactivity and vice, to
which they are subject, the mean duration of
their lives exceeds by ten years that of their
inferiors." Embassy to China, v. 1. p. 74.---
In confirmation of this authority, visit the
House of Peers, observe that venerable body
of senators, and the sentiment will instantly be
impressed on the mind, that 70 years was not
more than the natural term of their lives. No
class of the community besides can produce so
many vigorous old men without being selected;
but there is no natural cause why they do not.
In addition to occular evidence, let there be
noted down, from sufficient authority, and that
of the newspapers of the day is perhaps as proper
as any, the ages at which the members of the
most dignified families have died during the
last century, and it will be found that few have
sunk into their graves under 60, and many have
•
217
{
attained to 90 years and upwards. The engage-
ments of a peer are not more conducive to
health than those of the other parts of the
community, but they value life, and endeavour
to preserve it; in sickness they give every faci-
lity to its removal; their liberal education directs
them to approve and adopt the best means;
persons less enlightened adopt also such mea-
sures as they approve, but mistaken notions
lead them to inferior sources of information.---
Whatever advantages the superior classes of
the community may have over the lower, they
have none in the natural vigour of their consti-
tutions; if they attain to 70 years, so may
others: hence it does not appear that an irrevo-
cable change has passed on the constitution since
the time that our life was said to be threescore
years and ten. What is here rendered probable
becomes certain, by the consideration that
shorter term is not sufficient for the duties of
life. The years of childhood and youth are
passed before the consequence and dignity of
the man is felt, which consumes a large portion
of our time: marriage contracted, or business
entered upon, before these stages of our exist-
ence are fully completed, is premature, and com-
monly unwise: a boy in trade is in danger of
Ee
{
218
?
being duped, and still more of becoming one:
a boy at the head of a family wants discretion to
direct it.
Of late years an effort has been made to
mature the judgment and push the youth up to
the man by an early introduction to company
and business, I fear the experiment has often
failed; but be this as it may, there are few young
men fit to be ushered into life, and to take the
charge of a business, before they have some time
passed their twentieth year; and still fewer are
considered, by other tradesmen, as possessed of
sufficient experience and information to advise
others, or to manage their own affairs with duc
judgment, before they have been fifteen years or
more in trade; by which time a man, in his own
estimation, is fast hastening to the decline of
life; he may mistake indolence for weakness,
but at 40, the prospect appears too short to allow
any one to think of embarking in a new pursuit,
in commerce or in literature; the world would
doubt of his success, and his friends lament the
occasion of so unseasonable an effort. At forty,
most men are bent on retiring, that they may
spend a few years in quietude and peace, accord-
ing to the inclination of their minds, and the
requirements of their constitution: ardor, enter-
219
}
prise, and hope, are now at an end: they accu-
mulated a fortune, when alone, in their estima-
tion, it could be obtained, and have retired, with
this only consolation, that, to their other afflic-
tions, poverty is not added.
Were this the whole business of life, it would
be a gift of comparatively little value. On this
view of it, the exertions of the successful are just
sufficient to secure the means of subsistence for
a few years of infirmity and decay. Man is
certainly a nobler being than merely to be made
the passport of merchandise; it is estimating his
life as of no worth, so to compute it: but a far
more dignified office awaits him. Trade is an
honorable and useful mean of acquiring a com-
petency, which is part of the business of life, as
education is a part, but after this object is in
many instances accomplished, there is thirty
years of inestimable value and of high enjoy-
ment, if properly spent; but if this period be
lounged away, under the notion that indolence
is felicity, and the best means of protracting.
life is to spend it in a round of formal, insipid
visits, injurious in their influence and irksome
in their execution, life is a toil.
The man,
retired from the busy scenes of life, is more than
ever a blessing or a curse to society: if he pos-
220.
sess true worth, he gives place to others, because
the end he had in view is accomplished, and
commences a career of greater and more exten-
sive utility: he beautifies his dwelling, and lays
out his grounds, in such a way as implies order,
harmony, and taste; this he does from a love to
the beautiful, commonly connected with a love
of virtue, and out of respect to his own reputa-
tion. Thus established, it becomes his pleasure
and his study to instruct the ignorant, to advise the
young, and to direct the inexperienced; he takes
care of the orphan, he watches over the public
morals, he promotes public worship, he rewards
merit, he succours the oppressed, he aids in the
most prompt and liberal manner every institution
calculated to advance the interest or to add to
the beauty of his place of residence, and of the
country at large; he cultivates the love of order
and a thirst for knowledge; ignorance and vice
he banishes from his sphere of action, or renders
them odious; but above all, he exemplifies, in
his personal relations, the spirit and dignity of
the christian character. Such men have lived,
and stand first among the benefactors of man-
kind, and have in general been of those who had
spent part of their lives in commercial pursuits.
From the dignity and the obligations of man
221
I derive an argument in favor of 70 years of
vigour,---his duties require it.
Again,---an early old age impels to early mar-
riage; but at the earliest age at which marriage
can be contracted there is no assurance of its:
continuing undissolved till the children that
are the fruits of it are brought up: but animals
are no longer prolific than the strength of their
constitutions promises ample time for rearing
their young, and is nature more unkind in pro-
viding for the offspring of the human race than
for those of an animal? This very circumstance
supposes some undue curtailing of the life of
man.---But suppose a marriage is not thus dis-
solved, the man who marries at 25 and continues
in business till he is 50, and then retires, dis-
gusted with its cares and incapable of tasting its
pleasures, calls himself an old man, whose busi-
ness in life is over; but his youngest child is only
just out of the cradle, and requires a parent's
care for twenty years to come, Who is to render
it? Its parents cannot; the image of death has
already cast its shadow over them, and they
wait, amidst decrepitude and imbecility, its final
stroke; they are incompetent to the office to
which they are appointed: Where is the fault?
Is it in the laws of nature,---or has man, by vio-
222
lating those laws, injured his constitution ?---
To be a father at fifty may reasonably be expected
by him who marries at twenty-five, but in the
present length of our lives, nature has made no
provision for such offspring; they are produced,
an obligation is incurred which cannot be ful-
filled. At furthest, a man at sixty is seeking a
gleam of happiness where he can find it, and
catches at it in shadows; pleased with the prat-
tling of the child, he lays aside the duties of a
parent, and converts his important charge into
a mere plaything,---a toy, to beguile a weary
hour; and thus the child's whole life is in dan-
ger of being rendered useless, if not corrupt.
Aristotle considered the proper age of mar-
riage, for men, to be 37, and for women, 18;
this philosopher would not have mentioned so
Jate a period, if in a very few years the active
concerns of life would become a toil, and if
possible be avoided. But, at the age when we
dream of dotage, the Greeks were busily em-
ployed; life was not over with them at 40 or 50,
but at a much later period they were ardently
engaged in instructing the young, or in some
other way serving their country. Besides, in
the common way of estimating life, its parts
bear no proportion to each other; the imbeci-
223
lity of childhood passes so rapidly into the
decrepitude of age, that life is almost divided
between them.---It is not thus with animals,
many of them live for many years in full vigour;
but in general they live eight times as long as
they are in coming to maturity: thus we say,
a horse lives 8 times 4 years, a dog 8 times
18 months, and thus of other animals. A cal-
culation of this kind does not accurately apply
to man, but it is rational to expect a nearer
resemblance than is now found.
There is another observation I wish to make,
which considerably illustrates the subject: The
female economy is so appointed as to be pecu--
liarly adapted to a life of 70 years; by 45 the
mother ceases to add to the number of her
children, and in 25 more her children cease to
need her care: here the business of life closes,
society has no further demand, and the genera-
tion hastens to its end. An earlier death I con-
ceive to be a premature one, and a later is not
to be desired.
I am aware that the preceding remarks, if
true at all, will be thought applicable to only a
very small part
of the globe: the Africans, the
aborigines of America, and the East-Indians,
they say, do not attain so great an age as Eu-
1
224
1
9
1
ropeans, nor do their constitutions seem adapted
to it. This opinion, though commonly received
and credited, appears to me unsupported by
proper evidence. What are the proofs, that the
whole family of man, as they have equal duties
have not an equal space to fulfil them in? One
remark is, that the slaves in the West-Indies
generally die young. To this, it is answered,
that some have been known to live till they
were eighty, and in Africa negroes are not
reputed old till they are between fifty and sixty,
and Europeans cannot plead a longer exemption;
and there is no more reason to suppose the
Africans live out the whole natural period of
their lives than Europeans: an improvement in
their habits would probably increase the duration
of their lives.---Dr. Robinson, and after him
Mr. Malthus, estimate the lives of the American
Indians at something less than Europeans; this
is doubtful as a general fact, and certainly untrue
in particular instances, for it is not uncommon
for individuals to reach their hundredth year.---
As to the East-Indians, I presume it will not be
contested that their constitutions are not as well
adapted to a life of 70 years as our own. But it
will be further objected, that, as in warm cli-
mates marriage is contracted earlier, so it hastens
1
[
225
the approach of old age. This is perfectly true,
but the laws of nature are not in fault; sensual
gratifications are at once the study and the bane
of hot climates: children are married at the age
of ten or twelve, and thus the constitution is
broken before it is formed: it was not designed
by nature that children or even youths should
marry; there are duties proper to those ages,
but marriage is not one of them; inclination is
not always a sufficient motive, it is not the guide
by which we are to be directed,---the maturity of
the mind is the circumstance chiefly to be
regarded: there is a time when the manly cha-
racter is assumed; when the pursuits and the
pastimes of the boy no longer please, it is then
the mind is matured, and marriage may be con-
tracted as a pledge of future happiness. But,
in the east, no respect is paid to the understand-
ing,---theirs is not a rational contract. In many
civilized countries the marriageable age is di-
rected, or at least advised, by the government:
in America, the age of 18 is thought old enough;
in England, 21 is preferred; but in the cast
mere children are connected by this tie. Is
there sufficient reason for this conduct? Is it
justifiable in any law of nature? Certainly not.
The natives of hot climates are not required to
F f
$26
marry, before their judgments are informed,
any more than Europeans; neither ought they.
Had the institutors of the customs of the east
been guided by a wise and enlightened policy,
it would have been their study to have protracted
the maturing of the constitutions of their peo-
ple, in place of presenting every incitement to
provoke and hasten them. Suppose, in this,
or in any other country still further north, it
was instilled into the minds of the children,
that it would be proper they should
proper they should marry when
they had reached their twelfth year, and that the
same attention was paid to them which such a
consideration warrants, would it not have a very
considerable effect in maturing the body? The
reverse of such opinions should be forcibly incul-
cated on the children born in the east, and then,
like ours, they would enjoy the pleasures of child-
hood and youth,---in place of being hurried, by
the premature ripeness of a tainted imagination,
from the cradle to fill the important station of a
husband or a wife. The human economy is much
influenced by external circumstances. A youth,
brought up in the country, and another in some
situations in a town, are as different in this
respect as in their characters. When the peo-
ple of hot climates shall act towards their chil-
5
1
227
dren as the guardians of their morals and the
formers of their understandings, a premature
youth will not lead to a premature marriage;
nor the people complain that their lives are
shorter than other persons.
I might here make some remarks on the way
by which life is abridged of its natural duration
in various parts of the globe, and in different
stages of civilization; and from hence have
proved, that the proper age of man is, in every
region of the world, the same. That if a noble-
man lives longer than the peasant, and that if
the peasants of one country live longer than
those of another, it does not arise from the na-
ture of their constitutions, but from their con-
duct. But all I designed was, to prove that
the age of man is threescore years and ten,
and that no reduction can be expected to take
place if this be accomplished my object is
attained.
:
228
}
OF THE
INCREASE OF ANIMALS.
IN the judgment of those philosophers who
found theories on external characters, there is
a redundancy, an unnecessary waste of creative.
power, in all the works of God. Africa is
bounded by a desert, which it is impossible to
render otherwise; the arctic circles are inhospi-
table and rude, unfit for the abode of man;
the ocean itself is calculated to destroy, rather
than protect, the nobler parts of the animal
creation; myriads of seed, brought to perfection,
fall to the ground and perish; some animals are
venemous, others ravenous, and seem to exist
only that they may destroy; children are born
and grow up idiots, others pass from the cradle
to the grave. These vast regions of silence and
of danger, these instances of cruelty and death,
are lamented, by superficial observers, who con-
clude, because their utility is not apparent, that
1
229
}
they possess none; and hence the wisdom of
the Creator is disputed.
Upon the principle of condemning what is
not understood, Mr. Malthus has written his
book. In his opinion, a few privileged indivi-
duals are alone permitted to enjoy the fruits of
the earth, whilst the greater part of the popu-
lation of the world, like the desert of Zaara, įs
calculated only to injure. To blot the desert
from the universe is not in our power; but
Mr. Malthus has pointed out the means by
which the world is freed from its injurious popu-
lation. However pleased our author may be
with the idea that other parts of nature corres-
pond with the overflowing and useless numbers of
the human race, when the globe is contemplated
as a whole, and as having been formed by design
to answer a given purpose, no void or empty
space, no exuberance, no want can be discovered:
as the utility of every part is not equally apparent,
the observer is silent where he cannot decide;
he, however, sees enough that is good to believe
all is such, and to increase his knowledge he
enquires, and expresses his half discoveries in
conjecture; of those places where no vegetables
grow, no animals breathe, he believes them.
useful in giving repose, and in restoring the
230
salubrity of the atmosphere, after the incessant
decompositions to which it is subjected in the
habitable parts of the earth. If he cannot dis-
cover the usefulness of an idiot, or of a still-
born infant, he is not bold enough to say there
is no wisdom or consistency in the scheme of
providence respecting them.
The brute creation presents as many seeming
blank, unproductive, and useless parts, as the
globe itself, or as the race of man and as ani-
mals are below us in the scale of creation, and
familiar to us by daily observation, we are able,
in some measure, to comprehend the benefit
one part derives from another, and to judge of
the dependence of the parts on the whole: and
as brutes are endowed with a stronger principle
of increase than man, by enquiring by what
means their increase is checked, and they kept
down to the level of their food, we may be
assisted in our further enquiries.
In a country, fenced round and cultivated,
man is the check: thousands of animals bleed
to supply his table; he protects and then destroys
them, and their number is balanced by his wants.
This conduct has the semblance of cruelty, and
Mr. M. would rank it under the head misery,
but it does not admit of such a character: the
231
1
animals we use us food seldom die of sickness
and disease, and it was never designed they
should, as I shall hereafter attempt to prove.
Death, in any form, is horrible,---but I do not
know that a sudden extinction of life is more
so than after a lingering disease; besides, the
length of the life of a domestic animal, notwith-
standing its being subjected to the will of man,
is greater than those of the same species in the
wild state: they are more numerous in our pas-
tures than in the forest, consequently, their lives
being better protected, in the aggregate, are
longer; and thus any idea of man's inflicting
misery upon them, by putting them to death,
loses its force. Man does not add to the misery
of animals that sport in meadows made fertile by
his labour; if they die by his hands, he shields
them from many dangers, and thus increases
the sum of their happiness. But all animals are
not under the care and protection of man: in
the forest he has no influence, he has not even
a habitation, and his right to controul and appro-
priate the feeblest animal would be contested by
the stronger. In the forest, the lion and the
panther, the leopard and the rhinoceros, make
their dens, and reign undisturbed masters: if
one be killed in battle it is a male, which has no
232
lasting influence on their number. When they
are seeking the means to satisfy their hunger,
other animals fly before them, and are pursued,
overtaken, and devoured; or should a larger
animal not come in their way, they make a
repast on the smaller,---beetles, flies, and worms,
forming, there is reason to believe, part of their
food, as they do of the fox. So entirely are
they masters of the forests, that it must be
wholly deserted of other animals before they can
suffer famine.
The want of the means of subsistence, which
Mr. M. contends prevents the increase of the
human race, does not prevent the increase of
beasts of prey; they are exempt from this
check, which rather militates against his theory.
But if this be not the check to their increase,
where is it to be found? Are they unprolific?
Quite the reverse: beasts of prey seldom bring
forth fewer than four young in a season. Are
they short-lived? No; a lion, even when con-
fined to a cage, in an unfriendly climate, and
exposed to cruel treatment, lives many years:
the same remark holds good of other beasts of
prey.
Reasoning on the principles laid down by
Mr. M., we at once conclude that there is a
233
}
constant struggle between the principle of in-
crease and the means of subsistence, and that
the most powerful and obvious checks cut off
their redundant numbers. The population of
America is doubled in 25 years, but the princi-
ple of increase in beasts of prey is a hundred
fold greater, and neither vice, misery, nor moral
restraint, in any of the ramifications through
which Mr. M. traces them, oppose its progress;
it is stationary: some appointment of nature,
unconsidered by Mr. M., must, doubtless, be the
cause. There are laws which extend their influ-
ence through the universe, others are of parti-
cular and partial application, of this description
are those that relate to the various inhabitants
and productions of the earth. In the same
forest in which the lion and other beasts hold
undisputed sway, and are prolific, the timid
deer, a prey to every beast, with only one solitary
fawn in a year, are far more numerous than them
all.---Making it evident that beasts of prey are
not subject to the same checks as herbaceous
animals, in what these checks consist, and how
they are imposed, I shall attempt to inves-
tigate.
Animals that are domesticated, in proportion
as they excel in the quickness of their senses, or
G g
234
in
any faculty whatever, are tender and delicate,
and difficult to rear: the whelp of a spaniel is
in greater danger of dying than a young mastiff;
when a high-bred whelp of any description is
a few months old, there often appears a
greater than natural flow of blood towards the
head, the eyes of the animal inflame, it staggers,
is dull, and in a few weeks dies; by this disease
more than half the young of such animals are
cut off, while the common sort escape. This
fact, of a greater liability to death in the young
of certain descriptions of the canine species,
holds good with all animals; for, in all, the culti-
vation of any property renders the young tender:
even poultry have examples of this remark; some
breeds of pigeons are never killed, yet they
are not numerous; and chickens, of certain
descriptions, require more care than others.
What is true of domestic animals I feel no diffi-
culty in believing to be so of beasts of prey.
In them there appears no room for improve-
ment, all that nature has endowed them with
have been in a way of superior excellency: those
very properties in which our highly prized dogs
excel others, are surpassed in beasts of prey; the
least noise, the gentlest touch, the slightest
scent, the smallest object, rouse them from sleep,
235
and they are unwearied in pursuit. To believe
that the young of such animals are exposed to
the same diseases as are common to dogs that
greatly resemble them, is, I think, not tak-
ing too much on credit. If we contrast the
condition and general circumstances connect
ed with the existence of beasts of prey with
such as are attendant on herbaceous animals
ranging the same forest, we shall be compelled
to acknowledge, that the principle of increase is
guided, as it respects them, by different laws:
a deer is to every animal a prey, and may be
distressed for food by an unkindly season; its
fawn is in as great danger as itself, but its senses
are dull, it has no character but that of timidity;
were it blind, or deaf, or without smell, it would
live and grow fat, and bring up its young, as in
the perfect enjoyment of its senses; acuteness is
not natural to those animals, they are guided
to the grass beneath their feet by an unerring
instinct, and by it all their wants are satisfied;
their young are not difficult to rear, their system
is never deranged, their blood never rushes to
any particular part to increase its growth or give
it greater capacity, and thus expose their health.
Whilst a young spaniel depends on its dam for
subsistence its senses are blunt like the fawn's,
236
3
and few of them die; but they do not long
continue in that state: as they grow up they
manifest a disposition to obtain food for them-
selves, and with the disposition they acquire the
capacity; their whole system undergoes a change:
the old and the young do not, as in the deer,
resemble each other: the one has fixed in its
constitution a check to the increase of the num-
ber of its species, the other requires a check of
a different nature.
From the beasts of the forest let us turn
our attention to the tenants of the ocean. Fish,
in incalculable numbers, glide through its vast
extent, balanced in the exactest manner to each
other: the number of their spawn are so various,
that the proportion they bear to each other seem
in danger, in one year, of being destroyed; one
fish brings forth a hundred thousand, another
only two or three; yet the herring does not
increase faster than in its due proportion to the
whale, or the cod to the muscle or crab. The
principle on which this nice adjustment is regu-
lated, has no relation to vice, misery, or moral
restraint; each animal brings forth its full in-
crease, and lives in the enjoyment of the richest
abundance: to disease, fish seem almost stran-
gers, few of them ever being seen dead: they
237
are not too numerous; the ocean is full, but not
too full. The climate they most delight in, is
always accessible: their senses are far from being
acute, nature is required to make no extra effort
to fit them for the rank they hold; the young
are endowed with the same portion of sensibility
as the old: the order of their economy suffers
no derangement, knows of no change, has no
period of peculiar danger; instinct is unem-
barrassed by domestication, and leads, without
risque, to the supply of their wants: in a
word, they suffer no evils but those which are
imposed in the directest manner by the hand of
nature. And what are these? What are the
checks by which the increase of fish, notwith-
standing their prodigious fecundity, is prevent-
ed? It is in the nature of their subsistence.
Fish is the food of fish. The herring, in which
the remains of no other animal has ever been
found, is perhaps an exception; and there may
be others; but, as a general fact, it holds true.
The only food presented, and the only appetite
given, confines them to this mean of subsist-
ence: their teeth are not adapted to the masti-
cation of vegetables, and in the ocean none.
grow. The shark is proverbial for its ravenous
appetite, but all fish possess the same character;
238
do we not, in angling, bait with animals to
Catch the smallest fish? They each seek the
life of others, and thus they mutually check
their increase.
Should the goodness of God be called in
question, and it be asked, how consistent with
his benevolence he can create sentient beings to
destroy each other? It may be answered, that
life is given to animals only for a season, and
the mode by which they are compelled to resign
it, can be of little consequence.
The elements, as they have been called, of
earth, air, fire, and water, were not designed as
the means of subsistence. The food of plants
is not water, but the remains of any substance
that has had life. The food of animals is not
earth, but the productions of the earth. Her
rings, indeed, appear to live upon the elements,
but this conception may arise from our igno
rance; they may separate the slime cast off by
other fish, and thus subsist.
Had it been the will of the Creator that no
more animals should have had existence than
could have lived without annoying each othery
their number must have been extremely smally
and the sum of happiness so inconsiderable, as
to render it questionable for what purpose the
239
world was created.
Conceive the ocean tenant-
el by no more fish than could have lived by the
wreck carried into it by the rivers; Mr. Malthus
might, in that case, have triumphed in his
theory; an end would be at once put to the
possibility of increase, and either sterility or
destruction must follow. But, as it is, the
ocean, through its vast expanse, is inhabited by
myriads of beings in the full enjoyment of all
the happiness their nature is susceptible of; the
sum of their felicity is far greater than if there
had only been here and there a solitary animal
moving silently along from shore to shore, ex-
citing doubts as to the wisdom of its creation,
and grown old without having enjoyed existence.
But as the world is now directed every part is
full of life; not a stream is without its shoals of
fish, which play round each other, in all the
frolicsomeness of youth.
Opposed to the happiness thus enjoyed, is
the agony of death.
of death. It may be said, if there be
more pleasure there is also more pain; but
what proportion do they bear to each other?
The pain of dying is, to animals, a very small
drawback on the pleasure of life: it is not
dreaded, they know not that they are mortal,
and before they discover it they are dead. Life
1
240
is a valuable gift, and the more there are that
possess it, the greater is the sum of happiness.
As death is the lot of all animals, to die sud-
denly is preferable than to die of disease. A
diseased fish must starve, because its prey
would escape.
Man has lessened the number and extent of
his enjoyments, and reduced his life to a scene
of mortification and distress; his death is pain-
ful, and his life is full of sorrow: but it is not so
with animals, they suffer neither from remorse
or imprudence, and consequently are exempt.
from the great sources of suffering.
In the ocean, the shark lives and reigns the
same undisputed sovereign that the lion does in
the forest; it knows of no rival, and is subject
to no ordinary check. If the number of their
young be not great, they are long lived, and must
very soon be too numerous were they not pre-
vented; but of the means by which this is
accomplished we arc ignorant, because the his-
tory of that fish is not well known: but thus far
we may pronounce, that they are not compelled
to be the means of their own destruction, as
Mr. M. contends is the lot of man. The
infliction of the check to their increase is inde-
pendent of themselves; the means, whatever
་
241
they may be, cannot be avoided, and their end
is certain.
On a review of this chapter it will be seen
that I contend as strenuously for the necessity
of checking the increase of animals as it is pos-
sible Mr. M. could do; but of the principles on
which it is effected we do not agree. I contend,
that they are such as contribute to the happi-
ness of the world; and are so fixed in the nature
of animals, and also of the human race, as to
operate without exciting a wish that there were
fewer sentient beings that the sum of misery
might be less. But Mr. M. excites our indig-
nation at the order of nature, and makes
thing so much to be dreaded as its laws.
Before I close this chapter, it may not be
improper to make a few remarks on the existence
of beasts of prey.---The animals they devour are
the proper food of man, do they then not lessen
the means of his subsistence, and hasten the
approach of misery? Certainly not. Beasts of
prey, if the expression can be admitted, are the
representatives of man; they hold a trust for
him, from which they will be dismissed when
their services are no longer wanted. The sheep,
the deer, and other herbaceous animals, are
created for the use of man, and are endowed
Hh
242
1
f
with a principle of increase sufficiently strong
to admit of many being annually destroyed with-
out the stock being diminished: were not this
done, did not many die by violent means, they
would soon be too numerous for the subsistence
provided for them. The increase of the human
race being slow, it was impossible every part of
the globe should be occupied before the herba-
ceous animals would become too numerous;
to prevent this, beasts of prey were created, and
they range the forest, conscious of their power;
but no sooner does man appear, and put in his
claim as the rightful lord of the habitable globe,
than these animals retire, or shelter themselves
by concealment. Herbaceous animals place a
sort of confidence in man, but beasts of prey
shun him. Foxes still exist in this country,
and were the land not inhabited, would be suffi-
ciently public, but now they tremble at being
Other animals, especially of the bird
tribe, whose lives are equally as much sought
after, court our society: a black bird will build
in a garden; a hare or a rabbit do not avoid
man as foxes do: these differences in disposition
seem to imply the relation that animals stand
seen.
in to man.
Dr. Priestley supposes that the work of crea-
243
tion continued through many ages, and did not
cease till after the deluge; and that animals
received existence as they became useful; and
that in this way the stocking the different con-
tinents with animals suited to them may be
accounted for. The idea struck me as extremely
ingenious, and as removing many difficulties;
but I would make this addition to it, that, as
animals received their existence as their want
was felt, so they will be continued no longer
than their usefulness remains: consequently,
beasts of prey must become extinct as soon as
the world is occupied by the human race.
Already this process of extinction is begun :
bones are found in England, in Siberia, and in
America, of a larger size than belong to any
animal now living; what these animals were we
have no information, but their usefulness was
at an end, and they ceased to multiply: that
this was the case may be inferred from the want
of them not being felt. In a very short time
Europe will be as free from all beasts of prey
as it is from these larger animals; such as now
live are protected for the diversion they afford,
a slight effort would destroy them.---To say
that beasts of prey are useful in a well-peopled
country, is contrary to common observation;
}
244
1/
!
?
to deny their usefulness in an unpeopled country,
implies as little reflection: they are a supple-
mentary part of creation, and must either be
domesticated like the dog, or be blotted from
the catalogue of living animals.
ļ
f
245
OF THE
CHECKS TO THE INCREASE OF THE
HUMAN RACE.
SIR Wm. Petty calculated that it was pos-
sible, in the present state of the world, for the
human race to double in number, by actual
increase, in ten years; and the rapidity with
which the Jews are known to have multiplied,
gives sanction to this opinion: hence it appears,
that the whole world might be fully peopled
from a single province; and if the principle of
increase was to continue in full force after
this was completed, it might fairly be asked in
what way the superabundant population could
be disposed of. I have already said, that the
constitution of man was sufficiently strong to
carry him forward in the active exercise of his
body and mind to the age of 70; and that vice,
misery, and moral restraint, were neither natu-
ral or necessary to his existence, and would be
ľ
246
1
withdrawn. But if the principle of increase be
too strong, this is impossible; for excess is
always productive of evil. A beautiful fabric,
carried up too high, is destroyed by its own
weight; and too many inhabitants on the globe
must suffer from the same cause.
On this view of the subject, which accords
with that Mr. Malthus gives, it is not, in the
nature of things, that the condition of man should
be ameliorated, or his hard lot softened: bene.
fited for a day, placed in the midst of plenty, his
increase occasions scarcity. To prevent this
evil Mr. M. has mentioned various means, but
they are all of them afflictive, cruel, or corrupt,
and therefore inapplicable. It is not possible,
from the nature and attributes of God, that his
creatures should be thus circumstanced by him
to choose between good and evil is honourable
and dignified, but to be allowed only a choice
of evils, of the most calamitous kind, as
the companions and regulators of our lives,
is the lowest point of degradation; and were it
true, it would be impossible to entertain honor-
able sentiments of the Deity. But such notions
do not require an answer; they are contradicted
by experience; the world has received pledge
after pledge that it was governed by wisdom and
t
2147
benevolence. When its population was increasing
faster than was consistent with the happiness of
man, life was shortened, and is now no longer
than the duties connected with it require, and
consequently will not be again reduced. This
is one pledge which ought to inspire the greatest
confidence, and is alone sufficient to satisfy most
of my readers, that the population of the earth.
will never be suffered to increase beyond the
means of subsistence: but, as the world is
governed by fixed laws, and as no miracle is
expected, it becomes us to enquire in what way
they are calculated to answer this end.
In order to convey my opinion, it is neces-
sary that I glance at the leading facts in the
economy of man, that are connected with the
subject.
To increase and multiply, is a command
enforced by the most powerful appetite implanted
in our nature, and sanctioned by all the endear-
ing relations that sweeten life; marriage is
therefore an honorable institution, it is a duty
which runs parallel with inclination, and is on
this account worthy the consideration of the
philosopher and moralist. Such a connection
only exists in the relations that arise from this
institution; other duties require self-denial, and
248
have respect to a future good; this combines
the present and the future.---Paracelsus was of
opinion, that sin was necessary to the propaga-
tion of mankind, (Univ. Hist. v. 1. p. 136):
and the writings of the monks and friars abound
with strange notions of the utility and virtue of
celibacy; what sin had done they would coun-
teract; like Mr. M., they would attempt to
assist in the government of the world.---But it
becomes us to enquire whether the laws of nature
require to be broken, in order that the end for
which they were instituted may be answered.
This world is a place only of temporary residence,
and marriage is the means of keeping up a suc-
cession of inhabitants; the institution is of gene-
ral obligation, but as an indefinite increase is
impossible, there must be some appointment for
preventing it. Death is that appointment. By
death, I do not apprehend to have been intended
those horrid forms of it which Mr. M. presents
to our view, but a resignation of life when the
duties of it are discharged.
But the passage
from the cradle to the grave is not without its
evils; two are expressly appointed,---personal
labour, and sorrow in childbirth to these,
others are added by ourselves; such are all that
arise from repletion or want, from anxiety of
:
249
The
mind or unnecessary exposure of health. These,
and many other, Mr. M. holds over our heads
- as necessary in the government of the world:
but the only thing that concerns us in them is,
to shun them. But personal labour, and the
agony of death, cannot be avoided; nor is there
any other appointment for the continuation of
the species than by sorrow. These checks seem
very feeble and absolutely insufficient to restrain
the principle of population and keep the num-
ber of the human race within due bounds.
two latter bear the marks of displeasure; they
are punishments grievous in themselves but not
destructive of life: the other is the end rather
than the means. Something must precede death
and render it inevitable, and this we have stated to
be a broken constitution: but Mr. M. has proved
that death, in the ordinary way in which it is
excited, is not equal to the principle of increase,
as exemplified in America. In what direction
then are we to look for the due balance of the
principle of life with the ravages of death, on
the ground that misery is unnatural to man, and
not a part of his government? We must look
to his constitution. Man is not a mere animal;
he does not stand in the order of creation as the
chief among brutes; he stands apart, holding no
I i
250
i
converse with them: he is distinguished by
intellectual faculties, to which the body is sub-
ject, and to which, in return, it subjects the
mind; when the one is tortured with pain, the
other raves in delirium; when the mind is
dejected and sad, the body is feeble; grief
destroys health, and ultimately occasions death.
As rational beings we are above the brutes, but
as animals we are not; for the mind operates
through the medium of the body, which it dis-
orders.
It is unnecessary to say, that brutes are more
regular in the production of their young, that
the better they live the more fruitful they be-
come, but that the economy of man is not sub-
ject to the same laws as animals. It is to the
influence that the mind has on the body that
I wish to call the attention of my readers, as the
one great cause (to use the words of Mr. M.)
intimately united with the nature of man, which,
though it has been constantly and powerfully
operating since the commencement of society,
has been little noticed by the writers who have
treated on this subject." As the faculties of
the mind are unemployed, as the man sinks
down towards the animal, he is prolific; as he
ascends above them, his fruitfulness decreases.
ļ
251
Before an investigation of this subject is
entered upon, it may not be improper to make
a few remarks, which place it at issue with the
theory advanced by Mr. M. on an interesting
question: Can the condition of man be im-
proved? I am not disposed to advance any
Utopian scheme of human perfectibility, but I
avow my belief that the time is approaching when
the whole world will acknowledge the truth, and
be guided by the spirit of the religion of Jesus
Christ, which implies a prodigious amelioration
in the state of the human race. It enjoins peace :
ambition, intemperance, pride, and indolence,
the great sources of pestilential and other dis-
eases and famine, are forbidden by its maxims
and corrected by its influence. Unwholesome
occupations are unnecessary, many being ren-
dered so by improper application. Large towns
are unpleasant, and will, in a measure, be aban-
doned when they present no vicious gratification
to tempt the stay of their inhabitants. Exces-
sive labour, bad nursing of children, and every
other check of this nature, do not apply to a
community of christians, by whom all things
are done in order. The theory I advance ad-
mits of such an order of things taking place;
that advanced by Mr. Malthus is in direct oppo-
252
sition to it. The checks to population, which
he contends are insurmountable, are discounte-
nanced and forbidden by the religion of Jesus
Christ; both cannot be true; if Mr. M. can
substantiate his doctrines, the christian religion
admits of no defence.---But I will go a step fur-
ther: there are some gentlemen who discredit
revelation, yet believe in the being of a God,
to these the theory of Mr. M. must also be in
opposition. It must meet their ideas, that the
world is capable of presenting scenes sufficiently
interesting to attract the attention and gratify
the noblest feelings of man, were he much wiser
and better than he is: it is a theatre on which
much may be enjoyed that is not enjoyed. Has
the design of God in creation been counter-
acted? Is the constitution of the world imper-
fect? Will man never taste in this world the
pleasures it was designed to communicate, and
which he is capacitated to receive? Certainly
he will. There are few intelligent deists who
will not join in expressions of the fullest confi-
dence that such a period will come: how many
volumes have they not written to hasten its
approach: they have spoken much of the pos-
sibility of equality, virtue, and good order be-
coming universal:--- the theory of Mr. M. is in
253
direct opposition to such ideas: but that which
is proposed is in unison with revelation, and
includes the opinion of the deists; it admits
the progress of knowledge, connected with the
progress of happiness; it inculcates the prac-
tice of virtue, that life may be enjoyed; it limits
the number of children, without calling in the
aid of the ridiculous notion that celibacy is a
virtue of the highest magnitude, a charm by
which vice and misery are to be lulled to sleep.
On the theory of Mr. M., let man turn to
which side he will, misery presents itself; know-
ledge and virtue can only quicken his sensi-
bility; they can alleviate no evil, they can do
him no good.
254
i
The same Subject continued.
THE relation of the mind to the body is so
intimate, yet in its nature so incomprehensible,
that all which can be done is to make some
advances toward explaining it. A bad piece of
intelligence, or any event that depresses the
mind, weakens the body, and interrupts the due
performance of its functions. Here, then, is an
incontestible proof of the relation which subsists,
and which should be kept in mind as we go on.
If, under circumstances of mental distress, a
meal be made, the food does not digest, it is
not converted into chyle and assimilated to the
body, yet digestion is entirely an animal, or as
some would even call it, a chemical process;
the food swallowed is, in the ordinary way, acted
on in the stomach by a fluid peculiar to it, (the
gastric juice), but should the mind be disturbed
255
this juice is rendered unfit to perform the part
natural to it, and the food remains unaltered.
A wish will not occasion hunger, but intense
thought destroys it; in consequence of the ac-
tion of the mind the tears flow, the mouth be-
comes dry, and even the hair changes colour,
No secretion is improved by the influence of the
mind; on the contrary, the more powerful its
operation, the less perfect is the discharge of the
functions of the body.
That the influence of the mind extends to
the propagation of the species, may, after what
has been said, easily be credited, and is supported
by facts. All savages are unprolific, and they
are so just in proportion as they are entitled to
this character; in other terms, as they are fierce,
vindictive, and cruel. Bruce noticed this fact,
with respect to some of the African tribes; but
as we are somewhat better acquainted with the
American, I shall particularly notice the circum-
stances of that people. An American lives in a
forest, surrounded by enemies thirsting mutually
for revenge; ardent in the pursuit of one object,
his mind contemplates that alone, while the
'scenery around him, and his great ignorance,
heightens his malignancy; none of his opera-
tions are directed by an enlightened government
256
The
inspiring confidence and dispelling care, but he
is at once a soldier and a statesman, on whose
shoulders the concerns of the nation rest, he
thinks and acts as if there were none other; the
gravity of the deportment of the whole, their
silence, their acute senses, their retentive memo-
ries, evince the strong and constant exercise of
their minds; their life is that of care.
mind, ever on the rack, is insensible to the soul's
calm sunshine. Bound by a savage bond, the
members of a tribe direct their joint efforts to
the extirpation of their enemies; by this mo-
tive, and to this end, all their actions are di-
rected; wealth they disregard, and are insensible
to honour, unless it be connected with blood.
A life so spent must affect the constitution, the
economy of nature is interrupted and broken,
the whole system is deranged, and few children
are born. But, on the other hand, the American
who spends his life in tranquillity, who is free
from care, is surrounded by a numerous offspring.
Can there be an inference more natural, than,
that the number of children depend on the
condition of life?
Again,---In civilized society instances are
common of a family that promised to be
numerous being stopped in its progress by some
257
4
1
circumstance of distress preying on the minds
of the parents, It seldom happens that an
honest man is a parent in the year in which he
becomes a bankrupt.
There is, in this and other countries, a cer-
tain class of unhappy persons, in whom virtue is
not blended with misfortune, or a stained cha-
racter the effect of unavoidable circumstances,
which still more unequivocally shows the influ-
ence of the mind in preventing pregnancy, I mean,
that of the prostitute. It is well known that
a prostitute is seldom a mother, which is usually
attributed to promiscuous intercourse, but this
is not the cause: to suppose that a young wo-
man at once leaves the paths of virtue and the
protection of her parents for infamy, disease, and
want, is as unreasonable as it is unjust; lan-
guage, offensive to the ear of modesty, is first.
heard and endured, and afterwards the life by
degrees becomes corrupt. At the very outset
of a course of vice, whilst perhaps only an indi-
vidual is a party in the crime, barrenness is
almost as common as in the more openly pro-
fligate. To state a case: a woman lives with
her paramour, the ceremony only of a public
acknowledgment is not complied with to con-
stitute them man and wife: No, they stand in
k k
!
}
}
258
no such a relation; the laws of the country are
not observed, for the express purpose that this
relationship may never be felt. Theirs is an
union of criminal desires, not of honourable mo-
tives the crime constitutes their happiness.
Were a law passed, by which such conduct was
made to constitute marriage, the principle of
their union would be dissolved: the source of
such happiness is personal gratification, the
source of happiness in marriage is personal
worth. The interests of a mistress are centered
in herself; abandoned by her own sex, and de-
graded by the other, the objects of her atten-
tion are as limited as those of a savage; and
like a savage she spends her days, in fanning a
passion, which, the more it reigns the more
despicable she becomes, and the more disquali-
fied for being a mother.
That the class of women of which I have
been speaking owe their sterility to the influ-
ence of their minds, is considerably strength-
ened by the consideration, that promiscuous
intercourse is not of itself a hinderance to preg-
nancy. At Otaheite, and many other places,
where the manners of the people admit of this
practice without incurrring disgrace, no check
to population follows: they have no proper
259
1
sense of shame; their conduct does not appear
to them corrupt; their intercourse is precisely
that of brutes, and brutes are never sterile
because of promiscuous intercourse; it has no
injurious effect in the propagation of animals.
In Europe the female character is held in
the highest estimation, it is as sacred as life
itself; but at Otaheite, or among savages, if
virtue has a name, the sentiment is wholly
unknown: a sense of decency characterizes
civilization. In Europe the female takes alarm
at the most distant insinuation, and days of the
severest conflict precede and accompany a dis-
solute life; the mind is never at rest: but the
unrestrained manners of an unenlightened peo-
ple are never checked by reflection. Unre-
strained manners in an European are not the
mere indulgence of animal instinct, they imply
the triumph of depravity over virtue and reli-
gion; the struggle is severe: it is the mind
that is conquered; it had modelled the face to
be an index of itself, the index remains, but the
character it expresses is changed: the new
aspect given by depravity demonstrates the in-
fluence the mind has over the body. If the
mind affects the external character, it doubtless
biases the constitution.
260
#
When Cæsar invaded England, it was com-
mon for one woman to marry all the sons of a
family; such conduct now would, I have no
doubt, be attended with barrenness, because
superior information would brand the practice
with infamy; but Cæsar does not notice such
an effect. The opposite consequences of pro-
miscuous intercourse, in a civilized and a barba-
rous nation, must have a cause. The unfruit-
fulness of prostitutes in Europe must originate
in some law of nature, and where can we fix it
so well as in the influence the mind has on the
body? It occasions disease, may it not therefore
occasion sterility?
As the nature of the subject does not admit
of a full discussion, I shall pass on to the con-
sideration of some less objectionable evidence.
That the fact really exists, is incontrovertible:
the mind does controul the body, but is the
principle of universal application. Does it act
uniformly? Does it admit of degrees? Does
an increase in knowledge, an exaltation of cha-
racter, influence in the same manner as the
ebullition of passion and the frenzy of dissipa-
tion? It does as the man increases, the animal
decreases.
Let us illustrate this idea. Peasants, of
1
261
all men, are the freest from care, the freest
from mental exercise, and the greatest propa-
gators of their species; neither the revenge or
animosity that rankle in the bosom of an Ame-
rican, nor the ardent thirst for knowledge that
exhausts the body and drinks up the spirits of a
well educated man, are felt by them: they fear
not the evils of to-morrow; they have little
anxiety for the honour of their families or their
country; they pass from day to day, unmoved
by ambition and without distress; they are pro-
tected by the laws of the state, rewarded by
their employers, and contented with their lot,
being ignorant of a better: in a word, mental
apathy as strongly characterizes this class, as
vigilance and anxiety do those of the savage and
the philosopher; and just as opposite as they
are in the state of their minds, so they are in
fruitfulness. The latter can scarcely preserve
their names from extinction, the other abounds
in children. Ask the Highlander, ask a pea-
sant of any country, whether barrenness be not
uncommon? and whether numerous progenies
do not in general grace their humble habita-
tions? The general fact is obvious, and forces
itself on the attention; but there are no regis-
ters that sufficiently discriminate the classes of
262
society for the purpose of this essay. We
must therefore attempt, by some other means,
to prove, that the poor are the most prolific
class of the community: if this should be
effected, it will follow, that some circumstance
connected with that station of life, influences
fecundity.
The way I shall attempt to prove this fact is,
by showing that the lowest class of a civilized
nation, of this nation for instance, suffers a
greater proportional loss, from the operation of
the various evils that afflict society, than any
other, without a greater permanent diminution
of number. The army and navy are composed
wholly of this class, except in their officers, and
the annual supply to make good the loss in these
vast engines of the state is very considerable.
Besides this, the poor fill every department where
life is endangered: unwholesome occupations,
hazardous enterprizes, all fall to this class. In
health they know not its value, in sickness they
are deprived of the best means of recovery;
individuals rise into the higher classes, but it re-
ceives very few from them; it is from the cot-
tage the stream has flown which for several
centuries has covered Europe with blood, or
been wasted at the shrine of folly. Thus it
263
appears, that this class sustains a considerable
and a constant drain.
Next in rank to the peasant is the ingenious
mechanic and the overlooker; and after them, in
a few more gradations, the merchant; this valu-
able class of the community, which, to the
honour and happiness of this country, is very
numerous, is not distinguished, like the last,
for producing more children than are necessary"
to maintain its number; it suffers no loss, it
admits of no drain from it; if an individual
be liable to an office of danger, he hires a peasant
to fill it. There exists only a few instances of
persons, born in the middle rank of life,
acting in any other; such will not sink, and
they cannot rise: but why can not this class
maintain itself, under as great a proportional
drain as the other? why is it not as prolific?
The cause is, I think, obvious: the life of a
tradesman is spent in the vigorous exercise of
the powers of his body and mind; he stands on
ground somewhat elevated, from whence he may
fall; his credit as a merchant, and his happiness
as a man, depend on his prosperity; to lose his
property, to be unsuccessful in business, and
leave his children in worse circumstances than
he was left in, is an apprehension that dances
}
264
•
before his eyes like a spectre, and of which he
cannot divest himself; to lose his reputation is
to him worse than death. Always impressed
with this fear, tradesmen speak with despon-
dency of the prospect before them; they are
accused of duplicity, but I exculpate them;
they are taught, that, to guard against the worst,
is to fear it; hence the train of thought common-
ly indulged. This habitual dread places them
in a very different situation to the labourer: the
one has what he holds as dear as life poised in a
balance, which his utmost care and exertion, in
his estimation, can scarcely maintain,---he has
climbed a few steps up, and looking down, is
filled with dread lest he should fall; the other
looks about without emotion, knowing that he
cannot sink. This is indeed the most unfavour-
able part of the picture of the middle station of
life, with its cares it has also its comforts;
amidst the surrounding gloom a bright cloud
bursts out, affording a pleasure to which a ser-
vant is a stranger; a secret expectation of suc-
cess is indulged, which animates the mind and
quickens diligence. The poor, compared with
them, seem not to promise so many vigorous,
well-nursed children, and, in fact, many of them
die for want of proper care: but how is the
1
265
fact as to the numbers which escape the perils of
childhood? Which class has the strongest prin-
ciple of increase in it? The lower; it suffers,
as has been said, by scarcity, by pestilence, and
war. If the middle class furnishes a few officers
to the army and navy, the number is inconsi-
derable; besides this, I know of no other de-
mand made on it. But it may be observed, if
the middle class is not equally prevented from
increasing by the positive checks, it is more so
by the preventive: this is at least doubtful.
The marriageable age is the same in all ranks;
and if a few merchants and tradesmen live in
celibacy, many of the lower class do the same.---
It may be again observed, that if neither the
positive nor preventive checks very much break
in upon and interrupt the increase of the middle
orders of the community, that this end is accom-
plished by many of them sinking into the lower,
or rising into the higher: ascent is possible but
difficult, and but few succeed in the attempt;
to descend seems more common, but it is a
forbidden path, and less frequented than is sup-
posed. A person who has acquired wealth
commonly educates his children and fits them
for the enjoyment of it, which precludes them
from ever sinking. An educated person cannot
Ll
}
266
1
become a peasant, in the temper of his mind;
he may be depraved, the pest of society, and
the grief of his friends; he may become a
soldier, or may meanly live on charity, but he
cannot become a peasant. Would he sub-
mit to their labour his education would instant-
ly place him above them. Their station has
no charms to invite, no power to constrain;
education has broken its fetters; a loss of
property does not constitute a loss of rank,
the money may be gone, but the station re-
mains. Like citizens of Rome, under no
circumstances do they give up their birth-
right. A Roman soldier was accustomed to
labour in the highways of the country he had
assisted to conquer, but this did not put him
on an equality with the barbarian that was
doing the same work; it was to the Roman
a work of.necessity, and therefore he did it
chearfully, but his proper station was in the
camp, which he always bore in mind; but
the barbarian was fit for no other employment,
he did what was imposed without further mo-
tive the difference between a Roman sol-
dier and a barbarian is the same as cxists.
between an educated and an uneducated fami-
ly. Whatever the members of the first may
267
be compelled to do, they have a view to
their proper rank in life; but the other works
to supply the wants of the day, and is satis-
fied when that is accomplished,
A family may possess wealth without their
minds being elevated above their servants;
such a family are peasants. The middle class
are a little republic, whose members respect
and honor each other; should the child of
any want a protector, some one stretches out
his arm, and bears him above his difficulties,
and, in return, he perhaps does the same to
the children of his benefactor, for money is
ever changing hands. Should this point be
allowed; should it be granted that few sink
into the lower, or rise into the higher classes,
it follows, that the middle order produces no
surplus of population; it cannot support a
constant call for men to be employed in the
service of the state, or in any other way foreign
to the wants of the class: it is just able to
keep up its own population. Thus we find
a large part of the community that does not
require the operation of vice, misery, or moral
restraint, to prevent its increase; and what is
true of a part may be so of the whole.
If the middle class only maintains itself, the
268
next above it still more clearly manifests that
vice and misery are only accidental and volun-
tary checks to population. It is a familiar fact,
that the higher class is unproductive: but the
important part of the fact is, that this circum-
stance is limited to civilized nations; it extends
no further than where superiority in rank implies
superior information. The chiefs of a nation of
shepherds are not unprolific; in all nations in
that state, or even advanced a step further,
genealogies reaching down many centuries are
common. "I cannot help remarking it," says
Dr. Smith," that very old families, such as
have possessed some considerable estate from
father to son for many successive generations,
are very rare in commercial countries. In coun-
tries which have little commerce, on the con-
trary, such as Wales or the Highlands of Scot-
land, they are very common. The Arabian
historians seem to be all full of genealogies :
and there is a history, written by a Tartar,
Kham, which has been translated into several
European languages, and which contains scarce
any thing else: a proof that ancient families are
very common among those nations." Wealth of
Nations, v. 2, p. 129.
Such authority, for the general fact, may be
A
269
considered as conclusive, but the reasoning
admits of doubt: the change of property, in
a commercial country, is certainly frequent;
but it is not wholly in consequence of the rise
and fall of fortunes which commerce gives birth
to. Athens was not a commercial city, nor
Berne, and yet old families were rare. The
nobility of this kingdom are above the influence
of commerce, yet they cannot boast of estates
being many centuries in their families. It is
not from commerce only that such events origi
nate; they must have another cause. A commer-
cial country is always civilized; commerce is in
part the cause and the consequence of civiliza-
tion, but the uncertainty that attends it is not
the sole occasion of the frequent changes of pro-
perty. Estates made hereditary often want an
heir, and this I apprehend to be the principal rea-
son that families hold large estates for so short a
time. Those who enjoy any rank in a civilized
country, who stand at its head, either in intellect
or in power, stretch their capacity to the utmost,
that they may acquit themselves with credit in
the stations they fill: this exertion of the mind
is, in the view I take of the subject, the efficient
cause of the few generations an estate is enjoyed
270
by such a family, or rather that such a family
exists to possess it.
-
In days of less refinement, bodily strength
was deemed the most valuable quality that could
be possessed by the warrior or the gentleman:
the weight of armour worn, and the nature of
the contest frequently engaged in, required great
strength. The story of Goliah, the Philistine,
gives a just idea of the value set on personal
strength by that warlike nation: what is highly
prized, is attentively cultivated. During the
reign of the Edwards, the barons were the finest
men in this nation; a taste for personal size
became general, and those who lived on the
substantial fare of those days, and worked little,
were most likely to excel. This taste is handed
down to the present day, size is still esteemed
a part of manly beauty, and in proportion as
this prevails the mind is neglected; indeed it is
of comparatively little value, when honour or
favour depends on something independent of it.
A short but well proportioned stature is com-
monly accompanied by a vigorous constitution
and an active mind; and is held in more
respect than formerly, because the ardour for a
military life is abated, and has rendered size
of less utility.---The Grecian statues of gods
271
:
:
and heroes are tall and commanding, because
the office assigned them required strength;
but in mere matters of taste, as in representing
a female, their figures commonly are small: had
they not considered height as betokening useful-
ness rather than beauty, they would certainly
not have omitted it in their statues designed
as models of beauty.
The man who has to labour may boast of
strength, but he whose life is spent in study
would be ridiculous so to boast. The baron who
was a farmer, among farmers, ate, drank, and
slept much, and grew to a great size; but a new
order of things has taken place, and those who
delighted in managing the lance and the spear
now constitute the senate of a great nation.
While they were mere farmers, genealogies were
common; they then thought but little; but now
the complex affairs of government require pro-
found thought and unwearied application: to
them, courage and size are neither necessary nor
desirable: it is for them to deliberate, not to
act. When the concerns of the state do not
demand their immediate attention, their minds
are still occupied; they have some interest to
serve, some point to gain: they are the servants.
of the public, but are not required to risque
272
their persons: personal courage, as applicable to
them, is what Gibbon represents it to be, "a vile
and vulgar qualification."
The distinction between the baron of the
present and of former days, consists wholly in
the object of pursuit: they are alike exempt
from the dread of want, and the consequences
of it; they know but little of the various evils
that thin the families of peasants. But at one
period the baron's table is surrounded by a nu-
merous progeny, at another scarcely a seat is
filled. This circumstance points to some cause,
and I know of no other, than the different effect
of a tranquil, thoughtless life, and a life spent
in anxiety and care.
There are many estates enjoyed by families
that possessed them at the Norman conquest,
but such families have never risen to greatness;
they have not given birth to genius: it is in
vain to enquire of them the improvements made
even in agriculture, or of such as it is desirable
should be made: they are men of precedents,
not men of thought: the maxims of their
ancestors guide them: they are useful in peo-
pling a country, but not in civilizing it. Philo-
sophers and poets, men of science or of taste,
are not of this order; those who flourished a
273
1
few generations back, live
their families are extinct.
only in their works,
But it may be said,
if this be the case, knowledge is a great evil,
and the bulk of the people can never be in-
formed.---This remark will be attended to in
another place; all I aim at, at present, is to
establish the fact, that the most thoughtful peo-
ple, taken as a body, are the least prolific;
by thoughtful, I mean any violent exercise of
the mind, whether it be of a savage or a
philosopher.
Although this subject, from the nature of
it, appears entirely confined to the human race,
yet its principles are founded in the laws of
nature, and may be supported by analogy. A
hare, under the protection of a park, breeds
earlier in the year, and yields more young in
a season, than one that has been subject to
perpetual alarm; the food of both may be
abundant, but the timidity of the animal sti-
fles the voice of nature. A mare, that ran-
ges undisturbed over a barren pasture, brings
forth its foal every season; but the same mare,
well fed in a stable, and trained to the chace,
is wholly unproductive. An elephant, caught
at the earliest period of its life, and domesti-
cated, and treated in a way apparently agree-
M m
t
+
A
274
The
able to it, never brings forth young.
same may be said of most species of birds;
if they are allowed a large room to fly in, and
live on the food they are most fond of, yet they
never build a nest. These facts are sufficient
to show, that an increase of animal life depends
on something more than animal passion, or the
abounding of the means of subsistence.
11
1
:
J
275
OF FECUNDITY.
IT has been remarked, in the foregoing
chapter, that various classes of the same na-
tion are unequal contributors to its population.
This fact Mr. Malthus never appears to have
considered; but being assured that the Ame-
ricans doubled their numbers by actual increase
in 25 years, has taken it for granted that this
rate is natural to every country.----It is further
remarked by our author, that the passion be-
tween the sexes is every where so similar, that
it may be considered, in algebraic language,
as a given quantity : this may be true, but
the resemblance holds good no further:
equality of affection does not ensure an equal
number of children.
an
"In Petersburg, one marriage yields 4 chil-
dren ---in the government of Moscow, 3;---
in the town of Tobolsk, from 1768 to 1778,
i
276
3; from 1779 to 1783, 5; in 1783, 6."*-
In England, Mr. M. calculates, that each
marriage yields about 5 births. In the
parish of Duthil, in Scotland, each marriage
yields 7 children; and this does not appear
much to exceed the average for the whole.
country.
Opposed to this great fecundity are all bar-
barous states : a marriage of North American
Indians, or unlettered Africans, very rarely
yields above 3 children. It is unnecessary to
multiply facts of this description: it is a fa-
miliar truth, that the number of children a mar-
riage yields is not the same in every country,
nor in every village; consequently, the rate of
increase cannot be the same in every place.
This difference does not arise from accidental
circumstances, but may be made the subject
of previous calculation.---Bruce, Park, Char-
levoix, Ulloa, and many other writers, speak
of the small families that are met with in
barbarous countries, The fact is of general
application: but, change the circumstances
of the people, let those who used to wander
through the woods and fastnesses of their coun-
* Malthus's Essays, pa. 211. † Pa. 315.
‡ Pa. 327.
}
277
try, burning with revenge, become farmers,
their families invariably betoken the change by
an increase in number. The American tribes,
that scarcely produced children to supply the
places of those who died, on forming alliances
with other tribes, or by any other means becom-
ing more tranquil and secure, have increased
in the number of births to a marriage.
The
Mohawks, now settled in Canada, were for-
merly as unprolific as other savages, but now
their huts abound with children equally so with
European peasants.
A hundred and fifty years before America
was discovered by the Spaniards, we are inform-
ed, that the southern part of that continent
was as little civilized as the northern: but
the Incas making some discoveries in agricul-
ture, taught them to the people, and effected
a change in their habits; immediately an
increase in population commenced, and when
the Spaniards gained a footing in that country,
it was well peopled. The Incas did not ba-
nish the checks to population that had previ-
ously existed; a little civilization` rather in-
creases than diminishes their force, by placing
the people in situations, the evils of what they
have not learned to avoid; but they rendered
278-
the people more happy, and they became more
prolific.
The history of the world is replete with
such instances; I shall only mention one other:
I meen that which is afforded by colonies. It
seldom happens that colonies are founded, ex-
cept by such nations as are in an advanced
stage of civilization; one object is, to draw
from the mother country the discontented, the
turbulent, and the vicious: the romantic
notions of some individuals, and the lost cha-
racter of others, render them as willing to
embark as the mother country is to direct their
destination: the worthy and respectable may
be driven from a country, but I am here speak-
ing of those who are always prepared for such
an enterprise; those who have wasted their
health in disquietude, and stained their charac-
ter by their conduct, the more profligate of
whom fall under the sentence of the law, and
go in chains to the place of their destination:
such are not supposed to have large families.
The children that have a claim to the care of the
Philantrophic Society are not numerous. The
profligate are not prolific: by profligate, I do
not mean the drunkard or the sensualist merely,
but the person who unites to these vices a
279
malignancy of temper. These very persons,
when removed to a remote colony, where every
object that once engaged their attention and
contributed to form their character is with-
drawn, where no diversity of pursuit, no daring
schemes, attract their attention, insensibly ap-
proximate, however opposite they may have
been like members of a family, they acquire
a resemblance, and feel a common interest; the
same dangers surround them, and the same
reward is promised: as they have no variety of
pursuits, so they have no inequality of condi-
tion: here those who knew no bound to their
extravagance, their ambition, or their caprice,
sink into the rank of peasants.---The savage,
and the corrupt members of a civilized country,
are not far remote: by removing, in part, the
ignorance of the one, and the vice of the other,
we find them still approximating; they are a
few removes from barbarism, to which state all
colonists are reduced: no office is now too
mean for men that once were proud, for that
which is necessary loses its meanness. The
mother country protects, but does not feed
them; the task of procuring the means of sub-
sistence devolves on themselves, and their health
is promoted by the labour. The very persons
280
}
who, in their native country, would scarcely
have left a child to bear their dishonoured
name, in exile lay the foundation of states and
empires.
"The Greek colonies of Syracuse and
Agrigentum in Sicily, Tarentum and Locri
in Italy, Ephesus and Miletus in Lesser Asia,
in the course of one or two centuries, rivalled,
and even surpassed in numbers, their mother
country." Smith's Wealth of Nations, v.2. p. 360.
The mother country was doubtless as well sup-
plied with the means of subsistence as her colo-
nies, and suffered as little from any of the
checks to population which Mr. Malthus speaks
of: the great difference appears to have been,
that the strife for excellency, so much felt in
Greece, was not in like manner felt by her
colonies. The colonists became inferior cha-
racters; the same spirit of ambition did not fire
their minds: their vices may have been as gross,
without being as daring: they occupied a more
extensive country, and consequently their pur-
suits were as different as their fecundity appears
to have been.
The European colonies in America, are an
additional evidence of the rapid increase of a
people planted in a new soil, and pursuing new
1
281
customs. They are part of ourselves, our bre-
thren, their history is familiar to us, their growtli
we have witnessed; but how does it happen
that a divided family increases faster in one part
than another? Is Europe less healthy than
America? Can the means of subsistence not be
as certainly procured in England as in Pennsyl-
vania? It is not that America is more blessed
than Europe that her population increases faster;
our American brethren are farmers, not philoso-
phers; they do not shine in literature or in
science; the principle of increase is not lessened
by care and anxiety, by the fervor of passion or
the fretfulness of discontent. The present inha-
bitants of America will, in a few centuries,
people that continent: but the rate will not
continue to be as it is now, it will diminish in
proportion as the mental faculties are exerted.
A colony has lately been settled in New
South Wales, by accounts received, the number
of children is already considerable, and the popu-
lation of the island may be expected to advance
rapidly there are a few natives scattered over
it, who have long had possession, but they have
not peopled the island, Mr. Malthus says,
because they are deficient in the means of sub-
sistence but habitual want is, I apprehend, no
:
Nn
t
282
where experienced; it does not, in any barbarous
country, lessen the number of marriages; and
we do not read of those who are born being
starved to death in greater proportion than in
civilized states: as to the other checks to which
they may have been exposed, strangers are as
liable to experience them as themselves, and yet
strangers, we are informed, are rapidly multi-
plying. Is there not a difference in the fecun-
dity of the women? No people averse to per-
sonal labour are fruitful in children: the savage
and the highly civilized are alike in this respect:
even Mr. M. has been betrayed into an acknow-
ledgment that rank affects fecundity.
"The
substitution," he says, "of a more quiet and
sedentary life, for a life of perpetual wandering
and hardship, would immediately render the wo-
men more prolific."* This remark, which is
all I am labouring to establish, destroys our
author's strong assertion, "That the main prin-
ciple advanced (by him) is so incontrovertible,
that had he confined himself to general views,
he could have intrenched himself in an inpreg-
nable fortress." If a principle exist, that
is able to check the increase of population by
↑ Pa. O
* Malthus's Essays, pa. 39.
283
lessening fecundity, our author is not in a
fortress at all.
:
The next object that claims our attention
is, a nation advanced to the highest pitch of
refinement. The mind here is involuntarily
drawn towards Greece; a people, among whom
marriage was honorable, and barrenness a re-
proach they abounded in all the comforts
and accommodations of life. But Gibbon
informs us, that the Athenians, in the best days
of their republic, sunk from 30 to 21000. Decl.
and Fall of Rom. Emp. v. 1, p. 54.---Was not
the civilization they had attained a check to
their increase? Were they not as a people
somewhat similar in their pursuits to the higher
classes of this country? As the subject is inti-
tled, from its interest, to every description of
illustration, let us descend from general to
particular facts, and contrast the increase of
the peasantry, with that of the opulent, the
learned, and the noble, of our own nation.
The poor have long remarked, that, amidst
all their misery, they had the most numerous
families to support: We have the mouths, and
they the bread, is become a proverb. But the
higher orders are far removed from misery, and
do not suffer more from vice, or moral restraint,
284
than the poorest of their brethren of mankind;
but where is their increase? The most noble
families in succession become extinct; there
is not, in many instances, an heir to bear down
to posterity the name, or to wear the laurels
that were nobly gained. How many peers can
count back three centuries of noble ancestors;
and the few who can count back this far, include
a long period when their name only lived;
having sought to be obscure; they have not
wanted an heir; they were then farmers in
the midst of farmers, and in that state genealo-
gies alone are to be sought for.
The Roman family of which Nero was a
member, reckoned a long succession of worth-
less characters; and other families might be
mentioned, more honourable, but equally an-
cient but they are an exception to a general
fact, the cause of which will, in another place,
be hinted at.
In the history of our own, or any other
civilized nation, we have to lament that the
family which interests us in one page, in turn-
ing over a few more, we are told is extinct.
Where are the names that flourished, and were
herourable, 500 years ago? Do they live but in
history? Being elevated above the evils that
285
destroy the poor, they ought, on Mr. M's.
theory, to pervade every corner of the land;
and the families that at the Norman conquest
were the most conspicuous by their rank, ought
now to be the most numerous. A name associated
with greatness is too much esteemed to be disown-
ed or exchanged. The name of Plantagenet has
not been abandoned and the name Broom substi-
tuted; the meaning is the same, but who would
make the exchange? The names most common
in this country are evidently modern; such as
Tailor, Carpenter, Wheelwright, &c. A peasant
used to be known by the name of the farm on
which he lived, and by his father's given name;
Thomas, the son of John, of Hyde-hall, was all
the address that was necessary; but afterwards
the name of the occupation was assumed. If
many names have not been exchanged, many
families have become extinct, and in many in-
stances this fact can be verified.
To ennoble a family, is to plant it in a soil
in which it will not thrive. Were there not a
successive creation of peerages, the very name
of nobleman would cease. Peers are not cut
off by the checks that Mr. M. publishes to the
world: they do not live in celibacy: their dis-
tinguished rank, the honourable means by which
286
it has, in many instances, been obtained, the
great property and personal interest attached to
it, are all objects of too high consideration not
to excite a desire to continue them. By con-
tinuing the family, consequently few peers, or
the relations of peers, die unmarried. If celi-
bacy be not the cause, is it their dissipated lives?
It has already been said, that personal vice does
not greatly retard an increase in population;
and, besides, the higher classes are not so dissi-
pated as the lower, who live in towns. If a
few individuals, whose education has been neg-
lected, forget the character they ought to main-
tain, and join to a weak and ill-informed mind
an infamous conduct, even in this there is not
that grossness so destructive of health into which
many of the common people plunge themselves.
The parade and show attached to families of
rank, give the air of dissipation without the
crime. If, as strict moralists, they unhappily
cannot be pointed out as examples worthy of
imitation, they do not, except in a few in-
stances, destroy their lives by dissipation: the
servants are commonly more grossly immoral
than their masters, but their fruitfulness is not
lessened.
Education enlarges the sphere of enjoyment,
287
1
and diversifies its pursuits; the ignorant alone
seek pleasure in excess. The educated volup-
tuary takes for his motto the sentiments of
St. Evremont: "Vice without dissipation, virtue
without austerity." However mean and degrad-
ing such maxims are as rules of conduct, they
are calculated to preserve health, and do not
abridge the principle of increase; and, I believe,
are not a little acted on.
Besides being at least as equally exempt from
the checks just mentioned, the higher classes do
not fear famine, or dread pestilence, and their
lives are longer than the most numerous class
of their fellow-subjects. Taking all these cir-
cumstances together, it can scarcely be denied,
that the common people are the most prolific.
Not only is the fecundity of women extreme-
ly various as it respects different nations, and
different classes of the same nation, but some
years are more favourable to population than
others. Sir Wm. Petty observes, that the
year in which most die, fewest are born, and
vice versa. Polit. Arith. p. 59. And by refer-
ring to the table of Susmilch, we find, that even
the average of five years marks a considerable
disproportion: from the year 1721 to 1726,
there were born 21452 children; in the succeed-
1
288
ing five years, there were born 29554. Other
periods show as great a difference.
That a greater or less fecundity is not the
creature of accidental causes only, but that part
of the economy of nature by which the popula-
tion of the globe is regulated, and in conse-
quence of which no country can ever be over-
peopled, is, I think, made evident.---This view
of the subject dissipates care as to the means of
subsistence, and makes human life appear too
valuable to be the sport of the passions, or the
plaything of statesmen.
1
289
OF STERILITY.
THE human body has often been com-
pared to a machine, every part of which is essen-
tial to the whole; but this comparison falls
vastly short of conveying an adequate idea of
the complex operations on which health
depends. The lungs, the kidnies, the skin,
perform each their part, independently of the
other, but are still connected. But this is not
all; while these organs are performing their
functions with great regularity, and one day
succeeds another without any apparent altera-
tion, the whole system is changing in the rela-
tion of its parts. The child imperceptibly
becomes an adult, and then as insensibly sinks
into decrepitude. Evolutions are established
which require various times for their perform-
ance, and which succeed each other as life ad-
vances. A child is soon exhausted and as soon
оё
290
1
refreshed: the tender thread on which life
hangs will not bear to be extended to the length
readily admitted in later years; it performs a
shorter evolution : in the morning we are
not the same as at night; the system has
undergone a change, it has performed a diurnal
evolution. Besides which, there are many other
evolutions; some that require a week, others a
month, and some that require several years: the
due performance of which are not absolutely
essential to life, but they are highly important
as they respect the continuance of the species.
A machine, thus complex, is soon injured,
and false motions are established: a fit of sickness
has been observed to commence on a certain
day successively for many years; this is espe-
cially the case with the gout; it is not the acci-
dent of an hour, but the preparation of an year;
it is an evolution performed; there has been a
continued motion through the whole period
towards this point, which is reached at a given
time. What is true of the gout, is true also of
many other diseases, and of the whole economy
of life hunger, thirst, fatigue, are none of
them the creatures of a moment: something
precedes them.
Let us apply these facts to the subject be-
201
fore us.
No woman is always susceptible of
pregnancy, there must first be a predisposition in
the constitution, brought about by the co-ope-
ration of many evolutions; these may be inter-
rupted, and many interruptions constitute bar-
renness; and when not interrupted they require
a considerable length of time for their accom-
plishment. After the birth of one child, nature
demands time to prepare for a second; the
system must undergo a determined change,
and unless this happens, barrenness is the
consequence. Pregnancy is not optional; it
is not certain. A female, susceptible of preg-
nancy to day, may not be so tomorrow: many
events, that strongly affect the mind, may
occur and prevent it; or the undisturbed opera-
tion of nature may pass the period by, as in
brutes. Childhood and old age are inevitably
unprolific; and, after childbearing has com-
menced, most women are subject to very consi-
derable periods of sterility. Some bear a child
every seven, others every fourteen years, and
others have only one child in a whole life.
Thus for 6 years together, and for 13 years
together, these females were not susceptible
of pregnancy; as in the distant periods at which
sickness occurs, the constitution was, in the
292
I
whole intermediate space, making advances
towards it; but then only it was mature.
knew a young lady whose mother married at
18, and after living several years with her hus-
band, the marriage was dissolved by his death;
she married a second time, and after this mar-
riage had subsisted some years, at the age of
45 became a mother. It is not improbable,
would the female economy have allowed it, that
at another long distance of time another child
might have been born; a predisposition to
pregnancy being first requisite to its taking
place. This predisposition may be forwarded
or retarded by circumstances; such as anxiety,
indisposition, great susceptibility of temper, and
a variety of other causes which it is unnecessary
to mention; my sole design being to prove the
general fact, that pregnancy is dependent on a
certain state of the system, and that the sys-
tem is influenced by external causes.
It is not only requisite, in order to preg-
nancy, that the female economy be disposed
towards it, but there must also be a certain
adaptation in the married pair. There is a
striking illustration of this fact in the youths
of Georgia and Circassia: their beauty is
proverbial; being exposed to sale in the
293
Turkish markets, the females are purchased
by most of the licentious courts in Asia: the
Persian nobles especially, who are of Tar-
tar origin, and remarkably ugly, purchase
and marry Circassians that their children may
not inherit their ugliness. The practice is
common, and as no mention has been made
of their being unfruitful, it may be concluded
they are not so. But the boys, who are chiefly
purchased by the government, and sent into
Egypt to be trained up for the service of the
-state as mamelukes, are invariably unproductive:
if, by a connection with an Egyptian, as a very
rare circumstance, one of them becomes a pa-
rent, the race invariably stops; no instance hav-
ing ever been known of such a child continuing
the species. In Circassia and Georgia there is
no deficiency of children, but, married to Egyp-
tians, there is a total want of offspring: this
fact has the testimony of Raynal, Volney, and
all other writers on the population of Egypt.
What can have given rise to this singular fact,
if the circumstance for which I have produced
it in illustration has not?
When Egypt was the mart of the Roman
empire, merchants of every country took up their
abode in her cities; and dying, left children
เ
294
who melted into the common mass of citizens;
by associating they became assimilated in their
manners, their principles, and their dispositions,
and their marriages were fruitful. Not a hint
is given, that I am acquainted with, that the
marriage of a citizen of any province of the
Roman empire with an Egyptian, was as cer-
tainly unproductive as if they had been of distinct
species.
The Egyptians do not now bear the relation
to other nations they once did; the principle of
increase is circumscribed; a sameness of con-
stitution between them and foreigners no longer
exists, The circumstances of their lives have
continued a resemblance in constitution among
themselves, and therefore the race is kept up;
but as it respects the inhabitants of happier
regions, the resemblance is gone. Does it not
hence appear, that fecundity is influenced by
external circumstances, and that a certain adap-
tation in the married pair is necessary ? No
miracle has been wrought, no law of nature has
been broken, the same causes which have pro-
duced these effects in Egypt, produces them
elsewhere. It is an axiom of universal applica-
tion, that a want of similarity in the condition
and habits of life, produces that want of adapta-
295
tion of constitution, which is the cause of many
unfruitful marriages.
Distinguished characters are seldom very pro-
lific; nor are foreigners so much so as persons of
the same nation. I have repeatedly been inform-
ed, that Europeans settled in the East-Indies have
fewer children than are common where both
par
ties are Indians: and there is reason, indepen-
dently of the veracity of the gentlemen from
whom I had the information, to credit the ac-
count. For instance, creoles in Bengal are less
numerous than at Jamaica, although they are
better treated: the father of a creole, in the
East, would think it infamous to abandon his
child; but in the West, such children are dis-
owned and dishonoured, they seldom know a
father's care. Slavery is truly degrading, if a
father abandons his child because it is born in
that state. In some of the islands in the eastern
ocean, the habits of the people more resemble
those of Europeans, and I am informed they are
more prolific. The intercourse of Europeans
with the natives of Africa is perhaps equally as
great as with the East-Indians, and the number
of children of colour is greater, but when it is
considered how little the persons of these unpro
tected females are respected, the number of their
296
}
children is still extremely small. How few creoles
are there in the whole of the West-India islands,
but it may be observed that slavery has so un-
friendly an influence on health, that marriages
are unproductive with natives of the same
country: whatever force there may be in this
remark, it does not remove the difficulty. On
the continent of Africa, where ill health cannot
be pleaded, and where Europeans are constantly
living with the natives, children are very seldom
the consequence. A gentleman, who had been
attached to the Sierra Leone Company, informed
me, that after residing several months in Africa
he had only seen two creoles. The Africans
are not as entirely unproductive with foreigners
as the Egyptians, but there is an evident resem-
blance.
But it is unnecessary to specify particular
countries, the fact is general; every shore to
which the ocean can bear a ship is crowded with
foreigners; and those who are best acquainted
with the character of sailors know, that to many
of them delicacy is unknown, and decency but
little understood: few voyages are published in
which an allusion is not made to the licentious-
ness of the crew. In many such countries there
are no prostitutes, in the sense in which we use
297
}
the term, for licentiousness is without reproach:
But whatever the nature of the intercourse may
be, in no region of the globe are there many
children allied in blood to Europeans. Neither
at Otaheite nor at Hudson's Bay, neither among
the aborigines of America nor the dark natives
of Africa is a mixture of blood often to be found.
There is, however, one exception to this remark,
at the Cape of Good Hope there are many bastard
Hottentots; a proof that Hottentots are more
assimilated to Europeans than at all times is
willingly allowed.
2
If it be admitted that the intercourse which
commerce has established between remote na-
tions has in very few instances been the occasion
of uniting them in blood, some cause is natu-
rally enquired after; and the want of consti-
tutional similarity, produced by a diversity of
habits and manners, appears to me to be that
cause. As facts that are under our immediate
observation are more satisfactory than those with
which we are acquainted only by report, let us
enquire whether a diversity of pursuits and
interests in a married pair of the same nation
have any influence over their fruitfulness.
It has already been observed, that any pow-
erful and long continued exercise of the mind
PP
298
that inflames the passions, or that in any way
subjects the body to the mind, occasions bar-
renness, as is particularly exemplified in prosti-
tutes; but in the most honourable exercises of
the mind the body also suffers. Women who
marry late in life, and whose habits are conse-
quently formed, especially if they have been
actively engaged in the management of any
concern beyond the range of domestic affairs,
commonly have few children. I have fre-
quently observed, that the first years of the
marriage of persons whose pursuits in life had
called forth the powers of their minds, even when
youth was not yet passed, were unproductive;
but after a common interest had assimilated
their constitutions, a want of offspring had no
longer been lamented. The circumstance in
some cases is occasioned by physical causes; it
is a period of barrenness, but I apprehend it is
not so in all. Instances of sterility are more
common among a civilized people than among a
nation of shepherds. Fecundity is independent
of passion, the principle is different, passion
commences earlier and continues longer than
the period of fruitfulness. I might here avail
myself of the high authorities of Dr. Darwin
and Dr. Heberden, but the subject does not
299
admit a fuller discussion. Those marriages are
in general the most fruitful, taking the station of
life into consideration, that are most tranquil.
Hence agriculture is friendly to population, it
admits of little display of character, no circum-
stance fires the mind with emulation, or stirs up
the passions till their rage consumes the health,
or gives a new bias to the constitution; such
characters would be unfit for farmers.
Barrenness is not only occasioned by certain
evolutions of the system being interrupted, or
from a want of a proper adaptation in the mar-
ried pair, but also from actual disease. But of
this I shall say nothing. It is sufficient if it has
been proved, that the fecundity of women in a
great measure depends on the state of civiliza-
tion to which they may have attained, and that
by knowing the civilization a calculation may be
made of the rate of increase.
1
300
3
OF
HEREDITARY DISEASES.
HEREDITARY diseases do not naturally
and necessarily attend the human race. Leprosy,
madness, gout, scrofula, sprung out of certain
habits and practices; they were all acquired, and
probably will be eradicated. Leprosy, originat-
ing in the want of personal cleanliness, has
already given way to the improvements which
have taken place in that respect : linen is now
substituted for woollen in many articles of dress,
and other regulations equally friendly to clean-
liness, have caused leprosy almost to disappear.
Madness is an increasing malady; it has its
origin in anxiety, or it is the consequence of
other diseases; it is sometimes wholly recovered
from, but unfortunately a tainted constitution
propagates its like, and no means have hitherto
been discovered to prevent it. Celibacy is a
i
301
virtue in persons whose progenitors have been
thus afflicted and even when it does not reach
as far as madness it may give a peculiarity of
character and talent, I have sometimes en-
quired into the family history of youths of
extreme dissipation, and so often have found
some part of the family at one period or other
afflicted with madness, that I now seldom pass
my judgment of such characters till I am first
assured they are moral agents. I have little
doubt that madness is the cause of more vice
than is imagined. The subject merits the
attention of moralists. What parent can
answer for the conduct of his child if this
be the case? for education is but a feeble
check to the slightest madness. Madness is an
evil so various in its mode of operation, so diffi-
cult to remove, so distressing in all its branches,
that it ought to be a subject of general care
that it does not spread: as it had an origin, it
may also have a remedy; if this be not disco-
vered, the families that are afflicted must be-
come extinct, for the world cannot be moralized
so long as madness exists.---The gout is not a
disease of the poor, and need not be of the
rich; it enters a family, or leaves it, at plea-
sure.---The scrofula is the offspring of a cold
302
and fickle climate: the plan adopted in many
families from the advice of Locke, of attempting
to make the children hardy, by thin clothing
and spare diet, has in many instances given
birth to this malady; it makes its appearance at
the close of winter and is suspended by the
warmth of summer: As soon as the malady
is noticed, recourse is had to the liberal use of
wine, and by this means the external appearance
of the disease is occasionally removed; but may
it not be doubted whether consumption has
not sometimes had its origin in this practice?
would it not be more advisable to clothe and
lodge children warm, to keep them on nutri-
tious diet, and at the age of 10 or 12 gradually
to give up this plan, and substitute a diet suffi-
ciently nutritious but less stimulant? By this
means the disease is combated before it has dis-
turbed the system; the constitution is strength-
ened, consumption is guarded against, and inju-
rious habits are prevented. A scrofulous family
is always consumptive. Should a young person
have been drinking freely of wine to repel any
external mark that may appear, and should
symptoms of consumption take place, instantly
wine and bark, and those remedies calculated to
remove scrofula, are abandoned for milk and
303
vegetables. Plans so opposite cannot be proper.
That any regulations in diet will eradicate the
disease I do not expect, but a better acquaintance
with the properties and influence of the climate,
as the cause of the malady, which the active
spirit of research of the present day warrants
the expectation of, may lead to other and more
effectual remedies.
I have dwelt thus long on this subject for
the sake of pointing out these diseases as not
being necessarily connected with the constitution
of man.
Contrary to what might have been expected,
hereditary diseases are great promoters of popu
lation; the world is considerably more full in
consequence of their existence. The Jews,
through whose veins leprosy flowed, increased
faster than any other nation is said to have done.
In a few districts in the north of Europe,
scrofula prevails as much as leprosy did among
the Jews, and children are as numerous.
ticular families, subject to either of these dis-
eases, are commonly very prolific; it counter-
acts, in a considerable measure, the influence of
those causes that have a tendency to occasion
sterility, and keeps in existence names that
would otherwise have been extinct.
Par-
i
1
304
:
}
The gout may be acquired in any country,
and becomes hereditary; but in cold climates
it is most frequent and most severe. The
Spaniards, afflicted with this disease, frequently
remove to Mexico, as I have been informed, and
find some mitigation of their suffering in the
warmth of the climate. The Greeks were not
unacquainted with the gout, and their opinion
accorded with ours, that devotion to Bacchus
at once gave birth to the malady, and disposed
the martyr to a continuation of homage. Fa-
milies that possess hereditary gout are seldom
childless.
Madness is a disease not altogether of the
same nature as those just mentioned; it respects
the connection of the mind with the body and
I have not sufficient knowledge of the subject
to advance a confident opinion respecting its
influence on fecundity.
From the above facts and observations, it is
evident that certain diseases so far influence the
body as to be propagated, which could not
happen if the principle of increase was, as
Mr. Malthus intimates, a given quantity: that
which is liable to alteration may be increased or
diminished. Hereditary diseases, experience
teaches, hasten those evolutions in the system
305
that are necessary to pregnancy. If six chil-
dren be as many as a marriage of sound and
healthy persons usually yields, eight is not a
larger proportion for those who are diseased.
I would not be meant to imply, that all nume-
rous families are infected with disease, that is
not the case; but I do contend, that an unsound
constitution, in a civilized country, most com-
monly proves prolific.
@ q
306
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
IF the remarks in the preceding chapter be
true, it is impossible that the world should ever
be fully peopled by men of similar constitu-
tions to the nobility of this country, nor can
it ever be filled by savages, nor is a society
very much mixed, agreeable to our notion of
excellency.
Without enquiring minutely into any stage
of civilization, I think it may be taken as a
general fact, that a state increases in popula-
tion in proportion as it becomes civilized; by
civilization, I do not mean effeminacy or dissi-
pation, but an increase in knowledge and happi-
ness. It may appear singular, that I mention
knowledge as necessary to a full population,
when I have stated in another place, that the
exercise of the mental faculties lessens the prin-
ciple of increase; but this difficulty is easily
ments, become more simple in their manners,
307
:
removed. The great bulk of mankind acquire
wisdom by instruction from others, without
much exertion on their part. The farmer, who
bears the same rank in society his ancestors did
a thousand years ago, is not like them in man-
ners or in information, notwithstanding his
rigid adherence to their maxims; the great
body of the people having gone forward, he
has imperceptibly moved with them; he is just
above his labourers, his ancestors were the
same knowledge acquired in this way calls for
no labour, produces no anxiety, but still it ele-
vates the mind, refines the passions, and when
it has made any considerable advances, it lessens
the principle of increase. To benefit by the
labours of others is easy, but the statesmen and
philosophers, by whose incessant care and atten-
tion advances in civilization have been made,
spent their lives in anxious solicitude; they
gained knowledge by intense thought, and the
end has been, the extinction of their families.
A middle line here may easily be conceived. It
may be conceived that the lower classes may gain
in knowledge and refined sentiment, and that
the higher classes may lose part of their inor-
dinate ambition and restless love of fame, and,
without any diminution in their useful acquire-
308
more uniform in the temper of their minds,
and more prolific; and thus a state of society be
produced, in which the births and deaths shall
equal each other.
}
But that nothing may be left to conjecture, I
appeal to the history of the world, and I say,
that in every age the fullest peopled states have
increased the slowest, not because vice and mise-
ry have more abounded, but because the prin-
ciple of increase has been lessened. China has,
for many ages been of this number, and when its
population became stationary its civilization did
not advance; there has been a correspondence
between the state of population and that of
civilization. China is an agricultural country,
large cities are not more in proportion than
in France; war, famine, and pestilence, are
even less experienced, and celibacy is contrary to
the manners of the people; every circumstance,
on Mr. Malthus's theory, promises the most
rapidly increasing population, far surpassing that
of France, or even America; yet it does not
increase, it is stationary; the principle is just
sufficiently strong to maintain the population
in its present state. It is consequently not so
strong as in America, for no other reason, that I
am acquainted with, than that the nation at
.309
In
large feel more of that anxiety which is con-
sequent to the middle class of this nation.
order to increase the population of China, the
rank of the common people must be elevated;
this would enable them to provide more easily
the means of subsistence, they have enough,
but it is obtained with care. Continue the
means of subsistence in the same measure, but
remove the care, and the number of children,
experience teaches, would increase.
It has been repeatedly observed that the prin-
ciple of population was lessened in the two
opposite states of civilization,---the highest, or
the state of the greatest mental exertion; the
lowest, or that state in which the baser and
more depressing passions influence and direct
the actions: in a word, by the savage and by the
highly civilized states.
Were the government of a country, in the
state in which Europe now is, to ameliorate the
condition of the common people, the population
would increase in proportion as the hinderances
were removed which had suppressed it. On
the other hand, were the condition of the com-
mon people rendered more uncomfortable, po-
pulation would decrease; it decreases in Tur-
key, in Poland, and in Egypt: in these
310
countries there is enough, and to spare, of the
means of subsistence, but the people are wretch-
ed; they are not so far elevated as to enjoy the
security and comfort of the European peasants;
Place them in that state, and no one can doubt
that population would increase there as it does
elsewhere.
There is a certain rank which is most
friendly to population, all above or below this
lessen the force of the principle of increase.
To increase the population of a state, it is not
enough to feed the inhabitants with a certain
daily allowance, if that were the case, a prison
or a brothel would be as friendly to procreation
as a cottage; something more is requisite.
When the population of a state stops, we
are not to imagine that the number of violent
deaths have overtaken the principle of increase.
Population stops without an increase in deaths;
it has stopped in Spain and Portugal, but it goes
on in France; Mr. M. says that nation could
furnish her armies with 150000 recruits annu-
ally, without diminishing the number of the
existing families: from hence it may be argued,
that the condition of the people in that country
is improving; but it does not imply that the
Spaniards have not bread enough, they may
311
not want the means of subsistence, but they
want better laws, laws that secure their happi-
ness.---I apprehend the rate of the increase of the
peasants of the farming districts of this country
will never be greater than it is, but a further
elevation of sentiment and of character would
be borne without its being lessened; they must
become much wiser than the middle class, as it
is now called, before they are as unproductive,
because they have less care.
A government, that for a succession of years,
pays the strictest attention to the improvement
of the people, and as far as possible suppresses
vice and banishes misery, would find that its
population required not the sword to thin it.
Like the Athenians, in the best days of their
republic, or like the best informed classes of
subjects in the modern states of Europe, more
care would be requisite to guard against a de-
crease than to prevent the contrary.
Another general observation that I shall
make, is, that a society divided into classes is in
the best state for improvement. Suppose two
thousand persons were to reside together, a
certain proportion would be farmers, one would
be a miller, a third a baker, and they all would
be fully employed, and would be in circumstances
312
considerably more conducive to happiness than
that of the mere shepherd; this is the simplest
state of civilized society, but an addition to such
a society would be difficult to make: suppose
fifty were added, they could not employ another
miller or baker, and the consequence must be,
that they must live in a state not so much
divided; each family must supply all its own
wants, which would reduce them below the
2000 in civilization. Hence it would seem that
there exists a reciprocal connection between
civilization and population; the one cannot
increase without the other, to a certain extent.
Again, suppose a nation to consist of many
sets, if I may call them so, of 2000 each, their
improvement would be extremely slow if they
lived detached, because there would be a want
of emulation. There is little emulation in a vil-
lage, every one transacts his business with his
neighbour. But in a large town society is
more divided: besides the tradesmen, and
others employed in procuring articles of the
first necessity, there are individuals who are
independent of any care or concern about busi-
ness; this class, though not essential to the
existence of a state, is highly instrumental to its
welfare; it gives birth to new occupations, and
313
excites emulation; the patronage of the wealthy
is worth an effort to procure, the effort gives
birth to improvement, and civilization
goes for-
ward; and as it advances, the principle of in-
crease is called into full exercise, without the
smallest dread of the consequences. Popula-
tion cannot advance too fast while knowledge is
increasing; nor can it ever extend so far as to
need the correction of vice, for the principle is
lessened by the emulation consequent on a full
population:
1
Rr
314
OF THE
DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE.
A BELIEF in the existence of a supreme,
intelligent First Cause is avowed by many, who
discredit the general sentiment that a revelation
of the mind and will of this Pure Intelligence
has been made to man, and who imagine that
they have attained the knowledge they possess
concerning him by the light of their understand-
ings; but in this I apprehend they have deceived
themselves. The mind, fettered and debased
by the organized body in which it acts, is, I
apprehend, capable of comprehending and judg-
ing only of material objects; it cannot ascend be-
yond their sphere: it plans, contrives, and invents,
but such efforts relate entirely to the connection
of matter with matter.
The greatest discoveries to which man has
ever presumed, (I allude to the arts and sciences
in their application and use), are limited to the
''
315
wants of the body, and the inquisitiveness of
the mind respecting the operation of fixed
laws on inanimate substances. Names may be
given to these laws, but, abstractedly considered,
we know nothing of them: Who has any idea of
gravity, distinct from matter? The arts and
sciences cannot aid our researches when applied
to discover the attributes and perfections of
God; nor can we, by their aid, ascertain that
God exists, or even advance one step in the
enquiry. If we cannot by these means gain
such knowledge, from what source is it to be
obtained? Will abstract reasoning, or reason-
ing by analogy, direct us right? Certainly not.
Independently of instruction, in other terms of
revelation, experience is the guide of man;
and what does experience avail us on this
subject?
As a test of the strength of the human
eapacity, let us try what discoveries can be made
by its own efforts. Suppose it to have been
ascertained, that, of a certain genus of animals,
say the wolf, one species was undescribed, who
among naturalists could picture to himself
the unknown animal, or even represent a form
suited to that genus? Intimately acquainted
with every branch of natural history and of
316
#
science in general, it might be expected that
experience would direct at once to the discovery;
but it is not thus: man has no power of disco-
very. If, in this instance, the attempt be made,
it consists in uniting the several parts of animals.
already known, and thus forming a monster.
Some naturalists speak of a chain in the works
of nature, but not a single link has been supplied
by the force of the mind of the philosopher, he
waits till actual observation has identified the
object. The fact appears to be, that man is
capable of receiving instruction, and in this re-
spect his mind is of vast capacity, but it cannot
instruct itself---it cannot go without a guide---
it is not independent. If its powers are unli-
mited, their exercise do not depend on itself;
there is something implied in knowledge, besides
a capacity to learn.
In further proof of the limited nature of the
human capacity, we may observe, that if a per-
son of the strongest intellectual powers were de-
sirous of acquiring a knowledge of the nature
and perfections of Deity, without the aid of
revelation, his first object of course would be
to form an idea of a person and character some-
what more than human, and then proceed to
still more exalted beings; the attempt has been
317
made, but the result shows the absolute inca-
pacity in man to instruct himself. The fairest
and most perfect form ever represented, is that
of man; and to make it more than human,
wings are added: the idea is unscientific, if not
ridiculous; a form like that of man's was never
intended for flight, the centre of motion is in
the back, which, wings applied to the shoulders,
must destroy; besides, are the wings of birds
suitable to such a purpose? If the organized
being next to man has wings, the whole form is
necessarily different from man's; but what that
form is, has never been imagined.
If there are these difficulties in representing
a body more excellent than our own, a mind of
other faculties, other passions, and other appe-
tites, is so incomprehensible, that we are obliged
to use those common to man on all occasions.
Even when speaking of God, we have no concep-
tion of other powers than those we are endowed
with; all are human. If then the first step
cannot be taken, how can the more remote and
difficult? But the deist says, the mind of man
is sufficiently capacious for all its wants, and
that a knowledge of God may be gained from
his works. From which of his works? From
the planets: they exist, but who is acquainted
318
with their nature? The whole force of human
ingenuity has long been directed to the disco-
very, and many remarks have been made, but
observe their nature,---they are all borrowed
from the globe we inhabit, as if matter could
exist in no other state than as we see it.
Mountains, volcanoes, islands, these are the
supposed discoveries. Is this earth a model,
after which every planet was formed? or is the
mind of man such, that it is capable of enquiring
only after such objects as experience has taught
it a knowledge of? But suppose the planets
were composed of materials similar to those of
the earth, a discovery of their extent, their rela-
tion to each other, or their duration, would not
advance our knowledge of the First Cause: if
information of this description could do it, the
study of our globe would be the most proper,
because our acquaintance with it is more inti-
mate than it possibly can be of any other planet.
But the deist may say, it is not by studying the
modifications of matter that he has gained the
knowledge he possesses, but by observing the
general order of the universe, the arrangement
of its parts, the fitness, harmony, and perfection
that is every where maintained; he defies a
fortuitous concourse of atoms to have formed
3
319
the universe, or a blind chance to direct it;
and is it certain he has gained his knowledge by
thus reasoning? The universe, under this
view of it, is made to convey the idea of a
machine, and a machine implies a maker; every
thing is argued from the arrangement that can
be traced but if we set our experience aside,
our opinions would not be very conclusive from
such evidence.
:
Suppose a watch had been cast on the shores
of Otaheite, before that island was visited by
Europeans, would the natives, after examining
its parts, and seeing their fitness to each other,
come to an unshaken belief, that, at some dis-
tant place there lived a watchmaker,---a man
like themselves, but more expert and skilful: of
the nature of the materials of which it was com-
posed they would know nothing, of the princi-
ple on which it was kept in motion they would
be equally ignorant, nor would they understand
its mechanism; they might see that its parts
corresponded, but that would not direct them to
the maker. In place of ascribing it to the inven-
tion of man, it is more probable they would
believe it to be the production of some animal
in the ocean; but whether it was a whole or a
part, whether it was endowed with life, or was
320
4
the nest of an animal, would be equally uncer-
tain; they might be perplexed, but they would
not be satisfied as to its origin. But the deist
thinks he has obtained certain knowledge of the
being of God; it is an article of his faith, which
he thinks he can demonstrate. But if an unin-
formed person would not be able satisfactorily
to prove the existence of a person superior in
understanding to himself by examining a ma-
chine of his constructing, neither would man,
however great his talents, discover his Maker
by his works; his reasoning would confound,
but not satisfy him. Were the construction
and the use of a watch explained to an Otahei-
tean, he would credit the person if he declared
himself the maker of it. And when it is made
known that there is one God, the creator of
heaven and earth, God is seen in every thing,
and all the affairs of the universe that are under
our observation direct and enforce the senti-
ment; but without this clue I apprehend an
unshaken belief of this important truth could
not have been held.---By saying there is a God,
nothing is understood of his nature, his perfec-
tions, or his residence; and allowing the deist
all he can pretend to, it amounts only to this,
that the world, like a machine, was made by
321
design, but he is ignorant of him by whom it
was made. In looking into his works they ap-
pear imperfect; he sees design, but he cannot see
so much either of wisdom or benevolence as he
himself possesses.
He thinks he could improve
the state of the world, and the condition of
man; he would admit no sultry heats or pier-
cing colds, poverty and pain he would also
exclude, and in a thousand other instances im-
prove the present course of things.
To think thus meanly of the Great Archi-
tect of nature, and I apprehend deists in gene-
ral would think thus if they had only their own
understandings to guide them, is to dishonour
him; but by the utmost exercise of their under-
standings, and allowing all their pretensions, they
cannot know him in any way worth knowing--the
knowledge they can gain amounts to nothing, it
is as bad as total ignorance---it can answer no be-
neficial purpose---it cannot teach man the rela-
tion he stands in to his Maker---it cannot teach
him his immortality. Experience, as has before
been said, is the guide of man; without it he
would not even know that he should die; he sees
it in others and infers it of himself, but his reason
is not strong enough to teach the fact.---When
knowledge has been some time acquired, the means
S S
1
322
are forgotten; this may be the case with the deists.
But suppose it granted that the deist can disco-
ver as much of the Deity by his works as may
be discovered of a mechanic by investigating a
machine of his constructing, what further ad-
vances have or can be made? The Jews were
early made acquainted with the being and nature
of God, and of his relation to his creatures;
they knew more than any man could have dis-
covered, and what they knew they taught. It
was enough to excite curiosity, but not to
satisfy it. The philosophers of Greece and
Rome directed their attention to the subject;
they anxiously desired to increase their informa-
tion, but they did not advance a single step: on
the other hand, they made that which was clear,
dark; they could not comprehend, and did not
believe, the unity of God; the immortality of
the soul they thought doubtful, they wished it
might be so. If their writings abound with
sentiments we admire, in the records of the
Jews we find the same more forcibly expressed.
The deist cannot complain that he has been
taken by surprise, that he has not been allowed
time to exercise his talents on the subject; he
has certainly had ample time, and he has em-
ployed it in the best way he was able. All the
323
¥
mind of man is capable of doing in making
discoveries beyond the range of material objects
has been done. When the outlines of revealed
truth were made known to the Jews, or their
predecessors, a pause ensued: time was given
to man to exercise his talents; they were exer-
cised; the whole world became deists. They
believed what was declared, but they could learn
no more; the utmost acuteness of philosophy
could not add a single ray of light; and the
whole world, with all the boasted powers of
man, was compelled to wait for further informa-
tion, until the mission of Jesus Christ.
If the knowledge of God be obtained with-
out revelation, it is obtained without an effort
of the understanding, for the rudest and most
barbarous nations profess not only to believe in,
but to worship, God. Reason certainly did not
teach them this, for they are incapable of applying
their reason to such a subject; they must have
received what they know as an instinct, or by
instruction; if by
if by instruction, who taught
them? This leads us to the origin of their
nation, and is no small proof that the whole
world was once one community, and that the
knowledge communicated early in the history of
man he carried with him whithersoever he went.
*
324
So that the deist has no room to boast of his
understanding; what he knows, the most unlet-
terred know; his superior intelligence has not
advanced him above them in theology.
In the preceding remarks I have endeavour-
ed to trace a belief in the being of a God up to.
revelation; and thus to prove, that the atheist
is the only character that derives his faith from
the light of nature: he believes his senses, and
his reason is governed by them; he sees that
the sun rules the day and the moon the night,
and he is satisfied with secondary causes; beyond
which, human reason, unaided by revelation,
it is probable cannot go. But the deist of the
present day believes much more than the atheist.
can possibly learn, and more than the wisest
of the heathens knew: he has obtained confi-
dence where Cicero doubted; and if he has
acquired his information from any other source
than the books of the Old and New Testament,
he will do well to mention it.
My object in attempting to identify the
Deity the deist acknowledges, with the God
the christian worships, is, that I may interest
both parties, in an attempt to vindicate his
honour. The intelligent deists are many of
them among Mr. Malthus's converts, but the
325
doctrines advanced, as the laws by which the
principle of increase is directed, is unworthy the
God we have been speaking of; they are not
kind, neither are they wise. The God of the
deists is good, but in what does it consist if
vice and misery are the chief instruments of his
power? God is an object of worship, but where
is there a man who can lift up his mind in ado-
ration of such a being? Who can obey or love
him?
Connected with a belief in the being of a
God, is that of his providence. As he formed
the world, it must have been in wisdom; that
he afterwards abandoned it to laws without intel-
ligence is contrary to every event in life, and to
every appearance in nature. What now would
have been the state of the globe, had not wisdom
directed and adapted its laws to its circum-
stances? Since its creation it has undergone
many important changes. At that period, when
the fountains of the deep were broken up,---when
what is now dry land rose from the bottom of the
sea,---when water covered the globe, and there
are many existing proofs, as well as traditionary
accounts, that this has actually happened,---
when, I say, the laws by which the world was
governed were thus dissolved, by what power
326
were they restored? By their own. This could
not be,---for if they were not able to prevent the
flood, it is impossible they should correct the
evils of it. At such a period, and for such a
purpose, intelligence and power, foreign from
themselves, were as essentially necessary as at
their beginning.
Subsequent to the creation an immense
weight has been added to the poles: the arctic
circles are inaccessible, from the immense bodies
of ice with which they are loaded : had laws, un-
directed by Intelligence, been set over the world,
they must have suffered some interruption from
this cause, and the slightest interruption would
be death to all its inhabitants; a little more
tardiness in its evolutions, a little more heat, or
a little more cold, and every living thing must
perish. Besides, has the water which is thus
locked up in ice had no effect? It is taken from
one purpose and applied to another; Intelligence
alone can do this, and not injure. The air we
breathe is also liable to perpetual but irregular
changes; myriads of animals breathe, decompose,
and, as far as relates to respiration, destroy it
now, which did not exist immediately after the
flood: a considerable portion of what then
encircled the globe is confined and consolidated :
327
many substances owe the chief part of their
weight to air reduced to this state, Has there
been a creation of air to supply its place, or has
a substitute been found? Determine the ques-
tion as we may, Intelligence must have directed
it.
5
Man is adapted to the world just as it is, he
cannot sustain any variation or interruption of
its laws; but as this is always in danger of hap-
pening, care is requisite to prevent the evil, or
repair its consequences. This care we call
Providence,--- in other words, the superinten-
dance of God over the works of his hands.---
Of Providence Mr. Malthus seems to have a
very vague and imperfect idea: he quotes a
passage from Dr. Franklin, stating, that a single
plant of fennel would bear seeds enough in a
very few years to cover the whole earth with
plants of that description. "This is incontro-
vertibly true," says Mr. Malthus, and he goes
on to observe, that "through the animal and
vegetable kingdoms nature has scattered the
seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and
liberal hand, but has been comparatively sparing
in the room and the nourishment necessary to
rear them. The germs of existence contained
in this spot of earth, with ample food and ample
1
328
room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds
in a few thousand years. Necessity, that impe-
rious, all-pervading law of nature, restrains them
within the prescribed bounds. The race of
plants and the race of animals shrink under the
great restrictive law, and the race of man can-
not by any effort of reason escape from it."*
It is not unusual with philosophers to lay aside
their belief in christianity, and to reason inde-
pendently of it; Mr. Malthus, though not a
deist, has here furnished us with a specimen of
such reasoning; he argues from the works of
God, which deists say are sufficient to teach the
knowledge of him, and what inference does he
draw? This monstrous one---That the law of
necessity corrects the errors in the constitution
and government of the world. This is reason-
ing by the light of nature, and if it be a fair
specimen of the light of reason on this subject,
it is a conclusive one---that the human under-
standing cannot attain to a knowledge of God.
The representation given, makes the Almighty
much more unwise in planning, and weaker in
executing, than man,---of course it does not
represent God.
*Malthus's Essays, page 2.
329
Such is the view of Providence made known
by philosophy; but let us attend a little more.
closely to the argument. Mr. Malthus is of
opinion that there is an analogy in principle
between the birth of children and the produc-
tion of seeds; that, in fact, only one principle
pervades the vegetable and animal kingdoms,
but he is mistaken: the seeds of plants were not
designed all to vegetate, it was not the purpose
for which they were allowed to grow; they are the
proper food of animals, the well adapted means
of their subsistence; enough fall to the ground
to continue the species and to renew the supply
for animals, and these are all that it ever was
designed should grow. The same idea will
apply to animals, they were not designed merely
to propagate their kind, but to subsist each
other; their flesh is devoured. But mark the
high honour put on man, he is not the means
of subsistence to any creature;---none depend
upon him; the end of his creation bears no
analogy to that of plants and animals,---their
ultimate end is the subsistence of man, and
myriads receive existence on this account. But
no sooner does the mind cease to animate the
body than it is of no further use, and is care-
fully interred, or in some other way concealed
Tt
330
created?
from the sight of man and the power of animals.
The moralist might ask, Why then was man
The answer would be, that as his
usefulness cannot be discovered in time, we
must look beyond it, and hence an argument is
adduced in favour of his immortality.
The doctrine of Providence has never recei
ved that attention its importance demands, and
if Mr. Malthus has not investigated the sub-
ject for himself, he may well have fallen into
errors. Of the essays that have been written,
declamation is too commonly substituted for
argument; and the ideas afloat in the world
are unsatisfactory and vague.
The Providence of God is a subject on which
man may exercise his judgment; enough has
been told him of it. It respects material objects,
at least this is one branch of it; and it invites
our attention. The Almighty has here placed
himself before us; he governs the world, and by
giving us the capacity has authorized the inqui-
ry; we may judge of the equity, the wisdom,
and the benevolence of his administration; it is
a test to which we can put the truth of revela-
tion; in it the laws are contained, before our
eyes are their execution.
It would be inconsistent with my present
331
plan to enter largely into the subject, a few
remarks are all I design. The government
of God over this world principally respects its
productions and inhabitants,---such as vegeta-
bles, animals, and man. The two former are
little instrumental to their own welfare, they
neither plan nor invent; a blind, unerring
instinct guides the one, the other is without
sensibility. If there be order, harmony, and
design, in the relation of the parts of these two
kingdoms, they are not the occasion of it;
some power, independently of them, gives to
each its proper station, its proper office, and
its proper food: that power is God; he created
them, and it would be folly to suppose their
wants are supplied by another. In the provision
he has made for this part of creation we can
best judge of the nature of his government,
because it is not opposed. Animals and vege-
tables are as entirely dependent as if they had
not life; they are more so than the members
of a family, or the subjects of a government,
are to their respective heads. And how does he
govern them? Has he created a want with-
out providing the means of its full satisfaction,
or a desire which is not gratified? There is
much seeming irregularity and unrestrained
332
;
waste of life, but still perfect order reigns; no
one species becomes too numerous or too few
for the post assigned it.
As animals live not solely for their own
gratification and pleasure, but as the means
of subsistence to man, this end of their creation
must be answered, which subjects them to
individual evil; and there may be other causes
of their suffering, which I shall not here touch
on. But which of them, while they range the
forest, can have any thing added to their hap-
piness? and after they are domesticated, what
do they want? The sum of their happiness is
assuredly great, and the care of their Sovereign
and Benefactor is incessant and minute. Is the
winter cold and the summer hot, their covering
is adapted to each season; is a regular supply of
food necessary, it is spread before them. In
the summer the earth is covered with verdure,
in the winter the trees and shrubs are hung
with seeds of various descriptions for their use.
For some animals, indeed, no provision is made,
or it is made in a distant country; in that case
the animal is either rendered insensible to want,
or directed to the supply.
In the vegetable kingdom the same care, the
same directing hand, is manifest. They take
333
no thought, yet there is wisdom in the order
they observe, and it is nicely adapted to the wants
of animals; their growth and maturity betoken
as much design as is manifest where the skill
of the gardener is exerted; in the management of
a garden we are acquainted with the design,
and admire it in proportion as it is apparent.
But mere animals take no care, yet they have a
succession of food, adapted to the season and
abundant in quantity. The hardy plants sprout
and grow while winter yet reigns, others stretch
in full vigour far through the autumn; and one
large class, the mosses, flourish only in the
coldest season of the year. If to this be added
the effects of frost in rendering sweet and palatable
the strong luxuriant grass of summer, the want
of animals are amply provided for.---But it may
be said, the growth of vegetables is according to
the fixed laws of nature, and they require no
other superintendance; should that be granted,
no fixed law can adjust the proportions, season
after season it is by a law of nature that veget-
ables grow in the spring, but there is no law of
nature to prevent animals from destroying the
plant before the seed is matured, and preventing
a succession of crops. There is no law of na-
ture to prevent animals from becoming to
334
numerous; and, left to themselves, they would
become so; but a check, just sufficiently strong,
is always applied.
1
It is the opinion of eminent naturalists, that
the sheep is so defenceless an animal, that,
unless it lived under the protection of man, the
race would soon be extinct. The same might
be said of other animals; but they are protected
by him who assigned them a useful and a per-
manent place in the creation, who shields them
from such enemies as would destroy them.
The same fact applies to many plants cultivated
in our gardens; they are guarded or they would
be devoured, and a succession prevented: they
require care more than that which the laws of
nature imply, and it always has been given to
them they existed before we manured their
roots or watered their blades.---Dr. Darwin, and
other distinguished philosophers, were so fully
satisfied that there was design in the economy
of plants beyond that of their growth in the
spring and decay in the autumn, that they ima-
gined plants themselves were sentient, and
indeed rational beings; and in endeavouring to
support this, opinion, many curious facts have
been brought forward: they fall far short of
proving what was designed, but, urged in evi-
335
dence of a superintending Providence, are con-
clusive and satisfactory. Dr. Darwin saw, in
their wonderful economy, so much that was above
the reach of chance or accident, that he did not
hesitate in ascribing it to the directing power of
reason and it is unnecessary to say, whatever
opinion the ingenious Doctor might hold on the
subject, that the faculty was not in the plants.
Taking it then for granted, that reason is
exerted in their economy, all that we have to
prove, is, that reason is continually exerted, and
that fixed laws, such as move the planets in
their spheres, are not applicable to them: there
is not enough of uniformity to admit the idea
of their being governed by power without wis-
dom; and power is all that is implied when a
fixed law is spoken of. If a continued exercise
of the understanding is necessary in the manage-
ment of a garden, it is more so in preserving
every part of the vegetable kingdom from de-
struction, and in providing a due supply for the
wants of animals.
When we speak of the laws of nature, we
connect with them an idea of their being almost
self-existent and independent, but they certainly
are not so they had a beginning, and are
liable to change; they are the instruments of
336
7
the pleasure of another and superior power.
Summer and winter succeed each other uni-
formly, and the law seems fixed respecting
them; the sun is always in a certain sign in a
given month; uniformity in the order of things
seems thus far necessary, because the sun's
influence is directed to more planets than our
own but it is not the position of the sun in the
zodiac that constitutes our summer,--it is always
of a given height at a given time, but it has not al-
ways a given influence: something more is implied
in the return of summer besides the direction
we are in to the sun. No two seasons resemble
each other---it is not equally hot in the corres-
ponding days of different years, the summer
advances one year a month earlier than it does
another, but our relation to the sun is the same.
No two winters are alike in the quantity of rain,
of wind, or in temperature. There is no uni-
formity in the laws that respect this earth, unless
they respect others also. When, therefore, we
speak of fixed laws, we should bear in mind
their application; and we shall find, however
certain they may be, they are not self-directing.
The earth performs its evolutions with precise
regularity, because such regularity may be neces-
sary to other planets; the laws of attraction and
3.37
repulsion are uniform, they are fixed laws,
and are as well calculated to produce a corres-
pondence in the seasons as they are in the
evolutions of the globe. Why then is it not
equally warm on the first of May in two suc-
ceeding years, but that the fixed laws, as they
are called, are subordinate to other influence?
Laws that act by a continuation of the first
impulse given, are invariable; like the motion
of a machine, or like that of the planets: but
as no such regularity is apparent in directing
the particular affairs of this globe, they must
either be left to accident, or appointed and ma-
naged by direct and immediate power.
A motion as uniform as that of the earth
may be conducted by intelligence, or it may
be the effect of laws without intelligence; but
an occasional, irregular, and uncertain action,
answering some determined purpose, must be
ruled and managed by direct interference. The
vegetable kingdom is principally influenced
by the state of the atmosphere: heat and cold,
moisture and drought, affect the life of plants;
a change of seasons is of no comparative con-
sequence to man; he is, through the whole
year, and in every climate, the same; if the air
is salubrious it is all that concerns him: but
U u
338
the growth and life of vegetables depend on the
weather. We ought therefore to consider it as
that part of the Providence of God which relates
principally to them, and the object of our consi-
deration is, whether it is adapted to that purpose,
whether its uncertainty and variability are the
creatures of accident or of design: if of design,
they have not the uniformity consequent on laws
that are not guided by intelligence.
In
Were writers on the subject of Providence
to confine their attention to the inanimate and
irrational parts of creation, it would not be
more difficult to prove that an unseen hand
guides, controuls, and directs their affairs, than
it is to prove that a city was built by men for
purposes connected with human wants.
place of this, the principle is generalized, and
the human race is made the principal object of
study. Every department of nature should
be considered apart, and its government a-
part. By referring every thing immediately
to ourselves, we create disorder where there is
the greatest fitness. We suffer no injury by
changes in the atmosphere that are beneficial
to plants, but if we apply those changes to
ourselves, we are ready to ask, Why are they
suffered, we are not benefited?
339
Bearing this idea in mind we shall proceed
to a consideration of the Providence of God,
as exercised over man. Man is as dependent
on his Maker's pleasure as the brute, but his
dependence is not precisely of the same nature.
The wants of the brute are supplied without
their care, they live on what is provided for
them; but it has pleased God to enjoin con-
ditions on man, as the terms of his existence.
He is naked and must clothe himself, he is with-
out shelter and must build himself a habitation,
he is without a due supply of subsistence and
must exert himself to increase his stock. If
these terms are not complied with, the blessings
are not possessed; the earth does not yield
her increase, and the body sickens for want of
defence. Our own concurrence and aid are
essential to our comfortable support; it is a
mark of dignity to be entrusted with power.
We are here elevated above the brute, our
obligations to our Creator and to ourselves are
not theirs; we may abuse our power, or neglect
its requirements, they cannot. Seed only is
put into our hands, which we must cultivate,
that we may have a crop; they live on that
which their care never nurtured.
Besides these obligations there is another,
340
still more important and dignifying, under which
we live. Man is a social being, and morality
is essential to his existence in that state: mora-
lity is the basis of human laws, the price and
pledge of human existence---Who would sow,
if he were not secure of reaping? To destroy
that security is a breach of morality; it is a
violation of a natural law. The most barbarous
nations respect life and property, and the obli-
gation is enforced by civil penalties. A state
moralizes as it refines, and calls more of this
natural law into exercise. In other terms,
morality and refinement are to a certain extent
synonymous. The morality of an Otaheitean
is not so complete as that of a Swiss, yet the
principle is the same. The Otaheitean knows
only a few of its simplest maxims, such as are
just sufficient to keep their society in existence;
the Swiss, being further advanced in civilization,
know more of the reciprocal obligations due
from one person to another. Such knowledge
is civilization. We do not speak of a nation as
civilized because the arts of war are well under-
stood, but because the arts of peace are prac-
tised; because the moral obligations are known
and enforced. Morality, though a law of na-
ture, is not an instinct; we discover it by our
341
reason. Reason, when least assisted by expe-
rience, enjoins it, and well-informed men have
urged the most cogent arguments in its support.
it is a subject which always claims attention,
and it is fully within our capacity. It may
be said, that it does not relate to matter; but
it relates to man as a resident on this globe,
and respects his present good. We know no-
thing of morality, and it can have no existence
apart from matter: it is a human law, a law
limited in its obligation to this globe: were
any particular act specified, it would be found
to have a relation to property, to the rights and
privileges of another.---Many attempts have
been made to improve the moral condition of
particular nations, which have failed from wrong
ideas of morality---for that is not moral which is
not useful: it is not moral to offer human
sacrifices, yet every nation in the world has
done it; but the error has been seen, and the
practice abolished as soon as the right of man
to life has been understood. Morality is uni-
formly the same, but a knowledge of its precepts
are only attainable by an acquaintance with the
respective rights of others. It is not easy to
conceive of an individual, cast on a desert island,
being immoral; he cannot commit an offence
342
against man; if he injures himself, if he puts
a period to his existence, it is to God alone that
he has to account, and the crime is of a deeper
dye than what is commonly implied by the term
morality. Morality is highly honourable in the
estimation of mankind; the more the rights of
others are respected, the more their good opi-
nion is gained. The mission of Jesus Christ
was not necessary to teach the world morality,
because its purest precepts are of the highest
utility, and the same capacity that can appreciate
their worth, could have discovered them. Mo-
rality is distinct from religion; it is rewarded in
this world, religion is not. Morality is enforced
by religion, but loses much of its general respect
among men when practised from that avowed
motive.
There is still another interesting light in
which man must be viewed before a just idea
can be formed of the providential government
of God respecting him. HE IS FREE, at least to
a limited extent; the conditions of his easy and
pleasant passage through life he is not compelled
to perform he may allow the ground to lie
waste---he is not constrained to weave garments
or build houses---in our conduct we deliberate
and judge, and from our judgment act; virtue
343
and vice pass in review, and we choose which
we will: but here man's influence and power
over himself cease---he cannot prevent the coil-
sequences of his conduct; he may choose to
take no food, but he cannot choose whether he
will feel the want of it or not,---he may choose
to be in health, but that is not always at his
option,---he may choose to be tall in stature,
but that is not at his command,---or rich,
this also is denied him,---he may shorten, but
cannot lengthen his life,---he cannot determine
in what age he will be born, of what parents, or
under what circumstances,---he cannot appoint
the leading events of his life, he acts from cir-
cumstances over which he has no controul.
The liberty of man respects his moral actions,
and the fulfilment of certain conditions, on
which the means of his subsistence depend; the
abuse of this liberty is connected with the evil
that abounds in the world. God is evidently
not chargeable with it, it does not form part
of his government.---I cannot here help express-
ing an idea, that there is something wrong in
man besides his morals, but this I leave.
When we speak of the Doctrine of Provi-
dence, we ought to divest ourselves of the
consideration of those subjects over which the
¿
344
conduct of man extends its influence; we must
divest ourselves of all considerations of his moral
conduct: nor are we to consider the doctrine
with regard to the irregular and scanty supply
of the means of man's subsistence, or of his
garments or habitation, these are put into his
hands to manage; he is furnished with the
materials, the execution is his own: all he is
promised is, a blessing on his own endeavours;
it is the hand of the diligent that maketh rich.
The Providence of God is directed by an influ-
ence of a different nature, an influence wholly
independent of the voluntary actions of man.
The Jews were a perverse people, and they suf
fered the consequences of their crimes, but still
the events to be accomplished by them were
accomplished: their conduct reflected disgrace,
and brought punishment upon themselves, but
yet the course of events went on; one taking
place after another, with as much precision as if
they had been a most obedient people. The
great God asks not the consent nor the aid of
man to execute his pleasure; man reaps the
reward of his own doings, but he cannot frus-
trate the designs of heaven; the liberty that is
granted him extends in its influence over this
world, one is injured by the misconduct of
345
another. A thief commits an offence against
the laws of nature and the light of reason, and
many are injured either directly or in a more
indirect manner; it is the highest folly so
to act. Immorality, in all of its forms, is too
weak and foolish for man to commit, and could
not be practised were there not something wrong
in his disposition; his judgment condemns his
actions, but still he perseveres.
In the view I take of the subject, the design
of God in Providence has for its object the
exaltation of the character of the human race;
and Revelation points this out as the end of
his dispensations. It is promised to man that
he shall live in the exercise of the spirit of chris-
tianity, and Providence is engaged in the exe-
cution of the promise. It is not in the supply
of our bodily wants that the wisdom of God
is chiefly displayed; the grass of the field and
the fowls of the air display more of it than we
do, but we are to look to the plan that is laid
for improving the nature of man. Revelation
marks the steps, Providence secures their ac-
complishment. Events, perfectly consistent
with the freedom of man, are brought about
in such order, and so exactly as predicted, that
it is evident the actors were guided through
X X
346
1
them by some influence unknown to themselves.
It would be to me a very agreeable employ-
ment to examine the truth of these ideas by
the sacred Scriptures, from whence they are
borrowed, but it would extend the chapter too
far, and in some measure interfere with my
plan, which is only to give a philosophical view
of the subject.
Before we proceed any further, let us en-
deavour to obviate an objection. No part of
Revealed Truth is more commonly jeered at
than the doctrine of Providence. A person
who has come unhurt from a battle, thanks
God for his providential care; another, with
a smile of derision, asks if it was by the provi-
dence of God that othets were shot? One
who has acquired a fortune expresses
his gra-
titude and attributes his prosperity to Provi-
dence; but what does he say who has lost a
fortune, perhaps in consequence of the other's
gaining one?
Difficulties of this nature are
removed by considering that a portion of liberty
is given, and that God never averts from man
the consequences of his conduct; such events
arise from human actions, and do not come
under the idea we attach to Providence.
War is not an institution of God, and who-
347
ever engages in it must share of its evils. If
a person escapes unhurt it is well, but it does
not imply any extraordinary interposition of
Providence to effect it. A person gains a
fortune, he is not a favourite of heaven on that
account: honour is not put on wealth by the
Sovereign of nature.
God has spread a table, and has invited the
whole world to partake; enough is provided
for all, but the terms he has enjoined are better
performed by some than others; hence inequa-
lity arises in the distribution. Were all to
exert themselves, as it is their duty to do, all
would receive an abundance; the inequality is
occasioned by a defect in human institutions
and in human conduct, not in the Providence
of God.---I do not mean to insinuate that a
difference in rank is not desirable; the idea I
wish to convey is, that poverty and wretched-
ness need not be endured.
But, to return to the subject, the Providence
of God respects man as a rational being, and
not as a mere animal, much of what relates
to him in this last capacity being entrusted to
himself, as already mentioned. The predictions
that have been made, all refer to the improve-
ment of man's intellectual character; temporal
348
evil attends the progress, but temporal good is
not the reward. No prophecy has been fulfil-
led by the will or the power of man, statesmen
have never made one of them the subject of
their deliberations, nor have they in any way
designedly assisted in their accomplishment.
The human race have possessed and abused
their portion of liberty, while the purposes of
God have been and are accomplishing. But it
may be said, that war, and a variety of evils,
are predicted to precede and accompany the
fulfilment of a great part of the prophecies :---
To foretel an event is not to appoint it. The
liberty of man will never be violated; and so
long as the majority of mankind are as we now
see them, evils will abound. The wars that
commonly happen are only the personal quarrels
of two or more men, who, having power, use it,
calamity follows calamity; and as they began
war of their own pleasure, of their own pleasure
terminate it: God has not interfered, he has
never engaged to interfere; his engagement with
man is to lead him forward towards happiness,
and this is not the means of its fulfilment. But
some wars are interesting in their consequences,
and evidently referred to in prophecy. The evil
of war is not necessarily connected with the
349
good designed; the end of the dispensations.
of God is the happiness of man, the evil that
attends them arise from hinderances which are
interposed by man, and they are foretold as
an evidence of the truth of what is written, and
not as the pleasure of our Maker concerning
us.
When a disposition or sentiment prevails
among a people, of which the government does
not partake or approve, to divert the public atten-
tion laws are made, and probably a foreign war
engaged in; should these not succeed, civil
war follows, and the sceptre is sometimes bro-
ken by the strength of the people, as was the
case in France. It is, I believe, the uniform
opinion of christians, that the events which
have taken place in that country were foretold.
In the accomplishment a change took place
in the sentiments of the people respecting the
catholic religion; they saw it was better cal-
culated to give power to the priests than honour
to God; a jealousy arose between the govern-
ment and the people, which ended in war. Had
the government anticipated the changes of the
people's sentiments, and increased their religi-
ous and civil liberties, the prophecy would have
been accomplished, the tenth part of the city
350
would have fallen, and the world been benefited;
but it was opposed, and a dreadful carnage en-
sued, and affairs of a religious nature now stand
as they probably would have done had the go-
vernment acted with the people. Liberty of
conscience is granted, encroachments are made
on the power of Rome, and will continue to
be made till it ceases to be. The further
progress may be opposed, and many more may
fall, but the authority must be destroyed. It is
easy to distinguish the good to be derived from
the evil that attends it; they are evidently not
connected; the good does not arise out of the
evil, but the evil is vainly interposed to prevent
the good.
That it is the design of Providence still to
elevate, expand, and chasten the mind of man,
cannot be doubted; what has been done has
been gradual, and only in a particular line.
Many of the ancients were better sculptors, bet-
ter architects, better poets, more successful phi-
losophers, and were perhaps better orators,
than any of the present age, but they could not
comprehend so much of those truths that dig-
nify man. The Jews did not comprehend
much of what was clearly expressed, but they
comprehended more than the wisest Greeks.
351
The apostles of Jesus Christ did not understand
the nature of his government, though he had
often explained it to them. The wisest and
best of men of the present day do not compre-
hend many things that are revealed, and which
will one day be understood; but the generality
of christians believe more, than the Jews, from
the same testimony, could form any idea of;
and those of the latter period of their history
were better informed than those of the earlier.
It is in the gradual unfolding, the expanding
of the human intellect in this direction, that I
apprehend the directing hand of God is most
evident; in it is seen the grand purpose of man's
existence. We are witnesses to the increase of
strength, the accession of intellect, in a youth;
we are certain a child cannot learn, whoever may
be his preceptor, things that are easily acquired
by the adult: I apprehend it is the same in the
mind of man; his ability to comprehend his Maker
at first was weak, but as ages have rolled round,
an accession has been made to the capacity.
On this view of the subject many difficulties
are removed; it teaches us that we are not to
expect so much from the ancients as from our-
selves.
Revolving in my mind the arguments that
352
might be urged against the christian religion,
no one has struck me so forcibly, as, that the
morality inculcated in the New Testament is
not the same as that allowed of in the Old, that
is, adultery in the one, which was permitted in
the other; but this objection is done away
by considering the inferior state of human intel-
lect at that time; that which was right and fit.
in itself the Jews had not a capacity to discern,
they did not even understand the law of nature
on the subject. A being a little above man, or
man in that improved state which is promised
him, will doubtless view many of the customs
of the wisest and best of men of the present
day as extremely mean and degrading, in the
same manner as we do those of the Jews.
Let me illustrate my meaning of the human
intellect being improved by another example.
The Jews, who are now scattered into every
nation of the world, expect, on the authority of
Revelation, to return to their own land; were
they to attempt to go immediately they would
be foiled, obstacles insurmountable present
themselves, and will continue to present them-
selves; and unless the dispositions both of the
Jews and others change, their return, which will
always be inimical to the interests of the nations
353
in which they now reside and those through
which they must pass, cannot be effected; some
opposition will be made, and where is the
strength that must assist them? A general
sentiment will prevail in their favour, and the
opposition will not be well directed. We are,
therefore, only to expect the return of the Jews,
when their minds, and the minds of others, shall
be suited to the event.
The manner in which God acts on the mind
we do not know, it is said to be by the use of
means, by instruction,---but that is not enough;
it is a great mind that can comprehend great
truths; the person that understands the writ-
ings of Newton, is but little inferior to him:
and when a nation acquires an elevation of sen-
timent, without an improvement in the means
of knowledge, I conclude their capacities have
received an accession of strength, just the same
as I conclude of a boy who has made progress at
school. Voltaire exerted his talents to remove the
superstition and destroy the power of the Romish
church, and he is said to have succeeded, but
were not the minds of the people disposed to
receive the ideas he advanced before he published
them? Fifty years before he wrote, such senti-
ments would have been received with indigna-
ху
354
tion; they would have been considered as little.
short of blasphemy, and the author have been
put to death: but when he wrote, his writings
were received, the people were in a different
state of mind to what they had been for a thou-
sand years preceding.
The actions of men are not the rule, or even
the means of God's conduct; he maintains his
honour, he carries on his purposes independently
of us, but yet in perfect consistency with the
liberty he has granted.---The Jews were several
times conquered and carried from their country
as prisoners of war, was not this by the appoint-
ment of God and by the use of means? The
Jews became immoral and idolatrous, and this
was the mode of their punishment, but it was
not the means of their improvement: they did
not understand more of the nature of their reli-
gion by these evils: they learned his power to
punish whose laws they had broken; but, had
they not been idolatrous, they would have expe-
rienced his power to bless. Their being idola-
trous was not by his appointment or approba-
tion, of course cannot be said to be part of his
government. Their guilt and punishment were
cause and effect; but the promulgating of truth,
and a capacity to understand it, are not cause
355
and effect. The wars of the Jews with the
surrounding nations were not because these
nations would not embrace their religion, nor is
any temporal evil inflicted now because the
christian faith is not received, its converts have
never been made by force; it is not by means of
scourges that truth is propagated, nor is it for
doing that which is morally right that personal
evil ensues.---The Scriptures trace the origin of
war and the other evils that are in the world
up to their true source, and they are expressly
charged upon ourselves. It is a mistaken notion,
that, because men are not religious therefore
they cannot be moral. It is in the power of a
government to do much for the morals of a
country, and the reward of morality is temporal
good; but too much is aimed at, and the whole
miscarries.
The design of God in his government of the
Jews was the birth of the Messiah; that great
event happened in its due time; had they been
moral it would not have happened sooner, nor
did their immoralities retard it; but the morality
in their power would have ensured their personal
comfort.
Not only is the mental improvement I speak
of distinct from morality, but it is distinct from
356
1
advances in other knowledge. An individual
receives a talent for the investigation of one
subject in which another has no pleasure; one
is a botanist, another is an astronomer, a third
prefers a different line of study, and the talents
they are endowed with appear large enough to
comprehend these several subjects; were their
capacities enlarged, we do not know that the
subjects would be equal to them. We do not
perceive a want of intellect in the discussion of
philosophical truths.---The ancients evidently
possessed as acute and comprehensive talents as
are now enjoyed, and had more advantages;
they invented what we can scarcely improve:
hence we may argue that it does not appear to
have been the design of Providence to increase
our capacities in the attainment of the knowledge
of natural objects; the world at large is indeed
shamefully ignorant, owing to the little care
that has been taken to prevent it; but the wisest
men of one age do not outstrip those of a
former, nor are we, as it respects these subjects,
to anticipate an improvement in the human
intellect. The improvement spoken of is of
another and a nobler kind,---it is a capacity to
know more of God: in this direction the scale
is ascending, the meanest persons of our day and
357
تم
country know more than Socrates could learn 5
there is a prodigious difference between the
rational knowledge we possess on this subject
and that which was formerly possessed, but we
do not know the period when men were inferior
to each other in the rudiments of philosophical
truths.
It is a common observation, that all govern-
ments have the seeds of dissolution in them: I
would rather say the whole world is in motion,
pressing forward, and that laws must be changed
because man changes; those that are made may
be well adapted to answer the purpose it was
intended they should, the seed of dissolution
may not be in them but in that change, in
those they were intended to rule, which human
skill and sagacity cannot prevent. The New
Testament speaks of the downfal of antichrist;
it is no code of laws, it is no line of conduct,
however moral, that can prevent it. The laws
made to protect the corruptions of christianity
are as well fitted to the purpose as can be devised,
and the whole civil power of Europe has enforced
them, but the edifice already totters, and must
fall; all that is human in it must give way to
the progress of knowledge. Why it has pleased
God to allow his religion to be corrupted,---
!
:
358
1
why he gave man any portion of liberty, know-
ing, as he did, that it would be abused,---why
he has allowed of vice and misery in his creation,
are questions he has not condescended to solve,
and we have not the power to do it. We are
here in a probationary state, and it becomes us
to be satisfied, and to improve the talents we
possess of every kind to their utmost extent, for
it is only in such a way that we properly answer
the end of our creation: it does not rest on the
will or power of any man to fulfil a prophecy,
we are not required to give ourselves any con-
cern respecting them, their fulfilment do not
depend on an ostensible actor, all that are con-
cerned are prepared for the event, and it will be
accomplished: but it becomes us so to act as
those who are desirous that the will of God
should be done on earth.
!
Many of the preceding remarks are applica-
ble to the inhabitants of the world in every
period of time; but the christian religion engages
for its disciples a new relationship, and a more
peculiar care; it explains, particularizes, and
enforces the moral duties, they are essential to
its privileges, but the merit and even the tem-
poral advantages attendant on their performance
are abolished. Morality is essential to the prac-
en
.359
tice of the christian religion, but it is not chris-
tianity; it is not an effect of the same influence,
it does not produce the same consequences.
The disciples of Christ have no promise held
out to them calculated to attach their affec-
tions to the world; no temporal good for moral
worth; they are not promised honour in return
for piety, they are not promised wealth as the
reward of obedience; but they are assured of the
hatred of the world: why this hatred should be
manifested I am not now to enquire, but it
has been and is their portion: however, they
are promised and do enjoy happiness, of which
those who despise them are ignorant: they have
ascended a step higher in the creation, and have
lost their relish of temporal things: whilst they
are prompt in the discharge of their duties as
members of society, they consider themselves
as born for a higher destiny, which is ever kept
in view. To such characters as these the world
is made subservient; by their improvement in
knowledge thrones and empires fall; they use
not the sword, for the sword can only destroy,
but they wait patiently the appointed time, and
their Master makes their path plain to them.
I have dwelt thus long on the subject of
this chapter, because I conceive it to be inti-
360
1
mately connected with it. It was necessary to
state, as far as could be done philosophically,
the origin of the evils that have long acted as
scourges to mankind: if they are instituted,
appointed, or even directed by God, Mr. Malthus
has some ground on which to rest his argu-
ments; but if man is FREE in his moral con-
duct, he is accountable for the consequences.
}
361
A
{
:
CONCLUSION.
IN the foregoing remarks I have endea-
voured to prove that the checks to population,
which Mr. Malthus thinks have been as con-
stant as any of the laws of nature, are not
necessary to the government of the world; that
they arise out of circumstances that are perfectly
optional, and are most experienced under a bad
system of government, and least under a good
one, and consequently may in a great measure
be driven from the world. Were war, famine,
and pestilence, natural evils, provision would be
made in the economy of nature to excite them,
and their approach might be foreseen and calcu-
lated like the return of the seasons; a certain
number of victims would fall in a given space of
time, and no more; they would be to a nation
what superabundant fruit is to a tree: but
we are well assured that these evils may desolate
Z Z
362
a land; we know of no check to their fury but
human means, means that would have prevented
their approach. Misery has ever been the con-
sequence and the scourge of ignorance and
depravity, knowledge its corrective; virtue and
knowledge repair the breach made by vice and
misery, but vice and misery cannot be applied
to improve the effects produced by virtue and
knowledge: hence, therefore, if virtue and
knowledge are applicable to man, vice and
misery can have no natural place in our eco-
nomy. Very few persons have such an opinion
of the Deity as to suppose that he would endow
with life without providing the means of its sup-
port, yet this is the idea Mr. Malthus holds out:
I need not say such an idea banishes the Deity
from the world,---it cannot be, that the works
of God are so imperfect, or his government so
weak,---he has made laws which cannot be ful-
filled, he has given promises he cannot verify.
Morality ceases to have a name under such a
government as Mr. M. describes: but, happily
for mankind, vice and misery exist not as the
sovereigns to which we are legitimately subject;
they are the consequence of our ignorance, and
can never be appealed to as friends. We can
never say we want more vice and misery to ren-
་ ་་་་
1
363
der our condition better, but, on Mr. Malthus's
theory, this is a very common want. Vice and
misery are punishments, and punishment implies
transgression; there is no authority in them;
they sanction laws, but they are not laws them-
selves.
In the view I take of the subject, the life of
man is secure, his happiness well guarded by
obeying the laws Mr. Malthus would teach us
to break. A wise and benevolent Creator has
his eyes constantly upon us: has he appointed
our years to be threescore and ten, they were
intended for the business of life, and ought to
be filled up in the service of mankind; not to
be wasted in ennui, not to be dragged on thro'
their latter half in perpetual fear of death, paraliz-
ing every action, and casting a gloom over scenes
that ought to inspire joy. The business of life
should go promptly on to its close; it is cow-
ardice to shrink back when we have proceeded
only half way, and seem afraid to meet fresh
duties; it is our business to be always employed,
that when the finger of death shall point towards
us, we may have no duty unperformed. A hire-
ling has his stated employment for the day, he
may
feel weary in the execution, but until he
has fulfilled his obligation a respite from labour
364
is a crime. Infancy and youth are spent in
acquiring knowledge, which experience matures:
as knowledge is never lost, so it ought never to
be unemployed; the bulk of mankind want
instruction, and it ought to be the pleasure as
it is the duty of those whose life is not necessa-.
rily occupied in their own affairs, to furnish
them with the means. Life is a gift, the value
of which is not generally appreciated; the accu-
mulation of property, which ought to be only a
secondary consideration, is made the first, and
greatly tends to divide life between care and
disgust; hence arise many evils which Mr. M.
charges on Providence. But it may be said,
should the mind be cultivated, it would be equi-
valent to passing a sentence of extinction on
a family, and would prove an evil rather than
a good.
It will be seen by the preceding chapters,
that many circumstances and events of life have
an influence on the propagation of the species.
If a sober, steady, persevering effort to cultivate
the understanding has an influence on the body,
that influence is only in excess, it only threatens
extinction, when it is connected with much
anxiety and care: a cultivated mind is com-
monly eager to obtain distinction; schemes are
365
&
laid which, in attempting to execute, the mind
is agitated in a thousand ways; and if under
these circumstances children are born, they
partake in some measure of the constitution of
the children of mamelukes, and in a few genera-
tions, pursuing the same measures, extinction
may be with certainty anticipated.---But where
civilization and knowledge extend to the people
at large, the same inordinate application, the
same restless desire of fame cannot be felt, nor
the same consequences follow. Athens is not
an example to the contrary, the number of her
free men were small, and they were to the world
at large what the nobles of this country are:
to us.
But it may be asked, if a country was just
as much civilized as to give to the principle of
increase its full liberty, would not the people in
a few
years become too numerous? To this I
answer, that the experiment has been tried:
China has for ages been sufficiently civilized to
ensure the people personal security; their num-
bers have not been wasted in war, or cut off by
famine or pestilence, or lessened by celibacy,
yet they ceased to increase. War, famine, and
pestilence have not been more destructive since
the population stopped, but care has been mul-
366
tiplied; the jarring interests of individuals are
more felt; more personal exertion is requisite
in a stationary than in an increasing population:
the struggle, in any full-peopled state, is not so
much for the bare necessaries of life as for its
comforts, its riches, and its honours. Thousands
of bushels of corn are yearly consumed in the
Chinese distilleries, there is, of course, a surplus
of food, which, on Mr. M's. theory, is a bait held
out to population: here, however, is a refutation
of his theory; China wants not bread, yet the
births and deaths are equal: and what has oc-
curred in one country, it is not difficult to prove
may occur elsewhere.
Moral depravity every where exists, but it is
not a severe check to the increase of population,
except when it excites war. As the human in-
tellect strengthens, and moral depravity becomes
less, fewer children will be born: or should
moral depravity remain as it does, an increase in
civilization, or the care and anxiety consequent
on a stationary population, however thin, is a
sufficient guard against a too abundant increase.
But I cannot give up the idea that the period
is hastening when the condition of mankind will
be in a far better state than it now is, and that
the world will not furnish arguments which may
367
excite in the mind of the most sceptical a doubt
of the wisdom of the Author of it. Already
I fancy I have seen the first dawning of this
wished-for morning; already some slight corus-
cations have darted across the globe; the human
intellect is every where maturing; institutions
unfriendly to man are ready to fall by the force
of reason. Where is there a country, our own
and America excepted, in which the people are
not wiser than the government? When this is
the case a change is at hand. Was an alteration
to take place in the government of Turkey, of
Spain, of Morocco, would it be for the worse;
and is a change not likely to happen?
FINIS.
}
}
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