mous, that we might believe at first sight that it could only be effected by the interposition of rude and violent checks to the increase, in the shape of famine or epidemic disease. The plan, however, of a wise Creator is of gentler operation. It does not require that the population should be reduced by depriving of existence those who have been once brought into the world; but it provides by a natural check, that the existing number shall never far exceed the actual demand of the country itself for labourers. t Redundance is prevented, not re

tury. But it may be a just average for Europe taken together; and it does not really affect the argument, whether the difference is ten or twenty-fold. The fact mentioned by Mr. Malthus is more than sufficient for the purpose: "In New Jersey the proportion of births to deaths, on an average of seven years, ending 1743, was 300 to 100. In France and England the highest average proportion cannot be reckoned at more than 120 to 100." Vol. ii. p. 67.

A perversion of the real state of the fact as to this point is too common. The French pamphlet I before alluded to is mainly directed against an imaginary position which the author attributes to Mr. Malthus, viz. the necessity of misery to correct the evils of the principle of population. However we may pity the faculties which could fall into such an error, it certainly shows a just view of Divine Providence to be in

medied; and prevented by the simple effect of that division of property, which obliges every man, before he brings a family into the world, to see the means of providing for it within his reach; and thus gradually, as the inhabitants of a country advance nearer and nearer to the limits of their attainable support, protracts the average period of marriage much beyond the

dignant at this supposed injury to his attributes. It appears undeniably from the calculation in the preceding chapter, that if the population of any country were to proceed unchecked, even for a short period, it would so far surpass the power of the land to produce subsistence, that nothing but the death of a part could allow any to survive. But it does not proceed, and is not intended to proceed, in this manner, except where the productive country is as unlimited as the power to increase the number of consumers. If prudential restraint, i. e. the preventive check, is disregarded, who can doubt that famine, war, or epidemics will arise? just as bankruptcy will come upon a man who takes no care of his fortune; or disease will follow the neglect of prudential rules for the management of the constitution. But it is not necessary that the prudential check should be violated; neither, therefore, is it necessary that famine and pestilence should carry off a redundant population.

Mr. Malthus, with great candour, has omitted some paragraphs in his late edition, which had before created a wrong impression in the minds of many readers.

time which unchecked nature would dictate. It is true, that if the inclinations were indulged with as little restraint and consideration in old countries, as in the empty wastes of America, some melancholy corrective, as famine, pestilence, or the sword, must soon ensue, and bring things to a level. But man, being moderated by reason, as well as impelled by passion, has the means within his power of keeping clear of any such desperate condition. Where a space appears, in which the principle of population may act unlimitedly, the natural desire is also the law of reason. But under the different appearance which most European countries present, rational prudence interferes as a check to the natural desire, and, by setting before every individual his own best interests, actually, though perhaps unconsciously, determines the rate in which population shall proceed.

In all this there is no violence, no cruelty, nothing contrary to the nature of man, as a reasonable and accountable being. If his lot is

The mind, di

cast in a country where no opening appears, by filling which he may gratify the natural wish of planting a family around him; this wish, however natural, yields at once, and almost without a struggle, to the circumstances which impede its gratification. verted from one object, turns, without pain or convulsion, to another: it seeks for amusement in the endless varieties of pursuit which civilized life affords, and devotes the attention which, in another case, would have been paid to a family, to the interests of dignified ambition or literature. In those ages of refinement which oppose obstacles in the way of marriage, many, like Epaminondas, have left a posterity behind them in the victories they have achieved, not indeed over their fellow men, but over the difficulties of natural and moral science; victories which might never have been gained, but for the circumstances which diverted their attention from the common concerns of ordinary life. This applies to educated minds. In the inferior ranks, a man sees his prospect fairly placed before him. If he chooses, as it is

usually better he should, in preference to ease and freedom from care, the comforts of domestic enjoyment and affectionate intercourse, he knows that he must pay for those comforts in his labour.* And thus his labour has a perpetual stimulus, and a daily reward. Without labour nature gives nothing any where. A man born into a country already fully occupied is possessed of many advantages; but those advantages certainly demand from him in return, severe and constant exertion, if he claims to himself the peculiar privilege of a young society-that of having a family in early life, together with the comforts attending a state of advanced civilization.

* Among the other uncandid remarks of which Mr. Malthus has been the object, he has been accused as the enemy of marriage. But what rule will the objector venture to substitute for that which he has laid down? "The only plain and intelligible measure with regard to marriage is the having a fair prospect of being able to maintain a family.” Or again, “The lowest prospect with which a man can be justified in marrying seems to be the power, when in health, of earning such wages, as, at the average price of corn, will maintain the average number of living children to a marriage." Appendix, l. ii. p. 537.