in Ancient and Modern Times. " 87 



investigation or shallow observation, but the reverse. They 

 proceed mostly from his extreme subtlety, and minute and 

 excessive refinement. He is seldom in danger of losing him- 

 self, unless in the deep and intricate mazes of his own pro- 

 fundity ; but occasionally, while pursuing an inquiry into its 

 remote recesses, he is liable to overlook the obvious considera- 

 tions which first present themselves. This I believe to be his 

 vulnerable quarter in the essay in question, which assuredly, 

 on the whole, exhibits a greater mixture of erudition and phi- 

 losophy than is often brought to bear upon such a topic of dis- 

 cussion. In endeavouring, therefore, to show that he has over- 

 looked, or mistaken some of the most material points at issue, 

 I do not propose to enter into very minute details, but to offer 

 some considerations, which, in my estimation, tend to establish 

 a different conclusion from that to which the readers of Mr. 

 Hume's essay are apparently conducted. 



In general, I agree with him as to the extreme importance 

 of the question, and that its decision would go far to determine 

 the comparative value of ancient and modern governments, in- 

 stitutions, and manners. The philosophy of Mr. Malthus, which 

 has obtained such general assent, strongly corroborates this 

 assumption. If the great checks on population are vice and 

 misery, which he is thought to have incontestably proved, it is 

 fair to presume that where population has most flourished, vice 

 and misery have been most effectually excluded. Mr. Malthus's 

 theory is supported by the evidence of all history, ancient and 

 modern. Wherever we find a fertile country, thinly inhabited, 

 we may be quite sure that there exist some gross defects in the 

 structure of that society, its government or institutions. The 

 natural tendency to increase our species is so powerful, that it 

 can only be overcome by restraints the most mischievous, op- 

 pressive, and immoral ; this point, therefore, will probably 

 afford us the fairest criterion of the actual state of that im- 

 provement in human condition, which, in modern times, has 

 been assumed, and perhaps justly, to be always progressive. 

 The inquiry, I am afraid, will show us, that the value of the 

 improvement consists rather in its degree than the extent ; that 

 the diffusion of virtue and knowledge is by no means commen- 

 surate with their advancement } and that when we extol the 



