On National Character. 347 
which had been wandering now become sta- 
tionary. The seed their hands had planted 
requires their presence to protect it.* Thus 
an important point is gained, and a new era 
commences; the wives and children are in 
greater safety; consequently the families be- 
come larger and require an increase of in- 
dustry to provide the means of subsistence. 
The effort this requires enlarges the ideas and 
encreases the knowledge of the people; and, 
after a succession of generations, their habits 
and their constitutional propensities change ; 
they no longer delight in the practices their 
ancestors were attached to; having passed 
* Mr. Malthus in his work on population, asserts that 
when the population of a state has encreased beyond the 
existing means of subsistence, the superabundant part must 
be removed ; he appears not to have taken into his considera- 
tion the possibility of a change of system, and the effect that 
change may have on the produce of the soil, and on the 
fecundity of the people; but especially he does not appre= 
hend that an increased population is the great agent for the 
civilization of mankiud; no people have ever increased in ci- 
vilization in consequence of wealth, abundance, and a thin 
population, but as the effect of an increase of industry, and in- 
dustry is the creature of want, supposed or real. There is 
not enough, and therefore individuals labour to obtain more ; 
and by this effort their mental energies are roused, and they 
goforward. Ihave no hesitation in stating that there is no 
progress in civilization, but what is compelled by the very 
circumstance which Mr, Malthus lays down as the founda. 
tion of human misery, an increasing population. 
Xx2 
