GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 325 



oi much less magnitude, and also because they result, by a 

 kind of necessity, not only from the constitution of our nature, 

 but from a part of that constitution which no one would 

 wish to see altered. The case is this : mankind will in 

 every country breed 2ip to a certain point of distress. That 

 point may be different in difierent countries or ages, accord- 

 ing to the established usages of life in each. It will also 

 shift upon the scale, so as to admit of a greater or less num- 

 ber of inhabitants, according as the quantity of provision, 

 v»'hich is either produced in the country, or supplied to it 

 from other countries, may happen to vary. But there must 

 always be such a pouit, and the species will always breed 

 up to it. The order of generation proceeds by something 

 like a geometrical progression. The increase of provision, 

 under circumstances even the most advantageous, can only 

 assume the form of an arithmetic series. Whence it follows 

 that the population will always overtake the provision, will 

 pass beyond the line of plenty, and will continue to increase 

 till checked by the difficulty of procuring subsistence.^ Such 

 difficulty, therefore, along with its attendant circumstances, 

 must be found in every old country ; and these circumstan- 

 ces constitute what we call pov'erty, which necessarily im- 

 poses labor, servitude, restramt. 



It seems impossible to people a country with inhabitants 

 who shall be all easy in circumstances. For suppose the 

 tiling to be done, there would be such marrying and giving 

 in marriage among them, as would in a few years change 

 the face of aflairs entirely ; that is, as Avould increase the 

 consumption of those articles which supplied the natural or 

 habitual wants of the country to such a degree of scarcity, 

 as must leave the greatest part of the inhabitants unable to 

 procure them without toilsome endeavors ; or, out of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of these articles, to procure any kind except that 

 v-hich was most easily produced. And this, in fact, de- 



* See a statement of this subject in a late treatise upon popula- 

 tion 



