HISTOKICAL 25 



virtue of mankind. The causes of this paucity of inhabitants and 

 the irregularity of increase are manifold. Some may be called 

 physical, as they depend entirely on course of nature, and are 

 independent of mankind. Others are moral and depend on the 

 affections, passions, and institutions of men. ... To this last we 

 may refer so many destructive wars which men have waged 

 against one another ; great poverty, corrupt institutions, either 

 of a civil or religious kind, intemperance, debauchery, irregular 

 amours, idleness, luxury, and whatever prevents marriage, 

 weakens the generating faculties of men, or renders them negligent 

 or incapable of educating their children, and cultivating the earth 

 to advantage. 'Tis to such destructive causes that we must 

 ascribe the small number of men.' 1 Sir James Steuart devotes 

 a considerable amount of space to this subject. ' The generative 

 faculty ', he says, ' resembles a spring loaded with a weight, which 

 always exerts itself in proportion to the diminution of resistance ; 

 when food has remained for some time without augmentation or 

 diminution, generation will carry numbers as high as possible ; if 

 then food come to be diminished, the spring is overpowered ; the 

 force of it becomes less than nothing. Inhabitants will diminish, 

 at least in proportion to the overcharge. If, upon the other hand, 

 food be increased, the spring, which stood at 0, will begin to exert 

 itself in proportion as the resistance diminishes ; people will begin 

 to be better fed ; they will multiply, and in proportion as they 

 increase in numbers, the food will become scarce again.' 2 



Malthus tells us that when he wrote his first edition the only 

 authors ' from whose writings he had deduced the principle which 

 formed the main argument of the essay ' were Hume, Wallace, 

 Adam Smith, and Price. 3 In the interval between the publication 

 of the first and second editions of the Essay he found that he had 

 been anticipated more or less by many others. Subsequently 

 many other similar passages have been brought to light. It is not 

 worth while to discuss how far Malthus had been anticipated. Jt_ 

 is enough to note some of the opinions that had been expressed. 

 In the eighteenth century the fact that there is a connexion be- 

 tween the population and the food-supply had become a common- 

 place. ' La mesure de la subsistance est celle de la population,' 4 



1 Wallace, Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind, p. 12. * Steuart, 



Principles of Political Economy, vol. i, p. 20. 3 Malthus, loc. cit., vol. i, 



p. 3. 4 Mirabeau, L Ami des Hommes, ch ii, p. 14. 



