160 THE POSSIBILITIES 



sufficient supply of the necessaries of life ; it 

 takes it for granted. And all theories con- 

 nected with political economy retain the same 

 erroneous principle. Nearly all socialists, too, 

 admit the postulate. Nay, even in biology 

 (so deeply interwoven now with sociology) we 

 have recently seen the theory of variability of 

 species borrowing a quite unexpected support 

 from its having been connected by Darwin and 

 Wallace with Malthus's fundamental idea, that 

 the natural resources must inevitably fail to 

 supply the means of existence for the rapidly 

 multiplying animals and plants. In short, we 

 may say that the theory of Malthus, by shaping 

 into a pseudo-scientific form the secret desires 

 of the wealth-possessing classes, became the 

 foundation of a whole system of practical 

 philosophy, which permeates the minds of both 

 the educated and uneducated, and reacts (as 

 practical philosophy always does) upon the 

 theoretical philosophy of our century. 



True, the formidable growth of the pro- 

 ductive powers of man in the industrial field, 

 since he tamed steam and electricity, has some- 

 what shaken Malthus's doctrine. Industrial 

 wealth has grown at a rate which no possible 

 increase of population could attain, and it can 

 grow with still greater speed. But agriculture 

 is still considered a stronghold of the Mai- 



