NATURAL THEOLOGY. 141 



country, or supplied to it from other countries, 

 may happen to vary. But there must always be 

 such a point, and the species will always breed up 

 to it. The order of generation proceeds by some- 

 thing 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 procu- 

 ring subsistence.* Such difficulty, therefore, along 

 with its attendant circumstances, must be found in 

 every old country ; and these circumstances con- 

 stitute what we call poverty, which necessarily 

 imposes labour, servitude, restraint. 



It seems impossible to people a country with 

 inhabitants who shall be all easy in circumstances. 

 For suppose the thing to be done, there would be 

 such marrying and giving in marriage amongst 

 them, as would in a few years change the face of 

 affairs entirely : i. e., as would increase the con- 

 sumption of those articles which supplied the na- 

 tural 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 endeavours ; or, out of the different kinds 

 of these articles, to procure any kind except that 

 which was most easily produced. And this, in 



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

 lation. — Note of the »^uthor. 



