Ch. i. the Increase of Population and Food. 11 



Taking the whole earth, instead of this island, 

 emigration would of course be excluded; and, 

 supposing the present population equal to a thou- 

 sand millions, the human species would increase 

 as the numbers, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 

 and subsistence as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. In two 

 centuries the population would be to the means 

 of subsistence as 256 to 9 ; in three centuries as 

 4096 to 13, and in two thousand years the dif- 

 ference would be almost incalculable. 



In this supposition no limits whatever are 

 placed to the produce of the earth. It may in- 

 crease for ever and be greater than any assignable 

 quantity ; yet still the power of population being 

 in every period so much superior, the increase of 

 the human species can only be kept down to the 

 level of the means of subsistence by the constant 

 operation of the strong law of necessity, acting as 

 a check upon the greater power. 



