10 Statement of the Subject. Ratios of Bk. i. 



man which the earth affords might be increased 

 every twenty-five years by a quantity equal to 

 what it at present produces, this will be supposing 

 a rate of increase much greater than we can ima- 

 gine that any possible exertions of mankind could 

 make it. 



It may be fairly pronounced, therefore, that, 

 considering the present average state of the earth, 

 the means of subsistence, under circumstances 

 the most favourable to human industry, could not 

 possibly be made to increase faster than in an 

 arithmetical ratio. 



The necessary effects of these two different 

 rates of increase, when brought together, will be 

 very striking. Let us call the population of this 

 island eleven millions ; and suppose the present 

 produce equal to the easy support of such a num- 

 ber. In the first twenty-five years the population 

 would be twenty-two millions, and the food being 

 also doubled, the means of subsistence would be 

 equal to this increase. In the next twenty-five 

 years, the population would be forty-four millions, 

 and the means of subsistence only equal to the 

 support of thirty-three millions. In the next pe- 

 riod the population would be eighty-eight millions, 

 and the means of subsistence just equal to the 

 support of half that number. And, at the con- 

 clusion of the first century, the population would 

 be a hundred and seventy-six millions, and the 

 means of subsistence only equal to the support of 

 fifty-five millions, leaving a population of a hun- 

 dred and twenty-one millions totally unprovided 

 for. 



