234 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



ancestors of the Greeks or the native inhabitants 

 of the country. And, when Solon permitted the 

 exposing of children, it is probable that he only 

 gave the sanction of law to a custom already 

 prevalent. 



In this permission he had without doubt two 

 ends in view. First, that which is most obvious, 

 the prevention of such an excessive population as 

 would cause universal poverty and discontent ; 

 and, secondly, that of keeping the population up 

 to the level of what the territory could support, 

 by removing the terrors of too numerous a family, 

 and consequently the principal obstacle to mar- 

 riage. From the effect of this practice in China 

 we have reason to think that it is better calculated 

 to attain the latter than the former purpose. But 

 if the legislator either did not see this, or if the 

 barbarous habits of the times prompted parents 

 invariably to prefer the murder of their children 

 to poverty, the practice would appear to be very 

 particularly calculated to answer both the ends in 

 view ; and to preserve, as completely and as con- 

 stantly as the nature of the thing would permit, 

 the requisite proportion between the food and the 

 numbers which were to consume it. 



On the very great importance of attending to 

 this proportion, and the evils that must necessarily 

 result, of weakness on the one hand, or of poverty 

 on the other, from the deficiency or the excess of 

 population, the Greek political writers strongly 

 insist ; and propose in consequence various modes 

 of maintaining the relative proportion desired. 



