240 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



dren multiply beyond the means of supporting 

 them, the law will necessarily be broken, and 

 families will be suddenly reduced from opulence 

 to beggary, — a revolution always dangerous to 

 public tranquillity.* 



It appears from these passages that Aristotle 

 clearly saw that the strong tendency of the human 

 race to increase, unless checked by strict and 

 positive laws, was absolutely fatal to every sys- 

 tem founded on equality of property; and there 

 cannot surely be a stronger argument against any 

 system of this kind than the necessity of such laws 

 as Aristotle himself proposes. 



From a remark which he afterwards makes 

 respecting Sparta, it appears still more clearly 

 that he fully understood the principle of popula- 

 tion. From the improvidence of the laws relating 

 to succession, the landed property in Sparta had 

 been engrossed by a few; and the effect was 

 greatly to diminish the populousness of the coun- 

 try. To remedy this evil, and to supply men for 

 continual wars, the kings preceding Lycurgus had 

 been in the habit of naturalizing strangers. It 

 would have been much better however, according 

 to Aristotle, to have increased the number of 

 citizens by a nearer equalization of property. 

 But the law relating to children was directly ad- 

 verse to this improvement. The legislator, wish- 

 ing to have many citizens, had encouraged as 

 much as possible the procreation of children. A 



* De Repub. lib. ii. c. vii. Gillies's Aristot. vol. ii. b. ii. p. 91. 



