3 Systems of Equality. Bk. iii. 



-these establishments, and supposing for a moment 

 that they would give no check to production, the 

 greatest difficulty remains yet behind. 



If every man were sure of a comfortable provi- 

 sion for a family, almost every man would have 

 one ; and if the rising generation were free from 

 the fear of poverty, population must increase with 

 unusual rapidity. Of this M. Condorcet seems to 

 be fully aware himself; and after having described 

 further improvements, he says, 



" But in this progress of industry and happi- 

 ' ness, each generation will be called to more ex- 



* tended enjoyments, and in consequence, by the 

 ' physical constitution of the human frame, to an 



* increase in the number of individuals. Must 

 ' not a period then arrive when these laws, equally 

 ' necessary, shall counteract each other ; when, 

 ' the increase of the number of men surpassing 

 ' their means of subsistence, the necessary result 



* must be, either a continual diminution of hap- 



* piness and population — a movement truly re- 



* trograde ; or at least a kind of oscillation be- 

 ' tween good and evil ? In societies arrived at 

 ' this term, will not this oscillation be a con- 

 ' stantly subsisting cause of periodical misery ? 



* Will it not mark the limit, when all further me- 

 ' lioration will become impossible, and point out 

 ' that term to the perfectibility of the human 



* race, which it may reach in the course of ages, 

 ' but can never pass ?" He then adds, 



" There is no person who does not see how 

 " very distant such a period is from us. But 



