28 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii. 



■ pression, falsehood, misery, every hateful vice and 

 every form of distress, which degrade and sadden 

 the present state of society, seem to have been 

 generated by the most imperious circumstances, 

 by laws inherent in the nature of man, and abso- 

 lutely independent of all human regulations. 



If we be not yet too well convinced of the reality 

 of this melancholy picture, let us but look for a 

 moment into the next period of twenty-five years, 

 and we shall see that, according to the natural in- 

 crease of population, 44 millions of human beings 

 would be without the means of support ; and at 

 the conclusion of the first century, the population 

 would have had the power of increasing to 176 

 millions, while the food was only suflScient for 55 

 millions, leaving 121 millions unprovided for: and 

 yet all this time we are supposing the produce of 

 the earth absolutely unlimited, and the yearly in- 

 crease greater than the boldest speculator can 

 imagine. 



This is undoubtedly a very different view of the 

 difficulty arising from the principle of population 

 from that which Mr. Godwin gives, when he says, 

 " Myriads of centuries of still increasing popula- 

 " tion may pass away, and the earth be still found 

 " sufficient for the subsistence of its inhabitants." 



I am sufficiently aware that the redundant mil- 

 lions which I have mentioned could never have 

 existed. It is a perfectly just observation of Mr. 

 Godwin, that " there is a principle in human 

 " society by which population is perpetually kept 

 " down to the level of the means of subsistence." 



