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



classes of people in every known state at present, 

 chiefly depends ; and on this happiness or degree 

 of misery, depends principally the increase, sta- 

 tionariness, or decrease of population. 



And thus it appears that a society constituted 

 according to the most beautiful form that imagi- 

 nation can conceive, with benovolence for its 

 moving principle instead of self-love, and with 

 every evil disposition in all its members corrected 

 by reason, not force, would, from the inevitable 

 laws of nature, and not from any fault in human 

 institutions, degenerate in a very short period 

 into a society constructed upon a plan not essen- 

 tially different from that which prevails in every 

 known state at present ; a society, divided into a 

 class of proprietors and a class of labourers, and 

 with self-love for the main-spring of the great ma- 

 chine. 



In the supposition which I have made, I have 

 undoubtedly taken the increase of population 

 smaller, and the increase of produce greater, than 

 they really would be. No reason can be assigned 

 why, under the circumstances supposed, popula- 

 tion should not increase faster than in any known 

 instance. If then we were to take the period of 

 doubling at fifteen years instead of twenty-five 

 years, and reflect upon the labour necessary to 

 double the produce in so short a time, even if we 

 allow it possible ; we may venture to pronounce 

 with certainty, that, if Mr. Godwin's system of 

 society were established, instead of myriads of 



