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CHAP. III. 



Of Systems of Equality (continued). 



It was suggested to me some years since by 

 persons for whose judgment I have a high respect, 

 that it might be advisable, in a new edition, to 

 throw out the matter relative to systems of equa- 

 lity, to Wallace,»Condorcet and Godwin, as having 

 in a considerable degree lost its interest, and as 

 not being strictly connected with the main subject 

 of the Essay, which is an explanation and illus- 

 tration of the theory of population. But inde- 

 pendently of its being natural for me to have some 

 little partiality for that part of the work which led 

 to those inquiries on which the main subject rests ; 

 I really think that there should be somewhere on 

 record an answer to systems of equality founded 

 on the principle of population ; and perhaps such 

 an answer is as appropriately placed, and is likely 

 to have as much effect, among the illustrations and 

 applications of the principle of population, as in 

 any other situation to which it could be assigned. 



The appearances in all human societies, parti- 

 cularly in all those which are the furthest advanced 

 in civilization and improvement, will ever be such, 

 as to inspire superficial observers with a belief 

 that a prodigious change for the better might be 

 effected by the introduction of a system of equality 

 and of common property. They see abundance 



