BOOK IV. 



OF OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS RESPECTING THE RE- 

 MOVAL OR MITIGATION OF THE EVILS ARISING 

 FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 



CHAP. I. 



Of moral Restraint, and our Obligation to practise this 



Virtue. 



As it appears that, in the actual state of every 

 society which has come within our review, the 

 natural progress of population has been constantly 

 and powerfully checked; and as it seems evident 

 that no improved form of government, no plans 

 of emigration, no benevolent institutions, and no 

 degree or direction of national industry, can pre- 

 vent the continued action of a great check to po- 

 pulation in some form or other; it follows that we 

 must submit to it as an inevitable law of nature; 

 and the only inquiry that remains is, how it may 

 take place with the least possible prejudice to the 

 virtue and happiness of human society. 



