424 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv. 



comforts, we should be very cautious of inferring 

 that we could give the same industry and comforts 

 to all the lower classes of people, by giving them 

 the same possessions. There i^ nothing, that has 

 given rise to such a cloud of errors, as a confusion 

 between relative and positive, and between cause 

 and effect. 



It may be said, however, that any plan of ge- 

 nerally improving the cottages of the poor, or of 

 enabling more of them to keep cows, would evi- 

 dently give them the power of rearing a greater 

 number of children, and, by thus encouraging po- 

 pulation, violate the principles which I have en- 

 deavoured to establish. But if I have been suc- 

 cessml in making the reader comprehend the 

 principal bent of this work, he will be aware 

 that the precise reason why I think that more 

 children ought not to be born than the country 

 can support is, that the greatest possible number 

 of those that are born may be supported. We 

 cannot, in the nature of things, assist the poor in 

 any way, without enabling them to rear up to 

 manhood a greater number of their children. But 

 this is, of all other things, the most desirable, both 

 with regard to individuals and the public. Every 

 loss of a child from the consequences of poverty 

 must evidently be preceded and accompanied by 

 great misery to individuals; and in a public view, 

 every child that dies under ten years of age is a 

 loss to the nation of all that had been expended 

 in its subsistence till that period. Consequently, 

 in every point of view, a decrease of mortality at 



