428 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv. 



difference in the relative proportions of the supe- 

 rior, the middle and the inferior parts ; and from 

 the effect of these differences it seems probable, 

 that our best-grounded expectations of an increase 

 in the happiness of the mass of human society are 

 founded in the prospect of an increase in the re- 

 lative proportions of the middle parts. And if 

 the lower classes of people had acquired the habit 

 of proportioning the supplies of labour to a sta- 

 tionary or even decreasing demand, without an 

 increase of misery and mortality, as at present, 

 we might even venture to indulge a hope that at 

 some future period the processes for abridging 

 human labour, the progress of which has of late 

 years been so rapid, might ultimately supply all 

 the wants of the most wealthy society with less 

 personal effort than at present; and if they did 

 not diminish the severity of individual exertion, 

 might, at least, diminish the number of those 

 employed in severe toil. If the lowest classes of 

 society were thus diminished, and the middle 

 classes increased, each labourer might indulge a 

 more rational hope of rising by diligence and exer- 

 tion into a better station; the rewards of industry 

 and virtue would be increased in number; the lottery 

 of human society would appear to consist of fewer 

 blanks and more prizes; and the sum of social 

 happiness would be evidently augmented. 



To indulge, however, in any distant views of 

 this kind, unaccompanied by the evils usually 

 attendant on a stationary or decreasing demand 

 for labour, we must suppose the general preva- 



