438 Of our rational Expectations Bk. iv. 



. in any old and well-peopled state, to assist the 

 poor in such a manner as to enable them to marry 

 as early as they please, and rear up large families, 

 is a physical impossibility. This knowledge, by 

 tending to prevent the rich from destroying the 

 good eifects of their own exertions, and wasting 

 their efforts in a direction where success is unat- 

 tainable, would confine their attention to the 

 proper objects, and thus enable them to do more 

 good. 



Among the poor themselves, its eifects would 

 be still more important. That the principal and 

 most permanent cause of poverty has little or no 

 di7xct relation to forms of government, or the une- 

 qual division of property; and that, as the rich 

 do not in reality possess the power of finding em- 

 ployment and maintenance for the poor, the poor 

 cannot, in the nature of things, possess the right 

 to demand them ; are important truths flowing 

 from the principle of population, which, when 

 properly explained, would by no means be above 

 the most ordinary comprehensions. And it is 

 evident that every man in the lower classes of 

 society, who became acquainted with these truths, 

 would be disposed to bear the distresses in which 

 he might be involved with more patience; would 

 feel less discontent and irritation at the govern- 

 ment and the higher classes of society, on account 

 of his poverty; would be on all occasions less 

 disposed to insubordination and turbulence; and 

 if he received assistance, either from any public 

 institution or from the hand of private charity, he 



