440 Of our rational Expectations Bk. iv. 



deprive Europe even of that degree of liberty, 

 which she had before experienced to be practicable, 

 and the salutary effects of which she had long 

 enjoyed. 



From a review of the state of society in former 

 periods, compared with the present, I should cer- 

 tainly say that the evils resulting from the prin- 

 ciple of population have rather diminished than 

 increased, even under the disadvantage of an 

 almost total ignorance of the real cause. And if 

 we can indulge the hope that this ignorance will 

 be gradually dissipated, it does not seem unrea- 

 sonable to expect that they will be still further 

 dimmished. The increase of absolute population, 

 which will of course take place, will evidently 

 tend but little to weaken this expectation, as 

 every thing depends upon the relative proportion 

 between population and food, and not on the ab- 

 solute number of people. In the former part of 

 this work it appeared that the countries, which 

 possessed the fewest people, often suffered the 

 most from the effects of the principle of popula- 

 tion ; and it can scarcely be doubted that, taking 

 Europe throughout, fewer famines and fewer dis- 

 eases arising from want have prevailed in the 

 last century than in those which preceded it. 



On the whole, therefore, though our future 

 prospects respecting the mitigation of the evils 

 arising from the principle of population may not 

 be so bright as we could wish, yet they are far 

 from being entirely disheartening, and by no 

 means preclude that gradual and progressive ira- 



