APPENDIX. 477 



These are the opinions imputed to nie and the philoso- 

 phers with whom 1 am associated. If the imputation were 

 just, we have certainly on many accounts great reason to be 

 ashamed of ourselves. For what are we made to say ? In 

 the first j)lace, we are stated to assert that famine is a bene- 

 volent remedy for nuitt of food, as redundance of population 

 admits of no other interpretation than that of a people ill 

 supplied with the means of subsistence, and consequently 

 the benevolent remedy of famine here noticed can only apply 

 to the disorders arising from scarcity of food. 



Secondly; we are said to affirm that nature enables human 

 beings by means of diseases to correct the disorders that 

 would arise from a redundance of population; — that is, 

 that mankind willingly and purposely create diseases, with 

 a view to prevent those diseases which are the necessary 

 consequence of a redundant population, and are not worse 

 or more mortal than the means of prevention. 



And thirdly, it is imputed to us generally, that we con- 

 sider the vices and follies of mankind as benevolent remedies 

 for the disorders arising from a redundant population ; and 

 it follows as a matter of course that these vices ought to be 

 encouraged rather than reprobated. 



It would not be easy to compress in so small a compass 

 a greater quantity of absurdity, inconsistency, and unfounded 

 assertion. 



The two first imputations may perhaps be peculiar to Mr. 

 Grahame ; and protection from them may be found in their 

 gross absurdity and inconsistency. With regard to the third, 

 it must be allowed that it has not the merit of novelty. Al- 

 though it is scarcely less absurd than the two others, and 

 has been shewn to be an opinion no where to be found in the 

 Essay, nor legitimately to be inferred from any part of it, it 

 has been continually repeated in various quarters for fourteen 

 years, and now appears in the pages of Mr. Grahame. I'or 

 the last time I will now notice it ; and should it still continue 

 to be brought forward, [ think I may be fairly excused from 

 paying the slightest further attention either to the imputa- 

 tion itself, or to those who advance it. 



If I had merely stated that the tendency of the human race 

 to increase faster than the means of subsistence was kept to 

 a level with these means by some or other of the forms of 

 vice and misery, and that these evils were absolutely una- 

 voidable, and incapable of being diminished by any human 



