Law of Population 97 



that, in fact, they act at once automatically as an 

 incentive to an increased birth-rate. At last we realise 

 that the doctrine of Malthus in regard to the " genus 

 homo sapiens," which Darwin adopted and said " ap- 

 plied with manifold force to the whole animal and 

 vegetable kingdom," has been proved to be contrary to 

 fact, to be unsupported by scientific data, and to have 

 been a mere temporary illusion whose "ineffectual 

 fire " has paled and finally disappeared before the 

 searchlight of truth. 



One has heard it argued that it is all very well to 

 theorise, but that war, pestilence, famine, vice, and 

 miseryare absolutelyessential; otherwise, in the process 

 of the ages, the population must of necessity outrun the 

 means of subsistence. Even in the " ideal state," 

 which I hope to prove later is a necessary consequence 

 of the social evolution of humanity, men will always 

 desire to marry, and as it is presumed that the indi- 

 vidual struggle to acquire the means of subsistence will 

 become less and less as time goes on, the marriage-rate 

 will correspondingly rise, and, ere long, over-population 

 must become an accomplished fact. Moreover, this 

 process would be hastened by the gradual diminution 

 of the death-rate. We are told that not so very many 

 years ago the population of the world was given as 

 fourteen hundred millions ; now it is stated to be over 

 two thousand millions. The increase is easily accounted 

 for : it is due to fresh tracts of alluvial soil on the 

 earth's surface being thrown open to the pioneer and 

 the cultivator, and thus more food is being constantly 

 produced : this brings about increased trade and 

 commerce, and consequent augmentation of the world's 

 wealth ; and it necessarily follows that the marriage- 

 rate rises, with a corresponding increase of the birth- 

 rate. 



It is further argued that every acre of fertile soil 



