9 8 



Malthusianism and the 



must ultimately come under cultivation, and then the 

 population will increase to the utmost possible limit. 

 It is asked what is to happen then, with the natural 

 impetus towards still further increase ? We are 

 entitled to take the evidence of history in regard to this 

 point. The facts and figures given in this chapter prove 

 to a demonstration that the population never does 

 outrun the means of subsistence, and that this law 

 would operate just as effectually when the earth had 

 reached its limit of production. We have seen that in 

 some countries the population which at one time had 

 risen markedly had begun to recede from year to 

 year, notwithstanding the fact that the death-rate 

 had diminished progressively owing to improved 

 hygiene, sanitary laws, better housing, and preventive 

 medicine. We have proved that in these countries 

 there was abstention from marriage — " the prudential 

 restraint," which Malthus said " operated with incon- 

 siderable force " — caused by the inability of the young 

 man to " acquire means which will enable him in his 

 degree to marry." It is surely quite fair to argue that 

 if the prudential restraint is of such potency now, it 

 will act no less powerfully when we have reached the 

 limit of production of food supply, and that it will 

 operate with even greater force in the days of the 

 " ideal state," when men, trained by self-denial, and 

 influenced by a desire to benefit their fellow-men and 

 the unborn generations which are to follow, shall have 

 acquired a self-control which will effectually keep the 

 marriage-rate within the bounds required, just as 

 surely as it is now controlled by the demands of the 

 labour market. 



In France the birth-rate has gone consistently down, 

 until quite recently it reached even a lower level than 

 the death-rate, so that the population for the time 

 being was actually receding. The labour market 



