THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
No. 119. | 
SEPTEMBER 1, 
[2, of Vou. 18. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
REMARKS 02 MR. MALTHUS’S ESSAY on” 
the PRINCIPLES of POPULATION. 
T is now about five or fix years fince 
Mr. Malthus publifhed a flender oc- 
tavo volume on the Principles of Popula- 
tion, which he has lately twollén into one 
of thofe ponderous quartos with which 
literature is at prefent fo fhamefully tax- 
ed and encumbered. It may not, per- 
haps, be very unnatural in an autkor to 
attach more confequence to his fubject 
than it deferves, or to miftake the errors 
of his own imagination for the difcovery 
of important truths ; but it certainly be- 
trays great imprudence in him to have no 
compaifion either on the patience or the 
pockets of his readers, and to forget that 
his fy{tem derives but little fupport by ex- 
haufting either of them. 
When Mr. Malthus firft engaged in 
this work, he appears, from his own ac- 
knowledgment, to have neither read nor 
thought much upon the fubje&i; fo that 
his zeal in overturning old hypothefes, 
and eftablifhing new ones of his own in- 
vention, aftords a much ftronger proof of 
an ardent mind, than of a well-informed 
underftanding. It is attonifhing, how- 
ever, that a lapfe of fo many years fhould 
have had fo litle effect in foftening the 
one or in improving the other ; and that 
Opinions originally advanced fo contrary 
to the wife and benevolent laws of na- 
ture, fhould not have been fuffered to fink 
filently into cblivion, rather than be pro- 
truded again to public notice ia an infla- 
ted edition of Goo quarto pages. 
Mr. Malthus’s principal, indeed his 
only, defign in this work is to maintain, 
that there is a conitant tendency in na- 
ture to overftock the world with inha- 
bitants, and, therefore, that an increafing 
population is one of the greareft calami- 
ties with which any country can be af- 
flisted. By no exertions of man, or im- 
provements in agriculture, can the pro- 
ductions of the earth be made to increafe 
fatter than in an arithmetical, while the 
mouths that confume them are unfortu- 
nately multiplying in a geometrical, pro- 
greffion ; and hence the world in a few 
centuries is 10 danger, according to Mr. 
Malthus’s computations, of being peopled 
With ten thovfand times more inhabitanis 
Montuty Maa. No, 119. 
tian it can poffibly fupport. So lavifh, 
indced, has nature been in fcattering the 
feeds of life, and fo paring in providing 
the room and nourifhment neceflary for 
her offspring, that in every country, both 
favage and civilized, her operations are 
always at variance with themfelves, and | 
man is doomed to oftillate perpetually 
between the extremes of want and abun- 
dance. In no period do the meaus of his 
fubfiftence preferve a due proportion to his 
neceffities. A fruitful foil, or a genial 
climate, only fiimulate him to multiply 
his progeny, fo as to produce a famines 
which deltroys the miferable race; and he 
is mever permitted to enjoy the bounties 
of nature, except in the midft of folitude 
and defolation. Nor is this inveterate 
propenfity to increafe his fpecies beyond 
the means of providing for them con- 
fined to man alone, it is extended to the 
whole of the animal and even of the we- 
getable creation. Both brutes and plants 
are equaily zmpelled by a powerful inftin® 
to this exceflive increafe, and the earth is 
in conftant danger of being overftocked 
by their progeny, as neither of them, it 
feems, are interrupted in'the propagation ~ 
fF their fpecies by any duty or reafoning 
about providing for them! According 
to Mr. Malthus, this perpetual effort to- 
wards procreation (or rather towards mi- 
fery, tor the one always terminates in the 
other) produces an ofcillation, or certain 
vibratory motion, in human fociety, 
which hurries them backwards and for- 
wards from one extreme to the other, 
{fo as to prevent them from ever enjoying 
any comfort from the profpeét either of a 
fruitful feafon or an increafing family. 
The hiftory of the world in pat ages 
feems to have no effect in quieting Mr. 
Mal:hus’s apprehenfions. Although man, 
upon the moit moderate computation, has 
been multiplying his race for five thou. 
{and years, and infinitely the greater part 
of the earth {till remains uninhabited, yet 
is the danger of an over-crowded popu- 
lation fo urgent, that reftrzints fhould be 
lnmediately laid upon matrimony. The 
poor fhould be deterred from it by the 
menace of deriving no fupport from the 
wealthy for their iiarving progeny, and 
women of all ranks fhould be gbliged tu 
continue in a itate of celibacy till they 
/ Q - arrive 
