 Chapter 15 of an Essay on the Principle of Population. Models too perfect may sometimes rather impede than promote improvement. Mr. Godwin's essay on, quote, avarice and profusion, end quote, impossibility of dividing the necessary labor of a society amicably among all. Infectives against labor may produce present evil, with little or no chance of producing future good. An accession to the mass of agricultural labor must always be an advantage to the laborer. Mr. Godwin, in the preface to his Enquirer, drops a few expressions which seem to hint at some change in his opinions since he wrote The Political Justice. And, as this is a work now of some year standing, I should certainly think that I had been arguing against opinions which the author had himself seen reason to alter, and that in some of the essays of the Enquirer, Mr. Godwin's peculiar mode of thinking appears in as striking a light as ever. It has been frequently observed that though we cannot hope to reach perfection in anything, yet that it must always be advantageous to us to place before our eyes the most perfect models. This observation has a plausible appearance, but is very far from being generally true. I even doubt its truth in one of the most obvious exemplifications that would occur. I doubt whether a very young painter would receive so much benefit from an attempt to copy a highly finished and perfect picture, as from copying one where the outlines were more strongly marked and the manner of laying on the colors was more easily discoverable. But, in cases where the perfection of the model is a perfection of a different and superior nature from that towards which we should naturally advance, we should not always fail in making any progress towards it, but we shall in all probability impede the progress which we might have expected to make had we not fixed our eyes upon so perfect a model. A highly intellectual being exempt from the infirm calls of hunger or sleep is undoubtedly a much more perfect existence than man. But for man to attempt to copy such a model, he would not only fail in making any advances towards it, but by unwisely straining to imitate what was inimitable, he would probably destroy the little intellect which he was endeavoring to improve. The form and structure of society which Mr. Godwin describes is as essentially distinct from any forms of society which have hitherto prevailed in the world as a being that can live without food or sleep is from a man. By improving society in its present form, we are making no more advances towards such a state of things as he pictures, than we would make approaches towards a line with regard to which we were walking parallel. The question, therefore, is whether by looking to such a form of society as our polar star, we are likely to advance or retard the improvement of the human species. Mr. Godwin appears to me to have decided this question against himself in his essay on, quote, avarice and perfusion, end quote, in the Enquirer. Dr. Adam Smith has very justly observed that nations as well as individuals grow rich by parsimony and poor by perfusion, and that, therefore, every frugal man was a friend and every spendthrift an enemy to his country. The reason he gives is that what is saved from revenue is always added to stock, and is therefore taken from the maintenance of labor that is generally unproductive and employed in the maintenance of labor that realizes itself in valuable commodities. No observation can be more evidently just. The subject of Mr. Godwin's essay is a little similar in its first appearance, but in essence is as distinct as possible. He considers the mischief of perfusion as an acknowledged truth, and therefore makes his comparison between the avaricious man and the man who spends his income. But the avaricious man of Mr. Godwin is totally a distinct character, at least with regard to his effect upon the prosperity of the state from the frugal man of Dr. Adam Smith. The frugal man, in order to make more money, saves from his income and adds to his capital, and this capital he either employs himself in the maintenance of productive labor, or he lends it to some other person who will probably employ it in this way. He benefits the state because he adds to its general capital, and because wealth employed as capital not only sets in motion more labor than was spent as income, but the labor is besides of a more valuable kind. But the avaricious man of Mr. Godwin locks up his wealth in a chest and sets in motion no labor of any kind, either productive or unproductive. This is so essential a difference that Mr. Godwin's decision in his essay appears at once as evidently false as Dr. Adam Smith's position is evidently true. It could not, indeed, but occur to Mr. Godwin that some present inconvenience might arise to the poor from thus locking up the funds destined for the maintenance of labor. The only way, therefore, he had of weakening this objection was to compare the two characters chiefly with regard to their tendency to accelerate the approach of that happy state of cultivated equality, on which he says we ought always to fix our eyes as our polar star. I think it has been proved in the former parts of this essay that such a state of society is absolutely impracticable. What consequences, then, are we to expect from looking to such a point as our guide and polar star in the great sea of political discovery? Reason would teach us to expect no other than winds perpetually adverse, constant but fruitless toil, frequent shipwreck, and certain misery. We shall not only fail in making the smallest real approach towards such a perfect form of society, but by wasting our strength of mind and body in a direction in which it is impossible to proceed, and by the frequent distress which we must necessarily occasion by our repeated failures, we shall evidently impede that degree of improvement in society which is really attainable. It has appeared that a society constituted according to Mr. Godwin's system must, from the inevitable laws of our nature, degenerate into a class of proprietors and a class of laborers, and that the substitution of benevolence for self-love as the moving principle of society instead of producing the happy effects that might be expected from so fair a name would cause the same pressures of want to be felt by the whole of society, which is now felt only by a part. It is to the established administration of property and to the apparently narrow principle of self-love that we are indebted for all the noblest exertions of human genius, all the finer and more delicate emotions of the soul. For everything, indeed, that distinguishes the civilized from the savage state, and no sufficient change has as yet taken place in the nature of civilized man to enable us to say that he either is or ever will be in a state when he may safely throw down the ladder by which he has risen to this eminence. If in every society that has advanced beyond the savage state, a class of proprietors and a class of laborers must necessarily exist, it is evident that as labor is the only property of the class of the laborers, everything that tends to diminish the value of this property must tend to diminish the possession of this part of society. The only way that a poor man has of supporting himself in independence is by the exertion of his bodily strength. This is the only commodity he has to give an exchange for the necessaries of life. It would hardly appear then that you benefit him by narrowing the market for this commodity by decreasing the demand for labor and lessening the value of the only property that he possesses. It should be observed that the principle argument of this essay only goes to prove the necessity of a class of proprietors and a class of laborers, but by no means infers that the present great inequality of property is either necessary or useful to society. On the contrary, it must certainly be considered as an evil, and every institution that promotes it is essentially bad and impolitic. But whether a government could with advantage to society actively interfere to repress inequality or fortunes may be a matter of doubt. Perhaps the generous system of perfect liberty adopted by Dr. Adam Smith and the French economists would be ill-exchanged for any system of restraint. Mr. Godwin would perhaps say that the whole system of barter and exchange is a vile and iniquitous traffic. If you would essentially relieve the poor man, you should take a part of his labor upon yourself or give him your money without exacting so severe a return for it. In answer to the first method proposed, it may be observed that even if the rich could be persuaded to assist the poor in this way, the value of the assistance would be comparatively trifling. The rich, though they think themselves of great importance, bear but a small proportion in point of numbers to the poor, and would therefore relieve them but of a small part of their burdens by taking a share. For all those that are employed in the labors of luxuries added to the number of those employed in producing necessaries, and could these necessary labors be amicably divided among all, each man's share might indeed be comparatively light, but desirable as such an amicable division would undoubtedly be, I cannot conceive any practical principle according to which it could take place. It has been shown that the spirit of benevolence guided by the strict impartial justice that Mr. Godwin describes would, if vigorously acted upon, depress in want and misery the whole human race. Let us examine what would be the consequence, if the proprietor were to retain a decent share for himself but to give the rest away to the poor, without exacting a task from them in return. Not to mention the idleness and the vice that such a proceeding, if general, would probably create in the present state of society, and the great risk there would be of diminishing the produce of land, as well as the labors of luxury, another objection yet remains. Mr. Godwin seems to have but little respect for practical principles, but I only appears to me that he is a much greater benefit to mankind than how an inferior good may be attained, than he who merely expatiates on the deformity of the present state of society, and the beauty of a different state without pointing out a practical method that might be immediately applied of accelerating our advances from the one to the other. It has appeared that from the principle of population, more will always be in want than can be adequately supplied. The surplus of the rich man might be sufficient for three, but there is no choice to obtain it. He cannot make this selection of three out of the four without conferring a great favor on those that are the objects of his choice. These persons must consider themselves as under a great obligation to him, and as dependent upon him for their support. The rich man would feel his power, and the poor man his dependence, and the evil effects of these two impressions on the human heart are well known. Though I still think it a less evil, and less calculated to debase the human mind than dependence, and every history of man that we have ever read places in a strong point of view the danger to which that mind is exposed, which is entrusted with constant power. In the present state of things, and particularly when labor is in request, the man who does a day's work for me confers full as great an obligation upon me as I do upon him. I possess what he wants. He possesses what I want. We make an amicable exchange. The poor man walks erect unconscious independence, and the mind of his employer is not vitiated by a sense of power. Three or four hundred years ago there was undoubtedly much less labor in England in proportion to the population than at present, but there was much more dependence, and we probably should not now enjoy a present degree of civil liberty if the manufacturers had not been enabled to give something in exchange for the provision of the great lords, instead of being dependent upon their bounty. Even the greatest enemies of trade and manufacturers, and I do not reckon myself a determined friend to them, must allow that when they were introduced into England, liberty came in their train. Nothing that has been said tends in the most remote degree to undervalue the principle of benevolence. It is one of the noblest and most godlike qualities of the human heart, generated perhaps, slowly and gradually from self-love, and afterwards intended to act as a general law whose kind office it should be to soften the partial deformities to correct the asperities, and to smooth the wrinkles of its parent. This seems to be the analog of all nature. Perhaps there is no one general law of nature that will not appear to us at least to produce partial evil, and we frequently observe at the same time some bountiful provision which, acting as another general law, corrects the inequalities of the first. The proper office of benevolence is to soften the partial evils arising from self-love, but it can never be substituted in its place. If no man were to allow himself to act till he had completely determined that the action he was about to perform was more conducive than any other to the general good, the most enlightened minds would hesitate in perplexity and amazement, and the unenlightened would be continually committing the grossest mistakes. As Mr. Godwin, therefore, has not laid down any practical principles according to which the necessary labours of agriculture might be amicably shared among the whole class of labours, but general invectives against employing the poor, he appears to pursue an unattainable good through much present evil. For if every man who employs the poor ought to be considered as their enemy, and as adding to the weight of their oppressions, and if the miser is for this reason to be preferred to the man who spends his income, it follows that any number of men who now spend their incomes might to the advantage of society be converted into misers. Suppose, then, that a hundred thousand persons who now employ ten men each were to lock up their wealth from general use. It is evident that a million of working men of different kinds would be completely thrown out of all employment. The extensive misery that such an event would produce in the present state of society, Mr. Godwin himself could refuse to acknowledge, and I question whether he might not find some difficulty in proving that a conduct of this kind tended more than the conduct of those who spend their incomes to, quote, place human beings in the condition in which they ought to be placed, end quote. But Mr. Godwin says that the miser really locks up nothing, that the point has not been rightly understood, and that the true development and definition of the nature of wealth have not been applied to illustrate it. Having defined their wealth very justly to be the commodities raised and fostered by human labor, he observes that the miser locks up neither corn nor oxen nor clothes nor houses. Undoubtedly, he does not really lock up these articles, but he locks up the power of producing them, which is virtually the same. These things are certainly used and consumed by his contemporaries as truly and to as great an extent as if he were a beggar, but not to as great an extent as if he had employed his wealth in bringing up more land, in breeding more oxen, in employing more tailors, and in building more houses. But supposing, for a moment, that the conduct of the miser did not tend to check any really useful produce, how are all those who are thrown out of employment to obtain patents, which they may show in order to be awarded a proper share of the food and treatment produced by the society? This is the unconquerable difficulty. I am perfectly willing to concede to Mr. Godwin that there is much more labor in the world than is really necessary, and that if the lower classes of society could agree among themselves never to work more than six or seven hours in a day, the commodities essential to human happiness might still be produced in as great abundance as present. But it is almost impossible to concede that such an agreement could be adhered to. From the principle of population, some would necessarily be more in want than others. Those that had large families would naturally be desirous of exchanging two hours more of their labor for an ample quantity of subsistence. How are they to be prevented from making this exchange? It would be a violation of the first and most sacred property that a man possesses to attempt by positive institutions to interfere with his command over his own labor. Till Mr. Godwin, therefore, could point out some practical plan according to which the necessary labor in a society might be equitably divided, his invectives against labor, if they were attended to, would certainly produce much present evil without approximating us to that state of cultivated equality to which he looks forward as his polar star, in which he seems to think should at present be our guide in determining the nature and tendency of human actions. A mariner guided by such a polar star is in danger of shipwreck. Perhaps there is no possible way in which wealth could in general be employed so beneficially to a state, and particularly to lower orders of it, as by improving and rendering productive that land which, to a farmer, would not answer the expense of cultivation. Had Mr. Godwin exerted his energetic eloquence in painting the superior worth and usefulness of the character who employed the poor in this way, to him who employed them in narrow luxuries, every enlightened man must have applauded his efforts. The increasing demand for agricultural labor must always tend to better the condition of the poor, and if the accession of work be of this kind, so far as it from being true that the poor would be obliged to work ten hours for the same price that they before worked eight. That the very reverse would be the fact, and a laborer might then support his wife and family as well by the laborer of six hours as he could before by the laborer of eight. The laborer created by luxuries, though useful in distributing the produce of the country, without videating the proprietor by power, or debasing the laborer by dependence, as not indeed the same beneficial effect on the state of the poor. A greater session of work from manufacturers, though it may raise the price of labor even more than an increasing demand for agricultural labor, yet as in this case the quantity of food in the country may not be proportionably increasing, the advantage to the poor will be but temporary, as the price of the provisions must necessarily rise in proportion to the price of labor. Relative to this subject, I cannot avoid venturing a few remarks on a part of Dr. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, speaking at the same time with that diffidence which I ought certainly to feel in differing from a person so justly celebrated in the political world. End of Chapter 15 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards Chapter 16 of an essay on the principle of population. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jeffrey Edwards an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus Chapter 16 Probable error of Dr. Adam Smith in representing every increase of the revenue or stock of a society as an increase in the funds for the maintenance of labor. Instances where an increase of wealth can have no tendency to better the condition of the laboring poor. England has increased in riches without a proportional increase in the funds for the maintenance of labor. The state of the poor in China would not be improved by an increase of wealth for manufacturers. The professed object of Dr. Adam Smith's inquiry is the nature and cause of the wealth of nations. There is another inquiry however perhaps still more interesting which he occasionally mixes with it. I mean an inquiry into the causes which affect the happiness of nations or the happiness and comfort of the lower orders of society which is the most numerous class in every nation. I am sufficiently aware of the near connection of these two subjects and that the causes which tend to increase the wealth of a state tend also generally speaking to increase the happiness of the lower classes of the people. But perhaps Dr. Adam Smith has considered two inquiries as still more nearly connected than they really are. At least he has not stopped to take notice of those instances where the wealth of a society may increase bracket according to his definition of quotes wealth and bracket without having any tendency to increase the comforts of the laboring part of it. I do not mean to enter into a philosophical discussion of what constitutes the proper happiness of man but shall merely consider two universally acknowledged ingredients health and the command of the necessaries and conveniences of life. Little or no doubt can exist that the comforts of the laboring poor depend upon the increase of the funds destined for the maintenance of labor and will be very exactly in proportion to the rapidity of this increase. The demand for labor which such increase would occasion by creating a competition in the market must necessarily raise the value of labor and till the additional number of hands required were reared the increased funds would be distributed to the same number of persons as before the increase and therefore every laborer would live comparatively at his ease. But perhaps Dr. Adam Smith airs in representing every increase of the revenue or stocks of a society as an increase of these funds. Such surplus stock or revenue will indeed always be considered by the individual possessing it as an additional fund from which he may maintain more labor but it will not be a real and effectual fund for the maintenance of an additional number of laborers unless the whole or at least a great part of this increase of the stock or revenue of the society be convertible into a proportional quantity of provisions. And it will not be so convertible where the increase has arisen merely from the produce of labor and not from the produce of land. A distinction will in this case occur between the number of hands which the stock of the society could employ and the number which the inventory can maintain. To explain myself by an instance Dr. Adam Smith defines the wealth of a nation to consist in the annual produce of its land and labor. This definition evidently includes manufactured produce as well as the produce of the land. Now supposing a nation for a course of years was to add what it saved from its yearly revenue to its manufacturing capital solely and not to its capital employed upon land. It is evident that it might grow richer according to the above definition without a power supporting a greater number of laborers and therefore without an increase in the real funds for the maintenance of labor. There would, notwithstanding be a demand for labor from the power which each manufacturer would possess or at least think he possessed of extending his old stock in trade or of setting up fresh works. This demand would of course raise the price of labor but if the yearly stock of provisions in the country was not increasing this rise would soon turn out to be merely nominal as the price of provisions must necessarily rise with it. The demand for manufacturing laborers might, indeed entice many from agriculture and thus tend to diminish the annual produce of the land. But we will suppose any effect of this kind to be compensated by improvements in the instruments of agriculture and the quantity of provisions therefore to remain the same. Improvements in manufacturing machinery would of course take place and this circumstance added to the greater number of hands employed in manufacturers would cause the annual produce of the labor of the country to be upon the whole greatly increased. The wealth therefore of the country might be increasing annually according to the definition and might not perhaps be increasing very slowly. The question is whether wealth increasing in this way has any tendency to better the condition of the labor and poor. It is a self-evident proposition that any general rise in the price of labor stock of provisions remaining the same can only be a nominal rise as it must very shortly be followed by a proportional rise in the price of provisions. The increase in the price of labor therefore which we have supposed would have little or no effect in giving the laboring poor a greater command over the necessaries and conveniences of life. In this respect they would be nearly in the same state as before. In one other respect they would be in a worse state. A greater proportion of them would be employed in manufacturers and fewer consequently in agriculture. This exchange of professions will be allowed I think by all to be very unfavorable in respect of health one essential ingredient of happiness. Besides the greater uncertainty of manufacturing labor arising from the capricious taste of man the accidents of war and other causes. It may be said perhaps that such an instance as I have supposed could not occur because the rise in the price of provisions would immediately turn some additional capital into the channel of agriculture. But this is an event which may take place very slowly as it should be remarked that a rise in the price of labor had preceded the rise of provisions and would therefore impede the good effects upon agriculture which the increased value of the produce of the land might otherwise have occasioned. It might also be said that the additional capital of the nation would enable it to import provisions sufficient for the maintenance of those whom its stock should employ. A small country with a large navy and great inland accommodations for carriage such as Holland may indeed import and distribute an effectual quantity of provisions. But the price of provisions must be very high to make such an importation and distribution answer in large countries less advantageously circumstances in this respect. An instance accurately such as I have supposed may not perhaps ever have occurred. But I have little doubt that instances nearly approximating to it may be found without any very laborious search. Indeed, I am strongly inclined to think that England herself since the revolution affords a very striking elucidation of the argument in question. The commerce of this country internal as well as external has certainly been rapidly advancing during the last century. The exchangeable value in the market of Europe of the annual produce of its land and labor has without doubt increased very considerably. But upon examination it will be found that the increase has been chiefly in the produce of labor and not in the produce of land. And therefore, though the wealth of the nation has been advancing with a quick pace the effectual funds for the maintenance of labor have been increasing very slowly and the result is such as might be expected. The increasing wealth of the nation has had little or no tendency to better the condition of the laboring poor. They have not, I believe, a greater command of the necessaries and conveniences of life and a much greater proportion of them than at the period of the revolution is employed in manufacturers and crowded together in close and unwholesome rooms. Could we believe the statement of Dr. Price that the population of England has decreased since the revolution? It would even appear that the effectual funds for the maintenance of labor had been declining during the progress of wealth in other respects. For I conceive that it may be laid down as a general rule that if the effectual funds for the maintenance of labor are increasing, that is if the territory can maintain as well as the stock employ a greater number of laborers, this additional number will quickly spring up even in spite of such wars as Dr. Price enumerates and consequently if the population of any country has been stationary or declining we may safely infer that however it may have advanced in manufacturing wealth its effectual funds for the maintenance of labor cannot have increased. It is difficult however to conceive that the population of England has been declining since the revolution, though every testimony concurs to prove that its increase if it has increased has been very slow. In the controversy which the question has occasioned Dr. Price undoubtedly appears to be much more completely master of his subject and to possess more accurate information than his opponents. Judging simply from this controversy I think one should say that Dr. Price's point is nearer being proved than Mr. Hallitz. Truth probably lies between the two statements but this supposition makes the increase of population since the revolution to have been very slow in comparison with the increase of wealth. That the produce of the land has been decreasing or even that it has been absolutely stationary during the last century few will be disposed to believe. The enclosure of commons and wasteland certainly tends to increase the food of the country but it has been asserted with confidence that the enclosure of common fields has frequently had a contrary effect and that large tracts of land which formerly produced great quantities of corn by being converted into pasture both employ fewer hands and feed fewer mouths than before their enclosure. It is indeed an acknowledged truth that pasture land produces a smaller quantity of human subsistence than corn land of the same natural fertility and could it be clearly ascertained that from the increased demand for butchers meat of the best quality and its increased pricing consequence a greater quantity of good land has annually been employed in grazing the diminution of human subsistence which this circumstance would occasion might have counter balanced the advantages derived from the enclosure of wastelands and the general improvements in husbandry. It scarcely need be remarked that the high price of butchers meat at present and its low price formerly were not caused by the scarcity in the one case or the plenty in the other but by the different expense sustained at the different periods in preparing cattle for the market. It is however possible that there might have been more cattle a hundred years ago in the country than at present but no doubt can be entertained that there is much more meat of a superior quality bought in the market at present than ever there was. When the price of butchers meat was very low cattle were reared chiefly upon wastelands and except for some of the principal markets were probably killed with but little other fatting. The veal that is sold so cheap in some distant countries at present bears little other resemblance than the name to that which is bought in London. Formerly the price of butchers meat would not pay for rearing and scarcely for feeding cattle on land that would answer in tillage but the present price will not only pay for fatting cattle on the very best land but will even allow for the rearing many on land that would bear good crops of corn the same number of cattle or even the same weight of cattle at the different periods when killed will have consumed bracket if I may be allowed to the expression close bracket very different quantities of human substance. A fatted beast may in some respects be considered in the language of the French economists as an unproductive laborer. He has added nothing to the value of the raw produce that he has consumed. The present system of grading undoubtedly tends more than the former system to diminish the quantity of human subsistence in the country in proportion to the general fertility of the land. I would not by any means be understood to say that the former system either could or ought to have continued. The increasing price of butchers meat is a natural and inevitable consequence of the general progress of cultivation but I cannot help thinking that the present great demand for butchers meat of the best quality and the quantity of good land that is in consequence annually employed to produce it together with the great number of horses that present kept for pleasure are the chief causes that have prevented the quantity of human food in the country from keeping pace with the generally increased fertility of the soil and a change of custom in these respects would I have little doubt have a very sensible effect on the quantity of subsistence in the country and consequently on its population the employment of much of the most fertile land and grading improvements in agricultural instruments the increase of large farms and particularly the diminution of the number of cottages throughout the kingdom all concur to prove that there are not probably so many persons employed in agricultural labor now as at the period of the revolution whatever increase of population therefore has taken place must be employed almost totally in manufacturers and it is well known that the failure of some of these manufacturers merely from the caprice of fashion such as the adoption of muslims instead of silks or of shoestrings and covered buttons instead of buckles and metal buttons combined with the restraints in the market of labor arising from corporation and parish laws have frequently driven thousands on charity for support the great increase of the poor rate is indeed of itself a strong evidence that the poor have not a greater command of the necessaries and conveniences of life and if to the consideration that their condition in this respect is rather worse than better be added the circumstance that a much greater proportion of them is employed in large manufactures unfavorable both to health and virtue it must be acknowledged that the increase of wealth of late years has had no tendency to increase the happiness of the laboring poor that every increase of the stock or revenue of a nation cannot be considered as an increase of the real funds for the maintenance of labor and therefore cannot have the same good effect upon the condition of the poor will appear in a strong light if the argument be applied to China Dr. Adam Smith observes that China has probably long been as rich as the nature of her laws and institutions will admit but that with other laws and institutions and if foreign commerce were had in honor she might still be much richer the question is would such an increase of wealth be an increase of the real funds for the maintenance of labor and consequently tend to place the lower classes of people in China in a state of greater plenty it is evident that if trade and foreign commerce were held in great honor in China from the plenty of laborers and the cheapness of labor she might work up manufactures for foreign sale to the immense amount it is equally evident that from the great bulk of provisions and the amazing extent of her inland territory she could not in return import such a quantity as would be any sensible addition to the annual stock of subsistence in the country her immense amount of manufactures therefore she would exchange chiefly for luxuries collected from all parts of the world at present it appears that no labor whatever is spared in the production of food the country is rather in proportion to what its stock can employ and labor is therefore so abundant that no pains are taken to a bridge it the consequence of this is probably the greatest production of food that the soil can possibly afford for it will be generally observed that processes for bridging labor though they may enable a farmer to bring a certain quantity of grain cheaper to market tend rather to diminish than increase the whole produce and in agriculture therefore may in some respects be considered rather as private public advantages an immense capital could not be employed in China in preparing manufactures for foreign trade without taking off so many laborers from agriculture as to alter this state of things and in some degree to diminish the produce of the country the demand for manufacturing laborers would naturally raise the price of labor but as the quantity of subsistence would not be increased the price of provisions would keep pace with it or even more than keep pace with it the quantity of provisions were really decreasing the country would be evidently advancing in wealth the exchangeable value of the animal produce of its land and labor would be annually augmented that the real funds for the maintenance of labor would be stationary or even declining and consequently the increasing wealth of the nation would rather tend to depress than to raise the condition of the poor with regard to the command over the necessaries and comforts of life they would be in the same or rather poor and a great part of them would have exchanged the healthy laborers of agriculture for the unhealthy occupations of manufacturing industry the argument perhaps appears clear when applied to China because it is generally allowed that the wealth of China has been long stationary with regard to any other country it might be always a matter of dispute at which of the two periods compared wealth was increasing the faster as it is upon the rapidity of the increase of wealth at any particular period that Dr. Adam Smith says the condition of the poor depends it is evident however that two nations might increase exactly with the same rapidity in the exchangeable value of the annual produce of their land and labor yet if one had applied itself chiefly to agriculture and the other chiefly to commerce the funds for the maintenance of labor and consequently the effect of the increase of wealth in each nation would be extremely different in that which had applied itself chiefly to agriculture the poor would live in great plenty and population would rapidly increase and that which had applied itself chiefly to commerce the poor would be comparatively but little benefited and consequently population would increase slowly. End of Chapter 16 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards Chapter 17 of an essay on the principle of population this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jeffrey Edwards an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus Chapter 17 Question of the proper definition of the wealth of a state reason given by the French economists for considering all manufacturers as unproductive laborers not the true reason the labor of artificers and manufacturers sufficiently productive to individuals though not to the state a remarkable passage in Dr. Price's two volumes of observations Error of Dr. Price in attributing the happiness and rapid population of America chiefly to its peculiar state of civilization no advantage can be expected from shutting our eyes to the difficulties in the way to the improvement of society A question seems naturally to arise here whether the exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labor be the proper definition of the wealth of a country or whether the gross produce of the land according to the French economists may not be a more accurate definition certain it is that every increase of wealth according to the definition of the economists will be an increase of the funds for the maintenance of labor and consequently will always tend to ameliorate the condition of the laboring poor though an increase of wealth according to Dr. Adam Smith's definition will by no means invariably have the same tendency and yet it may not follow from this consideration that Dr. Adam Smith's definition is not just it seems in many respects improper to exclude the clothing and lodging of a whole people from any part of their revenue much of it may indeed be a very trivial and unimportant value in comparison with the food of the country yet still it may be fairly considered as a part of its revenue and therefore the only point in which I should differ from Dr. Adam Smith is where he seems to consider every increase of the revenue or stock of a society as an increase of the funds for the maintenance of labor and consequently as tending always to ameliorate the condition of the poor the fine silks and cottons the laces and other ornamental luxuries of a rich country may contribute very considerably to augment the exchange value of its annual produce yet they contribute but in a very small degree to augment the mass of happiness in the society and it appears to me that it is with some view to the real utility of the produce that we ought to estimate the productiveness or unproductiveness of different sorts of labor French economists consider all labor employed in manufacturers as unproductive comparing it with the labor employed upon land perfectly disposed to agree with them but not exactly for the reasons which they give they say that labor employed upon land is productive because the produce over and above completely paying the laborer and the farmer affords a clear rent to the landlord and that the labor employed upon a piece of lace is unproductive because it merely replaces the provisions that the workmen had consumed and the stock of his employer without affording any clear rent whatever but supposing the value of the wrought lace to be such as that besides paying in the most complete manner the workman and his employer it could afford a clear rent to a third person it appears to me that in comparison with the labor employed upon land it would be still as unproductive as ever though according to the reasoning used by the French economists the man employed in the manufacture of lace would in this case seem to be a productive laborer yet according to their definition of the wealth of estate he ought not to be considered in that light he will have added nothing to the gross produce of the land he has consumed a portion of this gross produce and has left a bit of lace in return and though he may sell this bit of lace for three times the quantity of provisions that he consumed whilst he was making it and thus be a very productive labor with regard to himself yet he cannot be considered as having added by his labor to any essential part of the riches of the state the clear rent therefore that a certain produce can afford after paying the expenses of procuring it does not appear to be the sole criterion by which to judge of the productiveness or unproductiveness to a state of any particular species of labor suppose the two hundred thousand men who are now employed in producing manufacturers that only tend to gratify the vanity of a few rich people were to be employed upon some barren and uncultivated liens and to produce only half the quantity of food that they themselves consumed they would be still more productive laborers with regard to the state than they were before though their labor so far from affording a rent to a third person would but half replace the provisions used in obtaining the produce in their former employment they consumed a certain portion of the food of the country and left in return some silks and laces in their latter employment they consumed the same quantity of food and left in return provisions for a hundred thousand men there can be little doubt which of the two legacies would be the most really beneficial to the country and it will, I think be allowed, that the wealth which supported the two hundred thousand men while they were producing silks and laces would have been more usefully employed in supporting them while they were producing the additional quantity of food a capital employed upon the land may be unproductive to the individual that employs it and yet be highly productive to the society a capital employed in trade on the contrary may be highly productive to the individual and yet can't be almost totally unproductive to the society and this is the reason why I should call manufacturing labour unproductive in comparison of that which is employed in agriculture and not for the reason given by the French economists it is indeed almost impossible to see the great fortunes that are made in trade and the liberality with which so many merchants live and yet agree in the statement of the economists that manufacturers can only grow rich by depriving themselves of the funds and for their support in many branches of trade the profits are so great as would allow of a clear rent to a third person but as there is no third person in the case and as all the profit centre in the master manufacturer or merchant he seems to have a fair chance of growing rich without much privation and we consequently see large fortunes acquired in trade by persons who have not been remarked for their parsimony daily experience proves that the labour employed and manufacturers is sufficiently productive to individuals but it certainly is not productive in the same degree to the state each accession to the food of a country tends to the immediate benefit of the whole society but the fortunes made in trade tend but in a ruined and uncertain manner to the same end and in some respects have even a contrary tendency the home trade of consumption is by far the most important trade of every nation China is the richest country in the world without any other putting then for a moment foreign trade out of the question the man who by an ingenious manufacture obtains a double portion out of the old stock of provisions will certainly not to be so useful to the state as the man who by his labour adds a single share to the former stock the consumable commodities of silks laces, trinkets and expensive furniture are undoubtedly a part of the revenue of the society but they are the revenue only of the rich and not of the society in general an increase in this part of the revenue of a state cannot therefore be considered of the same importance as an increase of food which forms the principal revenue of the great mass of the people foreign commerce adds to the wealth of a state according to Dr. Adams' misdefinition though not according to the definition of the economists its principal use and the reason probably as in general being held in such high estimation is that it adds greatly to the external power of a nation or to its power of commanding the labour of other countries but it will be found upon a near examination to contribute but little to the increase of the internal funds for the maintenance of labour and consequently but little to the happiness of the greatest part of society in the natural progress of a state towards riches, manufactures and foreign commerce would follow the order, the high cultivation of the soil in Europe this natural order of things has been inverted and the soil has been cultivated from the redundancy of manufacturing capital instead of manufactures rising from the redundancy of capital employed upon land the superior encouragement that has been given to the industry of the towns and the consequent higher price that is paid for the labour of artificers then for the labour of those employed in husbandry are probably the reasons why so much soil in Europe remains uncultivated had a different policy being pursued throughout Europe it might undoubtedly have been much more populist than at present and yet not be more encumbered by its population I cannot quit this curious subject of the difficulty arising from population a subject that appears to me to deserve a minute investigation and able discussion much beyond my power to give it without taking notice of an extraordinary passage in Dr. Price's two volumes of observations having given some tables on the probabilities of life in towns and in the country he says, bracket, volume 2 page 243 and bracket from this comparison it appears with how much truth great cities have been called the graves of mankind it must also convince all who consider it that according to the observation at the end of the fourth essay in the former volume we have no means strictly proper to consider our diseases as the original intention of nature they are, without doubt in general our own creation were there a country where the inhabitants led lives entirely natural and virtuous few of them would die without measuring out the whole period of present existence allotted to them pain and distemper would be unknown among them and death would come upon them like a sleep in consequence of no other cause than gradual and unavoidable decay I owned that I felt myself obliged to draw a very opposite conclusion from the facts advanced in Dr. Price's two volumes I had for some time been aware that population and food increased in different ratios and a vague opinion had been floating in my mind that they could only be kept equal by some species of misery or vice but the perusal of Dr. Price's two volumes of observations after that opinion had been conceived raised it at once to conviction with so many facts in his view to prove the extraordinary rapidity with which population increases when unchecked and with such a body of evidence before him to elucidate even the manner by which the general laws of nature repress a redundant population it is perfectly inconceivable to me how he could write the passage that I have quoted he was a strenuous advocate for early marriages as the best preservative against vicious manners he had no fanciful conceptions about the extinction of the passion between the sexes like Mr. Godwin nor did he ever think of eluding the difficulty in the ways hinted at by Mr. Condorcet he frequently talks of giving the prolific powers of nature room to exert themselves yet with these ideas that his understanding could escape from the obvious and necessary inference that an unchecked population would increase beyond comparison faster than the earth by the best directed exertions of man who could produce food for its support appears to me as astonishing as if he had resisted the conclusion of one of the plainest propositions of Euclid Dr. Price speaking of the different stages of the civilized state says, quote the first or simple stages of civilization are those which favor most the increase and the happiness of mankind end quote he then instances the American colonies as being at that time the first and happiest of the states that he had described and as affording a very striking proof of the effects of the different stages of civilization on population but he does not seem to be aware that the happiness of the Americans depended much less upon their peculiar degree of civilization than upon the peculiarity of their situation as new colonies upon their having a great plenty of fertile uncultivated land in parts of Norway Denmark or Sweden or in this country two or three hundred years ago he might have found perhaps nearly the same degree of civilization but by no means the same happiness or the same increase of population he quotes himself a statute of Henry VIII complaining of the decay of tillage and the enhanced price of provisions quote whereby a marvelous number of people were rendered incapable of maintaining the superior degree of civil liberty which prevailed in America contributed without doubt its share to promote the industry happiness and population of these states but even civil liberty all powerful as it is will not create fresh land the Americans maybe said perhaps to enjoy a greater degree of civil liberty now they are an independent people than while they were in subjection to England but we may be perfectly sure that population will not long continue to increase with the same rapidity as it did then a person who contemplated the happy state of the lower classes of people in America twenty years ago would naturally wish to retain them forever in that state and might think perhaps that by preventing the introduction of manufactures and luxury he might affect his purpose but he might as reasonably expect to prevent a wife or mistress from growing old by never exposing her to the sun or air the situation of new colonies well governed is a bloom of youth that no efforts can arrest there are indeed many modes of treatment in the political as well as animal body that contribute to accelerate or retard the approaches of age but there can be no chance of success in any mode that could be devised for keeping either of them in perpetual youth by encouraging the industry of the towns more than the industry of the country Europe may be said perhaps to have brought on a premature old age a different policy in this respect would infuse fresh life and vigor into every state while from the laws of primogeniture and other European customs land bears a monopoly price a capital can never be employed in it with much advantage to the individual and therefore it is not probable that the soil should be properly cultivated and though in every civilized state a class of proprietors and a class of laborers must exist yet one permanent advantage would always result from a near equalization of property the greater the number of proprietors the smaller must be the number of laborers a greater part of society would be in the happy state of possessing property and a smaller part in the unhappy state of possessing no other property than their labor but the best directed exertions though they may alleviate can never remove the pressure of want and it will be difficult for any person who contemplates the genuine situation of man on earth and the general laws of nature to suppose it possible that any the most enlightened efforts could place mankind in a state where few would die without measuring out the whole period of present existence allotted to them where pain and distemper would be unknown among them and death would come upon them like a sleep in consequence of no other cause than gradual and unavoidable decay end quote it is undoubtedly a heartening reflection that the great obstacle in the way to any extraordinary improvement in society is of a nature that we can never hope to overcome the perpetual tendency in the race of man to increase beyond the means of subsistence is one of the general laws of animated nature which we can have no reason to expect will change yet the scouraging as the contemplation of this difficulty must be to those whose exertions are laudably directed to the improvement of the human species but no possible good can arise from any endeavors to slur it over or keep it in the background on the contrary, the most baleful mischiefs may be expected from the unmanly conduct of not daring to face truth because it is unpleasing independently of what relates to this great obstacle sufficient yet remains to be done for mankind to animate us to the most unremitted exertion but if we proceed without a thorough knowledge and accurate comprehension of the nature extent and magnitude of the difficulties we have to encounter or if we unwisely direct our efforts towards an object in which we cannot hope for success we shall not only exhaust our strength in fruitless exertions and remain at as great a distance as ever from the summit of our wishes but we shall be perpetually crushed by the recoil of this rock of Sisyphus End of Chapter 17 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards Chapter 18 of an essay on the principle of population this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jeffrey Edwards an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus Chapter 18 the constant pressure of distress on man from the principle of population seems to direct our hopes to the future state of trial inconsistent with our ideas of the foreknowledge of God the world probably a mighty process for awakening matter into mind theory of the formation of mind excitements from the wants of the body excitements from the operation of general laws excitements from the difficulties of life arising from the principle of population the view of human life which results from the contemplation of the constant pressure of distress on man from the difficulty of subsistence by showing the little expectation that he can reasonably entertain of perfect ability on earth seems strongly to point his hopes to the future and the temptations to which he must necessarily be exposed from the operation of those laws of nature which we have been examining would seem to represent the world in the light in which it has been frequently considered as a state of trial and school of virtue preparatory to a superior state of happiness but I hope I shall be pardoned if I attempt to give a view in some degree different of the situation of man on earth which appears to me to be more consistent with the various phenomena of nature which we observe around us more constant to our ideas of the power goodness and foreknowledge of the deity it cannot be considered as an unimproving exercise of the human mind to endeavor to quote vindicate the ways of God to man end quote if we proceed with a proper distrust of our own understandings and a just sense of our insufficiency to comprehend the reason of all we see if we hail every ray of light with gratitude and thought that appears think that the darkness is from within and not from without and bow with humble deference to the supreme wisdom of him whose quote thoughts are above our thoughts end quote quote as the heavens are high above the earth end quote in all our feeble attempts however to quote find out the almighty to perfection end quote it seems absolutely necessary that we should reason from nature to nature's God and not presume to reason from God to nature the moment we allow ourselves to ask why some things are not otherwise instead of endeavoring to account for them as they are we shall never know where to stop we shall be led into the grossest and most childish absurdities all progress in the knowledge of the ways of providence must necessarily be at an end and the study will even cease to be an improving exercise of the human mind infinite power is so vast it is possible an idea that the mind of man must necessarily be bewildered in the contemplation of it with the crude and purile conceptions which we sometimes form of this attribute of the deity we might imagine that God could call into being myriads and myriads of existences all free from pain and imperfection all eminent in goodness and wisdom all capable of the highest enjoyments and unnumbered as the points throughout infinite space but when from these vain extravagant dreams of fancy we turn our eyes to the book of nature where alone we can read God as he is we see a constant succession of sentient beings rising apparently from so many specks of matter going through a long and sometimes painful process in this world but many of them attaining air determination of it such high qualities and powers seem to indicate their fitness for some superior state ought we not then to correct our crude and purile ideas of infinite power from the contemplation of what we actually see existing can we judge of the creator but from his creation and unless we wish to exalt the power of God at the expense of his goodness ought we not to conclude that even to the great creator almighty as he is a certain process may be necessary a certain time bracket or at least what appears to us as time closed bracket may be requisite in order to form beings with those exalted qualities of mind which will fit them for his high purposes a state of trial seems to imply a previously formed existence that does not agree with the appearance of man in infancy and indicates something like suspicion and want of foreknowledge inconsistent with those ideas which we wish to cherish of the supreme being I should be inclined therefore as I have hinted before to consider the world in this life as the mighty process of God not for the trial but for the creation and formation of mind a process necessary to awaken inert chaotic matter into spirit to supplement the dust of the earth into soul to elicit an ethereal spark from the clot of clay and in this view of the subject the various impressions and excitements which man receives through life may be considered as the forming hand of his creator acting by general laws and awakening his sluggish existence by the animating touches of the divinity into a capacity of superior enjoyment the original sin of man is the torpor and corruption of the chaotic matter in which he may be said to be born it could answer no good purpose to enter into the question whether mind be a distinct substance from matter or only a finer form of it the question is perhaps after all a question merely of words mind is essentially mind whether formed from matter or any other substance we know from experience that soul and body are most intimately united and every appearance seems to indicate that they grow from infancy together it would be a supposition attended with very little probability to believe that a complete and full form spirit existed in every infant but that it was clogged and impeded in its operations during the first 20 years of life by the weakness or habitude of the organs that it was enclosed as we shall all be disposed to agree that God is the creator of mind as well as of body and as they both seem to be forming and unfolding themselves at the same time it cannot appear inconsistent either with reason or revelation if it appear to be consistent with phenomena of nature to suppose that God is constantly occupied in forming mind out of matter and that the various impressions that man receives through life is the process for that purpose and the experiment is surely worthy of the highest attributes of the deity this view of the state of man on earth will not seem to be unattended with probability if, judging from the little experience we have of the nature of mind it shall appear upon investigation that the phenomena around us and the various events of human life seem peculiarly calculated to promote this great end and especially if, upon this supposition we can account even to our own narrow understandings for many of those roughnesses and inequalities in life which querulous man too frequently makes the subject of his complaint against the God of nature the first great awakeners of the mind seem to be the wants of the body bracket, it was my intention to have entered at some length into this subject as a kind of second part of the essay a long interruption from particular business has obliged me to lay aside this intention the place for the present I shall now therefore only give a sketch of a few of the leading circumstances that appear to me to favor the general supposition that I have advanced end bracket they are the first stimulants that rouse the brain of infant man into sentient activity and such seems to be the sluggishness of original matter than unless by a peculiar course of excitements other wants equally powerful are generated these stimulants seem even afterwards necessary to continue that activity which they first awakened the savage would slumber forever under his tree unless he were roused from his torpor by the cravings of hunger or the pinchings of cold and the exertions that he makes to avoid these evils by procuring food and building himself a covering are the exercises which form and keep in motion his faculties which otherwise would sink into listless inactivity from all that experience and thus concerning the structure of the human mind if those stimulants to exertion which arise from the wants of the body were removed from the mass of mankind we have much more reason to think that they would be sunk to the level of brutes from a deficiency of excitements then that they would be raised to the rank of philosophers by the possession of leisure in those countries where nature is the most redundant in spontaneous produce the inhabitants will not be found the most remarkable for acuteness of intellect has been with great truth called the mother of invention some of the noblest exertions of the human mind have been set in motion by the necessity of satisfying the wants of the body want has not unfrequently given wings to the imagination of the poet pointed the flowing periods of the historian and added acuteness to the researches of the philosopher and though there are undoubtedly many minds at present so far improved by the various excitements of knowledge or from social sympathy that they would not relapse into listlessness if their bodily stimulants were removed yet it can scarcely be doubted that these stimulants could not be withdrawn from the mass of mankind without producing a general and fatal torpor destructive of all the germs of future improvement Locke, if I recollect says that the endeavor to avoid pain rather than the pursuit of pleasure is the great stimulus to action in life and that in looking to any particular pleasure we shall not be roused into action in order to obtain it till the contemplation of it has continued so long as to amount to a sensation of pain or uneasiness under the absence of it to avoid evil and to pursue good seems to be the great duty and business of man and this world appears to be peculiarly calculated to afford opportunity of the most unremitted exertion of this kind and it is by this exertion by these stimulants that mind is formed if Locke's idea be just and there is great reason to think that it is evil seems to be necessary to create exertion and exertion seems evidently necessary to create mind the necessity of food for the support of life gives rise probably to a greater quantity of exertion than any other want bodily or mental the supreme being has ordained that the earth shall not produce good in great quantities till much preparatory labor and ingenuity has been exercised upon its surface there is no conceivable connection to our comprehensions between the seed and the plant or tree that rises from it the supreme creator might undoubtedly raise up plants of all kinds for the use of his creatures without the assistance of those little bits of matter which we call seed or even without the assisting labor and attention of man the processes of plowing and clearing the ground of collecting and sowing seeds are not surely for the assistance of God in his creation but are made previously necessary to the enjoyment of the blessings of life in order to rouse man into action and form his mind to reason to furnish the most unremitted excitements of this kind and to urge man to further the gracious designs of providence by the full cultivation of the earth it has been ordained that population should increase much faster than food this general law, bracket as it has appeared in the former parts of this essay, close bracket undoubtedly produces much partial evil but a little reflection may perhaps satisfy us that it produces a great over balance of good. Strong excitements seem necessary to create exertion and to direct this exertion and form the reasoning faculty it seems absolutely necessary that the supreme being should act always according to general laws the constancy of the laws of nature or the certainty with which we may reflect the same effects from the same causes is the foundation of the faculty of reason if in the ordinary course of things, the finger of God were frequently visible or to speak more correctly if God were frequently to change his purpose bracket, for the finger of God is indeed visible in every blade of grass that we see, close bracket a general and fatal torpor of the human faculties would probably ensue even the bodily wants mankind would cease to stimulate them to exertion, could they not reasonably expect that if their efforts were well directed they would be crowned with success the constancy of the laws of nature is the foundation of the industry and foresight of the husbandmen the indefatigable ingenuity of the artificer the skillful researches of the physician and anatomist and the watchful observation and patient investigation of the natural philosopher to this constancy we owe all the greatest and noblest efforts of the intellect to this constancy we owe the immortal mind of Newton as the reasons therefore, for the constancy of the laws of nature seem, even to our understandings obvious and striking if we return to the principle of population and consider man as he really is inert, sluggish and averse from labor unless compelled by necessity bracket, and it is surely the height of folly to talk of man according to our crude fancies of what he might be we may pronounce with certainty that the world would not have been peopled but for the superiority of the power of population to the means of subsistence strong and constantly operative as the stimulus is on man to urge him to the cultivation of the earth if we still see that cultivation proceeds very slowly we may fairly conclude that a less stimulus would have been insufficient even under the operation of this constant excitement savages will inhabit countries of the greatest natural fertility for a long period before they take themselves to pastures or agriculture had population and food increased in the same ratio it is probable that man might never have emerged from the savage state but supposing the earth once well peopled an alexander, a julius caesar a tambourine, or a bloody revolution might irrevocably thin the human race and defeat the great designs of the creator the basis of a contagious disorder would be felt for ages and an earthquake might unpeople a region forever the principle according to which population increases prevents the basis of mankind or the accidents of nature the partial evils arising from the general laws from obstructing the high purposes of the creation it keeps the inhabitants of the earth always fully up to the level of the means of subsistence and is constantly acting upon man as a powerful stimulus further cultivation of the earth and to enable it consequently to support a more extended population but it is impossible that this law can operate and produce the effects apparently intended by the supreme being without occasion in partial evil unless the principle of population were to be altered according to the circumstances of each separate country bracket which would not only be contrary to our universal experience with regard to the laws of nature but would contradict even our own reason which sees the absolute necessity of general laws for the formation of intellect close bracket it is evident that the same principle which seconded by industry will people of fertile region in a few years must produce distress in countries that have been long inhabited it seems however every way probable that even they acknowledge difficulties occasioned by the law of population tend rather to promote than impede the general purpose of providence they excite universal exertion and contribute to that infinite variety of situations and consequently of impressions which seems upon the whole favorable to the growth of mind it is probable the too great or too little excitement extreme poverty or too great riches may be alike unfavorable in this respect the middle regions of society seem to be best suited to intellectual improvement but it is contrary to the analogy of all nature to expect that the whole of society can be a middle region the temperate zones of the earth seem to be the most favorable to the mental and corporeal energies of man but all cannot be temperate zones a world warmed and enlightened but by one sun must from the laws of matter have some parts chilled by perpetual frosts and others scorched by perpetual heats every piece of matter lying on a surface must have an upper and an underside all the particles cannot be in the middle the most valuable parts of an oak to a timber merchant are not either the roots or the branches but these are absolutely necessary to the existence of the middle part or stem which is the object in request the timber merchant could not possibly expect to make an oak grow without roots or branches but if he could find on a mode of cultivation which would cause more of the subsistence to go to the stem and less to root and branch he would be right to exert himself in bringing such a system into general use in the same manner though and possibly expect to exclude riches and poverty from society yet if we could find out a mode of government by which the numbers in the extreme regions would be lessened and the numbers in the middle regions increased it would be undoubtedly our duty to adopt it it is not however improbable that as in the oak the roots and branches could not be diminished very greatly without weakening the vigorous circulation of the stem so in society the extreme parts could not be diminished without lessening that animated exertion through the middle parts which is the very cause that they are the most favourable to the growth of the intellect if no man could hope to rise or fear to fall in society if industry did not bring with it reward and idleness its punishment the middle parts would not certainly be what they are now and reasoning upon this subject it is evident that we ought to consider chiefly the mass of mankind and not individual instances there are undoubtedly many minds and there ought to be many according to the chances out of so great a mass that having been vivified early by a peculiar course of excitements would not need the constant action of narrow motives to continue them in activity but if we were to review the various useful discoveries the valuable writings and other laudable exertions of mankind I believe we should find that more were to be attributed to the narrow motives that operate upon the many than to the apparently more enlarged motives that operate upon the few leisure is without doubt highly valuable to man but taking man as he is the probability seems to be that in the greater number of instances it will produce evil rather than good it has been not infrequently remarked that talents are more common among younger brothers than among elder brothers but it can scarcely be imagined that younger brothers are, upon average born with a greater original susceptibility of parts if there really is any observable difference can only arise from their different situations exertion and activity are in general absolutely necessary in one case and are only optional in the other that the difficulties of life contribute to general talents every day's experience must convince us the exertions that men find necessary to make in order to support themselves or families frequently awaken faculties that might otherwise have lay in forever dormant and it has been commonly remarked that new and extraordinary situations generally create minds adequate to grapple with the difficulties in which they are involved End of Chapter 18 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards Chapter 19 of an essay on the principle of population this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jeffrey Edwards an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus Chapter 19 the sorrows of life necessary to soften and humanize the heart the excitement of social sympathy often produce characters of a higher order than the mere possessors of talents moral evil probably necessary to the production of moral excellence intellectual wants continually kept up by the infinite variety of nature and the obscurity that involves metaphysical subjects the difficulties in revelation to be accounted for upon this principle the degree of evidence which the scriptures contain probably best suited to the improvements of the human faculties and the moral amelioration of mankind the idea that mind is created by excitements seems to account for the existence of natural and moral evil the sorrows and distresses of life form another class of excitements which seem to be necessary by a peculiar train of impressions to soften and humanize the heart to awaken social sympathy to generate all the Christian virtues and to afford scope for the ample exertion of benevolence the general tendency of an uniform course of prosperity is rather to degrade than exalt the character the heart that has never known sorrow itself will seldom be feelingly alive to the pains and pleasures the wants and wishes of its fellow beings it will seldom be overflowing with the warmth of brotherly love those kind and amiable affections which dignify the human character even more than the possession of the highest talents talents indeed though undoubtedly a very prominent and fine feature of the mind can by no means be considered as constituting the whole of it there are many minds which have not been exposed to those excitements that usually form talents that have yet been vivified to a high degree by the excitements of social sympathy in every rank of life in the lowest as frequently as in the highest characters are to be found overflowing with the milk of human kindness breathing love towards God and man and though without those peculiar powers of mind called talents evidently holding a higher rank in the scale of beings than many who possess them evangelical charity meekness, piety and all that class of virtues distinguished particularly by the name of Christian virtues do not seem necessarily to include abilities yet a soul possessed of these amiable qualities a soul awakened and vivified by these delightful sympathies seems to hold a nearer commerce than mere cuteness of intellect the greatest talents have been frequently misapplied and have produced evil proportionate to the extent of their powers both reason and revelation seem to assure us that such minds will be condemned to eternal death while on earth these vicious instruments performed their part in the great mass of impressions by the disgust and abhorrence which they excited seems highly probable that moral evil is absolutely necessary to the production of moral excellence a being with only good placed in view may be justly said to be impelled by a blind necessity the pursuit of good in this case can be no indication of virtuous propensities it might be said, perhaps that infinite wisdom cannot want such an indication as outward action but would foreknow with certainty whether the being would choose good or evil this might be a plausible argument against the state of trial but will not hold against the supposition that mind in this world is in a state of formation upon this idea, the being that has seen moral evil and has felt disapprobation and disgust at it is essentially different from the being that has seen only good there are pieces of clay that have received distinct impressions they must therefore necessarily be in different shapes or even if we will allow them both to have the same lovely form of virtue it must be acknowledged that one has undergone the further process necessary to give firmness and durability to its substance while the other is still exposed to injury and liable to be broken by every accidental impulse an ardent love and admiration of virtue seems to imply the existence of something opposite to it and it seems highly probable that the same beauty of form and substance the same perfection of character could not be generated without the impressions of disapprobation which arrives from the spectacle of moral evil when the mind has been awakened into activity by the passions and the wants of the body intellectual wants arise and the desire of knowledge and the impatience under ignorance for my new and important class of excitements every part of nature seems peculiarly calculated to furnish stimulants to mental exertion of this kind and to offer inexhaustible food for the most inquiry our mortal bard says of Cleopatra custom cannot stale her infinite variety the expression when applied to any one object may be considered as a poetical amplification but it is accurately true when applied to nature infinite variety seems indeed eminently her characteristic feature the shades that are here and there blended in the picture give spirit life and prominence to her exuberant beauties and those roughnesses and inequalities those inferior parts that support the superior though they sometimes offend the fastidious microscopic eye of short-sighted man contribute to the symmetry, grace and fair proportion of the whole the infinite variety of the forms and operations of nature besides tending immediately to awaken and improve the mind by the variety of impressions that it creates opens other fertile sources of improvement by offering so wide and extensive a field for investigation and research uniform, undiversified perfection cannot possess the same awakening powers when we endeavor then to contemplate the system of the universe when we think of the stars as the sons of other systems scattered throughout infinite space when we reflect that we do not probably see a millionth part of those bright orbs that are beaming light and life in numbered worlds when our minds unable to grasp the immeasurable conception sink, lost and confounded in admiration at the mighty incomprehensible power of the creator let us not quarrelously complain that all climates are not equally genuine that perpetual spring does not reign throughout the year that God's creatures do not possess the same advantages that clouds and tempests sometimes darken the natural world and vice and misery the moral world and that all the works of the creation are not formed with equal perfection both reason and experience seem to indicate to us that the infinite variety of nature bracket and variety cannot exist without inferior parts or apparent blemishes closed bracket is admirally adapted to further the high purpose of the creation and to produce the greatest possible quantity of good the obscurity that involves all metaphysical subjects appears to me in the same manner peculiarly calculated to add to that class of excitements which arise from the thirst of knowledge it is probable that man while on earth will never be able to attain complete satisfaction on these subjects but this is by no means a reason that he should not engage in them the darkness that surrounds these interesting topics of human curiosity may be intended to furnish endless motives to intellectual activity and exertion the constant effort to dispel this darkness even if it fail of success invigorates and improves the thinking faculty if the subjects of human inquiry were once exhausted mind would probably stagnate but the infinitely diversified forms and operations of nature together was the endless food for speculation which metaphysical subjects offer prevent the possibility that such a period should ever arrive it is by no means one of the sayings of Solomon that there is no new thing under the sun end quote on the contrary it is probable that were the present system to continue for millions of years continual additions would be making to the mass of human knowledge and yet perhaps it may be a matter of doubt whether what may be called the capacity of mind be in any marked and decided manner increasing a Socrates a Plato or an Aristotle however confess the inferior in knowledge to the philosophers of the present day do not appear to have been much below them in intellectual capacity intellect rises from a speck continues in vigor only for a certain period and will not perhaps admit while on earth of above a certain number of impressions these impressions may indeed be infinitely modified and from these various modifications added probably to a difference in the susceptibility of the original germs arise the endless diversity of character that we see in the world but reason and experience seem both to assure us that the capacity of individual minds does not increase in proportion to the mass of existing knowledge bracket it is probable that no two grains of wheat are exactly alike soil undoubtedly makes the principal difference in the blades that spring up probably not all it seems natural to suppose some sort of difference in the original germs that are afterwards awakened into thought and the extraordinary difference of susceptibility in very young children seems to confirm the supposition and bracket the finest minds seem to be formed rather by efforts at original thinking by endeavors to form new combinations and to discover new truths then by passively receiving the impressions of other men's ideas could we suppose the period when there was not further hope of future discoveries and the whole employment of mind was to acquire pre-existing knowledge without any efforts to form new and original combinations though the mass of human knowledge were a thousand times greater than it is at present yet it is evident that one of the noblest stimulants to mental exertion would have ceased the finest feature of intellect would be lost everything allied to genus would be at an end and it appears to be impossible that under such circumstances any individuals could possess the same intellectual energies as were possessed by a Locke, a Newton, or a Shakespeare or even by a Socrates, a Plato, an Aristotle, or a Homer if a revelation from heaven of which no person could feel the smallest doubt were to dispel the mists that now hang over metaphysical subjects were to explain the nature and structure of mind the affections and essences of all substances the mode in which the Supreme Being operates in the works of the creation and the whole plan and scheme of the universe such an accession of knowledge so obtained instead of giving additional vigor and activity to the human mind would in all probability tend to repress future exertion and to damp the soaring wings of intellect for this reason I have never considered the doubts and difficulties that involve some parts of the sacred writings as any ardent against their divine original the Supreme Being might undoubtedly have accompanied his revelations to man by a succession of miracles and of such a nature as would have produced universal overpowering conviction and have put an end at once to all hesitation and discussion but weak as our reason is to comprehend the plans of the great creator it is yet sufficiently strong to see the most striking objections to such a revelation from the little we know of the structure of the human understanding we must be convinced that an overpowering sensation of this kind instead of tending to the improvement and moral amelioration of man would act like the touch of a torpedo on all intellectual exertion and would almost put an end to the existence of virtue if the scriptural denunciations of eternal punishment were brought home with the same certainty to every man's mind as that the night will follow the day this one vast and gloomy idea would take such full possession of the human faculties as to leave no room for any other exceptions the external actions of men would be all nearly alike virtuous conduct would be no indication of virtuous disposition vice and virtue would be blended together in one common mass and though the all seeing eye of God might distinguish them they must necessarily make the same impressions on man who can judge only from external appearances under such a dispensation it is difficult to conceive how human beings could be formed to detestation of moral evil and a love and admiration of God and of moral excellence our ideas of virtue and vice are not perhaps very accurate and well defined but few I think would call an action really virtuous which was performed simply and solely from the dread of a very great punishment or the expectation of a very great reward the fear of the Lord is very justly said to be the beginning of wisdom but the end of wisdom is the love of the Lord and the admiration of moral good the denunciations of future punishment contained in the scriptures seem to be well calculated to arrest the progress of the vicious and awaken the attention of the careless but we see from repeated experience that they are not accompanied with evidence of such a nature as to overpower the human will and to make men lead virtuous lives with vicious dispositions merely from a dread of hereafter a genuine faith by which I mean a faith that shows itself in it the virtues of a truly Christian life may generally be considered as an indication of an amiable and virtuous disposition operated upon more by love than by pure unmixed fear when we reflect on the temptations to which man must necessarily be exposed in this world from the structure of his frame and the operation of the laws of nature and the consequent moral certainty that many vessels will come out of this mighty creative furnace in wrong shapes it is perfectly impossible to conceive that any of these creatures of God's hand can be condemned to eternal suffering could we once admit such an idea our natural conceptions of goodness and justice would be completely overthrown and we could no longer look up to God as a merciful and righteous being but the doctrine of life and mortality which was brought to light by the gospel the doctrine that the end of righteousness is everlasting life but that the wages of sin are death is in every respect just and merciful and worthy of the great Creator nothing can appear more consonant to our reason than that those beings which come out of the creative process of the world in lovely and beautiful forms should be crowned with immortality although those which come out misshapen those whose minds are not suited to a pure and happier state of existence should perish and be condemned to mix again with their original clay eternal condemnation of this kind may be considered as a species of eternal punishment and it is not wonderful that it should be represented sometimes under images of suffering but life and death salvation and destruction are more frequently opposed to each other in the New Testament than happiness and misery the supreme being would appear to us in a different view if we were to consider him as pursuing the creatures that had offended him with eternal hate and torture instead of merely condemning to their original insensibility those beings that by the operation of general laws had not be formed with quality suited to a pure state of happiness life is, generally speaking a blessing independent of a future state it is a gift which the vicious would not always be ready to throw away even if they had no fear of death the partial pain therefore that is inflicted by the supreme creator while he is forming numberless beings to a capacity of the highest enjoyments is but as the dust of the balance in comparison of the happiness that is communicated and we have every reason to think that there is no more evil in the world than what is absolutely necessary as one of the ingredients in the mighty process the striking necessity of general laws for the formation of human intellect will not in any respect be contradicted by one or two exceptions and these evidently not intended for partial purposes but calculated to operate upon a great part of mankind and through many ages upon the idea that I have given of the formation of mind the infringement of the general law of nature by a divine revelation will appear in the light of the immediate hand of God mixing new ingredients in the mighty mass suited to the particular state of the process and calculated to give rise to a new and powerful train of impressions tending to purify exalt and improve the human mind the miracles that accompanied these revelations when they had once excited the attention of mankind and rendered it a matter of most interesting discussion whether the doctrine was from God or man had performed their part had answered the purpose of the creator and these communications of the divine will were afterwards left to make their way by their own intrinsic excellence and by operating as moral motives gradually to influence and improve and not to overpower and stagnate the faculties of man it would be undoubtedly presumptuous to say that the supreme being could not possibly have affected his purpose in any other way than that which he has chosen but as the revelation of the divine will which we possess is attended with some doubts and difficulties and as our reason points out to us the strongest objections to a revelation which would force immediate implicit universal belief we have surely just caused to think that these doubts and difficulties are no argument against the divine origin of the scriptures and that the species of evidence which they possess is best suited to the improvement of the human faculties and the moral amelioration of mankind the idea that the impressions and excitements of this world with which the supreme being forms matter into mind and that the necessity of constant exertion to avoid evil and to pursue good is the principal spring of these impressions and excitements seems to smooth many of the difficulties that occur in a contemplation of human life and appears to me to give a satisfactory reason for the existence of natural and moral evil and consequently for that part of both and it certainly is not a very small part which arises from the principle of population but though upon this supposition it seems highly improbable that evil should ever be removed from the world yet it is evident that this impression would not answer the apparent purpose of the creator it would not act so powerfully as an excitement to exertion if the quantity of it did not diminish or increase with the activity or the indolence of man the continual variations in the weight and in the distribution of this pressure keep alive a constant expectation of throwing it off quote hope springs eternal in the human breast man never is but always to be blessed end quotes evil exists in the world not to create despair but activity we are not patiently to submit to it but to exert ourselves to avoid it it is not only the interest but the duty of every individual to use his utmost efforts to remove evil from himself and from as large a circle as he can influence the more he exercises himself in this duty the more wisely he directs his efforts and the more successful these efforts are the more he will probably improve and exalt his own mind and the more completely does he appear to fulfill the will of his creator end of chapter 19 end of an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus recording by Jeffrey Edwards