The great and unlooked for discoveries that have taken place
of late years in natural philosophy; the increasing diffusion of general
knowledge from the extension of the art of printing; the ardent and unshackled
spirit of inquiry that prevails throughout the lettered and even unlettered
world; the new and extraordinary lights that have been thrown on political
subjects, which dazzle, and astonish the understanding; and particularly that
tremendous phenomenon in the political horizon the French Revolution, which,
like a blazing comet, seems destined either to inspire with fresh life and
vigour, or to scorch up and destroy the shrinking inhabitants of the earth,
have all concurred to lead many able men into the opinion that we were touching
on a period big with the most important changes, changes that would in some
measure be decisive of the future fate of mankind.
It has been said that the great question is now at issue,
whether man shall henceforth start forwards with accelerated velocity towards
illimitable, and hitherto unconceived improvement; or be condemned to a
perpetual oscillation between happiness and misery, and after every effort
remain still at an immeasurable distance from the wished-for goal....
I have read some of the speculations on the perfectibility
of man and of society with great pleasure. I have been warmed and delighted
with the enchanting picture which they hold forth. I ardently wish for such
happy improvements. But I see great, and, to my understanding, unconquerable
difficulties in the way to them. These difficulties it is my present purpose to
state; declaring, at the same time, that so far from exulting in them, as a
cause of triumph over the friends of innovation, nothing would give me greater
pleasure than to see them completely removed….
I think I may fairly make two postulata.
First, That food is necessary to the existence of man.
Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary
and will remain nearly in its present state.
These two laws, ever since we have had any knowledge of
mankind, appear to have been fixed laws of our nature; and, as we have not
hitherto seen any alteration in them, we have no right to conclude that they
will ever cease to be what they now are, without an immediate act of power in
that Being who first arranged the system of the universe; and for the advantage
of his creatures, still executes, according to fixed laws, all its various
operations….
Assuming then, my postulata as granted, I say, that the
power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to
produce subsistence for man.
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical
ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight
acquaintance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power in
comparison of the second.
By that law of our nature which makes food necessary to the
life of man, the effects of these two unequal powers must be kept equal.
This implies a strong and constantly operating check on
population from the difficulty of subsistence. This difficulty must fall somewhere;
and must necessarily be severely felt by a large portion of mankind….
This natural inequality of the two powers of population, and
of production in the earth, and that great law of our nature which must
constantly keep their effects equal, form the great difficulty that to me
appears insurmountable in the way to the perfectibility of society. All other
arguments are of slight and subordinate consideration in comparison of this. I
see no way by which man can escape from the weight of this law which pervades
all animated nature. No fancied equality, no agrarian regulations in their
utmost extent, could remove the pressure of it even for a single century. And
it appears, therefore, to be decisive against the possible existence of a
society, all the members of which, should live in ease, happiness, and
comparative leisure; and feel no anxiety about providing the means of
subsistence for themselves and families.
for a discussion of the conclusions Malthus draws from this argument, see the entry on the Victorian Web.
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