The English Utilitarians Volume II Part 10

[216] So Sir James Stewart, whose light was extinguished by Adam Smith, begins his _Enquiry into the Principles of Political Economy_ (1767) by discussing the question of population, and compares the 'generative faculty' to a spring loaded with a weight, and exerting itself in proportion to the diminution of resistance (_Works_, 1805, i. 22). He compares population to 'rabbits in a warren.' Joseph Townsend, in his _Journey Through Spain_ (1792), to whom Malthus refers, had discussed the supposed decay of the Spanish population, and ill.u.s.trates his principles by a geometric progression: see ii.

213-56, 386-91. Eden, in his book on the poor (i. 214), quotes a tract attributed to Sir Matthew Hale for the statement that the poor increase on 'geometrical progression.'

[217] _Malthus and his Work_, p. 85.

[218] Voltaire says in the _Dictionnaire Philosophique_ (art.

'Population'): 'On ne propage point en Progression Geometrique. Tous les calculs qu'on a faits sur cette pretendue multiplication sont des chimeres absurdes.' They had been used to reconcile the story of the deluge with the admitted population of the world soon afterwards.

[219] _Essay_ (1826), ii 453 _n._ I cite from this, the last edition published in Malthus's lifetime, unless otherwise stated.

[220] _Essay_, ii. 251 (bk. iii. ch. xiv.).

[221] _Ibid._ (1798), p. 141.

[222] _Essay_, ii. 449 (Appendix).

[223] _Essay_, ii. 473 (Appendix).

[224] _Ibid._ (Second Edition), p. 400. The pa.s.sage is given in full in _Malthus and his Work_, p. 307.

[225] _Essay_, i. 469 (bk. ii. ch. x.). Eden had made the same remark.

[226] _Ibid._ ii. 229 (bk. iii. ch. xiv.).

[227] Correspondence in Senior's _Three Essays on Population_ (1829).

[228] _Essay_, i. 234 (bk. i. ch. ii.).

[229] Mr. Bonar thinks (_Malthus and his Work_, p. 324) that Malthus followed Paley's predecessor, Abraham Tucker, rather than Paley. The difference is not for my purpose important. In any case, Malthus's references are to Paley.

[230] _Essay_, ii. 266 (bk. iv. ch. i.).

[231] _Essay_ (first edition), p. 212.

[232] _Ibid._ i. 16 _n._ (bk. i. ch. ii.).

[233] See _e.g._ his remarks upon Condorcet in _Essay_, ii. 8 (bk.

iii. ch. i.); and Owen in _Ibid._ ii. 48 (bk. iii ch. ii.).

[234] _Essay_, i. 15 _n._ (bk. i. ch. ii.); and see _Ibid._ (edit. of 1807) ii. 128.

[235] _Ibid._ (1807) ii. 128.

[236] _Ibid._ (1807) ii. 3 (bk. ii. ch. ii.). (Omitted in later editions.)

[237] Mr. A. R. Wallace, Darwin's fellow-discoverer of the doctrine, also learned it from Malthus. See Clodd's _Pioneers of Evolution_.

Malthus uses the phrase 'struggle for existence' in relation to a fight between two savage tribes in the first edition of his _Essay_, p. 48. In replying to Condorcet, Malthus speaks (_Essay_, ii. 12, bk.

iii. ch. i.) of the possible improvement of living organisms. He argues that, though a plant may be improved, it cannot be indefinitely improved by cultivation. A carnation could not be made as large as a tulip. It has been said that this implies a condemnation by antic.i.p.ation of theories of the development of species. This is hardly correct. Malthus simply urges against Condorcet that our inability to fix limits precisely does not imply that there are no limits. This, it would seem, must be admitted on all hands. Evolution implies definite though not precisely definable limits. Life may be lengthened, but not made immortal.

[238] _Essay_ (first edition), 353.

[239] _Ibid._ 42 _n._ (bk. iii. ch. iii.)

[240] _Essay_, ii. 301-36 (bk. iv. ch. i. and ii.). Sumner's _Treatise on the Records of the Creation, and on the Moral Attributes of the Creator: with Particular Reference to the Jewish History and the Consistency of the Principle of Population with the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator_ (1815), had gained the second Burnett prize.

It went through many editions; and shows how Cuvier confirms Genesis, and Malthus proves that the world was intended to involve a compet.i.tion favourable to the industrious and sober. Sumner's view of Malthus is given in Part ii., chaps, v. and vi. In previous chapters he has supported Malthus's attack on G.o.dwin and Condorcet.

[241] _Essay_, ii. 266 (bk. iv. ch. i.).

[242] _Essay_, ii 268 (bk. iv. ch. i.).

[243] _Ibid._ (bk. iv. ch. ii.).

[244] _Essay_, 241 (bk. iii. ch. iv.).

[245] _Ibid._ ii. 241 (bk. iii. ch. xiv.).

[246] _Ibid._ ii. 293 (bk. iv. ch. iv.).

[247] _Ibid._ ii. 425 (bk. iv. ch. xiii.). Malthus expresses a hope that Paley had modified his views upon population, and refers to a pa.s.sage in the _Natural Theology_.

[248] _Essay_, ii. 292 (bk. iv. ch. iv.).

[249] _Political Economy_ (1836), p. 214.

[250] _Essay_, ii. 298 (bk. iv. ch. iv.).

[251] _Ibid._ ii. 86 (bk. iii. ch. vi.).

[252] _Ibid._ ii. 87 (bk. iii. ch. vi.).

[253] _Essay_, ii. 90 (bk. iii. ch. vi.).

[254] _Ibid._ ii. 338 (bk. iv. ch. viii.).

[255] _Ibid._ ii. (bk. iv. ch. x.).

[256] _Ibid._ ii. 353 (bk. iv. ch. ix.).

[257] _Essay_, ii. 356 (bk. iv. ch. ix.).

[258] _Ibid._ ii. 407 (bk. iv. ch. xii.).

[259] _Ibid._ ii. 375 (bk. iv. ch. xi.).

[260] _Ibid._ ii. 429 (bk. iv. ch. xiii.).

[261] _Essay of 1807_ (bk. iii. ch. ii., and vol. ii. p. 111). The phrases quoted are toned down in later editions.

[262] _Essay_, i. 330 (bk. ii. ch. iv.).