looked upon as confessions of the truth, I see nothing in these that in any manner interferes with the common sense of mankind. And though Mr. Malthus still perseveres in almost all his extreme conclusions, yet as those conclusions are for the most part unwarrantable assumptions, disproved even by his own concessions, and shew nothing more than Mr. Mał thus's qualifications for the delicate office of conscience-keeper to the rich and great, I am so far from considering them as new and impor tant discoveries, that I must be excused if I consider them as in the highest degree false and dangerous, and treat them accordingly.

LETTER IV.

ON THE GENERAL TENDENCY OF POPULATION TO

EXCESS.

SIR,

MR. Malthus's argument against a state of unlimited improvement, of perfect wisdom, virtue and happiness, from the vice, misery, and madness inseparable from such a state would, if admitted, be an effectual bar to all limited improvement whatever. It is for this reason, that I have dwelt so long on the subject. If out of timidity, or complaisance, or prejudice against an unpopular system, we suffer ourselves to be wheedled into a silly persuasion, that the worst thing that could happen for the human race would be their being able to realise not in words only, but in deed all the fine things, that have been said of them, we then fairly throw ourselves upon the mercy of our adversaries. For what is there in this case, to hinder Mr.

Malthus, or any one else, from representing every degree of practical improvement as an approximation to this deplorable crisis, from binding up the slips and scyons of human happiness with this great trunk of evil, and root of all our woe, from marking with his slider and graduated scale all our advances towards this ideal perfection, however partial or necessary, as so many deviations from the strict line of our duty, and only sphere of our permanent happiness? It is evident, that the only danger of all imaginary schemes of improvement arises from their being exaggerations of the real capacities of our nature, from supposing that we can pick out all the dross, and leave nothing but the gold; that is, from their being carried to excess, and aiming at more than is practicable. But if we allow that improvement is an evil in the abstract, and that the greater the improvement, the greater the mischief, that the actual and complete success of all such schemes would be infinitely worse even than their failure, for that the most complete and extensive improvement would only prepare the way for the most deplorable wretchedness, and that the very next step after reaching the summit of human glory would plunge us into the lowest abyss of vice and misery,-why truly there will be little encouragement to set out on a journey that promises so

very disagreeable a conclusion; such a representation of the matter will not add wings to our zeal for practical reform, but will rather make us stop short in our career, and refuse to advance one step farther in a road, that is beset with danger and destruction. People will begin to look with a jaundiced eye at the most obvious advantages, to resist every useful regulation, and dread every change for the better. Our feelings are governed very much by common-place associations, and are most influenced by that sort of logic which is the shortest. Thus," that the "parts are contained in the whole," is a general rule which is found to hold good in most of the concerns of life; and it is not therefore easy to drive it out of people's heads. For this reason, it will always be difficult to persuade the generality of mankind that a less degree of improvement is a good thing, though a greater would be a bad thing, or that the subordinate parts of a system, that would in reality embody all the ills of life, can be very desirable in themselves. Mr. Malthus has however by no means left this conclu, sion to the mere mechanical operation of our feelings. He endeavours formally to establish it. The following passage seems the connecting link in the chain, which unites the two worlds of theory and practice together; it cements the argument, gives solidity and roundness to it,

and renders it complete against all improvement, real or imaginary, present or future, against all absolute perfection or imperfect attempts at it, and gradual approaches to it. It fairly blocks. up the road.

"It cannot but be a matter of astonishment "that all the writers on the perfectibility of man, "and of society, who have noticed the argu "ment of an overcharged population, treat it

66

always very slightly, and invariably represent "the difficulties arising from it, as at a great, and "almost immeasurable distance. Even Mr. "Wallace, who thought the argument itself of "so much weight as to destroy his whole sys "tem of equality, did not seem to be aware "that any difficulty would occur from this

66

cause, till the whole earth had been cultivated "like a garden, and was incapable of any further "increase of produce. Were this really the

case, and were a beautiful system of equality "in other respects practicable, I cannot think "that our ardour in the pursuit of such a scheme

ought to be damped by the contemplation of so "remote a difficulty. An event at such a dis"tance might fairly be left to providence; but "the truth is, that if the view of the argument

given in this Essay be just, the difficulty so far "from being remote, would be imminent and