PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

m;lke a people Ilappier, tends to render them nlore
Dumerou~.
In the fecundity of the human, as of e'·er oth~
species of animals, n.!iui c tJas provided for an indefi.
nite multiplication. rvlaiJ:~Dd have incr~cd to their
pr .. ~sent number from a single pair: the Gff~pring of
early marriages, in the ordinary coune of procreation,
do ~ore than replace the parents: in countries,
and under circumstances very favourable to subsistence,
[he population has been doubled in the sp~ce of
twenty year.; ~he havoc OCC3S;C .ned by WaJ1', earth­
'iuakes, famine, or pe-tilencc, is u~ually repaired in a
short lime. These- iDdication~ sufficiently d~monstrate
the tendency of nature in the hun1an 'pecies to
a continual increase of its numbers. It become~ th€refore
a que::tion tbat 111ay reasonably be proJh'l:nded,
what are the cau~ which confine or check the natural
progress of this multiplication? and the answer
which first pT5ents itself to the thoughts of the inquirer
is, that the populatio!l of a country must step
when the country can maintain no Dlore, that i~,
when tb~ inhabitants are already so numer~cs a~ to
e~hau~t all the pro\Ti~ion which tht~ ~oil can be made
to pr{)duce. l"hi~ - howi:ver, thOll~h an il1~upcTabIe
bar ~ u'ilI seIJtiiD be found to be that ,,-hich actually
check:; thi? prog' ess of population iIi any country of
the wf.lrld; becau~e the number of the pccple have
se)donl~ in a~y country, arrived at ihis limit, or even
appro}ched to it. The fertility of the ground, in
temp.-ralr regions, is capable of being it;if,roved by
cultivation to an extent which is unkno\vn: much,
howf'ver, beyoud the state of impro\'rment in any
country in Europee In our own, which holds almost
the first place in the knowledge and cncour~lgement
of agriculture, let it only be supposed that every field
in Endanq