The Sun.
London, England, 1822-01-29 00:00:00

quantity of evil."—Oh Mr. Malthus, Mr. Mal-
thus, what precious lOgic is this ! and how pre-
cibusly have you be-deviled the wits of the good
people of England with this grand discovery of
your's, this geometrical ratio, this huge levia-
than, this enormous craken, which you have
fished up from the bottom of the ocean whilre he
had been slumbering from the days of good-Man
Adam, to the year of grace 1800, when, to the
astonishment of mankind, came forth The Essay;
and the great men and the rulers, and the mighty
of the earth, worshipped the Beast; saying, who'
is like unto the beast, who is able to make war
with him ?
_• Sir, either • Mr.' Malthus believed,_ and seri
'ously intended us. to believe, that there is an
inevitable law of nature which has , baffled,
and
_ever will baffle, the attemptS of the wisest
and begi of men to construct a happy state-of
society, or when he wrote that passage he knew
that he was stating a false proposition. Ido not
charge him with having wilfully attempted to
pass a gross untruth upon his readers. 1 hold
him to be wholly incapable of so base an act
but his moral character is saved, " so as by fire :"
he escapes without a shred or a patch upon him,
from the conflagration of the woad, hay,. stub-
ble, which he had so ingeniously put together.
As for his theory of the ratios,. it stands before
us in all its native deformity and impotency, and
must be pronounced to be at once the ugliest and
flimsiest of bugbears that ever served to scare
poor mortals. I freely confess that in contem-
plating the mischief which Mr: Malthus has done,
is doing, and purposes to do, by means of his
ratio, a feeling of indignation has arisen in my
mind that nearly overpowers those kindlier sen-
timents which I expressed in a former Essay.
To recover them I must fix my attention on those
better parts of his work which, while they re-
deem his morality and humanity, completely
stultify his philosophy, and indelibly fix upon
his Essay the character of absurdity.
After having told us that this inevitable law of
nature, not a law affecting the tides, or the
atmosphere, or minerals, or fossils, or fish, or in-
sects, or birds, or the beasts that perish, but this
inevitable law of human nature, is, nevertheless,
and although it be inevitable, entirely under the
guidance of human energy and virtue ; that a
power which mocks all human institutions, is to
be regulated by a few simple expedients of his
devising, Mr. -Malthus permits us to hope, nay
he actually encourages us to expect that, in.
spite of the . said inevitable law, the true
knowledge of the nature of that law, that
is to say, a knowledge of its inevitable, uncon,.
trolable power, and of the evils it has pro-
duced, will enable mankind, although human
institutions be as feathers and straws, which float
on the surface, and are carried down the resistless
current of that law to work our way, by the
means of these very feathers and straws, against

this impetuous stream, and at sonic time or other
to reach a safe harbour in some snug cove or
creek, little affected by its course.—blear him.

" It would indeed be a melancholy reflection, that while the
views of physical science are daily enlarging, so as scarcely to
be bounded by the most distant horizon, the science of moral
and political philosophy should be confined within such narrow
limits, or at best be so feeble as to be unable to counteract the
-obstacles to human happiness arising from a single cause."

Indeed! -It would, doubtless, be a melancholy
reflection ;—but, Sir, it would be quite as well
founded as it was melancholy, if what Mr. Mal-
thus had previously told us be true, that this
single cause is beyond all comparison more
powerful than all other catises put together :
that is, in fact, no other than the power of the
Almighty himself, manifested in an -inevitable
law of his own appointment ; unless it should
be intended that the laws of nature have
been imposed by something different and dis-
tinct frOm the Author of Nature, a suppo-
sition which is of Manicheau origin. Against
such a law, then, imposed by such an authority
as Nature itself, human efforts would be as vain
and inefficacious as an attempt to " stay the in-
flubnces. of the Pleiades, or to loose the bands of
Orion." Then, what becomes of,Mr. Malthus's
expedients for strengthening the operation of
moral restraint ? What rational hope of success
can be founded upon them ? Oh yes, says Mr.
Malthus, it would be a melancholy reflection," that
the science of moral and political philosophy
should be so feeble as to be unable to counteract
the obstacles to htiman happiness arising from a
single cause."—But Mr. Malthus really must
repeat the' question), have you not told us that
this single cause is an inevitable law ?—Can you
deny it—will you eat your words?--In God's
name then digest them, and never cast them up
from this day fOrth and for ever more, And
.thus, Sir, we have got rid of this geometrical ra-
tio, of this inevitable law, which is avoided with
about as much ease. as we keep our hands from
picking and stealing, our tongues from evil speak-
ing, lying, and slandering: Mr. Malthus has told
us, and I believe truly, that we have the power
of doubling our species in a given time; in a very
short time. And what then ? Power, does he say ?
Why, who doubts or ever dreamed of denying
that man has powers and faculties ; and who ever
doubted that these powers and faculties may be
exercised., or restrained, used or abused ?

Enough., enough—never surely—since the in-
vention -of printing:, *as the press employed in
giving circulation, under the designation of philo-
sophy, to such palpable absurdity, such arrant
drivelling—such -grave nonsense, as is to he found
in this same Essay, in which Mr. Malthus has-
staked his claim to immortality, as the discoverer
ota hidden,- frbm ages and generations, but
made manifeA in the nineteenth.century for the
edification of Statesmen and, Rulers'. Sir; has not,
think you, Mr. Malthus been laughing in his