ABSTRACT
Malthus was persuaded that the first point in any agenda for either public or private morality in his time should have been poverty. In fact, changes in Malthus’s theodicy and ethics did carry implications for policy advice. A policy which would foster independence, dignity and responsibility would include not just gradual abolition of public assistance granted under the Poor Laws, but also the establishment of a system of liberties and rights as well as generalized primary education. The sexual drive was felt as a ubiquitous enemy, and religion, education and manners were all meant to conspire in keeping it under control and confining it to a space reserved for its proper function, so as to make it virtually invisible. The diffusion of Victorian morality was to a wide extent the Evangelicals’ masterpiece, and among Evangelical ammunitions there was a whole battery of doctrines about the family, marriage, procreation, industry, thriftiness and self-control deriving, among other sources, also from Malthus.
