ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explains that each man in civilized society is born with the power of producing a much greater quantity of food than is necessary for his own subsistence. The author sees nothing that upon the principle of the Essay on Population should have arrested the progress of population, till the earth, the known world, was "cultivated like a garden". The increasing demand therefore for the means of subsistence can only come upon us gradually. And the means of subsistence, by the doctrines of the Essay on Population, are susceptible of an increase, regular, progressive and unlimited, though only in an arithmetical ratio. The spirit of Mr. Malthus' theory bears a striking resemblance to the policy employed in training coach-horses, upon whose heads their manager is accustomed to fasten a pair of blinkers, that they may attend to nothing on either side.
