ABSTRACT
Thomas Robert Malthus was born with a cleft palate and a harelip on 13 February 1766 at a small country house called the Rookery in Wotton, Surrey. He was the sixth child and second son of Daniel Malthus and his wife Henrietta who gave birth to her last child, a daughter, five years later. In 1803 Malthus published the second and much enlarged edition of his 1798 work in two volumes with a new title: An Essay on the Principle of Population: or A View of its past and present Effects on Human Happiness; With an Inquiry into Prospects respecting the future Removal or Mitigation of the evils which it occasions. Although Malthus continued to refer to the 'laws of God', some historians argue that his theology underwent a significant change. In the second Essay he eliminated the last two chapters of the 1798 edition where he attempted to reconcile evil with divine intent.
