f their lives is to alter their whole aims and
conceptions of the world, and of happiness in every other relation. It
supposes, therefore, not a mere addition of knowledge, but a
transformation of character and an altered view of all the theories
which have been embodied in religious and ethical philosophy. He
overlooks, too, considerations which would be essential to a complete
statement. A population which is too prudent may suffer itself to be
crowded out by more prolific races in the general struggle for
existence; and cases may be suggested such as that of the American
colonies, in which an increase of numbers might be actually an
advantage by facilitating a more efficient organisation of labour.

The absence of a distinct appreciation of such difficulties gives to
his speculation that one-sided character which alienated his more
sentimental contemporaries. It was natural enough in a man who was
constantly confronted by the terrible development of pauperism in
England, and was too much tempted to assume that the tendency to
reckless propagation was not only a very grave evil, but the ultimate
source of every evil. The doctrine taken up in this unqualified
fashion by some of his disciples, and preached by them with the utmost
fervour as the one secret of prosperity, shocked both the conservative
and orthodox whose prejudices were trampled upon, and such Radicals as
inherited Godwin's or Condorcet's theory of perfectibility. Harsh and
one-sided as it might be, however, we may still hold that it was of
value, not only in regard to the most pressing difficulty of the day,
but also as calling attention to a vitally important condition of
social welfare. The question, however, recurs whether, when the
doctrine is so qualified as to be admissible, it does not also become
a mere truism.

An answer to this question should begin by recognising one specific
resemblance between his speculations and Darwin's. Facts, which appear
from an older point of view to be proofs of a miraculous
interposition, become with Malthus, as with Darwin, the normal results
of admitted conditions. Godwin had admitted that there was some
'principle which kept population on a level with subsistence.' 'The
sole question is,' says Malthus,[261] 'what is this principle? Is it
some obscure and occult cause? a mysterious interference of heaven,'
inflicting barrenness at certain periods? or 'a cause open to our
researches and within our view?' Other wri