fixed quantity, but as capable of rapid expansion; and that
this elasticity may at any moment require consideration, and does in
fact give the explanation of many important phenomena. The main fact
which gave importance to Malthus's writings was the rapid and enormous
increase of pauperism during the first quarter of this century. The
charitable and sentimental writers of the day were alarmed, but proposed
to meet the evil by a reckless increase of charity, either of the
official or the private variety. Pitt, we know, declared (though he
qualified the statement) that to be the father of a large family should
be a source of honour, not of obloquy; and the measures adopted under
the influence of such notions did in fact tend to diminish all sense of
responsibility, encouraged people to rely upon the parish for the
support of their children, and brought about a state of things which
alarmed all intelligent observers. The greatest check to the evil was
given by the new Poor-law, adopted under the influence of the principles
advocated by Malthus and his friends. His achievement, then, was not
that he laid down any absolutely correct scientific truth, or even said
anything which had not been more or less said by many judicious people
before his time; but that he encouraged the application of a more
systematic method of reasoning upon the great problem of the time.
Instead of simply giving way to the first kindly impulse, abolishing a
hardship here and distributing alms elsewhere, he substantially argued
that society formed a complex organism, whose diseases should be
considered physiologically, their causes explained, and the appropriate
remedies considered in all their bearings. We must not ask simply
whether we were giving a loaf to this or that starving man, or indulge
in _a priori_ reasoning as to the right of every human being to be
supported by others; but treat the question as a physician should treat
a disease, and consider whether, on the whole, the new regulations would
increase or diminish the causes of the existing evils. He did not,
therefore, so much proclaim a new truth, as induce reformers to place
themselves at a new and a more rational point of view. The so-called law
of population which he announced might be in various ways inaccurate,
but the announcement made it necessary for rational thinkers to take
constantly into account considerations which are essential in any
satisfactory treatment of the great probl