The Perpetual Tendency Of The Race Of

The Redundant Population, Necessarily Occasioned By The Prevalence Of Early Marriages, Must Be Repressed By Occasional Famines, And By The Custom Of Exposing Children, Which, In Times Of Distress, Is Probably More Frequent Than Is Ever Acknowledged To Europeans.

If One Fourth Of The Capital Of A Country Were Suddenly Destroyed, Or Entirely Transferred To A Different Part Of The World, Without Any Other Cause Occurring Of A Diminished Demand For Commodities, This Scantiness Of Capital Would Certainly Occasion Great Inconvenience To Consumers, And Great Distress Among The Working Classes; But It Would Be Attended With Great Advantages To The Remaining Capitalists.

It Has Been Said, And Perhaps With Truth, That The Conclusions Of Political Economy Partake More Of The Certainty Of The Stricter Sciences Than Those Of Most Of The Other Branches Of Human Knowledge.

It Does Not, However, Seem Impossible That By An Attention To Breed, A Certain Degree Of Improvement, Similar To That Among Animals, Might Take Place Among Men. Whether Intellect Could Be Communicated May Be A Matter Of Doubt: But Size, Strength, Beauty, Complexion, And Perhaps Even Longevity Are In A Degree Transmissible... As The Human Race Could Not Be Improved In This Way, Without Condemning All The Bad Specimens To Celibacy, It Is Not Probable, That An Attention To Breed Should Ever Become General.

I Do Not Know That Any Writer Has Supposed That On This Earth Man Will Ultimately Be Able To Live Without Food.