About 10 years ago I spent what I call The Summer of Malthus. By which I mean that one of the tasks I was set to as a research assistant was to read Robert Thomas Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population, searching for what Malthus takes to be ‘vice’. I read a copy of the original essay (1798) — nearly one hundred and forty pages — in little more than an afternoon.
My supervisor, bless his cotton socks, hadn’t realised that there exists five further editions of Malthus’ essay — or rather tomes, each expanded to over five hundred pages (as well as volumes of Malthus’ collected works). And he hadn’t realised, and I here take liberty with paraphrase, that Malthus said to fuggedabout that first short essay. Everything important to ameliorating the poverty and misery of the lower classes of society is found in Edition 2. (And then in 3, 4, 5, and 6. To my recollection, Malthus died leaving notes made in preparation for an Edition 7.)
Preface to the Second Edition:
I wasn’t about to read each edition, and so settled on the 6th — the only hard copy available in the library. No, I didn’t go on to become a Malthus scholar. But I’ll bet my bippy I’m in the minority of the human population for having read both the original essay and a later edition, end to end. And the dusty old Anglican minister has haunted me ever since. I’ll devote several Thoughtlets to exemplifying some of the how. As well as to some Malthusian Trivia, as follows.
Malthus was all for having babies, provided that they could be provided for. To put the point crudely, Malthus was a proponent of the adage to Keep it in your pants (or squeeze a quarter between your knees) … unless and until you can afford to feed a kid. And if that unless and until never comes? You’ve got your work cut out for you.
Malthus was fully aware of the strength of the lusty passions, but he thought it a moral imperative to fight them tooth and nail. And without birth control, such as it existed back then. Malthus was not only an early Abstinence Only Until Marriage (AOUM) advocate, but he also advocated abstinence if married but unable or unwilling to feed a kid. Hence,
…the necessity of practising the virtue of moral restraint in a state allowed to be a state of discipline and trial;
Appendix II, 1817, 6th Edition
While some worried then as now that Malthus intended an undue burden and penalty on the poor, he thought moral restraint key to improving the health and happiness of this class. And he didn’t let the rich off the hook, admonishing what he saw as their loosey-goosey sexual habits. He also condemned the practice, found in all classes, of knocking a girl up and leaving her penniless — and at the mercy of a judgmental community for charity.
Malthus hoped to swell the ranks of the middle class, where the wants and excesses of rich and poor alike were met and kept in check respectively. But he was a realist in that he understood perfect exercise of the moral restraint he promoted was unrealistic, and so no panacea. Malthus was all about improvement, not cure.
One thing Malthus was not advocating was reducing the population. He took be fruitful and multiply as an unassailable imperative from on high. But he believed that meant, as God would have it, multiply prudently.
I’ll leave you here with a little to chew on:
Appendix I, 1807, 6th Edition:
I believe that it is the intention of the Creator that the earth should be replenished; but certainly with a healthy, virtuous and happy population, not an unhealthy, vicious and miserable one.
Appendix II, 1817, 6th Edition:
I have never considered any possible increase of population as an evil, except as far as it might increase the proportion of vice and misery. Vice and misery, and these alone, are the evil, which it has been my great object to contend against.
The quotes in this post are from :
An Essay on the Principle of Population, or a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into our Prospects respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions (London: John Murray 1826). 6th ed.
The text is in the public domain, but this copy is provided free to the public thanks to The Online Library of Liberty (OLL), https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/malthus-an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-vol-1-1826-6th-ed, accessed 15 June 2024
Also,
An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers (London: J. Johnson 1798). 1st edition., https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/malthus-an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-1798-1st-ed, accessed 15 June 2024
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