50
MALTHUS AND TIIE CROFTERS.
taking a survey of nearly ali the countries in the
world. But he has paid the usuai penalty for at-
tempting to be judicial 011 a subject where the current
of prejudices runs strong. He has been supposed
by some to maintain that over-population was inevit-
able, and that the poor should be left to starve ; by
others he is regarded as approving of any means
whatever of preventing the increase of population,
of laws directly forbidding marriage, of infanticide,
and of abortion. No charges were ever more devoid
of foundation. His object was to persuade men to
use the reason which distinguishes them from ali
other creatures to prevent the destruction and de-
gradation of life which prevails throughout the rest
of the animai world. He endeavoured to impress
upon public opinion that " it is not the duty of man
simply to propagate his species, but to propagate
virtue and happiness, and that if he has not a
tolerably fair prospect of doing this he is by no
ineans called upon to leave descendants." Ho struck
straight at the notion uiiiversally prevalent at the
end of last century, that population should be
encouraged in every way, and insisted that quality
as well as numbers should be regarded. It is true
that-he advocated the very graduai abolition of the
poor-laws, but simply on the ground which was
perfectly valid when he wrote, that they had deterior-
ated and not ameliorated the condition of the mass
of the people. But he proposed remedies, the very