Note 1 — Chapter I · Malthus and the Law of Population.

It is not intended here to give an exhaustive analysis of Malthus’s Principle of Population.1 We are concerned only with his theory of population and the conclusions to which that theory points. “The principal object of this essay,” says the author, “is to examine the effects of one great cause intimately connected with the very nature of man, which, though it has been constantly and powerfully operating since the commencement of society, has been little noticed by the writers who have treated this subject. The cause to which I allude is the constant tendency in all animated life to increase beyond the nourishment prepared for it.