The Life and Writings of Thomas R. Malthus (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Life and Writings of Thomas R. Malthus

The writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, from whom these details of Malthus' life are taken, informs us that the book was received with some surprise, and excited considerable atten tion, as being an attempt to overturn the prevalent theory of political Optimism, and to refute, upon philosophical principles, the Speculations then so much in vogue, as to the indefinite perfectibility of human institutions. In this remarkable essay the general principle of population, which Wallace, Hume, and others had very distinctly enunciated before him, though without foreseeing the consequences that might be deduced from it, was clearly expounded; and some of the important conclusions to which it leads in regard to the probable im provement of human society were likewise stated and explained; but his illustrations were not sufficient, and he, therefore, sought in travel further confirmation of his theories.

In 1799 he visited Norway, Sweden, and Russia, and, after the peace of Amiens, France; in which countries he busily collected all the data he could bearing upon his researches. In 1815 he was appointed to the professorship of political economy and modern history at Haileybury, near London, which chair he occupied until his death in 1834, at the age of 70. He left behind him one son and one daughter. The son is, we believe, still alive, or was so a few years ago.

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