But though it is certain that the population of every country must be kept within the limits of its food, this object may be accomplished by the opera tion of two different causes. 1st, General habits of] refinement, or prudential motives, such as the fear of bringing children into existence without the means of supporting them, may so far operate on the minds of the labouring classes as to discour age marriage ; in which case no superfluous in habitants will be produced, and the supply of food, though it will admit of no increase, will still be suf ficient for the maintenance of the population already in existence. Where the want of food operates in this manner to check the progress of population, Mr Malthus distinguishes- it by the appellation of the preventive check. Idly, So strong, however, is the impulse by which man is prompted to multiply his species, that this preventive check seldom ope rates with sufficient force to restrain the undue in crease of population. In all countries mankind have a perpetual tendency to increase faster than food can be provided, and even when the preventive check operates with most effect, the population fre quently presses on the very verge of its subsistence ; and is thus exposed, by an accidental failure in the ordinary supply of food, to all the miseries of want. As the number of inhabitants is necessarily restrict ed by the supply of subsistence, it is certain that, if the ..pulation increases beyond this limit, it will • • . ly be brought down to the level of its food by .e operation of famine and disease, which Mr Mal thus terms the positive in opposition to the preventive checks to population.
From this view then of the natural and immutable condition of human society, the want of subsistence seems to be a necessary and in inherent evil, under every form of it ; to avoid which, mankind, as they begin to increase, are forced to separate in quest of new settlements, in which, the inhabitants being few er, food is more easily procured. The want of sub sistence is therefore the universal and constant cause of emigration, which forces mankind to dis perse themselves, and to explore the world for a more desirable abode. It is no love of change or of adventure which prompts them to wander into un frequented parts. It is the urgent pressure arising from an overcrowded population which impels them from their homes, which breaks the ties of kindred, and forces them-to encounter all the hardships and dangers of new and untried scenes. Where a com munity is happy and prosperous, mankind will fol low their natural propensity to settlement and rest ; and it is only when this principle is disturbed by an opposite and equally powerful principle, name ly, the fear or the actual experience of want, that emigration will be resorted to as the least of two evils, not from choice but from necessity. It is under the influence of this great law of nature, namely, the tendency of mankind to increase faster than food can be provided for them, that the earth has been overspread with inhabitants. From the
original seats of population and improvement, the human race would naturally overflow into other parts. The regions which were most desirable from their happier soil and climate would be first occupied ; these being replenished with people, the overflowing stream would naturally reach the less habitable parts ; until at length the frozen regions of the north and the burning climes of the south would be fully peopled, in proportion to the scanty subsist ence to be drawn from them, by an unskilful and bar barous race.
The earth being in this manner filled with peo ple, ai3d no more vacant space remaining for new emigrations, the great check to population, from the want of subsistence, must now be felt in all its and it is evident that no farther increase of inhabitants can take place, unless new modes of subsistence be contrived, by which a greater supply of food may be derived from the same extent of territory. The most primitive and bar barous mode of life ever found to prevail among mankind, is, when they depend for subsistence on hunting and fishing, or on a casual supply of such produce as the earth spontaneously yields. From the humble and degraded condition of hunters, they gradually emerge into that of shepherds, and while their flocks and herds afford them a more cer tain provision, the care of these necessarily calls forth a greater degree of foresight than belongs to the hunting tribes, and the community being also in possession of a stock for their immediate subsist ence, are, in every respect, in a superior condition to raw savages. It is in the agricultural state in which a community, adopting all the most ingenious and successful modes of cultivation, and improving, at the same time, in all the arts of commerce and in dustry, gradually accumulates capital and acquires habits of luxury and refinement, that the earth sup ports the greatest number of inhabitants, and to this state, therefore, mankind, impelled to improvement by the stimulus of necessity, continually tend. But as the course of improvement is retarded by a va riety of causes, it has always happened that, in the general population of the world, three classes have been comprised, who, though variously modified, may be distinguished into those of hunters, shepherds, and agriculturists. When the earth is wholly occupied with these different communities, in each of which the population, according to the great law by which it increases, will soon reach the utmost limit of its food, it is manifest that the great standing cause of emigration will be in constant operation, and in this case there is little doubt that numbers will incur the risks of a removal for the sake of improving their con dition.