height for nearly half a century. Malthus! The Malthusian theory,-
-the law of the increase of the population in geometrical, and of
the means of subsistence in arithmetical proportion, and the wise
and natural means of restricting the population,--all these have
become scientific, indubitable truths, which have not been
confirmed, but which have been employed as axioms, for the erection
of false theories. In this manner have learned and cultivated
people proceeded; and among the herd of idle persons, there sprung
up a pious trust in the great laws expounded by Malthus. How did
this come to pass? It would seem as though they were scientific
deductions, which had nothing in common with the instincts of the
masses. But this can only appear so for the man who believes that
science, like the Church, is something self-contained, liable to no
errors, and not simply the imaginings of weak and erring folk, who
merely substitute the imposing word "science," in place of the
thoughts and words of the people, for the sake of impressiveness.

All that was necessary was to make practical deductions from the
theory of Malthus, in order to perceive that this theory was of the
most human sort, with the best defined of objects. The deductions
directly arising from this theory were the following: The wretched
condition of the laboring classes was such in accordance with an
unalterable law, which does not depend upon men; and, if any one is
to blame in this matter, it is the hungry laboring classes
themselves. Why are they such fools as to give birth to children,
when they know that there will be nothing for the children to eat?
And so this deduction, which is valuable for the herd of idle
people, has had this result: that all learned men overlooked the
incorrectness, the utter arbitrariness of these deductions, and
their insusceptibility to proof; and the throng of cultivated, i.e.,