to be the case, he submits it to the consideration of those who will give themselves the trouble of making the inquiry, if the use of this term, except where it is employed to denominate one or other of these real principles, aught not to be banished, not only from our own, but from every other language; because where such indefinite terms are made use of in the composition of any language, it must necessarily obstruct the communication of the knowledge of truth from the mind of one man to that of another, which is the only natural, proper, and lawful ase of language.

From the manner in which Mr. Malthus speaks of his principle of population, it is exceedingly evident, that he believes, or at least wishes to make other people believe, that this principle, this imaginary being, is the cause of the increase of mankind upon the earth. But every true Christian knows that this increase of mankind can proceed from no other cause than the will of God himself, the Supreme Governor of the world. This being unquestionably true, it is obvious, that this pretended principle of population is nothing else but a mere name which these speculative philosophers have invented, for the purpose of deceiving the rest of mankind; and

by that means to enable themselves to lead them into the paths of error.

It will be exceedingly obvious to any person who attentively reads this Essay on Population, that the author of it does not believe in the existence of God as the Supreme Governor of the world and that these speculative systems of philosophy which he and others have lately obtruded upon the world, are evidently formed upon the heathen theology. For as in that theology, every part of nature, every art and science, and every appetite and passion, had its own imaginary deity to preside over it, and as these imaginary deities were supposed to be invested with power to confer blessings and inflict punish ments upon mankind, these speculative philosophers endeavour now to make us believe, that every part of nature, and every art and science, has its own presiding principle; and that these imaginary principles have power to enact laws for the regulation of the different parts both of the natural and moral world.

As the principle of population and the principle of necessity seem to be the greatest divinities in Mr. Malthus's new system of theology, and as he sometimes speaks of his principle of necessity as a female divinity, we are led to sup

pose that these are only different names which he has invented for the Jupiter and Juno of the ancients. For like the stories which we have been told of these two imaginary divinities, he tells us, that his principle of population and his principle of necessity are perpetually opposing each other's will. His great divinity, the principle of population, he tells us, is perpetually endeavouring to bring mankind into existence upon this earth, faster than the nourishment that is prepared for their subsistence; and that his principle of necessity is as constantly employed in driving away this overstock of inhabitants from the face of the earth, by famine, contagious diseases, and pestilence, and by all the other plagues which are said to be contained in Pandora's box. These, it seems, are all of them some inferior order of principles, or divinities, which the principle of necessity employs as his agents for inflicting these plagues upon mankind.

Mr. Malthus, like Mr. Leslie, sets out with a preconceived speculative opinion; and 'having, like Condorcet, Godwin, and the rest of these enlightened philanthropists, assumed it as an unquestionable truth, that the principle of population is the great use of all that vice and misery, and of that unequal distribution of the

bounties of nature which at present prevails in the world, he employs two large volumes for the sole purpose of persuading mankind to abstain from marriage in the early part of life, lest they should increase and multiply faster than the means of subsistence. He tells us expressly, that if we do not disobey that commandment which the Creator gave to man at the very beginning, for the purpose of fulfilling his will in the gradual production of mankind upon the earth, by that plan of generation which his wisdom had devised, and, contrary to the divine appointment, abstain from marriage in the early part of life, we shall unquestionably, like Milton's Sin, be perpetually tormented by our own offspring, and die miserably of famine and contagious diseases.

It will appear very evident from the following observations, that this Essay on Population, is, like Mr. Leslie's Inquiry into the Nature of Heat, a complete mixture of truth, falsehood, and spéculative opinions; and that, not being itself the language of truth, it is evidently impossible that it can convey any knowledge of truth to the mind of any other man.

This learned author, although he does not, like the French philosophers, venture expressly

to deny the existence of God as the Supreme Governor of the world, he has done it in fact in the very commencement of his book, where he says,

"In an inquiry concerning the improvement "of society, the mode of conducting the subject "which naturally presents itself, is,

"1st, To investigate the causes that have "hitherto impeded the progress of mankind to"wards happiness; and

2d, To examine the probability of the total or partial removal of these causes in future. "To enter fully into this question, and to CC enumerate all the causes that have hitherto in"fluenced human improvement, would be much beyond the power of an individual. The

principal object of this essay is to examine "the effects of one great cause intimately united "with the 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 facts which establish this cause "have, indeed, been repeatedly stated and ac"knowledged; but its natural and necessary "effects have been almost totally overlooked; though probably among these effects may be