Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful
resource of nature. The power of
population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for
man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human
race. The vices of mankind are active
and able ministers of depopulation. They
are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the
dreadful work themselves. But should they
fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and
plague, advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and ten
thousands. Should success be still
incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty
blow, levels the population with the food of the world.[1]
Thomas Malthus,
An Essay on the Principle of the
Population (1798)
[1] T. R. Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, (Bellingham WA: Electronic
Scholarly Publishing Project, 1998), p. 44.
The original edition of Malthus’ work was published anonymously in London. It can now be found, for example, in the Oxford
World’s Classics series, as a Penguin Paperback, or online.
Terrifying. This sounds more dramatic though than the slow, stuffy waiting indoors and the isolation that precedes eventual infection -- through social contact, doorknobs, elevator buttons or dodgy ventilation. Wow I'm starting to sound like a pessimist!
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