[p]opulation, When Unchecked, Goes On Doubling Itself

It Is Also Very Important To Observe, That Menial Servants Are Absolutely Necessary To Make The Resources Of The Higher And Middle Classes Of Society Efficient In The Demand For Material Products.

In General It May Be Said That Demand Is Quite As Necessary To The Increase Of Capital As The Increase Of Capital Is To Demand.

If One Fourth Of The Capital Of A Country Were Suddenly Destroyed, Or Entirely Transferred To A Different Part Of The World, Without Any Other Cause Occurring Of A Diminished Demand For Commodities, This Scantiness Of Capital Would Certainly Occasion Great Inconvenience To Consumers, And Great Distress Among The Working Classes; But It Would Be Attended With Great Advantages To The Remaining Capitalists.

There Is Scarcely Any Inquiry More Curious, Or, From Its Importance, More Worthy Of Attention, Than That Which Traces The Causes Which Practically Check The Progress Of Wealth In Different Countries, And Stop It, Or Make It Proceed Very Slowly, While The Power Of Production Remains Comparatively Undiminished, Or At Least Would Furnish The Means Of A Great And Abundant Increase Of Produce And Population.

It Does Not, However, Seem Impossible That By An Attention To Breed, A Certain Degree Of Improvement, Similar To That Among Animals, Might Take Place Among Men. Whether Intellect Could Be Communicated May Be A Matter Of Doubt: But Size, Strength, Beauty, Complexion, And Perhaps Even Longevity Are In A Degree Transmissible... As The Human Race Could Not Be Improved In This Way, Without Condemning All The Bad Specimens To Celibacy, It Is Not Probable, That An Attention To Breed Should Ever Become General.