Books

The Great Quarto edition, notionally the second edition of the Essay on Population published in 1798, but so substantially enlarged, rewritten, and re-titled as to be a new book. "In 1803 Malthus published a greatly expanded second edition of the Essay, incorporating details of the population checks that had been in operation in many different countries and periods. Although nominally a second edition, it was regarded by Malthus as a substantially new work. He did not claim originality for the idea that population tends to outrun the food supply. In the preface to the second edition he stated that in writing the first edition he had deduced the principle of population from the writings of David Hume, Robert Wallace, Adam Smith, and Richard Price, but that in the intervening period he had become aware that much more had been published on the subject. He nevertheless believed that even more remained to be done, especially in describing the means by which populations are checked and in drawing out the practical implications of the principle of population. In the second edition, he made clear what was only implicit in the first, that prudential restraint should, if humanly possible, be 'moral restraint' - that is, delayed marriage accompanied by strictly moral pre-marital behavior, although he admitted that moral restraint would not be easy and that there would be occasional failures. Whereas in the first edition he had said that all the checks to population would involve either misery or vice, in the second edition he attempted to lighten this 'melancholy hue' (Essay on the Principle of Population, 1st edition, 1798, p. iv) and 'to soften some of the harshest conclusions of the first essay' (2nd edition, 1803, p. vii) by arguing that moral restraint, if supported by an education emphasizing the immorality of bringing children into the world without the means of supporting them, would tend to increase rather than diminish individual happiness" (ODNB). Einaudi 3668; Goldsmiths' 18640; Kress B.4701. Quarto. Uncut in the original boards, manuscript lettering to spine. Housed in a custom solander box with red label. Neat 20th-century ownership label to front pastedown. Joints and corners worn, some expert reconsolidation to binding, horizontal tear to head of title neatly repaired without loss and short vertical tear to lower margin of the same; a very good copy.

The book addresses the relationship between population growth and food supply. Malthus argued that population tends to grow exponentially, while food production increases only arithmetically, meaning that population growth would eventually outpace the ability to produce enough food. He suggested that without checks, such as famine, disease, or war, overpopulation would lead to widespread poverty and suffering. Malthus identified two types of checks on population growth: "positive checks," which raise the death rate (such as famine and disease), and "preventive checks," which reduce the birth rate (such as moral restraint, later marriage, or celibacy). He believed that without preventive measures, human misery was inevitable. Malthus’s work had a lasting influence on economic and demographic theories, and his ideas about population pressure also influenced Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Although some of his predictions were mitigated by technological advances in agriculture, his work remains important in discussions of overpopulation and resource sustainability.