Page:An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).djvu/179

Rh to this picture, is, the period when it may be applied to the human race. Mr. Condorcet thinks, that it cannot possibly be applicable, but at an era extremely distant. If the proportion between the natural increase of population and food, which I have given, be in any degree near the truth, it will appear, on the contrary, that the period when the number of men surpass their means of subsistence, has long since arrived, and that this necessary oscillation, this constantly subsisting cause of periodical misery, has existed ever since we have had any histories of mankind, does exist at present, and will for ever continue to exist, unless some decided change take place, in the physical constitution of our nature.

Mr. Condorcet, however, goes on to say, that should the period, which he Rh