Page:An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).djvu/396

 course of excitements, would not need the constant action of narrow motives, to continue them in activity. But if we were to review the various useful discoveries, the valuable writings, and other laudable exertions of mankind; I believe we should find, that more were to be attributed to the narrow motives that operate upon the many, than to the apparently more enlarged motives that operate upon the few.

Leisure is, without doubt, highly valuable to man; but taking man as he is, the probability seems to be, that in the greater number of instances, it will produce evil rather than good. It has been not infrequently remarked, that talents are more common among younger brothers, than among elder brothers; but it can scarcely be imagined, that younger brothers are, upon an average, born with