Page:An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).djvu/407

 offer, prevent the possibility that such a period should ever arrive.

It is by no means one of the wisest sayings of Solomon, that "there is no new thing under the sun." On the contrary, it is probable, that were the present system to continue for millions of years, continual additions would be making to the mass of human knowledge; and yet, perhaps, it may be a matter of doubt, whether, what may be called the capacity of mind, be in any marked and decided manner increasing. A Socrates, a Plato, or an Aristotle, however confessedly inferior in knowledge to the philosophers of the present day, do not appear to have been much below them in intellectual capacity. Intellect rises from a speck, continues in vigour only for a certain period, and will not, perhaps, admit, while on earth of above