Page:Principlesofpoli00malt.djvu/16

x currency since 1790, which he published in the year 1823.

But the subjcet, notwithstanding the Author's practical application of it was, at the time, regarded chiefly as a theoretical one; and it consequently attracted but little attention, being seldom alluded to, except in the immediate circles where such questions were discussed.

The more, however, Mr. Malthus reflected upon it, the more did it acquire importance in his eyes; and in 1827, he took another opportunity of enforcing his views respecting it in a small volume, which he published. On Definitions in Political Economy, in which some of the leading principles of the science are likewise to be found, admirably explained, in a concentrated form.

The intervention of these minor publications and Mr. Malthus's other pursuits prevented him from sooner devoting himself to the second edition of his Political Economy. The first edition had been long out of print, and the work could not of course again make its appearance, until the author had remodelled it, so as to adapt it to his new opinions on value.

In doing this, if he had contented himself (as he at one time intended) with making such alterations only as were strictly necessary, the task would have been comparatively easy. His new views, so far from interfering with his general train of reasoning, or affecting any of his main conclusions, sensed only to confirm and establish them. A fresh section in the chapter on value, in place of the sixth and seventh sections of the former edition, together with a few slight changes in other parts of the book, chiefly of a verbal kind, would have been all that was absolutely required to preserve the unity and consistency of the work.

But this did not satisfy Mr. Malthus. He