
An Essay on the Principle of
PopulationLooking for an essay on the principle of
population? Below is an essay sample on Hume and causes of the movement of
population:
An Essay on the Principle of
Population: Free Sample
…In one of the Essays, Hume tried to define the causes of the movements of
population. The increase in
population which corresponds to the satisfaction of a natural instinct, is desirable in itself: 'For as there is in all men, both male and female, a desire and power of generation, more active than is ever universally excited, the restraints which they lie under must proceed from some difficulties in their situation, which it belongs to a wise legislature carefully to observe and remove'. Without these difficulties 'the human species . . . would more than double every generation'. But these difficulties are of two kinds. They are physical, and depend on the quality of available subsistence. They are also social: 'if everything else be equal, it seems natural to expect that, wherever there are most happiness and virtue, and the wisest institutions, there will also be most people'.