"Through the animal and vegetable kingdoms, nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand. She has been comparatively sparing in the room and the nourishment necessary to rear them. The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a dew thousand years. Necessity, that imperious all pervading law of nature, restrains them within the prescribed bounds. The race of plants and the race of animals shrink under this great restrictive law. And the race of man cannot by any efforts of reason, escape from it. Among plants and animals, its effects are waste of seed, sickness, and premature death. Among mankind, misery and vice. The former, misery, is an absolutely necessary consequence of it. Vice is a highly probable consequence, and we therefore see it abundantly prevail, but it ought not, perhaps, to be called an absolutely necessary consequence. The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil." (p20)
After reading this passage, I couldn't help but be moved by Malthus's writing. His style and language are simple beautiful, and I must point out that this passage, along with many others, are simply amazing not only on paper, but also in theory. The thought of life and nature being bound by some something is simply the natural way of life. Malthus is showing that no life on this planet can get too big, and in fact we are all regulated by the laws of nature, which are unbreakable. But, to me what is most important about this passage is his use of the word "vice". For someone who is a bit ignorant towards Malthus' use of the word, it might be helpful to dig deeper into his meaning. Malthus uses this concept throughout a lot of his work, but if vice is a consequence of regulation, shouldn't it help that we know exactly what it is?
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