There is no necessity for thinking that the dangers which might result from an indefinite growth of population had not engaged the attention of previous writers. In France Buffon and Montesquieu had already shown some concern in the matter. But a numerous population was usually regarded as advantageous, and fear of excess was never entertained inasmuch as it was believed that the number of people would always be limited by the available means of subsistence.[291] This was the view of the Physiocrat Mirabeau, stated in his own characteristic fashion in his book _L’Ami des Hommes_, which has for its sub-title _Traité de la Population_. Such a natural fact as the growth of population could possess no terrors for the advocates of the “natural order.” But in the writings of Godwin this “natural” optimism assumed extravagant proportions. His book on _Political Justice_ appeared in 1793 and greatly impressed the public. Godwin, it has been well said, was the first anarchist who was also a doctrinaire. At any rate he seems to have been the first to employ that famous phrase, “Government even in its best state is an evil.” His illimitable confidence in the future of society and the progress of science, which he thought would result in such a multiplicity of products that half a day’s work would be sufficient to satisfy every need, and his belief in the efficacy of reason as a force which would restrain personal interest and check the desire for profit, really entitles him to be considered a pioneer. But life having become so pleasant, was there no possibility that men might then multiply beyond the available means of subsistence? Godwin was ignorant of the terrible intricacies of the problem he had thus raised, and he experienced no difficulty in replying that such a result, if it ever came to pass, must take several centuries, for reason may prove as powerful in controlling the sexual instinct as in restraining the desire for profit. Godwin even goes so far as to outline a social State in which reason shall so dominate sense that reproduction will cease altogether and man will become immortal.[292]