The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 04 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
Philosophy
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 04 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
I do not know that I can go so far as with Mr. Godwin to ascribe the
original sin of the worst men to social institutions, but of this I am
very sure that that original sin and those institutions do not proceed
entirely from the principle of population. There are other vices and
mischievous propensities inherent in our nature, besides the love of
pleasure. We are troubled with a complication of disorders, and it is
bad advice to say, that we ought to direct all our attention to the one
that is perhaps the most inveterate, or because we despair of doing any
thing with that, make no attempts to counteract the progress of the
others, either by palliatives or otherwise. If we are deceived with
respect to the real extent, and sources of our disorders, it is
impossible we should hit upon the right method of cure, whatever might
be the case, if we were informed of our true situation.—The principle of
population alone, according to the description Mr. Malthus gives of it
as a principle of unbridled and insatiable lust, would indeed be
sufficient to account for all the vice and misery in the world, and for
a great deal more than there is in the world. It would soon overturn
every thing. But we have seen that that account is not just. It is in
fact only one of the principles or passions by which the conduct of
mankind is influenced; and he would be a bold man who should assert that
neither ambition, nor avarice, nor sloth, nor ignorance, nor prejudice
have had any share in producing the various evils that abound in civil
society. The other passions are sturdy claimants and know how to bustle
for themselves, and will not be so easily pushed out of the world. Let
any one write the words, ambition, pride, cruelty, hatred, oppression,
falsehood, selfishness, indolence, lust, and hunger in the same line,
and let him see if there is any peculiar charm in the two last, which
draws all their virtue and meaning out of the rest. Yet this is the
impression which Mr. Malthus seems anxious to leave on the minds of his
readers. Indeed all the others appear to owe their efficacy and their
sting to lust alone. If it were not for this one principle, the world
might go on very well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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