Beschreibung:

MALTHUS, Thomas Robert (1766-1834). An Essay on the Principle of Population . London: T. Bensley for J. Johnson 1803. 4° (282 x 215mm). C4 cancelled and signed C3. (Some light spotting, occasional staining and soiling, final leaf cleanly torn.) Uncut in original blue boards (recently rebacked in paper, rear endpaper partly excised). Provenance : Jn. Phillips 1826 (title inscription).
MALTHUS, Thomas Robert (1766-1834). An Essay on the Principle of Population . London: T. Bensley for J. Johnson 1803. 4° (282 x 215mm). C4 cancelled and signed C3. (Some light spotting, occasional staining and soiling, final leaf cleanly torn.) Uncut in original blue boards (recently rebacked in paper, rear endpaper partly excised). Provenance : Jn. Phillips 1826 (title inscription). UNCUT COPY OF THE SECOND EDITION RETAINING THE ORIGINAL BOARDS . The second edition is recognised as a 'substantially new book' (ODNB). Malthus had proposed in 1798 that population increases in a geometrical ratio, and subsistence only in an arithmetical ratio, arguing that vice and misery were therefore necessary 'checks' on the growth of population. However, in this enlarged edition natural controls like poverty and disease are no longer treated as insuperable obstacles to social improvement. Einaudi 3668; Goldsmiths' 18640; Kress B.4701; cf. PMM 251.