Condorcet and Others. The basis of the essay was not complex, but was made clear when Malthus wrote,.
I think I may fairly make two postulata. First, That food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state (Malthus np).
Malthus states that these laws are unchangeable, and have been so inherently. Without "an immediate act of power in that Being who first arranged the system of the universe," they will remain so indefinitely (Malthus np). The core of Malthus" theory is that.
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetic ratio. A slight .
acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second (Malthus np).
This basically meant that the patterns for the increase in population and food was 1,2,4" and 1,2,3,4 respectively, so the population would eventually overcome the amount of food. Malthus made the point that the amount of food that barely supported the inhabitants of the earth then, would, at some point in time, be spread out among millions or billions more people. He also claimed that the population, if unchecked, would inevitably be subjected to widespread vice and misery. Malthus" solution to this puzzle was the initiation of a series of checks to limit population. Rather than the harsh "positive checks" of misery and vice, Malthus advocated "preventative checks" that would restrict the birthrate ("Relation E of S np). Later, Malthus introduced a third check known as "moral restraint." By this, Malthus meant the "postponement or renunciation of marriage with complete and total abstinence from all extramarital relationships (Nichols 321)." According to Samuel Golden, Malthus suggested "possible deliberate annihilation of the world's least productive and most defenseless citizens" in order to prevent catastrophe (np).