azlitt's. The personal rancour of which Hazlitt
was unfortunately capable leads to monstrous imputations. Not only
does Malthus's essay show the 'little low rankling malice of a parish
beadle ... disguised in the garb of philosophy,' and bury 'false
logic' under 'a heap of garbled calculations,'[434] and so forth; but
he founds insinuations upon Malthus's argument as to the constancy of
the sexual passion. Malthus, he fully believes, has none of the
ordinary passions, anger, pride, avarice, or the like, but declares
that he must be a slave to an 'amorous complexion,' and believe all
other men to be made 'of the same combustible materials.'[435] This
foul blow is too characteristic of Hazlitt's usual method; but
indicates also the tone which could be taken by contemporary
journalism.

The more serious argument is really that the second version of Malthus
is an answer to his first. Briefly, the 'moral check' which came in
only as a kind of afterthought is a normal part of the process by
which population is kept within limits, and prevents the monstrous
results of the 'geometrical ratio.' Hazlitt, after insisting upon
this, admits that there is nothing in 'the general principles here
stated that Mr. Malthus is at present disposed to deny, or that he has
not himself expressly insisted upon in some part or other of his
various works.'[436] He only argues that Malthus's concessions are
made at the cost of self-contradiction. Why then, it may be asked,
should not Hazlitt take the position of an improver and harmoniser of
the doctrine rather than of a fierce opponent? The answer has been
already implied. He regards Malthus as an apologist for an unjust
inequality. Malthus, he says, in classifying the evils of life, has
'allotted to the poor all the misery, and to the rich as much vice as
they please.'[437] The check of starvation will keep down the numbers
of the poor; and the check of luxury and profligacy will restrain the
multiplication of the rich. 'The poor are to make a formal surrender
of their right to provoke charity or parish assistance that the rich
may be able to lay out all their money on their vices.'[438] The
misery of the lower orders is the result of the power of the upper. A
man born into a world where he is not wanted has no right, said
Malthus, to a share of the food. That might be true if the poor were a
set of lazy supernumeraries living on the industrious. But the truth
is that the poor man does the work