Of Avarice and Profusion
About this book
The following essay by William Godwin comes from the 1823 edition of his book The Enquirer. Reflections On Education, Manners, And Literature. In A Series Of Essays. Originally published in 1797, it served to spark an argument between Thomas Malthus and friends, which Malthus eventually answered by publishing, in 1798, his own essay on the 'principle of population.' This essay in turn influenced Charles Darwin in forming his theory of biological origins via natural selection. Darwin's scientific theory combined with Malthus's 'principle of population' fueled a wide variety of social movements, many of which we would repudiate today, including eugenics and Nazism. Of course, Godwin's connection to all of that is mainly of association: his role was to help crystallize a particular set of objections, and it was these objections that were more closely linked to these other serious historical developments. As such, this essay by Godwin is valuable to read as it provides the context necessary for properly reading and understanding later works, such as those by Malthus, which proved to have significant historical impact.