where they do not perish for want of food, clothing, and fuel? Why are not more houses built? Why is not more fuel mined? Why is not more food produced? The answer to these questions is found in the simple propositions--that production increases with the approximation of the prices of rude products and finished commodities, which always follows the near approach of the consumer to the producer; that it diminishes with their recession from each other; and that the latter is the tendency in all the countries which follow in the lead of England-embracing, as they do, nearly all the world, except the few in northern and central Europe to which we have referred. In all these latter, the supply of food goes in advance of the demands of a growing population. In the others, we find the phenomena required for maintaining the Malthusian doctrine of over-population - the tendency in all of them being in the direction of centralization, slavery, and death.

§ 8. The simple and beautiful laws by the action of which the supply of food and other raw materials is adjusted to meet the wants, and gratify the tastes, of an increasing population, would seem, now, to be contained in the following propositions:

That in the infancy of society, men being few in number, poor and weak are little capable of making demands upon nature, who, therefore, gives them small and uncertain supplies of food: That as numbers grow, they are enabled to combine togetherthus obtaining a large increase of force:

That the more perfect the facility of association, the greater is their power to make demands upon nature's treasury; the greater is the certainty that their drafts will be paid; and the greater the quantity of food and other raw materials obtained in return to any given quantity of labor:

That the larger the supplies yielded by the earth, the greater becomes the ability to utilize the various portions of the commodities obtained the power of accumulation thus increasing with constantly accelerating force, and facilitating the construction of new and improved machinery, by aid of which further to increase the command over nature's services:

That the more perfect the machinery, the less is the need for the exertion of muscular force, the smaller is the waste of human

power, and the less the quantity of food required to replace the materials wasted:

That the less the quantity needed, the greater is the tendency towards substitution of the products of the vegetable and mineral kingdom for those of the animal one- the power to obtain supplies thus growing as the need declines:

That the greater the tendency towards such substitution, the greater is that which leads to creation of local centres, and the larger is the proportion of the force obtained, that may be given to further development of the latent treasures of the earth; the more rapid is the increase in the power of combination; the more perfect is the development of the various faculties of man; and the greater is the tendency towards the production of the real MAN capable of becoming absolute master over nature,

and over himself:

That the greater the tendency towards the development of the earth's latent powers, the greater is the competition for the purchase of labor the greater is the value of man- the more equitable the distribution of the laborer's products-and the greater the tendency towards general development of the feeling of hope in the future, and responsibility for the exercise of the power obtained by means of action in the past:

That the higher the feeling of hope, the greater is the tendency towards seeking matrimony as affording the means of indulging the kindly feelings towards wife and children, and the love of home; and the less the tendency towards seeking it, as affording the means of mere animal indulgence:

That nature here co-operates with man - vital force tending more and more in the direction of further strengthening the reasoning powers, and less in the direction of procreation :

That, consequently, every stage of progress towards real civilization, is attended with increase in the power to demand supplies of food—while diminishing the proportion borne by the demand for food to the mouths that are to be fed, and slowly, but certainly, diminishing the tendency towards increase in the number of mouths themselves the ultimate effect exhibiting itself in large increase in the proportion borne by food to population.

Such are the various forces to whose combined operation we are required to look for the proper adjustment of the supply of food,

and other raw materials, to the demand for them - those forces operating within and without the human system, and tending always to establish among its several functions an orderly balance, while displaying their power in bringing up subsistence to a level with a demand, that is itself constantly diminishing in the ratio borne by it to the numbers requiring to be supplied. The sciences and the arts subservient to the production of raw materials, must grow with even pace, as the morality and intelligence of the race become more and more developed. The forces which war upon human life, and those to which that life must look for maintenance, tend towards an equal balance, and the preponderance of the one or the other must rest with man himself— the overruling law of the process tending towards an exact equilibrium. In him, and him alone, the exercise of the procreative power was placed under the guidance of intellect that intellect having been given to him, that he might be enabled to place himself in the control and direction of all the wonderful forces of nature, his own included.

Even in the discord of accidental disproportion, the harmony of means adapted to the production of desired ends may everywhere be seen, and when this providential order shall finally be obtained, by full development of the various powers of the earth, all apparent disproportion must disappear the law then standing vindicated against all attempts at misconstruction. Error and abuse diminishing in their proportion, the harmony and beauty of eternal truth must become more clearly visible, and the ways of Providence be justified to man.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

OF COLONIZATION.

§ 1. Look to the great Asiatic plateau from what quarter we may, we see vast bodies of men passing from it, north, south, east, and west, towards the lower and richer lands of the world the soils first occupied having been those possessed in the least degree of the food-producing properties. From that point it is, that the European races have passed, to occupy the lands created for their use. * At each and every stage of progress, we see them stopping in their course, and giving themselves to the cultivation of the higher and poorer soils-the dry Arcadia and the rocky Attica the Etrurian and Samnite hills the Alpine slopes-the sterile Brittany-the Scottish highlands - the Scandinavian mountain-sides or the rock-bound Cornwall. With the growth of wealth and population, however, we find them, every where, spreading themselves over the lower slopes, and finally descending into the valleys the facilities for association and combination increasing with every year; the latent powers. of the earth becoming more and more developed; commodities steadily declining, and man as steadily rising, in value; with corresponding development of the various individualities of the persons of whom the society is composed.

The society-forming process is, therefore, almost precisely the same with that we meet when studying the movements of the vegetable world- the tendency to increase being always

* "Sacred history and Hindoo tradition point to the same region as the cradle of mankind. They are confirmed by the reflection, that it must have been the first to emerge from the primal waste of waters; and the belief, that here it is that wheat and barley are of indigenous growth, and that the animals run wild who have been tamed by man, and have followed him in his migrations through every clime-the horse, the ass, the goat, the sheep, the hog, the cat, that clings to his hearth-stone, and the dog, whose fidelity to his person seems like the emanation from a higher nature."- SMITH: Manual of Political Economy, p. 11.

accompanied with a tendency to spread. In the infancy of the stately tree, its roots are short, and just beneath the surface, but as it grows, they shoot in all directions — the tap-root, meanwhile, penetrating the lower soils, and all uniting to give stability to the mass of trunk and foliage. Next, lateral roots send up suckers, which, like the parent in its youth, derive their earliest nourishment from the superficial soil-with age, however, repeating the operation first exhibited, and thus establishing local centres of attraction for the various elements provided for the maintenance of vegetable life. The parent tree still goes on rising in height as the tap-root sinks, and stability increasing with every stage of progress. Surrounded by its descendants of various ages, diminishing in height, and their roots in depth, as they recede from the great centre, it presents to view a perfect double pyramid.*

Precisely such is the course of man. Stopping in his career, to labor, his wealth begins to grow. Clearing lands, and building houses, wealth and numbers steadily increase. Sending forth the little shoots, the settlement extends in size, while the few and scattered houses, at the centre, become a town. Wealth and population further growing, he digs the coal, mines the ore, and makes the iron-sinking deeper, at each and every step, the foundations on which to build the social edifice. In time, the town becomes a city-exerting a strong attractive force, liable, however, to counteraction from similar, though weaker, forces, elsewhere acting. Upon the young and enterprising, these latter exercise great power-drawing them from the richer soils of the centre, to poorer ones, that are more remote. At a later period, new towns arisenew roads are made-giving value to other lands, and thus again counteracting the attraction of the central city; the younger and poorer members of the society, finding in these cheaper lands, or in these smaller towns, the employment for their little means, that, in the great city, or on the richer soils, cannot so readily be obtained. Further additions being made to both wealth and population, the great city again increases that increase, however, being again counterbalanced by attractions incident to the opening of mines, the building of mills, and the creation of towns, in other portions of the State. Man, thus, is ever in subjection to the same great * See diagrams, ante, vol. i., pp. 21, 224.