PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION.
155
CHAP. IX.
Mr. Condorcet's conjecture concerning the organic perfectibility of man, and the indefinite prolongation of human life.—Fallacy of the argument, which infers an unlimited progress from a partial improvement, the limit of which cannot be ascertained, illustrated in the breeding of animals, and the cultivation of plants.
The last question which Mr. Condorcet proposes for examination, is, the organic perfectibility of man. He observes, that if the proofs which have been already given, and which, in their development will receive greater force in the work itself, are sufficient to establish the indefinite perfectibility of man, upon the supposition, of the same natural faculties, and the same organization which he has at present; what will be the certainty, what the extent of our hope, if this organization, these natural faculties
them-
