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PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION.
23
It may be fairly said, therefore, that the means of subsistence increase in an arithmetical ratio.
Let us now bring the effects of these two ratios together.
The population of the Island is computed to be about seven millions; and we will suppose the present produce equal to the support of such a number. In the first twenty-five years the population would be fourteen millions; and the food being also doubled, the means of subsistence would be equal to this increase. In the next twenty-five years the population would be twenty-eight millions, and the means of subsistence only equal to the support of twenty-one millions. In the next period, the population would be fifty-six millions, and the means of subsistence just sufficient for
C 4
half
