and characteristic in himself, would be almost culpable in his friends. They are well aware that such a man could not depart from a scene, in which as an author he had borne so conspicuous a part, without exciting much curiosity respecting the principles and the conduct of his private life; and as they have nothing to communicate but what is honourable to himself and edifying to the public, there is no reason why they should be silent. It happens too, fortunately, that the materials at their disposal are quite sufficient in this respect; for as the recollections of his friends, still fresh and vivid, are fully competent to exhibit his character and manners in his later years, so also his own filial piety, by treasuring up every record of his father, has undesignedly furnished more particulars for the history of his early youth than are usually found in the annals of literary men.
Nor will the task of recording these memorials be an unprofitable one. No one could have been intimate with Mr. Malthus without deriving much instruction as well as pleasure from his conversation, and many salutary lessons from the contemplation of his character under the trials he underwent. To review therefore the course of his life is to bring back these influences to the memory, and, impressed as they must be now with the sad reflection that the spirit which imparted them is gone, they will return with more force than when they first came from the living man.
But higher interests than these are concerned in this memorial. The character of Mr. Malthus has been so industriously mixed up with his writings, and for so long a time; and the writings themselves have been so egregiously misinterpreted and misunderstood, that it becomes an act of common justice to rescue his name from the obloquy in which it has been involved.
