ever shunned when the truth was likely to be elicited, he was calm, clear and logical, fertile in argument, and though sufficiently tenacious, just and open to conviction; and being always deliberate in composition, and habitually disposed to weigh well every opinion before he submitted it to the public, he was rarely called upon to retract, but whenever the case required it, no one could do it with more candour, or with a better grace. He expunged two whole chapters from his first work, in deference to the opinions of some distinguished persons in our church; and after the publication of Dr. Sumner's work, On the Records of the Creation, he did not hesitate in a subsequent Edition of his Essay, to modify, correct, and even to omit several expressions, at the suggestion of the author for whom he had a profound respect; and all this, in a tone and spirit which proved that it was not victory, but truth for which he was contending.[1]
The same spirit was shewn in the correspondence between Mr. Malthus and Mr. Ricardo, which would form, if laid before the public, a perfect model of benevolent and enlightened controversy, and though at last each retired with
- ↑ "It is probable, that having found the bow bent too much one way, I was induced to bend it too much the other, in order to make it straight. But I shall always be quite ready to blot out any part of the work which is considered, by a competent tribunal as having a tendency to prevent the bow from becoming finally straight, and to impede the progress of truth. In deference to this tribunal I have already expunged the passages which have been most objected to, and I have made some few further corrections, of the same kind, in the present Edition. By these alterations, I hope, and believe, that the work has been improved, without impairing its principles. But I still trust, that whether it is read with or without these alterations, every reader of candour must acknowledge that the practical design uppermost in the mind of the writer, with whatever want of judgment it may have been executed, is to improve the condition, and increase the happiness of the lower classes of society." Vol. iii 428. 5th Edition of an Essay on Population.
