Page:An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).djvu/173

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PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION.
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"There exists then, a necessary cause of inequality, of dependence, and even of misery, which menaces, without ceasing, the most numerous and active class of our societies." The difficulty is just, and well stated, and I am afraid that the mode by which he proposes it should be removed, will be found inefficacious. By the application of calculations to the probabilities of life, and the interest of money, he proposes that a fund should be established, which should assure to the old an assistance, produced, in part, by their own former savings, and, in part, by the savings of individuals who in making the same sacrifice, die before they reap the benefit of it. The same, or a similar fund, should give assistance to women

    and hope I shall not misrepresent them, but I refer the reader to the work itself, which will amuse, if it does not convince him.

L 2
women