MALTHUS'S LANDMARK WORK ON POPULATION. MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT. 1766-1834. An Essay on the Princi...

MALTHUS'S LANDMARK WORK ON POPULATION. MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT. 1766-1834. An Essay on the Principle of Population; or, A View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into our Prospects. London: J. Johnson, 1803. 4to (267 x 205 mm). Calf, antique, by Bernard Middleton. Custom cloth folding case. Provenance: Hon. Stanley C. Wisniewski (pencil inscription). THE 'GREAT QUARTO' EDITION OF MALTHUS'S GROUND-BREAKING ECONOMIC THEORY, the expanded second edition, of which 'it may be said that the first [edition] was an essay, the second a treatise' (Bonar). Malthus's thesis, first presented in 1798, argued that the population of a community increases geometrically, while food supplies increase only arithmetically, making poverty and misery inescapable. 'The simplicity of the central idea of the Essay also caught the imagination of thinkers in other fields... both Darwin and Wallace clearly acknowledged Malthus as a source of the idea of 'the struggle for existence'... certainly reading the Essay was for both of them an important event in the development of their theory of natural selection, and they were glad to quote such a well-known and weighty source for their ideas' (PMM). The second edition also marks the beginning of Malthus's attempts to produce more thorough treatments of his subject matter, in increasingly more extensive books. The first edition was comprised of 19 chapters; the second of 48. Bonar asserts that 'If the form of the first edition had been that of the second, it would have succeeded with the economists but failed with the general readers.' 'A greatly expanded second edition of the Essay, incorporating details of the population checks that had been in operation in many different countries and periods. Although nominally a second edition, it was regarded by Malthus as a substantially new work' (ODNB). See James Bonar, 'Notes On Malthus's First Essay,' in the 1926 facsimile edition from the Royal Economic Society. Goldsmiths 18640; Kress B-4701; PMM 252 (for the 1798 edition). For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing