Chapter XXVII: Letter II: Political Register, May 16, 1807: XI. 883

_The English have been called_, _etc._ Diderot said this in his
_Lettre sur les aveugles_, ed. Tourneux, I. 312, but the opinion
was expressed more than once in France during the period of
Anglomania which prevailed in the middle of the eighteenth
century. Cf. Texte, _Jean-Jacques Rousseau_ (trans. Matthews)
pp. 96 _et. seq._

8. ‘_Worthless importunity in rags._’

‘——Lib’ral of their aid
To clam’rous Importunity in rags.’
Cowper, _The Task_, IV. 413–4.

9. ‘_Its bane and antidote._’ Addison’s _Cato_, Act V. Scene 1.

_Multum abludit imago._ Horace, _Satires_, II. 3, 320.

_Wallace is the chief._ Robert Wallace (1697–1771), a minister of
the Scottish Church, published his _Various Prospects of
Mankind, Nature, and Providence_, in 1761. The British Museum
copy of Hazlitt’s _Reply_ contains the following MS. note: ‘The
writer of this note put into the hands of Mr. Hazlitt in the
year 1828 a small volume entitled “a philosophical survey of the
animal creation, which is a translation (by the author) of the
Théorie du Système Animal,” which the Rev. John Bruckner had
published some time before: after a perusal of the English
edition of this work, Mr. Hazlitt admitted that the principles
of the Essay on Population had been anticipated to a greater
extent by the Flemish Divine, who settled in England, than they
had been by Mr. Wallace.’ The Rev. John Bruckner (1726–1804),
Minister of the Dutch Church at Norwich, published his _Théorie
du Système Animal_ in 1767, and _Criticisms on the Diversions of
Purley_ in 1790.

14. ‘_Present circumstances of the earth._’ In the _Political
Register_ Hazlitt has the following note: ‘A different spirit
breathes through this chapter from that of the Essay; the spirit
of a gentleman, a philosopher, and a philanthropist. Mr.
Malthus, indeed, sometimes limps after his model, and _cants_
liberality in the true whine of hypocrisy.’

15. ‘_So will his anticipation_,’ _etc._ ‘So shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery.’ _Hamlet_, Act II. Scene 2.

_Arithmetical series._ In the _Political Register_ the following
note is appended: ‘As far as I understand the nature of an
arithmetical and geometrical series, I do not apprehend that Mr.
M. could make good their strict application to the subject. An
arithmetical series is where any number or quantity is increased
by the perpetual addition of the same given sum or quantity. But
how does Mr. M. know that this is true of the cultivation of the
land, or that much more rapid strides may not be made at one
time than at another?’

15. _Mr. Shandy was of opinion, etc._ _Tristram Shandy_, Book I. chap.
xix.

18. LETTER III. _Political Register_, May 23, 1807: xi. 935. Hazlitt
published part of this letter in his _Political Essays_. See
vol. III. pp. 367–374.

‘_A swaggering paradox_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘The paradoxes of one age
become the common-places of the next.’ Jowett, _Plato_, III.
155.

19. _The reply of the author of the Political Justice._ In _Thoughts
on Dr. Parr’s Spital Sermon_ (1801) Godwin replied to Parr,
Mackintosh, and Malthus. Many years later, in 1820, he wrote _Of
Population. An Enquiry concerning the Power of Increase in the
Numbers of Mankind, in Answer to Mr. Malthus on that Subject_.

21. ‘_The exuberant strength of my argument._’ A phrase of Malthus’s.
_Essay on Population_, p. 372.

22. ‘_What conjuration_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act I. Scene 3.

23. _And as Trim._ _Tristram Shandy_, Book VI. chap. xxiii.

24. ‘_These three bear record_,’ _etc._ Cf. _1 John_, v. 7.

25. ‘_Tis as easy as lying_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 2.

_To sum up the whole of the argument._ The conclusion of Letter
III. from this point is not in the _Political Register_.

‘_And less than smallest dwarfs_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, I.
779–781.

28. ‘_It cannot but be_,’ _etc._ Malthus, _Essay on Population_, pp.
353–4.

29. ‘_Who am no great clerk._’ Cf. Burke, _A Letter to a Noble Lord_
(_Works_, Bohn, V. 150). ‘He [Lord Keppel] was no great clerk.’

35. ‘_It may be safely affirmed_,’ _etc._ Malthus, pp. 7–8.

36. _Sancho Panza._ _Don Quixote_, Part II., Book III., chap. xlix.

38. ‘_Fast by_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, II. 1051–2.

‘_To nature’s furthest verge_,’ _etc._

‘Shoots far into the bosom of dim night
A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire,’ etc.
_Paradise Lost_, II. 1036–8.

‘_Come on, sir_,’ _etc._ _King Lear_, Act IV. Scene 6.

41. _A new Iliad of woes._ See note to vol. III. p. 10.

42. ‘_It keeps on its way_,’ _etc._ Cf.

‘——I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion.’
_Julius Caesar_, Act III. Scene 1.

44. ‘_Squalid poverty._’ Malthus, p. 516.

Note. ‘_I am not as this poor Hottentot._’ Cf. ‘God, I thank thee,
that I am not as other men are, etc.’ _St. Luke_, xviii. II.

Note. ‘_Chill and comfortless._’ Cf. ‘All dark and comfortless.’
_King Lear_, Act III. Scene 7.

45. ‘_Palaces, her ladies and her pomp._’

‘Our palaces, our ladies, and our pomp of equipage.’
Cowper, _The Task_, I. 643–4.

46. ‘_Upland swells_,’ _etc._

‘The grassy uplands’ gentle swells
Echo to the bleat of flocks.’
Coleridge, _Ode on the Departing Year_, ll. 125–6.

53. _When Don Quixote had to encounter_, _etc._ See _Don Quixote_,