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First published anonymously in 1798, and the result of a discussion with his father on the perfectibility of society, this text was originally intended as a response to ideas developed in Godwin's "Enquirer" and "Political Justice". The essay is based around Malthus's principle of population: that as the population increases geometrically, pressure is placed on the Earth's agricultural resources, which can only increase at an arithmetic rate: hence Malthus's prediction of mass starvation. His argument further maintained that population is prevented from increasing beyond the food supply by positive (war, famine, and pestilence) and preventive checks (abortions, infancticide and birth control). This fourth edition of the essay is a virtual reprint of the third edition, with minor revisions, and appeared only a year after the third edition, and at the height of the essay's controversy.