Malthusian Metaphysics

…Famine seems to be the last [and] the most dreadful Resource of Nature. The Power of Population is so superior to the Power in the Earth to produce Subsistence for Man, that premature Death must in some shape or other visit the Human Race. The Vices of Mankind are active and able Ministers of Depopulation. They are the precursors in the great Army of Destruction; and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this War of Extermination, [then] sickly Seasons, Epidemics, Pestilence, and Plague [all] advance in terrific array, and sweep off their [human] thousands and ten thousands. Should success be still incomplete, [then] gigantic inevitable Famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow, [it] levels the Population with [scarcity of] the food of the World…*

*Edited with interpolations (but not abridged) for clarity of modern understanding.
Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population – Reverand Thomas Malthus – London – 1798
Picture: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Albrecht Dürer – colourised xylograph – 1498