Spencer Heath Archive

Item 287

From a notebook containing several dates in September, 1936.

The notebook in the white envelope also contains items 288 through 295.

   EPITOME OF THE

BIOLOGIC REFUTATION OF MALTHUS

     In any type of organism the greater the perils of its existence and danger of its extinction the more essen­tially prolific it becomes. A plant cut down in mid-season springs up again only to bear seeds. Those animal forms the conditions of whose existence include the greatest hazards bear the most numerous young. Those states and conditions of society in which men are most like to perish make them most prone to reproduce. It is nature’s lesson and nature’s law that a population’s rate of reproduction diminishes when its subsistence and security increase. Nature strives ever for the higher organic forms and, as she achieves quality and value and beauty, she casts aside that quantitative prudence by which she leads herself to these.