LIFE does not use up the forces that maintain life. We come into the material universe bringing nothing; we take nothing away when we depart. The human being, physically considered, is but a transient form of matter, a changing mode of motion. The matter remains and the force persists. Nothing is lessened, nothing is weakened. And from this it follows that the limit to the population of the globe can only be the limit of space. — Progress & Poverty — Book II, Chapter 3: Population and Subsistence: Inferences from Analogy
read the corresponding passage in Bob Drake's abridgement ...
http://progressandpoverty.org/files/henrygeorge.drake/pchp8.htm
Life does not use up the forces that maintain life. We come into the material universe bringing nothing; we take nothing away when we depart. The human being, in physical terms, is just a transitory form of matter, a changing mode of motion.
From this, it follows that the limit to population can be only the limit of space -- that the human race may not increase its numbers beyond the possibility of finding elbow room. Remote and shadowy as it is, this possibility is what makes Malthus' theory appear self-evident.
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