==================== HES POSTING ==================== The ingenious contextualization of Malthus's intended target Godwin does not at all mention the other obvious target - Condorcet, with his theory of inevitable progress (true, Condorcet anticipated artificial means of limiting population growth in his unpublished notes, but Malthus would not have known about this, though he would have known about Condorcet's feminism). So on the grounds alone of questioning a theory of inevitable progress (aside from the morality or immorality of lifestyles of Godwin's circle and Mary Wollstonecraft), there might have been ample motivation for Malthus to intervene with a theory of virtually inevitable misery. Martin S. Staum ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]