投资 · 西方古典
托马斯·马尔萨斯:人口论·摘录 20
托马斯·马尔萨斯《人口论》· An Essay on the Principle of Population · 投资
Through the animal and vegetable kingdoms, nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand. She has been comparatively sparing in the room and the nourishment necessary to rear them. The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food, and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years. Necessity, that imperious all pervading law of nature, restrains them within the prescribed bounds. The race of plants and the race of animals shrink under this great restrictive law. And the race of man cannot, by any efforts of reason, escape from it. Among plants and animals its effects are waste of seed, sickness, and premature death. Among mankind, misery and vice. The former, misery, is an absolutely necessary consequence of it. Vice is a highly probable consequence, and we therefore see it abundantly prevail, but it ought not, perhaps, to be called an absolutely necessary consequence. The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.
出处:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4239
定位:Excerpt 20 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录
白话
自然界在动植物中撒播生命种子极其慷慨,但提供空间和养料却相对吝啬。一小块土地上的生命胚芽若有充足食物和空间,几千年内可填满数百万个世界。但必然性这条铁律将它们限制在既定范围内。动植物受此限制表现为种子浪费、疾病和早死;人类则表现为苦难和罪恶。苦难是绝对必然的结果,罪恶则很可能发生,但并非绝对必然,因为美德正是要抵抗邪恶诱惑。
上下文
马尔萨斯用自然界的普遍法则说明人口限制的必然性,并将人类苦难与道德罪恶联系起来。
今日一问
面对资源限制,你更倾向于用节制还是其他方式应对?
公版作品;原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg,仅摘录段落并附全书链接。
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