The Struggle for Existence

A struggle for existence inevitably follows from the high rate at which all organic beings tend to increase. The doctrine of malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. There is no exception to the rule that every organic being naturally increases at so high a rate that if not destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow breeding man has doubled in twenty-five years, and at this rate, in less than a thousand years, there would literally not be standing room for his progeny.