An Essay on the Principle of Population; or, a view of its past and present effects on future happiness; with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions.

London, Printed for J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, 1806. . Third edition; 2 vols; 8vo (22 x 14 cm); half-titles, library stamp to front free endpaper recto of each vol., occasional light spotting, some offsetting to endpapers; contemporary sprinkled calf, flat spines gilt, contrasting red morocco title-pieces, sprinkled edges, very good; xvi, 505, [61]; vii, [1], 559, [1]pp.
The first two-volume edition of Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population, with important additions and corrections by the author, including his response to critics.

'The central idea of the essay — and the hub of Malthusian theory — was a simple one. The population of a community, Malthus, suggested, increases geometrically, while food supplies increased only arithmetically. If the natural increase in population occurs, the food supply becomes insufficient and the size of the population is checked by 'misery' — that is, the poorest sections of the community suffer disease and famine. The Essay was highly influential in the progress of thought in early nineteenth-century Europe' (PMM).

The work has remained controversial since its first publication: Samuel Taylor Coleridge referred to 'the stupid Ignorance of the Man', whilst Robert Southey described Malthus as that 'mischievous booby'. However, the principle of population is now accepted as a central tenet of classical political economy, and Charles Darwin acknowledged Malthus' influence in the development of his theory of natural selection (ODNB).