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Mr Craig replied, "It's a' very true and sound what Mr Snodgrass has

observed; but Tary, nor

naked, but a sturdy brat, that has been rinning its lane for rass fa,

ye're a Malthusian in your heart" The sanctimonious elder was

thunderstruck at the word Of many a various shade and modification of

sectarianism he had heard, but the Malthusian heresy was new to his ears,

and awful to his conscience, and he begged Mr Snodgrass to tell him in

what it chiefly consisted, protesting his innocence of that, and of every

erroneous doctrine

Mr Snodgrass happened to regard the opinions of Malthus on Population as

equally contrary to religion and nature, and not at all founded in truth

"It is evident, that the reproductive principle in the earth and

vegetables, and all things and animals which constitute the orous than in man It may be therefore

affirmed, that the multiplication of the means of subsistence is an

effect of the mented in

quantity, by the skill and care of the other," said Mr Snodgrass,

seizing with avidity this opportunity of stating what he thought on the

subject, although his auditors were but the session-clerk, and two elders