Charles Darwin was influenced by many writers, scholars, philosophers, and friends. One of his influences was Thomas Robert Malthus, a late-eighteenth century economist. Malthus wrote Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), which Darwin read and was inspired by. The central theme of Malthus' work was that population growth would always overpower food supply growth, creating perpetual states of hunger, disease, and struggle. The natural, ever-present struggle for survival caught the attention of Darwin, and he extended Malthus' principle to the evolutionary scheme. Darwin considered that some of the competitors in Malthus' perpetual struggle would be ...