[265] Thou mayest be no longer steward: The
master is telling the steward (or estate manager) that he is going to be fired and must present an account of his management, thus giving him time to improve his situation.
[266] I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed: The steward is physically unfit for manual labor and reluctant to become a beggar.
passage is that dishonest people (such as the
[268] Abraham's bosom: heaven, paradise. Abraham was the first and greatest of the Hebrew patriarchs,
and to be in his bosom meant to be close to him after death.
[268] The Rockefellers and the Carnegies: John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) and Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) were wealthy American
[269] Geometrical ratio . . . arithmetical ratio: A
geometrical ratio increases by doubling (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, . . . ) while an arithmetical ratio increases by simple addition (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, . . .). Though both ratios can double from 1 to 2, simultaneously, the geometric ratio—even if it begins the process at a substantially lower number—will always outstrip the arithmetical ratio.
[270] This Island: England.
[271] This restraint . . . produces vice: Malthus believed that young men and women were naturally disposed to form monogamous attachments and begin having children. However, the
[272] Transverse: connected like the beams of a cross.
[273] Retrograde and progressive: back and forth. Malthus refers here to the fact that most of the periodic increases and decreases in the population of a society take place among its poorest
[274] Nominal and real price of labour: The
"nominal price," the actual wage paid to workers, differs from the "real price," which measures the buying power of a given wage by factoring in increases in the prices of goods. Comparisons of
[275] Mr. Kapildeva Malaviya: Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861-1946) was a well-known Indian scholar, journalist, and independence advocate and the founder of the Banaras Hindu University.
[276] Sir William Wilson Hunter: member
(1840-1900) of the British civil service in India and the author of a number of popular books about India for Western audiences.
[277] 'Take no thought for the morrow': from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do
industrialists. Krishna: According to Hindu scripture, Krishna is an incarnation of the god Vishnu. He is Arjuna's chariot driver in the
[279] Nanak . . . Ramkrishna: Guru Nanak (1469-1539) founded the Sikh religion in India. Kabir (1440-1519) was an Indian mystic whose
teachings were important to Hindus and Muslims. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534) was a devotee of Krishna and a social reformer in the Indian province of Bengal; his teachings form the basis for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna) in the West. Adi Shankara (eighth century ce) was a well-known
[281] Ј.s.d.: the standard abbreviations for the 12. Wallace: Alfred RusselWallace (1823-1913), three major British monetary units: pounds, a British naturalist who, along with Charles shillings, pence. Darwin, articulated the principles of the theory
[282] 'Wise, temperate, and furious': a reference of evolution by natural selection. The passages
to William Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Who can be that Gandhi quotes are found in Wallace's 1913 wise, amazed, temp'rate and furious, / Loyal and book, Social Environment and Moral Progress. neutral in a moment? No man" (2.3.105-06).
[284] Aegis: technically, a shield or breastplate; more commonly, mentorship or guidance.
[285] Black Mass: a Satanic parody of the Christian Mass; according to legend, it culminates with a sexual orgy.
[286] Dialectic: the combined effect of two contra
dictory phenomena (p. 678).
[288] 1 percent: a common term used to refer to the wealthiest individuals in a given country.
[289] Outsize profits: a common way of referring to profits that receive scrutiny and criticism for being extremely large.