The greatest talents have been frequently misapplied and have produced evil proportionate to the extent of their powers. Both reason and revelation seem to assure us that such minds will be condemned to eternal death, but while on earth, these vicious instruments performed their part in the great mass of impressions, by the disgust and abhorrence which they excited.

Chapter XIX, paragraph 2, lines 1-6. - An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised)