of a vague and promifcuous concubinage are not only few, and liable to perish by neglect, but are feldom prepared for, or introduced into fituations fuited to the raifing of families of their own. Hence

the advantages of marriage. Now nature, in the conftitution of the fexes, has provided a ftimulus which will infallibly fecure the frequency of marriages, with all their beneficial effects upon the ftate of population, provided the male part of the fpecies be prohibited from irregular gratifications. This impulfe, which is fufficient to furmount almost every impediment to marriage, will operate in proportion to the difficulty, expence, danger, or infamy, the fenfe of guilt, or the fear of punishment, which attend licentious indulgencies. Wherefore, in countries in which fubfiftence is become scarce, it be. hoves the state to watch over the public morals with increased folicitude; for nothing but the instinct of nature, under the reftraint of chaftity, will induce men to undertake the labour, or confent to the facrifice of perfonal liberty and indulgence, which the fupport of a family, in fuch circumftances, requires,

II. The fecond requifite which our propofition ftates, as neceffary to the fuccefs of population, is "The eafe and certainty with which a provision can " be procured for that mode of fubfiftence to which "each clafs of the community is accustomed.” It is not enough that men's natural wants be fupplied, that a provifion adequate to the real exigencies of human life be attainable; habitual fuperfluities become actual wants; opinion and fashion convert arcles of ornament and luxury into neceffaries of fe. And it must not be expected from men in general, at least in the prefent relaxed ftate of morals and difcipline, that they will enter into marriages which degrade their condition, reduce their mode of living, deprive them of the accommodations to which they have been accustomed, or even of thofe naments or appendages of rank and ftation, which

they

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they have been taught to regard as belonging to their birth, or class, or profeffion, or place in fociety. The fame confideration, namely, a view to their accustomed mode of life, which is fo apparent in the fuperior orders of the people, has no lefs influence upon those ranks which compofe the mafs of the community. The kind and quality of food and liquor, the fpecies of habitation, furniture, and clothing, to which the common people of each country are habituated, must be attainable with eafe and certainty before marriages will be fufficiently early in general, to carry the progrefs of population to its juft extent. It is in vain to alledge, that a more fimple diet, ruder habitations, or coarfer apparel, would be fufficient for the purposes of life and health, or even of phyfical eafe and pleafure. Men will not marry with this encouragement. For inftance, when the common people of a country are accustomed to eat a large proportion of animal food, to drink wine, fpirits, or beer, to wear fhoes and ftockings, to dwell in ftone houses, they will not marry to live in clay cottages, upon roots and milk, with no other clothing than fkins, or what is neceffary to defend the trunk of the body from the effects of cold; although these laft may be all that the fuftentation of life and health requires, or that even contribute much to animal comfort and enjoyment.

The cafe, then, and certainty, with which the means can be procured, not barely of fubsistence, but of that mode of fubfifting, which cuftom hath in each country established, form the point upon which the state and progrefs of population chiefly depend. Now, there are three caules which evidently regulate this point. The mode itfelf of fubfifting which prevails in the country; the quantity of provifion fuited to that mode of fubfiftence, which is either raifed in the country, or imported into it and lastly, the distribution of that provifion.

Thefe three caufes merit diftinct confiderations.

I. The

I. The mode of living which actully obtains in a country. In China, where the inhabitants fre. quent the fea fhore, and fubfift in a great measure upon fish, the population is defcribed to be exceffive. This peculiarity arifes, not probably from any civil advantages, any care or policy, any particular co ftitution or fuperior wifdom of government, but fimply from hence, that the fpecies of food, to which cuftom hath reconciled the defires and inclinations of the inhabitants, is that which, of all others, is procured in the greatest abundance, with the moft eafe, and ftands in need of the leaft preparation. The natives of Indoftan, being confined, by the laws of their religion, to the ufe of vegetable food, and requiring little except rice, which the country produces in plentiful crops; and food, in warm di mates, compofing the only want of life; these countries are populous, under all the injuries of a defpotic, and the agitations of an unfettled government. If any revolution, or what would be called perhaps refinement of manners, fhould generate. in thefe people a tafte for the flesh of animals, fimilar to what prevails amongst the Arabian hordes; fhould introduce flocks and herds into grounds which are now covered with corn; fhould teach them to account a certain portion of this fpecies of food amongst the neceffaries of life; the population from this fingle change, would tuffer in a few years a great diminution and this diminution would tollow, in fpite of every effort of the laws, or even of any improvement that might take place in their civil condition. In Ireland, the fimplicity of living alone maintains a confiderable degree of population, under great de fects of police, induftry and commerce.

Under this head, and from a view of thefe confiderations, may be underflood the true evil and proper danger of luxury. Luxury, as it fupplies employment and promotes induftry, affifts population. But then, there is another confequence attending it, which counteracts, and often over balances thefe advantages.

vantages. When, by introducing more fuperfluities into general reception, luxury has rendered the ufual accommodations of life more expenfiv more expenfiv, artificial, and elaborate, the difficulty of maintaining a family, conformably with the established mode of living, becomes greater, and what each man has to spare from his perfonal confumption, proportionably lefs: the effect of which is, that marriages grow lefs frequent, agreeably to the maxim above laid down, and which must be remembered as the foundation of all ur reafoning upon the fubject, that men will not marry to fink their place or condition in fociety, or to forego thofe indulgencies, which their own habits, or what they obferve amongst their equals, have rendered neceffary to their fatisfaction. This principle is applicable to every article of diet and drefs, to houfes, furniture, attendance: and this effect will be felt in every clafs of the community. For instance, the cuftom of wearing broad cloth and fine linen repays the fhepherd and flax-grower, feeds the manufacturer, enriches the merchant, gives not only fup. port, but existence to multitudes of families: hitherto, therefore, the effects are beneficial: and were these the only effects, fuch elegancies, or, if you pleafe to call them fo, fuch luxuries, could not be too univerfal. But here follows the mifchief: when once fashion, hath annexed the ufe of these articles of dress to any certain clafs, to the middling ranks, for example, of the community, each individual of that rank finds them to be neceffaries of life; that is, finds himself obliged to comply with the example of his equals, and to maintain that appearance which the cuftom of fociety requires. This obligation creates fuch a demand upon his income, and withal adds fo much to the coft and burthen of a family, as to put it out of his power to marry, with the profpect of continuing his habits, or of maintaining his place and fituation in the world. We fee, in this: defcription, the caufe, which induces men to wafte their lives in a barren celibacy; and this caufe,

which impairs the very fource of population, is juft placed to the account of luxury.

It appears then, that luxury, confidered with a view to population, acts by two oppofite effects; and it feems probable, that there exifts a point in the fcale, to which luxury may afcend, or, to which the wants of mankind may be multiplied, with advan tage to the community, and beyond which the prejudicial confequences begin to preponderate. The determination of this point, though it affume the form of an arithmetical problem, depends upon cir cumftances too numerous, intricate, and undefined, to admit of á precife folution. However, from what has been obferved concerning the tendency of luxury to diminish marriages, in which tendency the evil of it refides, the following general conclufions may be established.

ift. That, of different kinds of luxury, thofe are the most innocent, which afford employment to the greatest number of artists and manufacturers; or thofe, in other words, in which the price of the work bears the greatest proportion to that of the raw material. Thus, luxury in drefs or furniture is univerfally preferable to luxury in eating, because the articles which conftitute the one, are more the production of human art and induftry, than those which fupply the other.

2dly. That it is the diffufion, rather than the degree of luxury, which is to be dreaded as a national evil. The mischief of luxury confifts, as we have seen, in the obstruction that it forms to marriage. Now, it is only a fmall part of the people that the higher ranks in any country compofe; for which realon, the facility, or the difficulty of fupporting the expence of their ftation, and the confequent increafe or diminution of marriages amongst them, will influence the state of population but little. So long as the prevalency of luxury is confined to a few of elevated rank, much of the benefit is felt, and little of the inconveniency. But when the imitation of the

fame