80 Sti/blES OF NATURE. 



confequènce from the general Law of contrariée^ 

 which governs the World, and from which all the 

 harmonies of Nature refult : it muft, therefore^ 

 particularly manifeft itfelf in the Human Race, 

 which is the centre of the whole ; and it actually 

 does difcover itfelf, in the wonderful equilibrium, 

 conformably to which the two fexes are born in 

 equal numbers. It does not fix on individuals, in 

 particular, for we fee families confiding wholly of 

 daughters, and others all fons ; but it embraces 

 the aggregate of a whole city, and of a Nation, 

 the male and female children of which are always 

 produced very nearly equal in number. Whatever 

 inequality of fex there may exift in the variety of 

 births in families, the equality is confl:antly re- 

 ilored in the aggregate of a people. 



But there is aiiother equilibrium no lefs wonder- 

 ful, which has not, I believe, become an objeft of 

 attention; As there are a great many men who 

 perifh in War, in fea-voyages, and by painful and 

 dangerous employments, it would thence follow, 

 that, at the long run, the number of women would 

 daily go on in an increafing proportion. On the 

 fuppofition, that there periQies annually one tenth 

 part more of men than of women, the balancing 

 of the fexes muft become more and more un- 

 equal. Social ruin muft increafe from the very 

 regularity of the natural order^ This, however, 



does 



