klStORY OF VERMONT. 417 



condition of the body of the people, the ease dt 

 the difficulty with Avhich they can procure prd- 

 Jjcrty to mjintain a farhily, the genius of the 

 civil i^overnrnent, the spirit and regulations of 

 relii^ion, the numbers employed and the de- 

 struction occasioned by war, the institutions of 

 celibacy, with the manners and customs of the 

 people, may retard or favor population, to a 

 ^reat degree ; and cause it to be very different 

 in the s.ime climate, and at the same place, at 

 different times. Both these causes generally 

 combiiie, and operate together ; and in such a 

 manner, that we cannot separate their effects ; 

 or determine how rnuch is to be ascribed to the 

 law of nature and climate, and what is derived 

 from the state of society. This difficulty at- 

 tends. all the tables which have been made of 

 t>irths, deaths, and marriages. Tables of this 

 kind have been made for almost every nation in 

 Europe, and for several places in Americai 

 They appear to have been the result of accu- 

 rate observations and calculationo But the re- 

 sults at different places in the same latitude and 

 climate, have been so different, that no general 

 conclusions can be drawn from them, respect- 

 ing the natural increase of the human race : 

 They mark w4iat has taken place at a given 

 time, and place ; but they afford little informa- 

 tion of what is to be expected, from the general 

 course of nature, in any particular country, or 

 climate. 

 , By the late enumeration of the inhabitants of 

 the United States of America, a period has beeni 

 found in the course of human life, above, and 

 below which the number of the males are nearly* 



VOL. 71 D 3 



