42 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



fact, describes the condition of the mass of the 

 community in all countries : a condition unavoid- 

 ably, as it should seem, resulting from the provi- 

 sion which is made in the human, in common with 

 all animal constitutions, for the perpetuity and 

 multiplication of the species. 



It need not however dishearten any endeavours 

 for the public service, to know that population na- 

 turally treads upon the heels of improvement. If 

 the condition of a people be meliorated, the con- 

 sequence will be, either that the mean happiness 

 will be increased, or a greater number partake of 

 it ; or, which is most likely to happen, that both 

 effects will take place together. There may be 

 limits fixed by nature to both, but they are limits 

 not yet attained, nor even approached, in any 

 country of the world. 



And when we speak of limits at all, we have 

 respect only to provisions for animal wants. There 

 are sources, and means, and auxiliaries, and aug- 

 mentations of human happiness, communicable 

 without restriction of numbers; as capable of being 

 possessed by a thousand persons as by one. Such 

 are those which flow from a mild, contrasted with 

 a tyrannic government, whether civil or domestic ; 

 those which spring from religion ; those which 

 grow out of a sense of security ; those which de- 

 pend upon habits of virtue, sobriety, moderation, 

 order : those, lastly, which are found in the pos- 

 session of well-directed tastes and desires, com- 

 pared with the dominion of tormenting, pernicious. 



