OF NATURAL HISTORY. 271 



difTerence feems to originate from two caufes, the tempera- 

 ture of the climate, and the quality of the food. Children of 

 citizens, and of opulent parents, who are fed with rich and 

 nourifliing victuals, arrive fooner at this flate. Children, 

 on the contrary, brought up in the country, or whofe parents 

 are poor, require two or three years longer ; becaufe their 

 food is not only coarfe, but too fparingly given. In the 

 fouthern regions of Europe, and in large cities, the females 

 arrive at puberty about the age of twelve, and the males 

 about fourteen. But, in northern climates, and in the coun- 

 try, girls hardly come to maturity till they are fourteen, and 

 boys not before lixteen. In the warmeft regions of Afla, 

 Africa, and America, the age of puberty in females com- 

 mences at ten, and fometimes at nine. 



After puberty, the Count de BufFon rem.arks, « marriage 



< is the natural flate of man. A man ought to have but one 



< wife, and a woman but one hufband. This is the law of 

 « Nature ; for the number of females is nearly equal to that 



* of the males. Such laws as have been ena^ed in oppofi- 



< tion to this natural principle, have origiw.ated folely from 

 « tyranny and ignorance. Reafon, humanity, and juflice^ 



* revolt againd: thofe odious feraglios, in which the liberty 

 ' and the afFe£lions of many women are facrificed to the 

 ' brutal paffion of a iingle man. Does this unnatural pre- 



* eminence render thofe tyrants of the human race miore 



< happy ? No ! Surrounded with eunuchs^ and with women 



< who are ufelefs to themfelves and to other men, they are 



* tormented with the conftant appearance of that accumulat- 



< ed load of mifery they have created.' 



All animals, as well as thofe of the human fpccics, under- 

 go, at the age of puberty, iimilar changes in the form of 

 their bodies, and in the difpofitions of their mind?. From 

 mild, placid, and gentle, they become bold, reliefs, and un- 

 governable. Their bodies are then, in flrength and fymme- 



