38 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



nishing nearly in proportion to the degree in which 

 these causes are mitigated or removed. Tn those 

 countries of America, where, from peculiar situ- 

 ation or further advantages in improvement, the 

 hardships of savage life are less severely felt, the 

 passion between the sexes becomes more ardent. 

 Anions: some of the tribes seated on the banks of 

 rivers well stored with fish, or others that inhabit 

 a territory greatly abounding in game or much 

 improved in agriculture, the women are more 

 valued and admired ; and as hardly any restraint 

 is imposed on the gratification of desire, the disso- 

 luteness of their manners is sometimes exces- 

 sive.* 



If we do not then consider this apathy of the 

 Americans as a natural defect in their bodily 

 frame, but merely as a general coldness, and an 

 infrequency of the calls of the sexual appetite, we 

 shall not be inclined to give much weight to it as 

 affecting the number of children to a marriage; but 

 shall be disposed to look for the cause of this un- 

 fruitfulness in the condition and customs of the 

 women in a savage state. And here we shall find 

 reasons amply sufficient to account for the fact in 

 question. 



It is justly observed by Dr. Robertson, that, 

 " Whether man has been improved by the pro- 

 " gress of arts and civilization, is a question which 



* Robertson, b. iv. p. 71. Lettres Edif. et Curieuses, torn, 

 vi. p. 48, 322, 330. torn, vii.p. 20. 12mo. edit. 1780. Cbarlevoix, 

 torn. iii. p. 303, -123. Hennepin, Moeuvs des Sauvages, p. 37. 



