14 Of the general Checks to Population, Bk. i. 



and certainly do prevent, a great number of per- 

 sons in all civilized nations from pursuing the dic- 

 tate of nature in an early attachment to one 

 woman. 



If this restraint do not produce vice, it is un- 

 doubtedly the least evil that can arise from the 

 principle of population. Considered as a restraint 

 on a strong natural inclination, it must be allowed 

 to produce a certain degree of temporary unhap- 

 piness ; but evidently slight, compared with the 

 evils which result from any of the other checks to 

 population; and merely of the same nature as 

 many other sacrifices of temporary to permanent 

 gratification, which it is the business of a moral 

 agent continually to make. 



When this restraint produces vice, the evils 

 which follow are but too conspicuous. A promis- 

 cuous intercourse to such a degree as to prevent 

 the birth of children, seems to lower, in the most 

 marked manner, the dignity of human nature. It 

 cannot be without its effect on men, and nothing 

 can be more obvious than its tendency to degrade 

 the female character, and to destroy all its most 

 amiable and distinguishing characteristics. Add 

 to which, that among those unfortunate females, 

 with which all great towns abound, more real 

 distress and aggravated misery are, perhaps, to be 

 found, than in any other department of human life. 



When a general corruption of morals, with 

 regard to the sex, pervades all the classes of so- 

 ciety, its effects must necessarily be, to poison 

 the springs of domestic happiness, to weaken con- 



