Ch. v. in Switzerland. 359 



cularly with his concluding proposition. He 

 must have seen and felt the misery arising from 

 a redundant population most forcibly, to have 

 proposed so violent a remedy. I found upon in- 

 quiry that he had himself married very young. 



The only point in which he failed, as to his 

 philosophical knowledge of the subject, was in 

 confining his reasonings too much to barren and 

 mountainous countries, and not extending them 

 to the plains. In fertile situations, he thought, 

 perhaps, that the plenty of corn and employment 

 might remove the difficulty, and allow of early 

 marriages. Not having lived much in the plains, 

 it was natural for him to fall into this error ; par- 

 ticularly, as in such situations the difficulty is not 

 only more concealed from the extensiveness of 

 the subject; but is in reality less, from the greater 

 mortality naturally occasioned by low grounds, 

 towns, and manufactories. 



On inquiring into the principal cause of what 

 he had named the predominant vice of his country, 

 he explained it with great philosophical precision. 

 He said, that a manufacture for the polishing of 

 stones had been established some years ago, 

 which for a time had been in a very thriving state, 

 and had furnished high wages and employment 

 to all the neighbourhood ; that the facility of pro- 

 viding for a family, and of finding early employ- 

 ment for children, had greatly encouraged early 

 marriages ; and that the same habit had- conti- 

 nued, when, from a change of fashion, accident, 

 and other causes, the manufacture was almost at 



