266 Of moral Restraint. Bk. iv. 



" while it shews us the principle of vice, shews 

 " us at the same time the province of reason and 

 " self-government."* 



Our virtue, therefore, as reasonable beings, 

 evidently consists in educing from the general 

 materials, which the Creator has placed under 

 our guidance, the greatest sum of human happi- 

 ness ; and as natural impulses are abstractedly 

 considered good, and only to be distinguished by 

 their consequences, a strict attention to these 

 consequences, and the regulation of our conduct 

 conformably to them, must be considered as our 

 principal duty. 



The fecundity of the human species is, in some 

 respects, a distinct consideration from the passion 

 between the sexes, as it evidently depends more 

 upon the power of women in bearing children, 

 than upon the strength and weakness of this pas- 

 sion. It is a law however exactly similar in its 

 great features to all the other laws of nature. It 

 is strong and general, and apparently would not 

 admit of any very considerable diminution, with- 

 out being inadequate to its object; the evils 

 arising from it are incidental to those necessary 

 qualities of strength and generality; and these 

 evils are capable of being very greatly mitigated 

 and rendered comparatively light by human 

 energy and virtue. We cannot but conceive that 

 it is an object of the Creator, that the earth should 

 be replenished ; and it appears to me clear, that 



* Natural Theology, c. xxvi. p. 547. 



