268 Of moral ixtsiraint. dk. iv. 



narrow, at the expense of a small comparative 

 quantity of evil. The analogy of all the other 

 laws of nature would be completely violated, if 

 in this instance alone there were no provision for 

 accidental failures, no resources against the vices 

 of mankind, or the partial mischiefs resulting from 

 other general laws. To effect the apparent object 

 without any attendant evil, it is evident that a 

 perpetual change in the law of increase would be 

 necessary, varying with the varying circumstances 

 of each country. But instead of this, it is not 

 only more consonant to the analogy of the other 

 parts of nature, but we have reason to think that 

 it is more conducive to the formation and im- 

 provement of the human mind, that the law should 

 be uniform, and the evils incidental to it, under 

 certain circumstances, left to be mitigated or re- 

 moved by man himself. His duties in this case 

 vary with his situation ; he is thus kept more 

 alive to the consequences of his actions; and his 

 faculties have evidently greater play and opportu- 

 nity of improvement, than if the evil were removed 

 by a perpetual change of the law according to 

 circumstances. 



Even if from passions too easily subdued, or the 

 facility of illicit intercourse, a state of celibacy 

 were a matter of indifference, and not a state of 

 some privation, the end of nature in the peopling 

 of the earth would be apparently liable to be de- 

 feated. It is of the very utmost importance to 

 the happiness of mankind, that population should 

 not increase too fast; but it does not appear, that 



