Ch. ii. Of the Effects on Society, <§'c. 271 



future happiness in the exercise of those virtues 

 which tend to fit us for a state of superior enjoy- 

 ment ; and the subjection of the passions to the 

 guidance of reason, which, if not the whole, is a 

 principal branch of prudence, is in consequence 

 most particularly inculcated. 



If, for the sake of illustration, we might be per- 

 mitted to draw a picture of society, in which each 

 individual endeavoured to attain happiness by the 

 strict fulfilment of those duties, which the most 

 enlightened of the ancient philosophers deduced 

 from the laws of nature, and which have been di- 

 rectly taught, and received such powerful sanc- 

 tions in the moral code of Christianity, it would 

 present a very different scene from that which we 

 now contemplate. Every act, which was prompt- 

 ed by the desire of immediate gratification, but 

 which threatened an ultimate overbalance of pain, 

 would be considered as a breach of duty ; and 

 consequently no man, whose earnings were only 

 sufficient to maintain two children, would put him- 

 self in a situation in which he might have to main- 

 tain four or five, however he might be prompted 

 to it by the passion of love. This prudential re- 

 straint, if it were generally adopted, by narrow- 

 ing the supply of labour in the market, would, in 

 the natural course of things, soon raise its price. 

 The period of delayed gratification would be 

 passed in saving the earnings which were above 

 the wants of a single man, and in acquiring habits 

 of sobriety, industry and economy, which would 

 enable him in a few years to enter into the ma- 



