276 Of the Effects on Society Bk. iv. 



with just confidence to marriage at twenty-seven 

 or twenty-eight, I fully believe, that, if the matter 

 were left to their free choice, they would clearly 

 prefer waiting till this period, to the being in- 

 volved in all the cares of a large family at twenty- 

 five. The most eligible age of marriage however 

 could not be fixed; but must depend entirely on 

 circumstances and situation. There is no period 

 of human life, at which nature more strongly 

 prompts to an union of the sexes, than from seven- 

 teen or eighteen to twenty. In every society 

 above that state of depression, which almost ex- 

 cludes reason and foresight, these early tendencies 

 must necessarily be restrained ; and if, in the 

 actual state of things, such a restraint on the im- 

 pulses of nature be found unavoidable, at what 

 time can we be consistently released from it, but 

 at that period, whatever it may be, when, in the 

 existing circumstances of the society, a fair pros- 

 pect presents itself of maintaining a family? 

 . The difiiculty of moral restraint will perhaps be 

 objected to this doctrine. To him who does not 

 acknowledge the authority of the Christian reli- 

 gion, I have only to say that, after the most careful 

 investigation, this virtue appears to be absolutely 

 necessary, in order to avoid certain evils which 

 would otherwise result from the general laws of 

 nature. According to his own principles, it is his 

 duty to pursue the greatest good consistent with 

 these laws ; and not to fail in this important end, 

 and produce an overbalance of misery by a partial 

 obedience to some of the dictates of nature, while 

 he neglects others. The path of virtue, though 



