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CHAP. III. 



Of the only effectual Mode of improving the Condition of 



the Poor. 



He who publishes a moral code, or system of 

 duties, however firmly he may be convinced of the 

 strong obligation on each individual strictly to 

 conform to it, has never the folly to imagine that 

 it will be universally or even generally practised. 

 But this is no valid objection against the publica- 

 tion of the code. If it were, the same objection 

 would always have applied ; we should be totally 

 without general rules ; and to the vices of man- 

 kind arising from temptation would be added a 

 much longer list, than we have at present, of vices 

 from ignorance. 



Judging merely from the light of nature, if we 

 feel convinced of the misery arising from a redun- 

 dant population on the one hand, and of the evils 

 and unhappiness, particularly to the female sex, 

 arising from promiscuous intercourse, on the other, 

 I do not see how it is possible for any person who 

 acknowledges the principle of utility, as the great 

 criterion of moral rules, to escape the conclusion, 

 that moral restraint, or the abstaining from mar- 

 riage till we are in a condition to support a family, 

 with a perfectly moral conduct during that period, 

 is the strict line of duty ; and when revelation is 

 taken into the question, this duty undoubtedly 



