APPENDIX. 463 



also our duty not to indulge ourselves in vicious gratifica- 

 tions ; but I have never said that I expected either, much 

 less both, of these duties to be completely fulfilled. In 

 this, and a number of other cases, it may happen that the 

 violation of one of tvi'o duties will enable a man to perform 

 the other with greater facility ; but if they be really both 

 duties, and both practicable, no power on earth can absolve 

 a man from the guilt of violating either. This can only be 

 done by that God, who can weigh the crime against the 

 temptation, and will temper justice with mercy. The mo- 

 ralist is still bound to inculcate the practice of both duties; 

 and each individual must be left to act under the tempta- 

 tions to which he is exposed, as his conscience shall dictate. 

 AVhatever 1 may have said in drawing a picture professedly 

 visionary, for the sake of illustration ; in the practical ap- 

 plication of my principles I have taken man as he is, with 

 all his imperfections on his head. And thus viewing him, 

 and knowing that some checks to population must exist, I 

 have not the slightest hesitation in saying, that the prudential 

 check to marriage is better than premature mortality. And 

 in this decision I feel myself completely justified by expe- 

 rience. 



In every instance that can be traced, in which an improved 

 government has given to its subjects a greater degree of 

 foresight, industry, and personal dignity, these effects, un- 

 der similar circumstances of increase, have invariably been 

 accompanied by a diminished proportion of marriages. 

 This is a proof that an increase of moral worth in the gene- 

 ral character is not, at least, incompatible with an increase 

 of temptations with respect to one particular vice; and the 

 instances of Norway, Switzerland, England, and Scotland, 

 adduced in the last chapter of the Essay, shew that, in com- 

 paring different countries together, a smaller proportion of 

 marriages and births does not necessarily imply the greater 

 prevalence even of this particular vice. This is surely 

 quite enough for the legislator. He cannot estimate, with 

 tolerable ac(;uracy, the degree in wliich chastity in the single 

 state prevails. His general conclusions must be founded 

 on general results, and these are clearly in his favour. 



To much of Mr. Young's plan, as he has at present ex- 

 plained it, I should by no means object. The peculiar evil 

 w hich I apprehended from it, that of taking the poor from 

 the consumption of wheat, and feeding them on milk and 



