LIVES foortened by TEA. 231 
we may fafely calculate that three are brought to their grave 
before the time appointed by nature. I will fuppofe that one 
houfe in three, kills only one man in ten; this amounts to feven 
hundred and feventy-feven annually. 
If it can be made appear that by the prevailing ridiculous cu- 
ftoms of the times, amongft which we muft reckon the ufe of 
tea, added to common vices and infirmities, as juft mention- 
ed, that one in a thousand is annually loft, in eleven milli- 
ons it amounts to eleven thoufand. If this computation is fub- 
jed to exceptions, as being too general ; if we calculate only a 
quarter part of it, in twenty years the king will lofe at leaft 
fixty thoufand fubjeds, and what numbers will this amount to 
in twice the time ! This account may startle you ; but as it 
is juftly obferved, that war and famine do not make fuch deva- 
luation as intemperance in general, fo in peculiar inftances, in par- 
ticular countries, an abfurd fafhion may prevail, of which very 
few obferve its operations, and yet it may fhorten the lives of mil- 
lions, and at length reduce a ftate to an abjed condition. Were 
mankind temperate, ’tis more than probable they would live fix 
or eight years longer than they do ; and the whole face of the 
habitable part of the globe might, according to the moft appa- 
rent defign of providence, be well peopled, efpecially in coun- 
tries where the ravages of war feldom or never reach. 
I do not mean to amufe you with romantic fpeculations, 
nor to jeft merely to promote the trade of paper-mills and 
printing- houfes *. But there is another caufe of the diminu- 
tion 
* This treatife was wrote with a defign to be printed, which was not the intention 
of the LETTERS. 
