® 
® 
is what they are made for. 
524 
mand,.in the confidence that as the ex- 
periment fucceeded with Sefoftris, Cyrus, 
Alexander, Czfar, Gengifkan, Tamer- 
lane, Charles, Louis, and a great many 
more men-mafters, it will alfo fucceed 
with him;—in other words, as the 
French boy faid, that ‘als font faits 
pour cela 2” . 
Farther—Man is a creature of flrong 
appetites and paffions. Thefe are evolved 
in him earlier than the ‘principles of 
yeafon and underftanding, and, in much 
the greater part of the {pecies, they con- 
tinue to take the lead during life. Sen- 
fual pleafures have attraétions for all 
men; and it is only that clafs who, by . 
means of the bodily labour of the ma- 
jority, are able to live in comparative 
eafe and leifure, that can acquire a re- 
lifh for intelle€tual enjoyments, Now, 
the more numerous mankind become, the 
more fedulous muft be their exertions to 
procure the zeceffaries of life, which muft 
ever be the firft concern, ‘The more 
refinement and laxury prevail among 
‘the higher claffes, the ‘greater propor- 
tion of the lower muft devote the whole 
of their time to labour, in a variety of 
new modes. Even the improyements in 
arts and fciences require the additional 
manual toil of inferior artifts; and the 
ingenuity of one head fets at work a 
thonfand pair of hands. What is im- 
plicd by the fublime difcoveries of a 
Herfchell ?—the exiftence of the collier, 
miner, forgeman, fmith, brazier, glafs- 
maker, and grinder, carpenter, &c. &c. 
all of whom muft be hard-working men, 
living in garrets or cellars, drinking 
orter and drams, when they can get 
them, and placing their fummum bonum 
“in a hot fupper and a warm bed. This 
And when 
the government under which they live, 
and of which they muft always be /ud- 
jes, not members, choofes to quarrel 
- with a neighbouring ftate, about the right 
of fithing or trading on the other fide 
of the globe, or fome equally worthy 
matter of debate, thefe very men muft 
’ be compelled or debauched to clap an 
uniform on their backs, and a mufket 
on their fhoulders, and learn to kill and 
be killed, at the word of command— 
for this, too, is what they are made for. 
An acquaintance of mine, who is fond 
_ of the Linnean mode of charaéterifing 
objects of natural hiftory, has amufed 
himfelf with drawing up the following 
definition of man: — 
Srmi1a Homo: fine caude: pedibus 
' ~pofticis ambulans: gregarium, omnivo- 
Decreafe of Population. 
[ Aug. 
rum, inguietum, mendax, furax, rapax, 
falax, pugnax, artium varlarum capax, 
animalium reliquorum hoftis, fui ipfius 
inimicus acerrimus. 
This, I confefs, is an unfavourable 
portrait. I with, Mr, Editor, fome of 
your correfpondents would, from a fair 
drawing after nature, give us a better. 
Your’s, &c. 
HERACLITO-DEMOCRITEUS, 
Auguft 2, 1796. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, a 
It was only the other day that a friend, 
refiding in a neighbouring town, fent 
me, with fome books I had requefted the 
loan of, the three Firft Numbers of your 
valuable Publication. Had I feen them 
fooner, I fhould fooner have fubmitted ta 
your confideration fome remarks on a 
fubjeét which you, fir, feem to think of 
importance; but which (ftrange to tell) 
appears to have been regarded as of lit- 
tle moment by any of your—predecef- 
fors—I would call them, were it not 
implying a degree of merit they are far 
from bemg intitled to. O 
That ‘the population of this country 
has, within the prefent century, greatly 
increafed, is a pofition which, till lately, 
has only been difputed by a difcerning 
few, who, for their pains, have beer 
uniformly and induftrioufly reprefented 
as their country’s enemies ; and even now 
it is not without hazard of. incurring tue 
fame obloquy, that an opinion to the 
contrary can be advanced. ‘This might 
be accounted for, but would lead into a 
field of difcuffion, I by no means deem 
myfelf qualified to enter upon. The 
ftate of the population of the country at 
large, £ Jeave in.abler hands: all that 
I thall offer towards its elucidation being 
merely partial and local. My refidence 
is in a remote county, where agricul- 
ture is the principal, and, imdeed, a 
{mall diftriét excepted, the fole employ- 
ment of the people. It is, probably, 
in fuch fituations, that a decreafe of in- 
habitants is more particularly obvious; 
and, permit me to add, where that de- 
creafe is of the moft pernicious confe- 
quence; for, on a fuppofition that the 
population of the country has, on the 
whole, increafed, I would afk how, and 
in what manner this increafed population 
is to be fupported, when it is evident 
that a much fmaller proportion of the 
people are employed in agriculrure ? 
‘That this is a melancholy faét,-I confi-. - 
dently refer to the teftimony of any one, 
. whofe 
