countries there is enough, and to spare, of the means of subsistence, but the people are wretched; they are not so far elevated as to enjoy the security and comfort of the European peasants; Place them in that state, and no one can doubt that population would increase there as it does elsewhere.

There is a certain rank which is most friendly to population, all above or below this lessen the force of the principle of increase. To increase the population of a state, it is not enough to feed the inhabitants with a certain daily allowance, if that were the case, a prison or a brothel would be as friendly to procreation as a cottage; something more is requisite.

When the population of a state stops, we are not to imagine that the number of violent deaths have overtaken the principle of increase.. Population stops without an increase in deaths; it has stopped in Spain and Portugal, but it goes on in France; Mr. M. says that nation could furnish her armies with 150000 recruits annually, without diminishing the number of the existing families: from hence it may be argued, that the condition of the people in that country is improving; but it does not imply that the Spaniards have not bread enough, they may

not want the means of subsistence, but they want better laws, laws that secure their happiness.---I apprehend the rate of the increase of the peasants of the farming districts of this country will never be greater than it is, but a further elevation of sentiment and of character would be borne without its being lessened; they must become much wiser than the middle class, as it is now called, before they are as unproductive, because they have less care.

A government, that for a succession of years, pays the strictest attention to the improvement of the people, and as far as possible suppresses vice and banishes misery, would find that its population required not the sword to thin it. Like the Athenians, in the best days of their republic, or like the best informed classes of subjects in the modern states of Europe, more care would be requisite to guard against a decrease than to prevent the contrary.

Another general observation that I shall make, is, that a society divided into classes is in the best state for improvement. Suppose two thousand persons were to reside together, a certain proportion would be farmers, one would be a miller, a third a baker, and they all would be fully employed, and would be in circumstances

considerably more conducive to happiness than that of the mere shepherd; this is the simplest state of civilized society, but an addition to such a society would be difficult to make: suppose fifty were added, they could not employ another miller or baker, and the consequence must be, that they must live in a state not so much divided; each family must supply all its own wants, which would reduce thein below the 2000 in civilization. Hence it would seem that there exists a reciprocal connection between civilization and population; the one cannot increase without the other, to a certain extent.

Again, suppose a nation to consist of many sets, if I may call them so, of 2000 each, their improvement would be extremely slow if they lived detached, because there would be a want of emulation. There is little emulation in a village, every one transacts his business with his neighbour. But in a large town society is more divided: besides the tradesmen, and others employed in procuring articles of the first necessity, there are individuals who are independent of any care or concern about business; this class, though not essential to the existence of a state, is highly instrumental to its welfare; it gives birth to new occupations, and

excites emulation; the patronage of the wealthy is worth an effort to procure, the effort gives birth to improvement, and civilization goes forward; and as it advances, the principle of increase is called into full exercise, without the smallest dread of the consequences. Population cannot advance too fast while knowledge is increasing; nor can it ever extend so far as to need the correction of vice, for the principle is lessened by the emulation consequent on a full population:

OF THE

DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE.

A BELIEF in the existence of a supreme, intelligent First Cause is avowed by many, who discredit the general sentiment that a revelation of the mind and will of this Pure Intelligence has been made to man, and who imagine that they have attained the knowledge they possess concerning him by the light of their understandings; but in this I apprehend they have deceived themselves. The mind, fettered and debased by the organized body in which it acts, is, I apprehend, capable of comprehending and judging only of material objects; it cannot ascend beyond their sphere: it plans, contrives, and invents, but such efforts relate entirely to the connection of matter with matter.

The greatest discoveries to which man has ever presumed, (I allude to the arts and sciences in their application and use), are limited to the