So various are the wants of the body, in different regions of the globe, that no other general rule can be given, than this one :---Keep up the vigour of the system by the smallest possible stimulus. Of this, each individual must judge for himself. The diet of an East-Indian would be death to a Greenlander: and the diet which most men can bear, without injury, would be pernicious to a woman.

OF PROSTITUTION.

THE bad effects of this vice, on population, like that last treated of, are not great. Those unhappy females, who sacrifice their own characters, and betray the honour of the sex, are not only a loss to society, but a pest to it; having rendered themselves incapable of being mothers, and unworthy of becoming wives, they are pitied and despised by the wise and good; but they are, happily, few in number, as it respects the whole population of a country: London may reckon thousands, and smaller cities hundreds, of such pitiable outcasts. But if it be taken into the account, that in Europe, and in every civilized country, the men, in consequence of greater exposure to accidental and violent death, are fewer in number than the women, there must necessarily be some who are unproductive. I do not design to apologize for vice, I merely relate

a fact, generally acknowledged, nor does the conduct of many of my single countrywomen need an apology, if moralists pass them by,---if lighter writers hold them up to ridicule,---if men, who ought to have been better informed, represent the whole sex as destitute of moral principles, as rakes at heart, as shielded in their virtue only by the fear of infamy,---if even more injurious things are said, the conduct of many, who pass unmarried through life, proves the whole to be calumny; and they may be referred to, not as rare and unexpected exceptions to a general rule, but as the standard of the moral principle among the sex.

The virtue of the unmarried, is the virtue of the whole they have not the privilege of being mothers, but they have the high office of instructing, by their example, the rising generation, and the honour of convincing every one, that in the female character there is much true dignity; they, indeed, walk singly and alone through the world, but the rectitude of their conduct enlivens and cheers the way, whilst detestation and loathing are the sure and just consequences of prostitution.

It would not be an easy task, to point out the nation in Europe in which prostitution is

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most prevalent: the English accuse the French, and the French the Neapolitans; but no civilized country, not even America, is exempt from this vice: and if in any nation the extent diminishes, it is to the honour of the government and the happiness of the people.

Drunkenness destroys the worth and shortens the period of human life, and is most practised by men; prostitution still more, if possible, degrades and debases the female character: but neither of these vices essentially affect population. Were there no drunkards, and no prostitutes, there would not be many more children; and besides these, no other vice has any direct effect: a thief, or a perjurer, are not less prolific in consequence of their crimes. I shall, therefore, close my remarks on vice, as a check to population, and pass on to the consideration of another subject.

OF CELIBACY.

THE civil and religious institutions of the east, and especially of China, so powerfully promote marriage, that the influence of celibacy is looked for in vain. Mr. Hume is of opinion, that few men are unmarried, in China, at the age of twenty; so completely is the principle of increase called into exercise. But, in the estimation of Mr. Malthus, the infrequency of marriage is the most powerful of the checks which, in modern Europe, keep down the population to the means of subsistence;* and, in speaking of England, some motives are urged in justification of this conduct. "A man", says our author, "of a liberal education and small fortune, cannot marry without giving up the society of gentlemen, and ranking with farmers' and tradesmen."

Mr. M's. Essays, page 351. + Page 301.