sening the number of husbands in this country; and the consequences, it is feared, may be traced to that misery, infamy, and total ruin, that fall upon some of the loveliest of human beings: but, on the whole, it is as surprising, as it is cheering, to remark, how universal is the prevalence of marriage; and it is hard to determine, regarding the few who remain single, which sex prevails. Dr. Short asserts, that fewer females than males die unmarried; others presume the contrary; but the very uncertainty demonstrates the fact for which I contend, namely, the accurate provision for the universality of that institution which is the source of all the comforts and charities of existence, the guardian of public morality, and the foundation of all national greatness and prosperity. (19) I am aware, however, that those who advocate a theory the very contrary to that principle which I am about to unfold, will concur, in the main, with what I have just advanced. They may even claim the minute regulations adverted to, as so many proofs of the existence of some fixed and unbending principle of population corroborative of the system for which they contend. In so doing, however, they will again fall into error. The physical law which governs the proportions in which the sexes are born, arbitrary and immutable as it has been generally held to be, is, nevertheless, a relative one; exhibiting, when closely examined, a series of minute adaptations to circumstances, variously affecting the species, and manifesting, in still clearer characters, the same overruling Cause in the perpetual act of frustrating whatever would interfere with the happiness of mankind, and providing for the fulfilment of his primeval command, the universal union of his offspring. (20) But the development of this further regula tion, as new, I think, as it is curious and important, is reserved for the ensuing chapter; where, I hope, it will, as an appropriate introduction, prepare the reader for the reception of the principle of population about to be submitted to his consideration. 332 CHAPTER III. OF THE LAW OF POPULATION: ANTICIPATORY COMPUTA- (1) I PROCEED now to remark that the proportion of the sexes at birth, certain and stationary as it has usually been deemed, is nevertheless subject to a variation, hitherto little observed, and totally unaccounted for. (2) Early in my inquiries regarding the subject of population, I had remarked this difference, and I was led to consider its probable cause and design by reading, in Mr. Malthus's Essay, the gloss put upon a passage of Aristotle in one of his theoretical works, recommending the postponement of the marriages of the male sex. Upon what is called that philosopher's "scheme for preserving the balance of population"," his commentator says, "Aristotle appears to have "seen this necessity" (that of checking population) "still more clearly. He fixes the proper age of "marriage at thirty-seven for the men, and eighteen "for the women; which must of course condemn a great number of women to celibacy, as there never "can be so many men of thirty-seven, as there are women of eighteen." (3) It has been already fully and undeniably proved, because upon his own express authority, that 1 Malthus, Essay on Population, Index, in tit. Aristotle, Ed. 6. 2 Malthus, Essay on Population, p. 167. Aristotle's motive for this recommendation was not that here attributed to him, but directly the reverse. But it is of still more importance to shew, that were any society absurd enough to adopt such a regulation, with whatever motive, or wicked enough to do so with the intention of frustrating by such means the balance of the sexes at the usual period of their marriages respectively considered, Nature would thwart their intentions, and still vindicate her own institution. It was after some experience regarding the facts and deductions of the miserable theory I am opposing, that I came to the conclusion, that what it states as matters "of course," are, generally speaking, matters of fallacy, which, however, have often led to the discovery of truth by almost invariably pointing in a direction exactly opposite to it. Such, at least, was the case in the present instance; and when I read the deduction from the passage of Aristotle above quoted, I was prepared to expect a counteracting law of Providence; and I discovered it in the following principle of reproduction, which is as curious in its nature as it is important in its consequences. (4) The proportion in which the sexes are born is governed and regulated by the difference in the ages of their parents, in such manner, that on the average, among the total of the births, the sex of that parent shall exceed in number, whose age exceeds; and further, that excess shall conform to the mortality which would take place in a period equal in duration to the interval between the ages of the parents; preserving, therefore, the balance of the sexes at the usual age at which they respectively marry. Thus, in any community where the males should habitually defer that connexion, Nature, as far as she was concerned, would counteract the evil of so pernicious a custom in proportion to its general prevalence and to the mean term of the postponement; effecting and manifesting her purpose in this, as in all other cases, not in individual instances, but on the average of her operations. The physical and moral necessity, then, of this law of Nature is also perfectly clear; it is still a provision for the universality of the marriage union, even under circumstances like those contemplated by Aristotle, and which, in a corrupt state of society, become very general. I confess that, in this instance, I arrived at the principle now explained, otherwise than by induction. It was the desirableness of such a regulation in Nature which prompted me to search for its existence the proofs by which, it is hoped, it is fully established, are given as they successively presented themselves to my consideration. (5) Two facts, I think, may be assumed without the necessity of proofs being adduced; first, that where the marriages are least numerous in proportion to the marriageable part of the community, there the weddings are, in all probability, the longest deferred, and vice versâ; and, second, that this postponement, on the general average number of the cases, is always found to exist on the part of the male only; who, though he have put off his own marriage, is nevertheless quite averse from taking to wife a female who has in this respect followed his example, but, it is notorious to common observation, will generally make his choice on a directly opposite principle. It may, therefore, I think, be taken for granted, that the fewer the marriages, the older are the males, compared with the females, who contract them. (6) Let us turn, then, to the English census, and compare it, in this respect, with that of Wales. In the former division of the empire I find the marriages |