Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/26

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will begin with the poor, they being by far the greater number of the people in most civilised countries; and, therefore, whatever regards them should be deemed of the greater importance.

And, first, as to their food. The food of man is of a mixed nature, partly animal, partly vegetable. A certain proportion of the former is necessary to the health, strength, and growth of the human species, and without it those things cannot be obtained. The appetites and the organs he is furnished with by nature plainly indicate this.

It would be difficult to discover whether the poor have a sufficiency of animal and vegetable food, by any other method than by considering the quantity of each sort which their nature requires, and their means of obtaining that quantity; or, in other words, what their earnings are, and what quantity of food such earnings could procure.

The number of husbandmen in most states is greater probably than that of any class of artificers.