Page:Two Lectures on the Checks to Population.pdf/40



, in treating of the effects which would result to society from the prevalence of moral restraint, infers, that "if it were generally adopted, by lowering the supply of labour in the market, it would, in the natural course of things, soon raise its price." And we may readily allow, that, abstinence from marriage, if generally and almost universally prevalent, would have this effect. But, if the principles laid down in the last Lecture be correct, it is idle to imagine, that, among labourers who have only the sale of their labour on which to depend for their maintenance, such abstinence can ever generally prevail; and this for the simple reason, that, against it, there are the natural passions which prompt to marriage, and the substantial benefits derivable from marriage; while, in favour of it, to oppose these, there is no adequate individual benefit to be derived from abstinence.