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47, as we have seen, depend materially on the manner in which the constitution of the society is regulated, and on the degree of pressure which a family entails on the parents. The disposition, which depends on the reasoning faculty, will vary according as that faculty is improved by education and experience.

I have hitherto conﬁned myself chiefly to the consideration of the motives to prudence, in the labouring class. The disposition to prudence, in the same class, naturally occurs next in the order of reasoning. I will, however, only now remark, that constant labour at an early age precludes the possibility of effective education. The other points belonging to this head will be sufficiently illustrated in the course of the subsequent investigation, and it is unnecessary to constitute them a distinct subject of inquiry.

The abstract hypothesis, which I considered in the last Lecture, was in every respect unfavourable to the preventive check. I will now proceed to one which will be in many respects favourable to it.

Let us retain the supposition of a society