Thereis，however，acircumstancetakennoticeofinmostoftheaccountswehaveofChinathatitseemsdifficulttoreconcilewiththisreasoning。ItissaidthatearlymarriagesverygenerallyprevailthroughalltheranksoftheChinese。YetDrAdamSmithsupposesthatpopulationinChinaisstationary。
Thesetwocircumstancesappeartobeirreconcilable。ItcertainlyseemsverylittleprobablethatthepopulationofChinaisfastincreasing。Everyacreoflandhasbeensolongincultivationthatwecanhardlyconceivethereisanygreatyearlyadditiontotheaverageproduce。Thefact，perhaps，oftheuniversalityofearlymarriagesmaynotbesufficientlyascertained。Ifitbesupposedtrue，theonlywayofaccountingforthedifficulty，withourpresentknowledgeofthesubject，appearstobethattheredundantpopulation，necessarilyoccasionedbytheprevalenceofearlymarriages，mustberepressedbyoccasionalfamines，andbythecustomofexposingchildren，which，intimesofdistress，isprobablymorefrequentthaniseveracknowledgedtoEuropeans。
Relativetothisbarbarouspractice，itisdifficulttoavoidremarking，thattherecannotbeastrongerproofofthedistressesthathavebeenfeltbymankindforwantoffood，thantheexistenceofacustomthatthusviolatesthemostnaturalprincipleofthehumanheart。Itappearstohavebeenverygeneralamongancientnations，andcertainlytendedrathertoincreasepopulation。
InexaminingtheprincipalstatesofmodernEurope，weshallfindthatthoughtheyhaveincreasedveryconsiderablyinpopulationsincetheywerenationsofshepherds，yetthatatpresenttheirprogressisbutslow，andinsteadofdoublingtheirnumberseverytwenty—fiveyearstheyrequirethreeorfourhundredyears，ormore，forthatpurpose。Some，indeed，maybeabsolutelystationary，andothersevenretrograde。Thecauseofthisslowprogressinpopulationcannotbetracedtoadecayofthepassionbetweenthesexes。Wehavesufficientreasontothinkthatthisnaturalpropensityexistsstillinundiminishedvigour。
Whythendonotitseffectsappearinarapidincreaseofthehumanspecies？AnintimateviewofthestateofsocietyinanyonecountryinEurope，whichmayserveequallyforall，willenableustoanswerthisquestion，andtosaythataforesightofthedifficultiesattendingtherearingofafamilyactsasapreventivecheck，andtheactualdistressesofsomeofthelowerclasses，bywhichtheyaredisabledfromgivingtheproperfoodandattentiontotheirchildren，actasapositivechecktothenaturalincreaseofpopulation。