One of the English kings, Edward III., in the year 1344, picked up from the floor of a ball-room, an embroidered garter, belonging to a lady of rank. In returning it to her, he checked the rising smile of his courtiers with the words, “Honi soit qui mal y pense!” or, paraphrased in English, “Shame on him who invidiously interprets it!” The sentiment was so greatly approved, that it has become the motto of the English national arms. It is one which might be not inaptly nor unfrequently applied in rebuking the mawkish, skin-deep, and intolerant morality of this hypocritical and profligate age. Footnote 7: See “A brief exposition of the principles of the United Society called Shakers,” published by Calvin Green and Seth Y. Wells, 1830. Footnote 8: I call them my friends, because, however little I am disposed to accede to all their principles, I have met, from among their body, a greater proportion of individuals who have taken with them my friendship and sympathy, than perhaps from among any other sect or class of men. Footnote 9: By _unrestrained_, Malthus and his disciples mean, not restricted or destroyed by any incidental check whatever, moral or immoral, prudential or violent. Thus, poverty, war, libertinism, famine, &c. are all powerful checks to population. In this sense, and not simply as applying to preventative moral restraint, have I employed the word throughout this chapter. Footnote 10: Mandeville. Footnote 11: Some wag, adverting to the fact, that Mr. Malthus himself has a large family, remarked, “that the reverend gentleman knew better how to preach than to practice.” Footnote 12: Lawrence, the ingenious author of the “Empire of the Nairs,” says shrewdly enough, “Wherever the women are prudes, the men will be drunkards.” Footnote 13: It may perhaps be argued, that all married persons have this power already, seeing that they are no more obliged to become parents than the unmarried; they may live as the brethern and sisters among the Shakers do. But this Shaker remedy is, in the first place, utterly impracticable, as a general rule; and, secondly, it would chill and embitter domestic life, even if it were practicable. Footnote 14: Will our sensitive fine ladies blush at the plain good sense and simplicity of such an observation? Let me tell them, the indelicacy is in their own minds, not in the words of the French mother. Footnote 15: