There were very few caterpillars1 in my canton last year, and we killed nearly the whole of them. God has rendered them this year more numerous than the leaves. Is it not nearly thus with other animals, and above all with mankind? Famine, pestilence2, death, and the two sister diseases which have visited us from Arabia and America, destroy the inhabitants of a province, and we are surprised at finding it abound3 with people a hundred years afterwards.
I admit that it is a sacred duty to people this world, and that all animals are stimulated4 by pleasure to fulfil this intention of the great Demiourgos. Why this inhabiting of the earth? and to what purpose form so many beings to devour5 one another, and the animal man to cut the throat of his fellow, from one end of the earth to the other? I am assured that I shall one day be in the possession of this secret, and in my character of an inquisitive6 man I exceedingly desire it.
It is clear that we ought to people the earth as much as we are able; even our health renders it necessary. The wise Arabians, the robbers of the desert, in the treaties which they made with travellers, always stipulated7 for girls. When they conquered Spain, they imposed a tribute of girls. The country of Media pays the Turks in girls. The buccaneers brought girls from Paris to the little island of which they took possession; and it is related that, at the fine spectacle with which Romulus entertained the Sabines, he stole from them three hundred girls.
I cannot conceive why the Jews, whom moreover I revere8, killed everybody in Jericho, even to the girls; and why they say in the Psalms9, that it will be sweet to massacre10 the infants at the mother’s breast, without excepting even girls. All other people, whether Tartars, Cannibals, Teutons, or Celts, have always held girls in great request.
Owing to this happy instinct, it seems that the earth may one day be covered with animals of our own kind. Father Petau makes the inhabitants of the earth seven hundred millions, two hundred and eighty years after the deluge11. It is not, however, at the end of the “Arabian Nights” that he has printed this pleasant enumeration12.
I reckon at present on our globe about nine hundred millions of contemporaries, and an equal number of each sex. Wallace makes them a thousand millions. Am I in error, or is he? Possibly both of us; but a tenth is a small matter; the arithmetic of historians is usually much more erroneous.
I am somewhat surprised that the arithmetician Wallace, who extends the number of people at present existing to a thousand millions, should pretend in the same page, that in the year 966, after the creation, our forefathers13 amounted to sixteen hundred and ten millions.
In the first place, I wish the epoch14 of the creation to be clearly established; and as, in our western world, we have no less than eighty theories of this event, there will be some difficulty to hit on the correct one. In the second place, the Egyptians, the Chald?ans, the Persians, the Indians, and the Chinese, have all different calculations; and it is still more difficult to agree with them. Thirdly, why, in the nine hundred and sixty-sixth year of the world, should there be more people than there are at present?
To explain this absurdity15, we are told that matters occurred otherwise than at present; that nature, being more vigorous, was better concocted16 and more prolific17; and, moreover, that people lived longer. Why do they not add, that the sun was warmer, and the moon more beautiful.
We are told, that in the time of C?sar, although men had begun to greatly degenerate18, the world was like an ant’s nest of bipeds; but that at present it is a desert. Montesquieu, who always exaggerates, and who sacrifices anything to an itching19 desire of displaying his wit, ventures to believe, and in his “Persian Letters” would have others believe, that there were thirty times as many people in the world in the days of C?sar as at present.
Wallace acknowledges that this calculation made at random20 is too much; but for what reason? Because, before the days of C?sar, the world possessed21 more inhabitants than during the most brilliant period of the Roman republic. He then ascends22 to the time of Semiramis, and if possible exaggerates more than Montesquieu.
Lastly, in conformity24 with the taste which is always attributed to the Holy Spirit for hyperbole, they fail not to instance the eleven hundred and sixty thousand men, who marched so fiercely under the standards of the great monarch25, Josophat, or Jehosophat, king of the province of Judah. Enough, enough, Mr. Wallace; the Holy Spirit cannot deceive; but its agents and copyists have badly calculated and numbered. All your Scotland would not furnish eleven hundred thousand men to attend your sermons, and the kingdom of Judah was not a twentieth part of Scotland. See, again, what St. Jerome says of this poor Holy Land, in which he so long resided. Have you well calculated the quantity of money the great King Jehosophat must have possessed, to pay, feed, clothe, and arm eleven hundred thousand chosen men? But thus is history written.
Mr. Wallace returns from Jehosophat to C?sar, and concludes, that since the time of this dictator of short duration, the world has visibly decreased in the number of its inhabitants. Behold26, said he, the Swiss: according to the relation of C?sar, they amounted to three hundred and sixty-eight thousand, when they so wisely quitted their country to seek their fortunes, like the Cimbri.
I wish by this example to recall those partisans27 into a little due consideration, who gift the ancients with such wonders in the way of generation, at the expense of the moderns. The canton of Berne alone, according to an accurate census28, possesses a greater number of inhabitants than quitted the whole of Helvetia in the time of C?sar. The human species is, therefore, doubled in Helvetia since that expedition.
I likewise believe, that Germany, France, and England are much better peopled now than at that time; and for this reason: I adduce the vast clearance29 of forests, the number of great towns built and increased during the last eight hundred years, and the number of arts which have originated in proportion. This I regard as a sufficient answer to the brazen30 declamation31, repeated every day in books, in which truth is sacrificed to sallies, and which are rendered useless by their abundant wit.
“L’Ami des Hommes” says, that in the time of C?sar fifty-two millions of men were assigned to Spain, which Strabo observes has always been badly peopled, owing to the interior being so deficient32 in water. Strabo is apparently33 right, and “L’Ami des Hommes” erroneous. But they scare us by asking what has become of the prodigious34 quantity of Huns, Alans, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, and Lombards, who spread like a torrent35 over Europe in the fifth century.
I distrust these multitudes, and suspect that twenty or thirty thousand ferocious36 animals, more or less, were sufficient to overwhelm with fright the whole Roman Empire, governed by a Pulcheria, by eunuchs, and by monks37. It was enough for ten thousand barbarians38 to pass the Danube; for every parish rumor39, or homily, to make them more numerous than the locusts40 in the plains of Egypt; and call them a scourge41 from God, in order to inspire penitence42, and produce gifts of money to the convents. Fear seized all the inhabitants, and they fled in crowds. Behold precisely43 the fright which a wolf caused in the district of Gevanden in the year 1766.
Mandarin44 the robber, at the head of fifty vagabonds, put an entire town under contribution. As soon as he entered at one gate, it was said at the other, that he brought with him four thousand men and artillery45. If Attila, followed by fifty thousand hungry assassins, ravaged46 province after province, report would call them five hundred thousand.
The millions of men who followed Xerxes, Cyrus, Tomyris, the thirty or forty-four millions of Egyptians, Thebes with her hundred gates —“Et quicquid Grecia mendax audet in historia” — resemble the five hundred thousand men of Attila, which company of pleasant travellers it would have been difficult to find on the journey.
These Huns came from Siberia, and thence I conclude that they came in very small numbers. Siberia was certainly not more fertile than in our own days. I doubt whether in the reign47 of Tomyris a town existed equal to Tobolsk, or that these frightful48 deserts can feed a great number of inhabitants.
India, China, Persia, and Asia Minor49 were thickly peopled; this I can credit without difficulty; and possibly they are not less so at present, notwithstanding the destructive prevalence of invasions and wars. Throughout, Nature has clothed them with pasturage; the bull freely unites with the heifer, the ram23 with the sheep, and man with woman.
The deserts of Barca, of Arabia, and of Oreb, of Sinai, of Jerusalem, of Gobi, etc., were never peopled, are not peopled at present, and never will be peopled; at least, until some natural revolution happens to transform these plains of sand and flint into fertile land.
The land of France is tolerably good, and it is sufficiently50 inhabited by consumers, since of all kinds there are more than are well supplied; since there are two hundred thousand impostors, who beg from one end of the country to the other, and sustain their despicable lives at the expense of the rich; and lastly, since France supports more than eighty thousand monks, of which not a single one assists to produce an ear of corn.
§ II.
I believe that England, Protestant Germany, and Holland are better peopled in proportion than France. The reason is evident; those countries harbor not monks who vow51 to God to be useless to man. In these countries, the clergy52, having little else to do, occupy themselves with study and propagation. They give birth to robust53 children, and give them a better education than that which is bestowed54 on the offspring of French and Italian marquises.
Rome, on the contrary, would be a desert without cardinals55, ambassadors, and travellers. It would be only an illustrious monument, like the temple of Jupiter Ammon. In the time of the first C?sar, it was computed56 that this sterile57 territory, rendered fertile by manure58 and the labor59 of slaves, contained some millions of men. It was an exception to the general law, that population is ordinarily in proportion to fertility of soil.
Conquest rendered this barren country fertile and populous60. A form of government as strange and contradictory61 as any which ever astonished mankind, has restored to the territory of Romulus its primitive62 character. The whole country is depopulated from Orvieto to Terracina. Rome, reduced to its own citizens, would be to London only as one to twelve; and in respect to money and commerce, would be to the towns of Amsterdam and London as one to a thousand.
That which Rome has lost, Europe has not only regained63, but the population has almost tripled since the days of Charlemagne. I say tripled, which is much; for propagation is not in geometrical progression. All the calculations made on the idea of this pretended multiplication64, amount only to absurd chimeras65.
If a family of human beings or of apes multiplied in this manner, at the end of two hundred years the earth would not be able to contain them. Nature has taken care at once to preserve and restrain the various species. She resembles the fates, who spin and cut threads continually. She is occupied with birth and destruction alone.
If she has given to man more ideas and memory than to other animals; if she has rendered him capable of generalizing his ideas and combining them; if he has the advantage of the gift of speech, she has not bestowed on him that of multiplication equal to insects. There are more ants in a square league of heath, than of men in the world, counting all that have ever existed.
When a country possesses a great number of idlers, be sure that it is well peopled; since these idlers are lodged66, clothed, fed, amused, and respected by those who labor. The principal object, however, is not to possess a superfluity of men, but to render such as we have as little unhappy as possible.
Let us thank nature for placing us in the temperate67 zone, peopled almost throughout by a more than sufficient number of inhabitants, who cultivate all the arts; and let us endeavor not to lessen68 this advantage by our absurdities69.
§ III.
It must be confessed, that we ordinarily people and depopulate the world a little at random; and everybody acts in this manner. We are little adapted to obtain an accurate notion of things; the nearly is our only guide, and it often leads us astray.
It is still worse when we wish to calculate precisely. We go and see farces70 and laugh at them; but should we laugh less in our closets when we read grave authors deciding exactly how many men existed on the earth two hundred and eighty-five years after the general deluge. We find, according to Father Petau, that the family of Noah had produced one thousand two hundred and twenty-four millions seven hundred and seventeen thousand inhabitants, in three hundred years. The good priest Petau evidently knew little about getting children and rearing them, if we are to judge by this statement.
According to Cumberland, this family increased to three thousand three hundred and thirty millions, in three hundred and forty years; and according to Whiston, about three hundred years after the Deluge, they amounted only to sixty-five millions four hundred and thirty-six.
It is difficult to reconcile and to estimate these accounts, such is the extravagance when people seek to make things accord which are repugnant, and to explain what is inexplicable71. This unhappy endeavor has deranged72 heads which in other pursuits might have made discoveries beneficial to society.
The authors of the English “Universal History” observe, it is generally agreed that the present inhabitants of the earth amount to about four thousand millions. It is to be remarked, that these gentlemen do not include in this number the natives of America, which comprehends nearly half of the globe. For my own part, if, instead of a common romance, I wished to amuse myself by reckoning up the number of brethren I have on this unhappy little planet, I would proceed as follows: I would first endeavor to estimate pretty nearly the number of inhabited square leagues this earth contains on its surface; I should then say: The surface of the globe contains twenty-seven millions of square leagues; take away two-thirds at least for seas, rivers, lakes, deserts, mountains, and all that is uninhabited; this calculation, which is very moderate, leaves us nine millions of square leagues to account for.
In France and Germany, there are said to be six hundred persons to a square league; in Spain, one hundred and fifty; in Russia, fifteen; and Tartary, ten. Take the mean number at a hundred, and you will have about nine hundred millions of brethren, including mulattoes, negroes, the brown, the copper-colored, the fair, the bearded, and the unbearded. It is not thought, indeed, that the number is so great as this; and if eunuchs continue to be made, monks to multiply, and wars to be waged on the most trifling73 pretexts74, it is easy to perceive that we shall not very soon be able to muster75 the four thousand millions, with which the English authors of the “Universal History” have so liberally favored us; but, then, of what consequence is it, whether the number of men on the earth be great or small? The chief thing is to discover the means of rendering76 our miserable77 species as little unhappy as possible.
§ IV.
Of the Population of America.
The discovery of America — that field of so much avarice78 and so much ambition — has also become an object of philosophical79 curiosity. A great number of writers have endeavored to prove that America was a colony of the ancient world. Some modest mathematicians80, on the contrary, have said, that the same power which has caused the grass to grow in American soil, was able to place man there; but this simple and naked system has not been attended to.
When the great Columbus suspected the existence of this new world, it was held to be impossible; and Columbus was taken for a visionary. When it was really discovered, it was then found out that it had been known long before.
It was pretended that Martin Behem, a native of Nuremberg, quitted Flanders about the year 1460, in search of this unknown world; that he made his way even to the Straits of Magellan, of which he left unknown charts. As, however, it is certain that Martin Behem did not people America, it must certainly have been one of the later grandchildren of Noah, who took this trouble. All antiquity81 is then ransacked82 for accounts of long voyages, to which they apply the discovery of this fourth quarter of the globe. They make the ships of Solomon proceed to Mexico, and it is thence that he drew the gold of Ophir, to procure83 which he borrowed them from King Hiram. They find out America in Plato, give the honor of it to the Carthaginians, and quote this anecdote84 from a book of Aristotle which he never wrote.
Hornius pretends to discover some conformity between the Hebrew language and that of the Caribs. Father Lafiteau, the Jesuit, has not failed to follow up so fine an opening. The Mexicans, when greatly afflicted85, tore their garments; certain people of Asia formerly86 did the same, and of course they are the ancestors of the Mexicans. It might be added, that the natives of Languedoc are very fond of dancing; and that, as in their rejoicings the Hurons dance also, the Languedocians are descended87 from the Hurons, or the Hurons from the Languedocians.
The authors of a tremendous “Universal History” pretend that all the Americans are descended from the Tartars. They assure us that this opinion is general among the learned, but they do not say whether it is so among the learned who reflect. According to them, some descendants of Noah could find nothing better to do, than to go and settle in the delicious country of Kamchatka, in the north of Siberia. This family being destitute88 of occupation, resolved to visit Canada either by means of ships, or by marching pleasantly across some slip of connecting land, which has not been discovered in our own times. They then began to busy themselves in propagation, until the fine country of Canada soon becoming inadequate89 to the support of so numerous a population, they went to people Mexico, Peru, Chile; while certain of their great-granddaughters were in due time brought to bed of giants in the Straits of Magellan.
As ferocious animals are found in some of the warm countries of America, these authors pretend, that the Christopher Columbuses of Kamchatka took them into Canada for their amusement, and carefully confined themselves to those kinds which are no longer to be found in the ancient hemisphere.
But the Kamchatkans have not alone peopled the new world; they have been charitably assisted by the Mantchou Tartars, by the Huns, by the Chinese, and by the inhabitants of Japan. The Mantchou Tartars are incontestably the ancestors of the Peruvians, for Mango Capac was the first inca of Peru. Mango resembles Manco; Manco sounds like Mancu; Mancu approaches Mantchu, and Mantchou is very close to the latter. Nothing can be better demonstrated. As for the Huns, they built in Hungary a town called Cunadi. Now, changing Cu into Ca, we have Canadi, from which Canada manifestly derives90 its name.
A plant resembling the ginseng of the Chinese, grows in Canada, which the Chinese transplanted into the latter even before they were masters of the part of Tartary where it is indigenous91. Moreover, the Chinese are such great navigators, they formerly sent fleets to America without maintaining the least correspondence with their colonies.
With respect to the Japanese, they are the nearest neighbors of America, which, as they are distant only about twelve hundred leagues, they have doubtless visited in their time, although latterly they have neglected repeating the voyage. Thus is history written in our own days. What shall we say to these, and many other systems which resemble them? Nothing.
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1
caterpillars
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| n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带 | |
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pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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revere
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| vt.尊崇，崇敬，敬畏 | |
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psalms
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| n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的) | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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enumeration
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| n.计数，列举；细目；详表；点查 | |
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13
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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concocted
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| v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的过去式和过去分词 )；调制；编造；捏造 | |
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prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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itching
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| adj.贪得的，痒的，渴望的v.发痒( itch的现在分词 ) | |
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random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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ascends
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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partisans
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| 游击队员( partisan的名词复数 )； 党人； 党羽； 帮伙 | |
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census
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| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
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clearance
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| n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理 | |
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brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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declamation
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| n. 雄辩，高调 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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Mandarin
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| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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52
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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54
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cardinals
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| 红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 )； 红衣凤头鸟（见于北美，雄鸟为鲜红色）； 基数 | |
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computed
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| adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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manure
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| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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chimeras
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| n.（由几种动物的各部分构成的）假想的怪兽( chimera的名词复数 )；不可能实现的想法；幻想；妄想 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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absurdities
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| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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farces
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| n.笑剧( farce的名词复数 )；闹剧；笑剧剧目；作假的可笑场面 | |
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inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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deranged
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| adj.疯狂的 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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pretexts
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| n.借口，托辞( pretext的名词复数 ) | |
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muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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mathematicians
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| 数学家( mathematician的名词复数 ) | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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ransacked
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| v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 )；抢劫，掠夺 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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indigenous
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| adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的 | |
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