608 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



III. 



As regards civilization, we may consider man from a threefold 

 point of view : the numerical quantity of the population ; the duration 

 of human force, that is, longevity ; and the intensity of this force, that 

 is, the development of the organs and faculties. 



Man being a combination of forces, does it follow that an in- 

 crease of population is an accumulation of human forces, and so an 

 element of civilization ? As the increase of wealth favors the increase 

 of population, so the latter reacts on the former by increasing the 

 number of producers, and especially by favoring the division of labor. 

 Consequently, a country's well-being requires a just equilibrium be- 

 tween the sum of the capital and the number of inhabitants. An in- 

 crease of population ought not to lead to a loss in capital, nor ought 

 the increase of capital, by saving, lead to diminished population. In 

 the former case, the country would become impoverished ; in the latter 

 it would decay. The latter is the case with France, where the popu- 

 lation is far less than the immense resources of the country would 

 justify. While Saxony doubles its population in 45 years, England in 

 49, Prussia in 54, Russia in 56, Wiirtemberg and Switzerland in 114, 

 France requires more than 198. There is reason to suppose that 

 Great Britain, which now has 26,000,000, will, in 50 years, have 

 52,000,000 ; Germany, 60,000,000 ; and Russia, over 100,000,000 ; but 

 France, unless there occur a change, will have no more than 45,000,000. 

 At the beginning of this century, the annual increase of population in 

 France was 175,000, now it is only 132,000 souls. Far from peopling 

 our colonies, we find the very soil of France gradually encroached on 

 by an immigration of the neighboring nations. 



The reasons for this are numerous. The restrictions laid on the 

 father of a family in France are greater than in most countries. Then 

 the education Frenchwomen get has an influence. Marriages are not 

 fewer than hitherto, but are contracted at a later period of life. 

 In Catholic countries there is less moral freedom but more licen- 

 tiousness than in Protestant countries. In the latter, marriage is 

 rendered easy and spontaneous by the greater freedom of social re- 

 lations between the sexes ; but in France marriage is a matter of 

 calculation, and marriages are generally contracted with the aid of go- 

 betweens. Another cause is that habits of industry and especially in- 

 dividual enterprise are not at all in France in proportion with the na- 

 tional wealth. While in England a man generally acquires capital 

 with a view to better his condition as a producer, a Frenchman's study 

 is to retire from business, and leave to a very small family the means 

 of living without work. We have also in France a large proportion 

 of the poorer classes who flock into the great cities to live by pub- 

 lic assistance. We have by no means exhausted all the resources 

 of our soil, and there are 20,000,000 acres of waste land. Though in 



