98 On the Comparative Population of the World, 



state of the lowest depression. The modern improvements in 

 agriculture, which in some places have doubled or trebled the 

 produce of the soil, have never been able to pierce the thick 

 gloom of Turkish ignorance and superstition. The modern 

 Greeks, it is said, retain something of their ancient genius and 

 vivacity, but they have sunk under a despotism which suppresses 

 equally every motive to exertion, and every disposition to im- 

 provement. 



But of all the nations of the ancient world, there is none, 

 perhaps, which has fallen so much below its former pre-emi- 

 nence, as the island of Sicily. That country not only sup- 

 ported a population nearly equal, in all probability, to the 

 whole of modern Turkey in Europe, but furnished large sup- 

 plies of grain and provisions to Italy, Spain, and Greece. From 

 the statement of Diogenes Laertius, the single city of Agri- 

 gentum contained not less than 800,000 people ; a number not 

 much inferior to the present inhabitants of the whole island. 

 Syracuse was, at one time, esteemed the largest of all the 

 Greek cities, and, at least, equal to Agiigentum. The smaller 

 cities, towns, and villages were almost innumerable. On the 

 other hand, the city of Palermo, the modern capital of Sicily, 

 and almost the only town in the island of considerable size, 

 contains little more than 100,000 inhabitants. Many districts 

 of the country, which, in ancient times, there is reason to be- 

 lieve, were cultivated like a garden, are now almost in a state 

 of nature. This island alone, in its former state, is a striking 

 proof that the modern improvements in agriculture are not, as 

 some have supposed, essential to the production and support 

 of an excessive population. 



Such, as it appears to me, is the faint but visible outline of 

 the comparative numbers of the human race, in the ancient 

 and modern worlds. In this cursory survey, it is not assumed 

 that any very near approximation to the truth can often be 

 obtained; far less, that accurate calculation can in any in- 

 stance be exhibited. Nor is this at all a matter of surprise. 

 Even at the present day, when the science of statistics is more 

 studied and better understood than at any former period, it is 

 only in a very few countries of Europe, that the inhabitants 

 have been exactly numbered. In ancient times, it is well 



