88 On the Comparative Population of the Worlds 



vast superiority of modern times, we are apt to forget on what 

 a narrow scene this superiority is exhibited. 



It is scarcely necessary to premise that in this shght survey 

 of the comparative population of the earth, at the most flourish- 

 ing periods of ancient and modern history, the inquiry will, of 

 course, be confined entirely to the Old World. America is ex- 

 cluded from the question, on the old maxim of '* De non ap- 

 parentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio." It is also 

 necessary to observe, that no attention is paid to keep separate 

 the arguments derived, a priori, from the presumptions afforded 

 by circumstances, and the proofs, a posteriori, deduced from 

 the evidence of facts. A process so unphilosophical is rendered 

 expedient in this case, as well from the cursory nature of the 

 inquiry itself, as from the difficulty of reducing to any classifi- 

 cation a body of evidence so vague, imperfect, and desultory. 



That important and interesting branch of knowledge, so much 

 studied of late years, under the appellation of *' Statistics," 

 appears to have attracted, in a very slight degree, the attention 

 of the ancients. Their writers, as well as their readers, dis- 

 tinguished more for their genius than their love of accuracy, 

 were generally impatient of detail, and delighted much more in 

 devising and examining theories, than in collecting facts ; 

 hence the scattered notices afforded by the ancients, on this 

 subject, are indirect and incidental, supplying rather hints for 

 observation and inference, than establishing such facts as lead 

 to positive conclusions. The Greek and Roman writers, like 

 the French of late years, were apt to consider every country in 

 a military point of view, and to examine its means of offence 

 and of resistance, rather than its state of society, its produce, 

 or occupations. Their economical writers, who have come 

 down to us, are few and concise, and not always most attentive 

 to those points which we are apt to regard as most interesting. 

 This deficiency of data, while it represses, of course, all tendency 

 to dogmatism on the part of the inquirer, renders every con- 

 clusion liable to dispute. We cannot, however, wonder that 

 the population of the ancient world is so difficult to ascertain, 

 when we consider that even at this time, with the exception of 

 a few of the nations of Europe, our reasonings on this subject 

 are founded on little more than improved conjecture. 



