Chap. IX. A N T I E N T M E Tx\ P H Y S I C S. 231 



In Britain, it appears from what Julius Caefar fays, that it muft 

 have happened fometimes, that, in their matrimonial communities, 

 the men were fupernumerary ; for he fays that ten or twelve of them 

 had their wives in common ; and chiefly brothers w^ith brothers, and 

 parents with children *. 



For thefe reafons, it appears to me evident, that the increafe of 

 the fpecies in the natural ftate mufl: be very fmall. And this theory 

 of mine is fupported by the example of the Oran Outans, who cer- 

 tainly do not increafe much, any more than the Patagonians or New 

 Hollanders, who, according to the account of our late travellers into 

 the South Sea, have not the appearance of being many in num- 

 ber. 



But, if men in the natural flate do not increafe faft, the off- 

 fpring is ftrong and healthy, fo that all that are born live to the 

 age of maturity : And, as the men are fo long lived in the 

 natural ftate, a country fo inhabited is not likely to be under- 

 ftocked, any more than overftocked ; fo that Nature, in this, as in 

 other refpeds, appears to have obferved the juft medium betwixt ex- 

 cefs and defedt. 



In civilized countries, the number of inhabitants is certainly much 

 greater than in countries where men live in the natural ftate, efpe- 

 cially in the firft ages of civility j as I fhall have occafion afterwards 

 to obferve j for, in later periods, I can conceive that, by a great cor- 

 ruption 



* * Uxores habent deni duodenique inter fe communes, et maxlme fratres cum 

 * fratribus, et parentes cum liberis.' Lib. 5. De Belh Cailice, Cap. xiv. 



