446 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



rian, Procopius, were obliged, as I have elfewhere obferved *, by the 

 want of the neceflaries of life, to leave their native country. 



Thus, I think, I have proved, that nations, in the firfl ages of ci- 

 vility, multiply fo much that their country cannot maintain them ; 

 and in this way I have accounted for the great number of migrations 

 of which we read in antient hiftory. And not only migrations of 

 whole nations, or of great numbers from a nation, are to be ac- 

 counted for in this way, but even fmall colonies, fuch as thofe that 

 went from Rome, or Alba Longa^ muft be fuppofcd to have been 

 fent out becaufe the country was not able to maintain them. 



The example of the Helvetil, it may be faid, proves that a na- 

 tion may leave its country without any neceflity, only for the pur- 

 pofe of inhabiting a better, which they were to acquire by conqueft. 

 But this ftory of the Helvetil^ who, as Julius Csefar tells usf, not 

 only quitted their own country, but wanted to make it uninhabita- 

 ble by any other nation, (for they not only deflroyed all their cities, 

 to the number of 12, their villages, to the number of 400, and 

 even their private and detached houfes, but alfo all the corn in the 

 country except w^hat they carried with them), is an inftance of a 

 national frenzy, as, I think, I may call it, of which there is no other 

 example in the hiftory of man: For all other men, in all ages of 

 the Vv'orld, appear to have had fuch an attachment to their natale fo- 

 lum^ as not to leave it, while they could fubfift comfortably in it ; 

 and it was only when that failed that they fent forth colonies to 

 other nations. Of this, as I have faid, antient hiftory furniihes us 

 with many examples. 



1 



* Vol. 5. of Origin of Language, p. 93. where I have mentioned a moft extraordi- 

 nary multiplication of a people in an ifland call Brittia, lying betwixt Britain and Scan- 

 dinavia. 



f Lib. I. Comment. Cap. 2- 



