S70 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BooklV. 



CHAP. V. 



^fthe Population of Spain In antient and modern times :— In Cicero's 

 time very great ;-^but noiv, notwithjlanding the addition of Goths 

 Vandals, Heruli, and Moors, its Population very fmalL^France 

 fuppofed about ^o years ago, when the Author was there, to have 

 decreafed 2 millions fmce the days of Lewi, XIV. ^The Author par. 

 ticularly informed about the thinne/s of the Population of France at 

 that time, and of the caufes ofit,-^Not likely that their numbers arc 

 of late increafed. 



NOW return to the countries of Europe ; and I will begin with 

 Spain, which, m depopulating America, may be faid to hav« 

 depopulated itfelf : For Spain, 1 believe, is lefs peopled than any 

 other country in Europe; and this owing chiefly to their commerce 

 -;».th the New World, and the exportation of their people to it. Spain 

 m the time of Cicero, (as he informs us*), was a very populous coun- 

 try. It was then inhabited by the antient Iberians, with a mixture of 

 Celts in lome parts of the country, which made a race of very brave 

 people, called CdP.berlans. Then came among them, when the 

 Roman Empire was invaded by barbarians, the Goths, Vandah and 

 /fcr«/;-,and in later times the Moors : So that the Spaniards, at' pre- 

 fent, are the moft mixed nation in Europe, and ought to be fo much 

 the more populous now than they were in the days of Cicero • and 

 yet, according to my information, Spain is worfe peopled at prefent 

 than any other country in Europe, 



'■ Oratio d'^ Harufpiemn Refpoiijii. 



