12 CAUSES OF THE WEAKNESS AND DECLINE 



of the people of Israel in the time of David, if we take the 

 lowest calculation, amounts, including women and children, to five 

 millions ; but that census embraces an extensive district. The 

 remarks of Josephus and Tacitus respecting the fertility of parts of 

 this country are confirmed by the observations of a native who 

 examined it in the 13th century*, and by the accounts of more 

 recent travellers. The wealth and populousness of Syria, as well as 

 of Asia seem to have been considerable under the Christian emperors 

 of Constantinople, if we may judge from the number of archbishoprics, 

 bishoprics, convents, and churches which they contained. The reli- 

 gious faith of the actual possessors of Palestine has caused an alteration 

 in one branch of rural industry ; the prohibition of wine, which has 

 now prevailed for ten centuries, has been sufficient to make a gi-eat 

 difference between the former and present state of a country admira- 

 bly adapted by nature to the growth of the grape. If we turn to 

 Greece, we find only 20,000 persons in Attica f , and the population 

 of the Peloponnesus does not exceed 350,000. The inhabitants of 

 Egypt are calculated to amount to two millions and a half, a small 

 number when we consider the resources of that country. ^ The for- 

 mer civilization of many of the provinces of the empire is also proved 

 by the temples, theatres, and public works which strike the attention 

 of the traveller. A small part only of those numerous edifices can 

 now be discovered in their remains. Whole towns in Asia and 



* Abulfeda. " The country about Jerusalem," he says, " is one of the most fruitful 

 " in Palestine." Strabo (l(j.) informs us, " that it was unfruitful." Yet these two writers 

 are easily reconciled. The latter alludes to the soil not being productive of grain ; the 

 former to its great produce in wine and oil. " An acre planted with vines or olives, how- 

 ever arid or rocky the soil may be, will very easily be made worth ten times as much as 

 an acre of the richest corn land." Michaelis, iii. 138. 



f D'apres les evaluations les plus justes. Beaujour, 1. 



X This is Mr. Browne's statement. Volney assigns 2,300,000, and some of the 

 members of the French Institute give the same number : but there is a difference in the 

 quantity of cultivated land; the latter mention 1800 square leagues ; in Volney we find 

 2100. 



