PRODUCTIVENESS OF THE EARTH. 39 



The productive power of the earth is materially affected, 

 again, hy the difference hetween a state of peace and a state of 

 war. War interferes with the supply which tlie earth produces 

 for the wants of man in a variety of ways. It calls off many 

 from the employments of agriculture to the service of arms. 

 It diminishes the motives to agricultural industry, by making 

 its avails uncertain and insecure. It lays waste fertile fields, 

 and tramples down under its iron heel the unreaped harvests 

 of the husbandman. Rival armies contend with each other for 

 the ground where the rich harvests of autumn wave, as lately 

 we saw in the valley of the Shenandoah ; and the result often 

 is that the greater portion is destroyed, while only a remnant 

 goes to feed the contending hosts, and the poor laborer is left to 

 hunger and want. 



War causes an immense waste in consumption. In the 

 feeding of large armies, there is an utter disregard of all that 

 economy and thrift which characterize the ordinary household 

 consumption in times of peace. Some political theorists have 

 regarded war as a convenient means of reducing a surplus 

 population. It may well be questioned, whether war ever fails 

 to reduce the production of a country in fully as large a propor- 

 tion as it reduces population. If it did not, it would be reasonable 

 to look for a diminution in the price of the necessaries of life 

 in time of war, whereas in fact it is well known that an advance 

 in the prices of these necessaries is an almost invariable accom- 

 paniment of a state of warfare. 



There is one more interesting view of the productive power 

 of the earth, namely, its relation to the natural growth of 

 population. There has been, from the beginning, a constant 

 increase in the total population of the globe, constant, except 

 as interrupted by one great judgment of God in ancient times. 

 Population may be checked in a particular country, for a time, 

 by pestilence, by war, by bad government and oppression. Thus 

 want, discontent, and consequent emigration, have greatly 

 reduced the population of Ireland within the last quarter of a 

 century. And, on the other hand, a particular country may 

 gain much more than its natural increase, as this country has 

 gained by immigration from the old world. But leaving out of 

 view these exceptional instances, in both directions, the natural 

 tendency of population, in all countries not particularly barren, 



