20 HISTOKICAL 



all traces of what were once dreary and dangerous wastes ; 

 cultivated fields have subdued forests ; flocks and herds have 

 expelled wild beasts ; sandy deserts are sown ; rocks are planted ; 

 marshes are drained ; and where once were hardly solitary 

 cottages are now large cities. No longer are savage islands dreaded, 

 nor their rocky shores feared ; everywhere are houses, and inhabi- 

 tants, and settled government, and civihzed life. What most 

 frequently meets our view is our teeming population ; our numbers 

 are burdensome to the world, which can hardly supply us from its 

 natural elements ; our wants grow more and more keen, and our 

 complaints more bitter in all mouths, whilst nature fails in afford- 

 ing us her usual sustenance. In very deed, pestilence, and famine, 

 and wars, and earthquakes have to be regarded as a remedy for 

 nations, as a means of pruning the luxuriance of the human race.' ^ 



3. It is not until we arrive at the sixteenth century that we 

 discover any considerable interest in the matter. From thence 

 onwards references are very frequent. In a general way it is not 

 difficult to understand how this comes about. The movement of 

 thought at that time turned to problems of practical importance. 

 The interest in questions connected with population was above 

 all things due to the problems created by the rise and consolidation 

 of the great European states. In some measure also the voyages 

 of discovery and the foundation of colonies drew men's thoughts 

 to these questions. It is, as we shall see, in the works of the new 

 class of political writers and theorists, and in the descriptions of 

 travel, that we find most references.^ 



These references take for the most part the form of discussions 

 as to the desirability or otherwise of a large population. There is, 

 indeed, often but little discussion ; the benefits of a large popula- 

 tion seemed so obvious. Men were mostly of the same opinion 

 as the author of the book of Proverbs, ' in the multitude of the 

 people is the king's glory ; but in the want of people is the destruc- 

 tion of the prince.' ^ The reasons are not far to seek. A large 

 population appeared to mean both power and riches. The advan- 



' TertuUian, De Aninm (Ante-Nicene Christian Library), p. 481. 



^ The realization of the limitation of the surface of the globe — following upon 

 the circumnavigation of the world — had no doubt an influence. The fact that 

 the earth is spherical^or at least that it is not flat — (as a matter of fact it is 

 somewhat tetrahedral) was of course known to Aristotle (De Caelo, ii. 14). It 

 has been remarked that this conception was always present to the minds of the 

 authors of all those speculations which have come down from antiquity (Bosanquet, 

 Philosophical Theory of the State, p. 330). But it was not forced upon men's 

 notice until it was practically demonstrated. ^ Prov. xiv. 28. 



