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CHAP. VI. 



Of the Checks to Population among the ancient Inhabi- 

 tants of the North of Europe. 



A history of the early migrations and settle- 

 ments of mankind, with the motives which 

 prompted them, would illustrate in a striking 

 manner the constant tendency in the human race 

 to increase beyond the means of subsistence. 

 Without some general law of this nature, it would 

 seem as if the world could never have been peo- 

 pled. A state of sloth, and not of restlessness 

 and activity, seems evidently to be the natural 

 state of man ; and this latter disposition could 

 not have been generated but by the strong goad 

 of necessity, though it might afterwards be con- 

 tinued by habit, and the new associations that 

 were formed from it, the spirit of enterprise, and 

 the thirst of martial glory. 



We are told that Abraham and Lot had so great 

 substance in cattle, that the land would not bear 

 them both, that they might dwell together. There 

 was strife between their herdsmen. And Abraham 

 proposed to Lot to separate, and said, " Is! not 

 " the whole land before thee ? If thou wilt take 

 " the left hand, then I will go to the right ; if 



