Ch. vi. Checks to Population, &;c. 93 



" thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to 

 " the left."* 



This simple observation and proposal is a 

 striking illustration of that great spring of action 

 which overspread the whole earth with people ; 

 and, in the progress of time, drove some of the 

 less fortunate inhabitants of the globe, yielding 

 to irresistible pressure, to seek a scanty subsist- 

 ence in the burning deserts of Asia and Africa, 

 and the frozen regions of Siberia and North 

 America. The first migrations would naturally 

 find no other obstacles than the nature of the 

 country ; but when a considerable part of the 

 earth had been peopled, though but thinly, the 

 possessors of these districts would not yield them 

 to others without a struggle ; and the redundant 

 inhabitants of any of the more central spots 

 could not find room for themselves without ex- 

 pelling their nearest neighbours, or at least passing 

 through their territories, which would necessarily 

 give occasion to frequent contests. 



The middle latitudes of Europe and Asia seem 

 to have been occupied at an early period of his- 

 tory by nations of shepherds. Thucydides gave 

 it as his opinion, that the civilized states of Eu- 

 rope and Asia, in his time, could not resist the 

 Scythians united. Yet a country in pasture 

 cannot possibly support so many inhabitants as 

 a country in tillage. But what renders nations of 

 shepherds so formidable, is the power which they 



* Genesis, ch. xiii. 



