Ch. vi. Inhabitants of the North of Europe, 95 



of countries long settled, engaged in the peaceful 

 occupations of trade and agriculture, would not 

 often be able to resist the energy of men acting 

 under such powerful motives of exertion. And 

 the frequent contests with tribes in the same 

 circumstances with themselves, would be so 

 many struggles for existence, and would be 

 fought with a desperate courage, inspired by the 

 reflection, that death would be the punishment of 

 defeat, and life the prize of victory. 



In these savage contests, many tribes must 

 have been utterly exterminated. Many probably 

 perished by hardships and famine. Others, 

 whose leading star had given them a happier 

 direction, became great and powerful tribes, and 

 in their turn sent off fresh adventurers in search 

 of other seats. These would at first owe allegi- 

 ance to their parent tribe; but in a short time 

 the ties which bound them would be little felt, 

 and they would remain friends, or become ene- 

 mies, according as their power, their ambition or 

 their convenience, might dictate. 



The prodigious waste of human life, occasioned 

 by this perpetual struggle for room and food, 

 would be more than supplied by the mighty 

 power of population, acting in some degree un- 

 shackled from the constant habit of migration. 

 A prevailing hope of bettering their condition by 

 change of place, a constant expectation of plun- 

 der, a power even, if distressed, of selling their 

 children as slaves, added to the natural careless- 

 ness of the barbaric character, would all conspire 



