Ch. xiii. among; the Greeks. 233 



"5 



brought the subject immediately home to every 

 thinking person, could not fail to point out to the 

 legislators and philosophers of those times the 

 strong tendency of population to increase beyond 

 the means of subsistence ; and they did not, like 

 the statesmen and projectors of modern days, 

 overlook the consideration of a question, which so 

 deeply affects the happiness and tranquillity of 

 society. However we may justly execrate the 

 barbarous expedients which they adopted to re- 

 move the difficulty, we cannot but give them 

 some credit for their penetration in seeing it ; 

 and in being fully aware that, if not considered 

 and obviated, it would be sufficient of itself to 

 destroy their best-planned schemes of republican 

 equality and happiness. 



The power of colonization is necessarily limited ; 

 and after the lapse of some time it might be ex- 

 tremely difficult, if not impossible, for a country, 

 not particularly well suited for this purpose, to 

 find a vacant spot proper for the settlement of its 

 expatriated citizens. It was necessary therefore 

 to consider of other resources besides coloniza- 

 tion. 



It is probable that the practice of infanticide 

 had prevailed from the earliest ages in Greece. 

 In the parts of America where it was found to 

 exist it appears to have originated from the ex- 

 treme difficulty of rearing many children in a 

 savage and wandering life, exposed to frequent 

 famines and perpetual wars. We may easily 

 conceive that it had a similar origin among the. 



