Ch. xiv. anions; the Romans. 253 



"a 



it operate in an excessive and unusual manner,* 

 will have any considerable and permanent effect 

 on the population, except in as far as it influences 

 the production and distribution of the means of 

 subsistence. 



In the controversy concerning the populousness 

 of ancient and modern nations this point has not 

 been sufficiently attended to ; and physical and 

 moral causes have been brought forward on both 

 sides, from which no just inference in favour of 

 either party could be drawn. It seems to have 

 escaped the attention of both writers, that the 

 more productive and populous a country is in its 

 actual state, the less probably will be its power 

 of obtaining a further increase of produce ; and 

 consequently the more checks must necessarily 

 be called into action, to keep the population down 

 to the level of this stationary or slowly increasing 

 produce. From finding such checks, therefore, 

 in ancient or modern nations, no inference can be 

 drawn against the absolute populousness of either. 

 On this account, the prevalence of the small-pox, 

 and of other disorders unknown to the ancients, 

 can by no means be considered as an argument 



* The extreme insalubrity of Batavia, and perhaps the plague 

 in some countries, may be considered as physical causes operating 

 in an excessive degree. The extreme and unusual attachment 

 of the Romans to a vicious celibacy, and the promiscuous inter- 

 course in Otaheite, may be considered as moral causes of the same 

 nature. Such instances, and others of the same kind, which might 

 probably be found, make it necessary to qualify the general pro- 

 position as in the text. 



