278 Of the Effects on Society Bk. iv. 



in Europe, taken under all its circumstances, it 

 may safely be asserted, that, independently of the 

 load of misery which would be removed, the sum 

 of pleasurable sensations from the passion of love 

 would be increased in a very great degree. 



If we could suppose such a system general, the 

 accession of happiness to society in its internal 

 economy would scarcely be greater than in its 

 external relations. It might fairly be expected 

 that war, that great pest of the human race, would, 

 under such circumstances, soon cease to extend 

 its ravages so widely and so frequently as it does 

 at present. 



One of its first causes and most powerful im- 

 pulses was undoubtedly an insufficiency of room 

 and food ; and greatly as the circumstances of 

 mankind have changed since it first began, the 

 same cause still continues to operate and to pro- 

 duce, though in a smaller degree, the same effects. 

 The ambition of princes would want instruments 

 of destruction, if the distresses of the lower classes 

 of people did not drive them under their standards. 

 A recruiting serjeant always prays for a bad har- 

 vest and a want of employment, or, in other words, 

 a redundant population. 



In the earlier ages of the world, when war was 

 the great business of mankind, and the drains of 

 population from this cause were, beyond compari- 

 son, greater than in modern times, the legislators 

 and statesmen of each country, adverting princi- 

 pally to the means of offence and defence, encou- 

 raged an increase of people in every possible way, 



