482 INCREASE OF HAPPINESS, 



the present, and hope for the future, should have been re- 

 garded as opposed to the principles of Christianity or the 

 interests of true religion. 



But even if the theory of "natural selection" should event- 

 ually prove to be untenable, and if those are right who believe 

 that neither our minds nor our bodies are susceptible of any 

 important change, any great improvement, still I think we are 

 justified in believing that the happiness of man is greatly on 

 the increase. It is generally admitted that if any animal 

 increases in numbers it must be because the conditions are 

 becoming more favorable to it, in other words, because it is 

 happier and more comfortable. Now, how will this test 

 apply to man ? Schoolcraft estimates* that in a population 

 which lives on the produce of the chase, each hunter requires 

 on an average 50,000 acres, or 78 square miles, for his sup- 

 port. Again, he tells usf that, excluding Michigan territory, 

 west of Lake Michigan, and north of Illinois, there were in 

 the United States, in 1825, about 97,000 Indians, occupying 

 77,000,000 of acres, or 120,312 square miles. This gives one 

 inhabitant to every 1J square miles. In this case, however, 

 the Indians lived partly on the subsidies granted them by 

 Government in exchange for land, and the population was 

 therefore greater than would have been the case if they had 

 lived entirely on the produce of the chase. The same reason 

 afiects, though to a smaller extent, the Indians in the Hud- 

 son's Bay territory. These tribes were estimated by Sir 

 George Simpson, late Governor of the territories belonging 

 to the Hudson's Bay Company, in his evidence given before 

 the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1857, at 

 139,000, and the extent is supposed to be more than 

 1,400,000 square miles, to which we must add 13,000 more 

 for Vancouver's Island, making a total of more than 



* Indian Tribes, vol. i., p. 433. f I.e. rol. iii., p. 575. 



