754 
Correspondence . 
[December, 
WE ARE. 
To the Editor of the journal of Science. 
Sir, — It is interesting, at any rate, if not instructive, to look 
back in history, and see what old fellows who have been dust for 
centuries used to think on questions that occupy us to-day. L. 
Botero, a philosopher who flourished as a Jesuit in Elizabeth’s 
reign, looked on the increase of the human species as hindered 
by the indifference of the State. Now-a-day the question seems 
more to be, how is it to be kept down on a level with the national 
wealth ? Hallam quotes him to the following efleCt : — “ No en- 
couragement to matrimony, he observes, will increase the 
numbers of the people without providing also the means of sub- 
sistence, and without due care for breeding children up. If this 
be wanting they either die prematurely or grow up of little 
service to their country. Why else did the human race reach, * 
three thousand years ago, as great a population as there exists at 
present ? Cities begin with a few inhabitants, increase to a cer- 
tain point, but do not pass it, as we see at Rome, at Naples, and 
in other places. Even if all the monks and nuns (!) were to 
marry there would not, he thinks, be more people in the world 
than there are ; two things being requisite for their increase, — 
generation and education (or what we should perhaps rather call 
rearing) ; and if the multiplication of marriages may promote 
the one, it certainly hinders the other.” Meaning, Hallam con- 
cludes, that the poverty attending improvident marriages is the 
great impediment to rearing their progeny. 
Though we are apt selfishly to consider it a blessing there are 
not more, yet we cannot fail to feel a force in the simple remark 
of a good old soul : — “ Never fear how many children ye bring; 
the Lord ’ll find means for ’em all.” Though the human race 
may outgrow vegetation, it cannot outgrow its own wit. 
The vices of humanity have adted perhaps more beneficially 
to us than we are apt to think. How long is it since the first 
man died a slave ? We cannot tell ; nor does any prettily ar- 
ranged chronological table affecft us. Just so long, then, has not 
the humiliation of man’s mind been born, bold aspirations checked, 
free choice turned to submissive waiting, equality debased to 
servile worship, sacred feelings outraged and crushed for centuries 
until they were all but forgotten, — these, and a thousand mere, 
have they not had their effedt ? Who is to say that much of 
reverence — our religion — is not the outcome of Slavery ? Slaves 
are not separate beings : it is needless to enumerate how they 
mix their blood with their “ superiors,” and idle to show how 
