1 "fiercest of beafts, brings forth but 66 once." The shepherd-state is friendly to population. Men by plenty of food multiply apace; and in procefs of time, neighbouring tribes, straitened in their pasture, go to war for extenfion of territory, or migrate to land not yet occupied. Neceffity, the mother of invention, fuggefted agriculture. When corn growing spontaneously was rendered fcarce by confumption, it was an obvious thought to propagate it by art: nature was the guide, which carries on its work of propagation, with feeds that drop from a plant in their maturity, and spring up new plants. As the land was poffeffed in common, the feed of course was fown in common; and the product was stored in a common repofitory, to be parcelled out among individuals in want, as the common stock of 'animals had been formerly. We have for our authority Diodorus Siculus, that the Celtiberians divided their land annually among individuals, to be laboured for the ufe of the public; and that the produc was stored up, and diftributed from time to time among the neceffitous. A lafting divifion divifion of the land among the members of the ftate, fecuring to each man the product of his own skill and labour, was a great fpur to industry, and multiplied food exceedingly. Population made a rapid progrefs, and government became an art; for agriculture and commerce cannot flourish without falutary laws. Natural fruits ripen to greater perfection in a temperate than in a cold climate, and cultivation is more eafy; which circumstances make it highly probable, that agriculture became first an art in tempe→ rate climes. The culture of corn was fo early in Greece, as to make a branch of its fabulous hiftory: in Egypt it must have been coeval with the inhabitants; for while the Nile overflows, they cannot fubfist without corn (a). Nor without corn could the ancient monarchies of Affyria and Babylon have been fo populous and powerful as they are faid to have been. In the northern parts of Europe, wheat, barley, pease, and perhaps oats, are foreign plants: as the climate is not friendly to corn, agriculture must have crept northward by flow degrees; and even at prefent, it requires no fmall portion both of skill and induftry to bring corn to maturity in fuch a climate. Hence it may be inferred with certainty, that the' fhepherd-state continued longer in northern climates than in thofe nearer the fun. Cold countries however are friendly to population; and the northern people, multiplying beyond the food that can be fupplied by flocks and herds, were compelled to throw off many fwarms in fearch of new habitations. Their frequent migrations were for many years a dreadful fcourge to neighbouring nations. People, amazed at the multitude of the invaders, judged, that the countries from whence they iffued muft have been exceedingly populous; and hence the North was termed officina gentium. But fcarcity of food in the fhepherd-ftate was the true caufe; the north of Europe, in all probability, is as well peopled at prefent as ever it was, tho' its migrations have ceafed, corn and commerce having put an end to that terrible fcourge *. Denmark at prefent feeds 2,000,000 * Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus. Montefquieu accounts as follows for the great fwarms of Barba d 2,000,000 inhabitants; Sweden, according to a lift made up anno 1760, 2,383,113; and thefe countries must be much more populous than of old, when over-run with immenfe woods, and when agriculture was unknown. Had the Danes and Noredi gnome 0973 wegians been acquainted with agriculture in the ninth and tenth centuries when they poured out neighbours, they would not have, ventu 10018.03.31g094 29x2 byly stunnA red their lives in frail veffels upon a temAftrefs napestuous ocean, in order to Iltitudes upon their JIS 203 38.9q010 (61 tions who were not their enemies. But and bulb v rians that overwhelmed the Roman empire. «dest deffaims de Barbares qui fortirent autrefois du nordyne paroiffent plus aujourd'hui Lesovig dences des Romains, avoient fait retirer les peuple "du midi au nord & tandis que la force qui les fon "tenoit fubfifta, ils y refterent; quand elle fut af * fér forblie, ils fe repandirent de toutes parts!" Gran deur des Romains; euxás [In Englife thus: con The warms of Barbarians who poured formerly from "the north, appear no more. The violence of the *6 Boman arms had driven thofe nations from the fouth towards the north; there they remained "during the fubfiftence of that force which retain"ed them; but that being once weakened, they fpread abroad to every quarter." It has quite efcaped him, that men cannot, like water, be damm'd up without being fed. Q.1. hunger hunger is a cogent motive; and hunger gave to these pirates fuperiority in arms. above every nation that enjoy'd plenty at home. Luckily fuch depredations muft have intervals; for as they neceffarily occafion great havock even among the victors, the remainder finding fufficiency of food at home, reft there till an increasing population forces them again to action *; Agriculture, which fixes people to a spot, is an invincible obftacle to migration; and happy it is for Europe, that this art, now univerfally diffused, has put an end for ever to that fcourge more deftructive than a peftilence: people find now occupation and fubfiftence at home, without infesting others. Agriculture is a great bleffing: it not only affords us food in plenty, but fecures the fruits of our industry from hungry and rapacious invaders †. That * Joannes Magnus, in the 8th book of his history of the Goths, mentions, that a third part of the Swedes, being compelled by famine to leave their native country, founded the kingdom of the Longobards in Italy. + Mahomet Bey, King of Tunis, was dethroned by his fubjects; but having the reputation of the philofopher's VOL. I. N |