AFTER this computation of APPIAN and DIODORUS SICULUS, I know not, whether I dare affirm, that the modern DUTCH are more numerous than the antient BATAVI.

SPAIN is decayed from what it was three centuries ago; but if we step backward two thousand years, and confider the restless, turbulent, unfettled condition of its inhabitants, we may probably be inclined to think, that it is now much more populous. Many SPANIARDS killed themselves when deprived of their arms by the ROMANS. It appears from PLUTARCH, that robbery and plunder were efteemed honorable amongst the SPANIARDS. HIRTIUS ' reprefents in the fame light the fituation of that country in CAESAR's time; and he fays, that every man was obliged to live in caftles and walled towns for his fecurity. It was not till its final conqueft under AUGUSTUS, that these disorders were repreffed 3. The account which STRABO and JUSTIN give of SPAIN, correfponds exactly with those above mentioned. How much, therefore, muft it diminish from our idea of the populousness of antiquity, when we find, that CICERO, comparing ITALY, AFRIC, GAUL, GREECE, and SPAIN, mentions the great number of inhabitants, as the peculiar circumstance which rendered this latter country formidable *.

ITALY, 'tis probable however, has decayed: But how many great cities does it ftill contain; VENICE, GENOA, PAVIA, TURIN, MILAN, NAPLES, FLORENCE, LEGHORN, which either fubfifted not in antient times, or were then very inconfiderable? If we reflect on this, we fhall not be apt to carry matters to fo great an extreme as is ufual, with regard to this fubject.

WHEN the ROMAN authors complain, that ITALY, which formerly exported corn, became dependent on all the provinces for its daily bread, they never afcribe this alteration to the increafe of its inhabitants, but to the neglect of tillage and agriculture. A natural effect of that pernicious practice of importing corn, in order to distribute it gratis among the ROMAN citizens, and a very bad means of multiplying the inhabitants of any country". The Sportula, fo much talked of by MARTIAL and JUVENAL, being prefents regularly made by the great lords to their fmaller clients, must have had a like tendency to produce idlenefs, debauchery, and a continual decay among the people. The parish-rates have at present the fame bad confequences in ENGLAND.

WERE I to affign a period, when I imagine this part of the world might poffibly contain more inhabitants than at prefent, I fhould pitch upon the age of TRAJAN and the ANTONINES; the great extent of the ROMAN empire being then civilized and cultivated, fettled almost in a profound peace both foreign and do

taken, by a poetical figure, for robbers in general. VARRO de re rulica, lib. 2. praef. COLUMELLA praef. SUETON. AUGUST. cap. 42.

Tho' the obfervations of L' Abbé du Bos fhould be admitted, that ITALY is now warmer than in former times, the confequence may not be neceflary, that it is more populous or better cultivated. If the other countries of EUROPE were more favage and woody, the cold winds that blowed from them, might affect the climate of ITALY.

mestic,

meftic, and living under the fame regular police and government ". police and government". But we are told, that all extensive governments, especially abfolute monarchies, are destructive to population, and contain a secret vice and poifon, which deftroy the effect of all these promifing appearances. To confirm this, there is a paffage, cited from PLUTARCH", which being fomewhat fingular, we fhall here examine it.

THAT author, endeavoring to account for the filence of many of the oracles, fays, that it may be afcribed to the prefent defolation of the world, proceeding from former wars and factions; which common calamity, he adds, has fallen heavier upon GREECE than on any other country; infomuch, that the whole could

scarce at prefent furnish three thousand warriors; a number which, in the time of the MEDIAN war, were fupplied by the fingle city of MEGARA. The gods, therefore, who affect works of dignity and importance, have fuppreffed many of their oracles, and deign not to use so many interpreters of their will to fo diminu tive a people.

I MUST Confefs, that this paffage contains fo many difficulties, that I know not what to make of it. You may obferve, that PLUTARCH affigns for a cause of the decay of mankind, not the extenfive dominion of the ROMANS, but the former wars and factions of the feveral nations; all which were quieted by the RoMAN arms. PLUTARCH's reafoning, therefore, is directly contrary to the inference which is drawn from the fact he advances.

POLYBIUS fuppofes, that GREECE had become more profperous and florishing after the establishment of the ROMAN yoke ; and tho' that hiftorian wrote before thefe conquerors had degenerated, from being the patrons, to be the plunderers of mankind; yet as we find from TACITUS', that the feverity of the emperors afterwards corrected the licence of the governors, we have no reason to think that extenfive monarchy fo deftructive as it is often represented.

WE learn from STRABO ', that the ROMANS, from their regard to the GREEKS, maintained, to his time, most of the privileges and liberties of that celebrated nation; and NERO afterwards rather increased them'. How therefore can we imagine, that the ROMAN yoke was fo burthenfome over that part of the world? The oppreffion of the proconfuls was checked; and the magiftracies, in GREECE being all bestowed in the feveral cities, by the free votes of the people, there was, no great neceffity for the competitors to attend the emperor's court. If great numbers went to feek their fortunes in ROME, and advance themselves by learning or eloquence, the commodities of their native country, many of them would return with the fortunes which they had acquired, and thereby enrich the GRECIAN Commonwealths.

BUT PLUTARCH fays, that the general depopulation had been more fenfibly felt in GREECE than in any other country. How is this reconcileable to its fuperior privileges and advantages?

BESIDES, this paffage, by proving too much, really proves nothing. Only three thousand men able to bear arms in all GREECE! Who can admit fo ftrange a propofition, especially if we confider the great number of GREEK cities, whose names ftill remain in hiftory, and which are mentioned by writers long after the age of PLUTARCH? There are there forely ten times more people at prefent, when there scarce remains a city in all the bounds of antient GREECE. That country is ftill tolerably cultivated, and furnishes a fure fupply of corn, in cafe of any scarcity in SPAIN, ITALY, or the fouth of FRANCE.

Lib. 2. cap. 62. It may perhaps be imagined, that POLYBIUS being dependent on Rome; would naturally extol the ROMAN dominion. But, in the first place, POLYBIUS, tho' one fees fome times inftances of his caution, difcovers no fyme ptoms of flattery. Secondly, This opinion is only delivered in a single ftroke, by the by, while he is intent upon another fubject; and 'tis allowed, if

there be any fufpicion of an author's infincerity, that thefe oblique propofitions difcover his real opinion better than his more formal and direct af fertions.

Annal. lib. 1. cap. 2. •Lib. 8. & 9.

• PLUTARCH. De his qui fere a Numine puniuntur. WE

We may obferve, that the antient frugality of the GREEKS, and their equality of property, ftill fubfifted during the age of PLUTARCH; as appears from LuCIAN ". Nor is there any ground to imagine, that that country was poffeffed by a few masters, and a great number of flaves.

'Tis probable, indeed, that military difcipline, being entirely useless, was extremely neglected in GREECE after the establishment of the ROMAN empire; and if these commonwealths, formerly fo warlike and ambitious, maintained each of them a fmall city-guard, to prevent mobbish disorders, 'tis all they had occafion for: And thefe, perhaps, did not amount to 3000 men, thro'out all GREECE. I own, that if PLUTARCH had this fact in his eye, he is here guilty of a very grofs paralogifm, and affigns caufes no way proportioned to the effects. But is it fo great a prodigy, that an author fhould fall into a miftake of this nature"?

BUT whatever force may remain in this paffage of PLUTARCH, we shall endeavor to counterbalance it by as remarkable a paffage in DIODORUS SICULUS, where the hiftorian, after mentioning NINUS's army of 1,700,000 foot and 200,000 horfe, endeavors to fupport the credibility of this account, by fome pofterior facts; and adds, that we must not form a notion of the antient populoufnefs of mankind from the prefent emptiness and depopulation which is fpred over the world *. Thus an author, who lived at that very period of antiquity which is reprefented as moft populous, complains of the defolation which then prevailed, gives the preference to former times, and has recourfe to antient fables as a foundation for his opinion. The humor of blaming the prefent, and admiring. the past, is ftrongly rooted in human nature, and has an influence even on perfons endued with the profoundest judgment and most extenfive learning.

" De mercede condu&is,

w I must confefs, that that difcourfe of PLU TARCH, concerning the filence of the oracles, is in general of fo odd a texture, and fo unlike his other productions, that one is at a lofs what judgment to form of it. 'Tis wrote in dialogue, which is a method of compofition that PLU TARCH Commonly little affects. The perfonages he introduces advance very wild, abfurd, and contradictory opinions, more like the vifionary fyftems or ravings of PLATO than the folid fenfe of PLUTARCH. There runs alfo thro' the whole an air of fuperftition and credulity, which refembles very little the fpirit that appears in other, philofophical compofitions of that author. For tis remarkable, that tho' PLUTARCH be an hiftorian as fuperftitious as HERODOTUS or LIvy, yet there is fcarcely, in all antiquity, a philofopher lefs fuperftitious, excepting CICERO and LUCIAN. I muft, therefore, confefs, that a paffage of PLUTARCH, cited from this difcourfe, has much less authority with me, than if it had been found in moft of his other compofitions.

There is only one other difcourfe of PLUTARCH liable to like objections, viz. that concerning those whofe punishment is delayed by the Deity. It is alfo wrote in dialogue, contains like fuperftitious, wild vifions, and feems to have been chiefly compofed in rivalfhip to PLATO, particularly his laft book, de republica.

And here I cannot but obferve, that Monf. FONTENELLE, a writer eminent for candor, seems to have departed a little from his ufual character, when he endeavors to throw a ridicule upon PLUTARCH on account of paffages to be met with in this dialogue concerning oracles. The abfurdities here put into the mouths of the feveral perfonages are not to be ascribed to PLUTARCH. He makes them refute each other; and, in general, he feems to intend the ridiculing of thofe very opinions, which FONTENELLE would ridicule him for maintaining. See Hiftoire des oracles.

* Lib. 2.

y He was cotemporary with CAESAR and Audi GUSTUS..

ESSAY XI.

OF THE ORIGINAL CONTRA C T.

A lofophical' or fpeculative fyftem of principles, annexed to its political or S no party, in the prefent age, can pretend to fupport itself, without a phi

practical one; we accordingly find, that each of the parties, into which this nation is divided, has reared up a fabric of the former kind, in order to protect and cover that scheme of actions, which it purfues. The people being commonly very rude builders, especially in this fpeculative way, and more especially still, when actuated by party zeal; 'tis natural to imagine, that their workmanship must be a little unfhapely, and discover evident marks of that violence and hurry, in which it was raised. The one party, by tracing up the origin of government to the DEITY, endeavor to render government fo facred and inviolate, that it must be little less than facrilege, however diforderly it may become, to touch or invade it, in the fmalleft article. The other party, by founding government altogether on the confent of the PEOPLE, fuppofe that there is a kind of original contract, by which the subjects have referved the power of refifting their fovereign, whenever they find themselves aggrieved by that authority, with which they have, for certain purposes, voluntarily entrusted him. These are the fpeculative principles of the two parties; and these too are the practical confequences deduced from them.

I SHALL Venture to affirm, That both these systems of speculative principles are just; tho' not in the fenfe, intended by the parties: And That both the schemes of practical confequences are prudent; tho' not in the extremes, to which each party, in oppofition to the other, has commonly endeavored to carry them.

THAT the DEITY is the ultimate author of all government, will never be denied by any one who admits a general providence, and allows, that all events in the universe are conducted by an uniform plan and directed to wife purposes. As 'tis impoffible for human race to fubfift, at least in any comfortable or secure state, without the protection of government; government must certainly have been intended by that beneficent Being, who means the good of all his creatures: And as it has univerfally, in fact, taken place, in all countries, and all ages; we may conclude, with ftill greater certainty, that it was intended by that omnifcient Being, who can never be deceived by any event or operation. But fince he gave rise to it, not by any particular or miraculous interpofition, but by his concealed and univerfal efficacy; a fovereign cannot, properly speaking, be called his vicegerent, in any other fenfe than every power or force, being derived from him, may be faid to act by his commiffion. Whatever actually happens is comprehended in the general plan or intention of providence; nor has the greatest and most lawful prince any more reafon, upon that account, to plead a peculiar facredness or inviolable authority, than an inferior magiftrate, or even an ufurper, or even a robber and a pyrate. The fame divine fuper-intendant, who, for wife pur

5

pofes,