SKETCH II.

Progrefs of Men with refpect to FooD and Po

PULATION.

I'

N temperate climates, the original food of men was fruits that grow without culture, and the flesh of land-animals. As fuch animals become shy when often hunted, there is a contrivance of nature, no less fimple than effectual, which engages men to bear with chearfulness the fatigues of hunting, and the uncertainty of capture; and that is, an appetite for hunting. Hunger alone is not fufficient: favages, who act by fenfe not by forefight, move not when the ftomach is full; and it would be too late when the ftomach is empty, to form a hunting-party. As this appetite belongs to every favage who depends on hunting for procuring food; it is one instance, among many, of providential wifdom, in adapting the internal conftitution of man to his external circumftances. The appetite for hunting, tho' among us little neceffary for food, is, to this day, vifible in our young men, high and low, rich and poor. Natural propenfities may be rendered faint or obfcure, but never are totally eradicated.

Water

It is probable, that fish was not early the food of man. is not our element; and favages probably did not attempt to draw any food from the fea or from rivers, till land-animals turned fcarce. Plutarch in his Sympofiacs obferves, that the Syrians and Greeks of old abstained from fish. Menelaus (a) complains,

(a). Book 4. of the Odyffey.

that

that his companion's had been reduced by hunger to that food; and tho' the Grecian camp, at the fiege of Troy, was on the feashore, there is not in Homer a single hint of their feeding on fish. We learn from Dion Caffius, that the Caledonians did not eat fish, tho' they had them in plenty; which is confirmed by Adamannus, a Scotch hiftorian, in his life of St Columba. The ancient Caledonians depended almost entirely on deer for food, because in a cold country the fruits that grow spontaneously afford very little nourishment; and domeftic animals, which at present fo much abound, were not early known in the north of Britain.

Antiquaries talk of acorns, nuts, and other fhell-fruits, as the only vegetable food that men had originally; overlooking wheat, rice, barley, &c. which muft, from the creation, have grown fpontaneously: for furely, when agriculture first commenced, feeds of these plants were not procured by a miracle *. The Lapland

* Writers upon natural history have been folicitous to discover the original climate of these plants; but without much fuccefs. The original climate of plants left to nature, cannot be a fecret: but in countries well peopled, the plants mentioned are not left to nature; the feeds are carefully gathered, and ftored up for food. As this practice could not fail to make thefe feeds fearce, agriculture was early thought of, which, by introducing plants into new foils and new climates, has rendered the original climate obfcure. If we can trace that climate, it must be in regions deftitute of inhabitants, or but thinly peopled. The Sioux, a very fmall tribe in North-America, poffefs a vaft country, where oats grow fpontaneously in meadows and on the fides of rivers, which make part of their food, without neceflity of agriculture. While the French poffeffed Port Dauphin in the ifland of Madagafcar, they raifed excellent wheat. That ftation was deferted many years ago; and wheat to this day grows naturally among the grafs in great vigour. In the country about Mount Tabor in Paleftine, barley and oats grow fpontaneously. In the kingdom of Siam, there are many fpots where rice grows fpontaneously, year after year, without any culture. Diodorus Siculus is our authority for faying, that in the territory of Leontinum, and in other parts of Sicily, wheat grew wild without any culture. And it does fo to this day about Mount Etna.

crs,

ers, poffeffing a country where corn will not grow, make bread of the inner bark of trees; and Linneus reports, that fwine there fatten on that food, as well as in Sweden upon corn.

Plenty of food procured by hunting and fifhing, promotes population: but as confumption of food increases with population, wild animals, forely perfecuted, become not only more rare but more fhy. Men, thus pinched for food, are excited to try other means for fupplying their wants. A fawn, a kid, or a lamb, taken alive, and tamed for amufement, fuggefted probably flocks and herds, and introduced the fhepherd-ftate. Changes are not perfected but by flow degrees: hunting and fishing continue for a long time favourite occupations; and the few animals that are domesticated, serve as a common stock to be distributed among individuals, according to their wants. But as the idle and indolent, tho' the least deserving, are thus the greatest consumers of the common stock, an improvement was fuggested, that every family fhould rear a stock for themselves. Men by that politic regulation being taught to rely on their own industry, display'd the hoarding-principle, which multiplied flocks and herds exceedingly. And thus the fhepherd-ftate was perfected, plenty of food being fupplied at home, without ranging the woods or the waters. Hunting and fishing being no longer neceffary for food, became an amufement merely, and a gratification of the original appetite for hunting.

The finger of God may be clearly traced in the provision made of animal food for man. Gramenivorous animals, perhaps all, make palatable and wholesome food. I except not the horse: fome nations feed on it; others do not, because it is more profitable by its labour. Carnivorous animals, generally fpeaking, make not wholesome food nor palatable. The first-mentioned animals are gentle, and eafily domefticated: the latter are fierce, not easily tamed, and uncertain in temper when tamed. Grafs grows every

where in temperate regions; and men befide can multiply animal food without end, by training domestic animals to live on turnip, carrot, potato, and other roots, &c. Herodotus adds the following admirable reflection: "We may rationally conjecture, "that divine providence has rendered extremely prolific fuch creatures as are naturally fearful, and ferve for food; left they "fhould be destroyed by constant confumption: whereas the ra"pacious and cruel are almoft barren. The hare, which is the prey of beasts, birds, and men, is a great breeder: a lion"nefs, on the contrary, the strongest and fierceft of beafts, brings "forth but once."

The fhepherd-ftate 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 grounds not yet occupied. Neceffity, the mother of invention, fuggefted agriculture. When corn growing spontaneously was rendered scarce 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 plants in their maturity, and fpring up new plants. As the land was poffeffed in common, the feed of courfe was fown in common, and 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 use of the public, and that the product was stored up, and distributed from time to time among the neceffitous. A lasting division of the land among the members of the ftate, fecuring to each man the product of his own skill and labour, was a great spur to industry, and multiplied food exceedingly. Population made a rapid progrefs, and government be

came

came 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 circumftances make it highly probably, that agriculture became first an art in temperate climes. The culture of corn was fo early known 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 fubfift without corn (a). Nor without corn could the ancient monarchies of Affyria and Babylon have been so populous and powerful as they are said to have been. In the northern parts of Europe, wheat, barley, peafe, 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 industry to bring corn to maturity in fuch a climate. Hence it may inferred with certainty, that the fhepherd-ftate 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 supplied 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 kingdoms. People, amazed at the multitude of the invaders, judged, that the countries from whence they iffued must have been exceedingly populous; and hence the North was termed officina gentium; but scarcity of food in the fhepherd-flate was the tre 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

be

(a) Hiftcrical Law-tracts, tract 1.

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