XXI. irrespective of them; or no specific, no permanent, LETTER no rational and no comfortable form and state of human nature could arise. It was therefore essential for the Almighty omniscience, which could do whatever it should chuse to do, and without whose appointing and framing will no mode of being could exist, to determine what the numbers, the localities, the social state, the habits, the pursuits, the history and the general characters of the renewed race of mankind were to be, in order that so far as they would be produced, governed or affected by the nature and influence of the surface they were to dwell on, to cultivate and to obtain their subsistence and conveniences from; it might be made such as would cause and promote what the divine economy had intended should, on all these points, be provided for and produced. The NUMBERS of human beings who should, at every period, be living at the same time on the earth, must have been decided on in the Divine Mind before the new surface was settled; because, on this would depend, whether the whole superficies of its circumference, or only a part of it, and in that case, how much of it, should be occupied with their population, and adapted to their use. If as many were to be coexisting upon it, as a globe of twenty-four thousand miles in circuit could contain and nourish, then, every portion of its upper soil must be made and kept in such a state as would supply the habitable locality and the proper vegetation; but, if man was not to replenish the whole area of the circular expanse, it would then be sufficient if so much only was made cultivable and fitted for his residence, as his appointed numbers should require. The space to XXI. LETTER be prepared and appropriated by man, would be governed by the intended quantity of his population, that were, from time to time, to be contemporaneous. A few would require small room, multitudes much more. If the numbers were to be gradually augmented, the fitted surface might be as gradually extended; but at all events the highest quantity meant to be co-tenants, must have been adverted to, that the whole space, which would be in the fullest diffusion wanted, might be provided and made ready. These recollections may satisfy us, that neither the increase and amount of the human population, nor the state and form of our globular surface have been left to be what chance, or the undirected movements of nature, might make them; but that they must, from the beginning of our renewal, have been the subject of the Divine deliberation and adjusting care. We see this immediately in one striking circumstance. The ocean has been made to occupy nearly threefourths of our surface. An event of this magnitude could be no accident. It must have been resolved from the re-commencement of things, that about onefourth only of the earth's surface should be inhabited by man, and that the remainder should be covered by the seas. Here was, from the time the Deluge ceased, an express limitation of the population of mankind, and of all land vegetation, and of the animals who subsist upon it. At that time or before, it was fixed that neither of these should be as many as the globe would contain, but only, at the utmost, one-fourth of that possible number. The ocean was in this respect made the limiting and confining instrument; its waves, as they rolled and expanded, spread every where the prohibition, and maintained XXI. it, that man and all terrestrial life should never LETTER multiply nor extend beyond one-fourth of the surface of the planet, in which he was stationed. But was it also settled that the human race should ever increase to the full population, which that restricted space allows? Was man ever to multiply into such a multitude of human beings as one-fourth part of the surface could maintain? The facts which have occurred, enable us at once to answer, that it never has been the divine intention, that mankind should ever enlarge into such a productivity and quantity as this. The vegetable kingdom has been permitted and enabled to have this extent of dissemination, and some classes of the animated world, attend its herbs and trees wherever they arise. Not so mankind. A proportion, and that a small one, of the habitable surface is that which they have been designed to till and occupy; for, if they had not been restricted to this minor number, the amount of their possible population, which might have subsisted at the same time on the fourth part of the earth, would have been a vast multiple of their present number. On this point we have sufficient data to reason correctly from. From all that history presents to us we may justly conclude, that the earth never had, at one time, a larger proportion of human kind than it now possesses. Malte Brun has reckoned the present population of the world at six hundred and fifty millions; some think it more, and others calculate it to be less.1 16 A thousand millions have been mentioned, apparently for no other reason than the convenience of a round number.-M. Malte Brun reduces the amount to 650,000,000. We think his enumeration for LETTER It is in Europe that we might expect the greater XXI. exactness to be attainable, but the most distinguished statistical inquirers differ also on this, no less than forty-five millions. If we take an average medium between the highest and the lowest enumerations that have been mentioned, we shall find that from seven hundred to eight hundred millions will be the number thence derivable; and this general estimation may be taken as a very probable amount. I believe that the earth never has contained so large a population as this, until the last fifty or one hundred years. These calculations entitle us to say, that the largest number of human beings, which the Creator, from the beginning of our world to the present day, has intended to be upon it, at any one time, has not exceeded seven or eight hundred millions. It never reached this amount in ancient times, according to all the documents from which we can compute it. But as our race have now multiplied up to it, we may take it as the number, for which He had to provide a suitable surface. But how much of our globular superficies would such a number require for their residence and support? for Asia, Africa and America still rather high, and submit the following estimate as the result of our inquiries : * Hassell, in 1819, estimated the population of Europe to be 180,702,000; but Balbi, in 1828, raised it to 226,283,000. Murray's Encycl. Geog. p. 285.-About the same time the German A. De Schlieben reckoned it to be 188,391,174, of whom 172,432,000 were Christians. He computed the armed force of all its countries at 2,500,000. Bull. Univ. 1830, p. 218. 3 XXI. We can judge of this from many circumstances. Our LETTER two islands of Great Britain and Ireland contain twenty-four millions of human beings. Multiply this by thirty, and we have seven hundred and twenty. Therefore, thirty times as much space of soil, as Great Britain and Ireland comprehend, would be sufficient for the maintenance of seven hundred and twenty millions of human beings, living as our fellow-countrymen generally do. Now these islands comprise an area, altogether, of one hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and sixty miles. This space, multiplied by thirty, will amount to three millions five hundred and fifty-three thousand eight hundred square miles. Thus, for the comfortable support of seven hundred and twenty millions of the human race, like the inhabitants of our own country, no more than about three millions and a half square miles of surface would be requisite. Now the four quarters of our globe-the whole of actual land surface which it presents to us-has been stated to be a little more than fifty-one millions of square miles,* tho some suppose * England and Wales contain 57,960 square miles, Scotland 30,500, and Ireland 30,000; in all 118,460 square miles. Murray's Encyc. Geog. p. 312. 478. The extent of the four great divisions of the world is as follows, in square English miles :— |