18.10. 10. Of Population in the Relation it bears to the Manner of
procuring Subsistence.
Let us see in what proportion countries are
peopled where the inhabitants do not cultivate the earth. As the produce
of uncultivated land is to that of land improved by culture, so the
number of savages in one country is to that of husbandmen in another:
and when the people who cultivate the land cultivate also the arts, this
is also in such proportions as would require a minute detail.
They can scarcely form a great nation. If they are herdsmen and
shepherds, they have need of an extensive country to furnish subsistence
for a small number; if they live by hunting, their number must be still
less, and in order to find the means of life they must constitute a very
small nation.
Their country commonly abounds with forests, which, as the
inhabitants have not the art of draining off the waters, are filled with
bogs; here each troop canton themselves, and form a petty nation.
