III.
As regards civilization, we may consider man from a threefold point of view: the numerical quantity of the population; the duration of human force, that is, longevity; and the intensity of this force, that is, the development of the organs and faculties.
Man being a combination of forces, does it follow that an increase of population is an accumulation of human forces, and so an element of civilization? As the increase of wealth favors the increase of population, so the latter reacts on the former by increasing the number of producers, and especially by favoring the division of labor. Consequently, a country's well-being requires a just equilibrium between the sum of the capital and the number of inhabitants. An increase of population ought not to lead to a loss in capital, nor ought the increase of capital, by saving, lead to diminished population. In the former case, the country would become impoverished; in the latter it would decay. The latter is the case with France, where the population is far less than the immense resources of the country would justify. While Saxony doubles its population in 45 years, England in 49, Prussia in 54, Russia in 56, Würtemberg and Switzerland in 114, France requires more than 198. There is reason to suppose that Great Britain, which now has 26,000,000, will, in 50 years, have 52,000,000; Germany, 60,000,000; and Russia, over 100,000,000; but France, unless there occur a change, will have no more than 45,000,000. At the beginning of this century, the annual increase of population in France was 175,000, now it is only 132,000 souls. Far from peopling our colonies, we find the very soil of France gradually encroached on by an immigration of the neighboring nations.
The reasons for this are numerous. The restrictions laid on the father of a family in France are greater than in most countries. Then the education Frenchwomen get has an influence. Marriages are not fewer than hitherto, but are contracted at a later period of life. In Catholic countries there is less moral freedom but more licentiousness than in Protestant countries. In the latter, marriage is rendered easy and spontaneous by the greater freedom of social relations between the sexes; but in France marriage is a matter of calculation, and marriages are generally contracted with the aid of go-betweens. Another cause is that habits of industry and especially individual enterprise are not at all in France in proportion with the national wealth. While in England a man generally acquires capital with a view to better his condition as a producer, a Frenchman's study is to retire from business, and leave to a very small family the means of living without work. We have also in France a large proportion of the poorer classes who flock into the great cities to live by public assistance. We have by no means exhausted all the resources of our soil, and there are 20,000,000 acres of waste land. Though in
