If so great a commonwealth as Carthage, though assisted at that time
by Hiero, King of Syracuse, and by the Romans, ran the hazard of
losing their empire, city, and liberties, by the insurrection of a
handful of mercenaries, whose first strength was but 20,000 men; it
should be a warning to all free nations how they suffer armies so
composed to be among them, and it should frighten a wise State from
desiring such an increase of people as may be had by the bringing
over foreign soldiers.
Indeed, all armies whatsoever, if they are over-large, tend to the
dispeopling of a country, of which our neighbour nation is a
sufficient proof, where in one of the best climates in Europe men
are wanting to till the ground. For children do not proceed from
the intemperate pleasures taken loosely and at random, but from a
regular way of living, where the father of the family desires to
rear up and provide for the offspring he shall beget.
Securing the liberties of a nation may be laid down as a fundamental
for increasing the numbers of its people; but there are other
polities thereunto conducing which no wise State has ever neglected.
No race of men did multiply so fast as the Jews, which may be
attributed chiefly to the wisdom of Moses their Lawgiver, in
contriving to promote the state of marriage.
The Romans had the same care, paying no respect to a man childless
by his own fault, and giving great immunities and privileges, both
in the city and provinces, to those who had such and such a number
of children.
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