In Russia,
too, the voice of nature was silenced by fear and horror. In the
hour of danger, fathers and mothers deserted their children, and
children their parents.
Of all the estimates of the number of lives lost in Europe, the
most probable is, that altogether a fourth part of the inhabitants
were carried off. Now, if Europe at present contain 210,000,000
inhabitants, the population, not to take a higher estimate, which
might easily by justified, amounted to at least 105,000,000 in the
sixteenth century.
It may therefore be assumed, without exaggeration, that Europe
lost during the Black Death 25,000,000 of inhabitants.
That her nations could so quickly overcome such a fearful
concussion in their external circumstances, and, in general,
without retrograding more than they actually did, could so develop
their energies in the following century, is a most convincing
proof of the indestructibility of human society as a whole. To
assume, however, that it did not suffer any essential change
internally, because in appearance everything remained as before,
is inconsistent with a just view of cause and effect. Many
historians seem to have adopted such an opinion; accustomed, as
usual, to judge of the moral condition of the people solely
according to the vicissitudes of earthly power, the events of
battles, and the influence of religion, but to pass over with
indifference the great phenomena of nature, which modify, not only
the surface of the earth, but also the human mind.
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