dual triumphs gained by arts and industry, from the violence of
war, it makes wealth a more desirable object, and the loss of it a
greater misfortune. It tends to augment the natural propensity that
there is in poor nations to equal richer ones {22}, although it, at the
same time, augments the difficulty of accomplishing their intentions.

The superior energy of poverty and necessity which leads men, under
this pressure, to act incessantly in whatever way they have it in their
power to act, and that seems likely to bring them on a level with those
that are richer, is then the ground-work of the rise and fall of nations,
as well as of individuals. This tendency is sometimes favoured by
particular circumstances, and sometimes it is counteracted by them;
but its operation is incessant, and it has never yet failed in producing
its effect, for the triumph of poverty over wealth on the great scale as
on the small, though very irregular in its pace, has continued without
interruption from the earliest records to the present moment.

---
{22} The present inferiority of Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and
Portugal, compared with the rank they held in former times, is easily
accounted for by looking at the scale of their revenues.
-=-

[end of page #19]

CHAP. III.

_Of the Nations that rose to Wealth and Power previously to the
Conquests in Asia and Africa, and the Causes which ruined them_.

Previous to the conquests made by Alexander the Great, the
history of ancient nations is confused, incomplete, and inaccurate.

During the contests of his successors, the intricacy and confusion are
still continued, but materials are more plentiful, more accurate, and
more authentic.

During the first period, excepting what is contained in sacred history,
a few detached facts, collected by writers long after, are our only
guides in judging of the situation of ancient states, some of which
consisted of great empires, and others of single cities possessed of a
very small territory.

Add to this, that great and striking events occupied almost exclusively
the attention of historians. The means by which those events were
produced were considered as of lesser importance.

So far, however, as the present inquiry can be elucidated, although
materials are few, yet, by adhering to a distinct plan, and keeping the
object always before us, we may arrive at a conclusion.

The countries that appear to have been first inhabited were