in the most distant countries, which had scarcely yet heard the
echo of the first concussion, the people fell a sacrifice to
organic poison--the untimely offspring of vital energies thrown
into violent commotion.



CHAPTER IV--MORTALITY



We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages of the
Black Plague, if numerical statements were wanted, as in modern
times. Let us go back for a moment to the fourteenth century.
The people were yet but little civilised. The Church had indeed
subdued them; but they all suffered from the ill consequences of
their original rudeness. The dominion of the law was not yet
confirmed. Sovereigns had everywhere to combat powerful enemies
to internal tranquillity and security. The cities were fortresses
for their own defence. Marauders encamped on the roads. The
husbandman was a feudal slave, without possessions of his own.
Rudeness was general, humanity as yet unknown to the people.
Witches and heretics were burned alive. Gentle rulers were
contemned as weak; wild passions, severity and cruelty, everywhere
predominated. Human life was little regarded. Governments
concerned not themselves about the numbers of their subjects, for
whose welfare it was incumbent on them to provide. Thus, the
first requisite for estimating the loss of human life, namely, a
knowledge of the amount of the population, is altogether wanting;
and, moreover, the traditional statements of the amount of this