It has been observed above, that in Russia the Black Plague did
not break out until 1351, after it had already passed through the
south and north of Europe. In this country also, the mortality
was extraordinarily great; and the same scenes of affliction and
despair were exhibited, as had occurred in those nations which had
already passed the ordeal: the same mode of burial--the same
horrible certainty of death--the same torpor and depression of
spirits. The wealthy abandoned their treasures, and gave their
villages and estates to the churches and monasteries; this being,
according to the notions of the age, the surest way of securing
the favour of Heaven and the forgiveness of past sins. 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