An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

TIBET. 351b field, which affords ample scope for mgenious and fanciful speculation; but under such circumstances, all the efforts of the speculatist,frequently tend only to raise new doubts, and involve the subject ofinquiry in still more mysterious obscurity. AVhether or not, at someremote period of time, when population was in its infancy, from theoperation of some unknown cause, there existed so great a proportionof males to females inthis nation, as rendered the single possession ofone woman, a blessing too great for any individual to aspire to, and,in consequence, thiscompromise may ha\e been adopted by generalconsent; or wiiether a too numerous population may have ovcrburdened a meagre soil ; I will leave to the determination of others, moreable to decide on such a question. It is sufficient for me to markmanners as Ifind them.But it certainly appears, that superabundant population, in an unfertilecountry, must be the greatest of all calamities, and produce eternalwarfare, or eternal want. Either the most active, and the most ablepart of the community, must be compelled to emigrate, and to becomesoldiers of fortune, or merchants of chance ; or else, if they remain athome, be liable to falla prey to famine, in consequence of some accidentalfailure in their scanty crops. By thus linking whole familiestogether inthe matrimonial yoke, the too rapid increase of populationwas perliapschecked, and an alarm prevented, capable of pervadingthe most fertile region upon earth, and of giving, birth to the mostinhuman and unnatural practice, in the richest, the most productive,and the most populous country in the world. I allude to the empire ofChina ; where a mother, not foreseeing the means of raising, or pro-