Being now arrived at the beginning of the fourteenth century, we see that, from Ireland to China, mankind had involved themselves in one general work of destruction. Besides the wars, famines had been so frequent, that the eating of one another seemed to be but a common affair. Indeed the history of mankind would tempt one to believe that they thought themselves brought into the world for no other purpose but to destroy each other. As far back as the year 409, in the time of the wars of the Vandals in Spain, a dreadful famine took place, which, in 410, reduced many to the necessity of feeding upon human flesh; parents devoured their children, and the wild beasts, being deprived of the dead bodies which they used to feed upon, but which were at this time devoured by the living, fell upon the latter, and thus increased the general destruction. Such of the Romans as fled into strong holds and fortresses, were in the end obliged to feed upon one another. To these calamities the pestilence was added, which did not fail to rage in its usual manner. Famine and pestilence had also ravaged the city of Rome when besieged by the Goths under Vitiges, and under Totila. In this last siege the unhappy citizens were reduced to such straits, that they consumed even the grass which grew near the walls, and were at last obliged to feed on their own excrements. We do not indeed hear, at this time, of any particular instances of people feeding upon one another; though, in such dreadful emergences, it is scarcely to be doubted that some would have recourse to this terrible expedient in order to allay their hunger. But in the famines which took place during the ravages of the Saracens, Turks and Moguls, nothing seems to have been more common. In 1066 a most grievous famine took place at Alexandria in Egypt, and throughout the whole country. Three bushels and a half of flour were sold at eighty dinars, a dog at five, and a cat at three. The Visir, having waited on the Khalif, left his horse at the palace gate; but, before he returned, the animal had been carried off and eaten. Three men were hanged for this theft, and their bodies ordered to be exposed upon gibbets; but next day they were found picked to the bones, their flesh having been all cut off and devoured the preceding night. Bodies of men and women were boiled, and their flesh publicly sold. A violent plague followed, which swept away the greatest part of the inhabitants. As the hellish Moguls spread desolation wherever they advanced, so their retreats were equally formidable. In 1243, having advanced as far as Aleppo in Syria, they found themselves obliged to retreat, and that for a very odd reason, viz. that their horses were not well shod. This, however, did not hinder them from destroying every thing the earth produced, and stripping every man, nay, every woman, they met, even of their clothes. The consequence was, a terrible famine, so that people