Statistical Calculation.—Population of the Israelites in Egypt

17th—18th. The fine weather has now completely set in. The Emperor went into the garden, attended by all his suite. After walking about for a short time, he proceeded to the wood.

On his return from his walk, we all breakfasted together under the tent; and, the weather being very favourable, the Emperor expressed his wish to take a drive in the calash.

About five o’clock, he desired me to attend him in his closet, to assist in searching for some documents on the interior of Africa, bordering upon Egypt. This is a point on which he has been engaged for some days past, as he intends to make it the subject of some chapters in his Campaign of Egypt.

He complained of being unwell, and desired me to order some tea for him. This was something extraordinary. The Grand Marshal soon after came to take my place in writing from his dictation.

After dinner, the Emperor was engaged with the pen in his hand, in investigating the comparative production of the soils of Egypt and France. He found the production of France to be greatly inferior to that of Egypt. This calculation was made from Peuchet’s “Statistical Surveys of France.” The Emperor was satisfied with the result at which he had arrived; it corresponded with the opinion he had previously formed. This naturally gave rise to the consideration of several other subjects; for instance, what was the probable and possible population of Egypt in ancient times?—what might have been the population of the Israelites, if, during the short period that they remained in captivity, they had increased to the degree mentioned in Scripture? &c. The Emperor desired me to present to him next day something on this latter subject. A great deal was said on the probabilities of human life, the tables of which were also found in Peuchet’s work; and on this subject the Emperor made some very ingenious, novel, and striking remarks.

I presented to the Emperor the calculation I had made on the problem which he had given to me the preceding day. The result surprised him not a little; and it furnished a subject for considerable discussion. The following is the substance of what I presented to him.

The Israelites remained two hundred years in Egypt, during which time we may calculate ten generations. They married early, and their marriages were very fruitful. I supposed the children of Jacob, the twelve chiefs of tribes, to be all married; I also supposed each of them to have had the same number of children, or six couples, and so on in succession. The tenth generation would then have amounted to 2,480,064,704 persons. But the ninth generation and even the eighth was still in existence. Hence what an awful number of figures. At any rate, let an ample deduction be made from the number of children, for the mortality occasioned by accidents, disease, &c., and still it is very certain that no calculation can be brought forward to contradict the account of Moses. The Emperor amused himself for a considerable time in detecting and shewing the errors of my reasoning.

During dinner, he exercised himself in English, by asking my son questions in that language, in history and geometry. After dinner the Emperor took up the Odyssey, the reading of which afforded a treat to us all.