Tertullian,
On the Soul 30.4 (tr. Tim G. Parkin and Arthur Pomeroy):
The ultimate evidence of our teeming population is that we are a burden to the world, which can hardly supply us from its natural elements; our wants grow more and more keen, and our complaints more bitter in every mouth, while Nature fails in affording us her usual sustenance. It is very clear that pestilence, famine, wars, and earthquakes have to be regarded as a remedy for nations, as the means of pruning the overbearing human race.
summum testimonium frequentiae humanae: onerosi sumus mundo, vix nobis
elementa sufficiunt, et necessitates artiores, et querellae apud omnes,
dum iam nos natura non sustinet. revera lues et fames et bella et
voragines civitatum pro remedio deputanda, tamquam tonsura
insolescentis generis humani.
J.H. Waszink ad loc.:
