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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



truth seems to be that the capacity for waiting 

 increases, in spite of the diminished reward ; and 

 in some cases of a diminished rate of profit, e. g., 

 when it is due to increased securit}', the capacity 

 for waiting is not affected by it at all. How- 

 ever low the rate of profit may be, we are not 

 near the " stationary state," so long as men are 

 willing to save from their increase and add to 

 their capital. 



Again, we are told that capital is being driven 

 from the country by the action of unions. They 

 certainly may affect the rate of reward in one 

 department of industry so seriously that capital 

 will be withdrawn, but it Deed not necessarily lie 

 idle. It will — so far as it can be realized — seek 

 other employments, and, so long as the capacity for 

 saving survives, we need have no fear of inability 

 to set labor in motion. The change in the rate 

 of reward could not be a general one — certainly 

 not a permanent one — unless there was a growth 

 in the skill of the proletariat, and consequently 

 in their power of driving a bargain. With that 

 change there would also have come an increased 

 stock of wealth to be divided ; nor, as long as we 

 see that the capacity for waiting has survived 

 the pressure of the diminishing return from land, 

 need we fear that it would be destroyed by a re- 

 adjustment of the rewards of patience and en- 

 ergy. 



Population. — The currency offers a tempting 

 field for discussion at present, but we must draw 



these remarks to a close with a brief allusion to 

 another burning question. The law of population 

 grievously needs to be restated in the form in 

 which it was first uttered by Malthus. He spoke 

 of the evil of population increasing more rapidly 

 than the means of subsistence. To-day we hear 

 men talk of the increase of the human kind as if 

 it were a positive evil ; men enunciate doubtful 

 physiological statements and more than doubtful 

 moral doctrines as to the means of preventing 

 this curse. In all this we have a narrow view of 

 man, as a slave of his appetites and physical 

 conditions. Is this so ? Is it not rather true 

 that there are boundless resources in human na- 

 ture for the increase of skill and trust, the devel- 

 opment and economizing of energy and patience, 

 and thus for the continued satisfying of human 

 wants? The capacities of human nature may be 

 developed so as to supply infinitely multiplied 

 needs. It is not an increase of population that is 

 an evil, but a disproportionate increase, and the 

 cure for this evil lies, not in bowing to the limits 

 at present set by climate and soil, but in develop- 

 ing those human powers — including that of self- 

 control — by which men have hitherto succeeded 

 in overcoming Nature. If want increases more 

 rapidly than resources do, misery must ensue; 

 but the ratio may be altered in either of two 

 ways, and the permanent remedy lies in develop- 

 ing the resources more rapidly, rather than in 

 trying to suppress the wants. — Mind. 



ON THE POSITION AND INFLUENCE OF WOMEN IN 



ANCIENT GEEECE. 



By JAMES DONALDSON, LL. D. 



EVERYTHING that has life has a course 

 within certain limits predetermined for it, 

 through which it passes until it finally disappears. 

 The seed of the oak gathers materials from earth 

 and sky until it fashions itself into the majestic 

 tree. It will not become a rose or an elm. So it 

 is with the higher animals and man. The lines of 

 their progress through life are distinctly marked 

 off. But, within the limits special to each class, 

 there are different degrees of perfection. All the 

 individuals seem to strive after an ideal which 

 none attain, to which some come very close, and 

 to which all more or less approximate. Man has 

 also his ideal, but, in addition to the instinctive 



power of soul which strives after the ideal, he 

 has the faculty of being conscious of the ideal 

 and of consciously striving after it. What is 

 true of man is true of woman. What is the 

 ideal of woman ? What could we call the com- 

 plete development and full blossoming of wom- 

 an's life? I have no intention of answering this 

 question, much agitated in the present day. I do 

 not think that I could answer it satisfactorily, but 

 it is requisite for the historian of woman in any 

 age to put it to himself and his readers. A true 

 conception of woman's ideal life can be reached 

 only by the long experience of many ages. The 

 very first and most essential element in the har- 



