102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



crease of mankind when all the positive as well as the preventive 

 checks are removed. As the positive checks which may be 

 briefly summarized as war, pestilence, and famine are supposed 

 to be non-existent, what, it may be asked, are the preventive 

 checks which are suggested as being capable of reducing the rate 

 of increase within manageable limits ? This very reasonable 

 question I will now endeavor to answer. 



The first and most important of the checks upon a too rapid 

 increase of population will be the comparatively late average 

 period of marriage, which will be the natural result of the very 

 conditions of society, and will besides be inculcated during the 

 period of education, and still further enforced by public opinion. 

 As the period of systematic education is supposed to extend to 

 the age of twenty-one, up to which time both the mental and 

 physical powers will be trained and exercised to their fullest 

 capacity, the idea of marriage during this period will rarely be 

 entertained. During the last year of education, however, the 

 subject of marriage will be dwelt upon, in its bearing on individ- 

 ual happiness and on social well-being, in relation to the welfare 

 of the next generation and to the continuous development of the 

 race. The most careful and deliberate choice of partners for life 

 will be inculcated as the highest social duty; while the young 

 women will be so trained as to look with scorn and loathing on 

 all men who in any way willfully fail in their duty to society 

 on idlers and malingerers, on drunkards and liars, on the selfish, 

 the cruel, or the vicious. They will be taught that the happiness 

 of their whole lives will depend on the care and deliberation with 

 which they choose their husbands, and they will be urged to ac- 

 cept no suitor till he has proved himself to be worthy of respect 

 by the place he holds and the character he bears among his fellow- 

 laborers in the public service. 



Under social conditions which render every woman absolutely 

 independent, so far as the necessaries and comforts of existence 

 are concerned, surrounded by the charms of family life and the 

 pleasures of society, which will be far greater than anything we 

 now realize when all possess the refinements derived from the 

 best possible education, and all are relieved from sordid cares aud 

 the struggle for mere existence, is it not in the highest degree 

 probable that marriage will rarely take place till the woman has 

 had three or four years' experience of the world after leaving 

 college that is, till the age of twenty-five, while it will very fre- 

 quently be delayed till thirty or upward ? Now Mr. Galton has 

 shown, from the best statistics available, that if we compare 

 women married at twenty with those married at twenty-nine, the 

 proportionate fertility is about as eight to five. But this differ- 

 ence, large as it is, only represents a portion of the effect on the 



