DECLINE IN THE BIRTH-RATE 197 



children. The care of a young family, even if expense 

 be no consideration, is incompatible with unceasing 

 social activity, with perpetual motion, or with untiring 

 devotion to games or sports in either parent, and 

 especially in the mother. 



It is perhaps significant that, as we have shown 

 above, the decrease in the birth-rate is very great in 

 military families, where, partly from the requirements 

 of their profession, and partly from the character of 

 the society that frequently gathers round them, the 

 restlessness and uncertainty of modern life are empha- 

 sized ; while there is far less sign of decreasing birth- 

 rate among the families of the clergy, who, from the 

 nature of their office, are debarred from constant 

 journeyings, and find, both for themselves and their 

 wives, a sufficient sphere of influence and activity in 

 the domestic concerns of their parish life. The high 

 moral sense and devotion to duty characteristic of the 

 clergy not only result in the presence of a larger 

 number of children in clerical homes than is now 

 usual among laymen, but give those children when 

 born an excellent average character. De Candolle 

 has shown by a statistical inquiry that the Protestant 

 clergy of all countries produce a very high proportion of 

 eminent sons. Doubtless, besides the sound heredity, 

 the cultured frugality of the normal clerical household 

 makes a good environment for a growing intelligence. 

 The maintenance of the birth-rate among the clergy 

 should be a source of national satisfaction. 



While, among certain sections of the upper classes, 

 women have been impeded in their true duties by the 

 desire to share the amusements to which their husbands 



