CONCLUSION 219 



early marriages and large families for men and women 

 of health, strength, and ability ; discourage both 

 marriage and offspring where either parental stock is 

 unsound in body or mind. This is emphatically an 

 attitude which should guide private individuals in their 

 charitable efforts. The State must provide somehow 

 for all persons, whether worthy or unworthy. But 

 private assistance and personal interest may well be 

 bestowed chiefly on those honourable citizens, who, 

 having given evidence of good character and ability, 

 require temporary help to tide them over some period 

 of ill-health or adversity. 



More can be done by quiet influence and example 

 than is realized. Much of the present mistaken action 

 is due to the tone of public opinion. It is no mis- 

 statement to say that it has become " fashionable " to 

 have a small family, or none at all. But already signs 

 are not wanting that we are near a change for the 

 better. The tide appears to have turned in the United 

 States, where it seems that flourishing families of three, 

 four, or five are beginning to replace the ones and 

 twos of the last decades. We believe that a similar 

 change may be brought about in England, and that 

 very soon excessively small families will be regarded 

 as an out-of-date fashion of a few years ago. Such a 

 psychological attitude, though apparently due to a not 

 very exalted motive, would of itself do much to right 

 the evil. The feeling to be produced in a certain 

 class of mind may be illustrated by the playful sugges- 

 tion that social precedence should be determined, other 

 things being equal, by the number of healthy children. 

 If honest Mrs. Quiverful, the curate's wife, were led 



