184 THE LAW OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS 



" And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every 

 son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every 

 daughter ye shall save alive." 



How far this policy was made effective we are not 

 informed. Pharaoh died, broken no doubt in heart 

 and health by his failure to reverse the order of Nature. 

 Let us deal gently with his errors. He did his best 

 according to the statecraft of his age. The problem 

 has baffled many a wiser and many a better man. 



Of the troubles that befell his successor in his efforts 

 to stem the rising flood of Israelitish humanity we need 

 not here speak. Suffice to say that he at last conceived 

 such a master stroke of policy as must have wrung a 

 smile from the stony features of the Sphinx itself. 



" And Pharaoh commanded the same day the task- 

 masters of the people, and their officers, saying : 



' Ye shall no more give the people straw to make 

 brick, as heretofore : let them go and gather straw for 

 themselves. 



41 And the tale of the bricks which they did make 

 heretofore, ye shall lay upon them ; ye shall not diminish 

 ought thereof." 



The result may be imagined ! Centuries have rolled 

 into centuries. Behind humanity lies the experience 

 of four thousand years. Yet beneath that inscrutable 

 calm the Sphinx must be smiling still, for statesmen 

 are still statesmen. 



Another aspect of the question which deserves some 

 attention is presented by the seasonal fluctuations of 

 the birthrate. Westermarck attributes these seasonal 

 fluctuations to fluctuations of the sexual instinct due to 

 the survival of traces of a primitive annual pairing season. 

 But no fluctuations of the sexual instinct would affect 



