POl>ULATION PBOBLEMS 203 



imagination of Dante never attained." And when peo- 

 ple lose heart and are reckless excessive birth-rate may 

 follow, just as from the opposite causes. We read in 

 Exodus i. : " But the more they afflicted them, the more 

 they multiphed and grew." 



(3) Another reason for the rapid increase of the popu- 

 lation was that in the latter part of the period there 

 began to be notable advances in preventive medicine 

 and hygiene. Man was entering into his kingdom 

 — in controUing the death-rate. One must remember 

 the very important fact that since 1865 the duration 

 of hfe in England and Wales has risen about a third. 



(4) Having admitted the reality of other factors, 

 we are now free scientifically to recognise the vast 

 importance of economic conditions. There is no doubt, 

 surely, that the unprecedented multiplication had to 

 do with the fact that children were sent out in tender 

 years — one recalls the pictures in Wells' Clayhanger 

 — to the factories and mines to increase their parents' 

 incomes ; and that the employers said Amen. Those 

 who have gone deeply into Natural History say that 

 foxes quite approve of large families among rabbits. 



The Over-population Cry. — ^A generation ago those 

 who lived in large towns in Britain were familiar with 

 Population meetings. The cry was that the world 

 would soon be " too full of people," — the words used 

 in Greece two thousand years before. Much reference 

 was made to Malthus, who advised his generation to 



