204 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



avoid the terrible positive checks to over-population — 

 namely, famine, disease, infanticide, and war, by prac- 

 tising the prudential check of postponing marriage and 

 by practising moral restraint after marriage. He did not 

 reahse the possibilities of increasing the food-supply 

 or the possibihties of more or less artificial birth-con- 

 trol. The most practicable piece of advice he gave 

 amounted to " Marry late," and most biologists are 

 agreed that this advice was very unsound biologically. 



There was considerable misunderstanding of Dar- 

 winism. For it was said : Let us not interfere with 

 Nature's sifting ; leave things alone and all will come 

 right. In spite of Darwin's express warning, it was 

 assumed that famine, disease, infanticide, and war 

 may be trusted to sift in the right direction. There 

 were also more excusable misunderstandings of Her- 

 bert Spencer's doctrine, and the " old woman who Hved 

 in a shoe, and had so many children that she did not 

 know what to do " was told that she should have been 

 more individuated. Finally, from James Mill to begin 

 with, there were whispers of various means which might 

 be employed after marriage to keep down the family. 



Looking backwards, we see some sense in all the sug- 

 gestions. Prudence within Hmits is good, though it 

 is a pity when it kills the spirit of adventure or leads 

 to unwholesome repression ; over-coddling is bad, 

 but mere thinning of a dense population can mean 

 little more than wastage ; education and pitching the 

 life high must always make for progress, but it is not 



