208 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



than those more favorably situated. Another fact 

 drawn from the Kegistrar-General's returns suffices to 

 prove the influence of poverty on the marriage-rate. 

 We refer to the fact that marriages are invariably 

 more numerous in seasons of prosperity than at other 

 times. Improvident marriages are undoubtedly numer- 

 ous, but prosperity and adversity have their influence, 

 and that influence not unimportant, on the marriage 

 returns. On the other hand, it is perfectly obvious 

 that the life of a married man is likely to be more 

 favorable to longevity than that of a bachelor. The 

 mere fact that a man has a wife and family depending 

 upon him will suffice to render him more careful of his 

 health, less ready to undertake dangerous employ- 

 ments, and so on ; and there are other reasons which 

 will occur to every one for considering the life of a 

 married men better (in the sense of the insurance 

 companies) than that of a bachelor. In fact, while 

 we are compelled to reject Dr. Stark's statement that 

 " bachelorhood is more destructive to life than the most 

 unwholesome trades, or than residence in an unwhole- 

 some house or district, where there has never been the 

 most distant attempt at sanitary improvement of any 

 kind," we may safely accept his opinion that statistics 

 " prove the truth of one of the first natural laws re- 

 vealed to man' It is not good that man should live 

 alone.' " "Whether the law required any proof is a 

 question into which we need not enter. 



(From the Daily News, October 17, 1868.) 



