MODERN PROBLEMS 315 



so change as to render them less fitted to bring up a family. As 

 few will be found to advocate late marriage as the only method, 

 we may leave the matter at this point. 



With regard to restriction of intercourse, the most important 

 question is whether it can possibly be effective. Very serious 

 doubts arise on this account when it is proposed to rely on this 

 method alone. Late marriage might be in practice effective 

 because sexual desire would find its satisfaction apart from mar- 

 riage. Abstention from intercourse implies that sexual desire will 

 not find its satisfaction ; on this account it is likely that it can 

 only be effective when accompanied by a system of prostitution 

 that we have already agreed to regard as undesirable. Apart 

 from this there are strong arguments against this method founded 

 on the undesirable psychological results of abstention. It is 

 in fact perhaps scarcely possible to think of a marriage system 

 as satisfactory in which what we must regard as the physical 

 object of marriage is not realized. 



We are thus led to speak of the use of contraceptive methods 

 and we may glance at two sides of the matter — ethical and 

 physiological. It is a notable fact that all religious bodies, so far 

 as their opinions can be discovered, are strongly opposed to this 

 method.! This objection is founded upon many considerations, 

 of which the most striking is perhaps that the method allows 

 of, or rather that it encourages, self-indulgence. Those whose 

 attention has been drawn to the problem of the causes of the 

 progress and decay of civilization will not fail to feel the force of 

 any argument against the spread of habits which encourage self- 

 indulgence. But it may be suggested that the normal exercise 

 of any physical function can scarcely be called self-indulgence. 

 There is a mean in the satisfaction of physical appetites, on the 

 one side of which is self-indulgence and on the other side asceticism. 

 It is a question whether those who disapprove of these methods 

 because they encourage self-indulgence are not in fact demanding 

 an ascetic life. As a form of self-discipline there may be much 

 to recommend ascetic practices, but that is another matter. The 

 fact is that in the use of these methods there is nothing which 

 necessarily encourages self-indulgence. They make it possible to 

 exercise a normal function ; they do not necessarily lead to its 

 over-use. This would seem to be without doubt the most tangible 



1 The Declinivg Birth-rate, p. 63. 



