314 MODEKN PEOBLEMS 



of such countries can only proceed at a certain pace, and if it went 

 more quickly we should have a peculiar condition of relative 

 over-population. There is reason to think that population in 

 many of these countries has not grown as quickly as it might have 

 done, and that there is, in fact, a condition of relative under- 

 population. 



5. This leads us to refer to the methods of limiting increase in 

 use at the present day. It is clear that some methods are necessary. 

 Even if it should be thought advisable that population should 

 increase, it cannot possibly be desirable that it should increase 

 as fast as is possible. It therefore falls to those who disapprove 

 of certain methods to suggest others. This problem is seldom 

 faced by those who would dissuade men and women from certain 

 practices. The attempt to advise in these matters without regard- 

 ing the problem as a whole is strongly to be deprecated. 1 



Abortion is condemned on every hand, and we are thus left 

 with postponement of marriage, restriction of intercourse between 

 married persons, and the use of contraceptive methods as the 

 means of bringing about the limitation of families. There is 

 much to be said for the postponement of marriage for a certain 

 period after the age of puberty. That education should be com- 

 pleted, and that a certain experience of life should be gained, 

 before the choice of a partner is made and the responsibilities of 

 setting up a home are undertaken, are obviously desirable. In 

 order, however, that postponement of marriage should be effective, 

 it would require that the average age at marriage should be so 

 late as to produce many undesirable consequences. It seems 

 certain that, not only under present conditions, but under almost 

 any conditions of social life that we can picture, late marriage 

 must be accompanied by a system of prostitution and irregular 

 sexual habits which nearly every one agrees in deploring. Apart 

 from this almost overwhelming argument against late marriages, 

 there are many other objections. It is not a good thing on the 

 whole for children that their parents should be beyond a certain 

 age. 2 Much can be urged with force against late marriage on the 

 lines that after a certain age the outlook and habits of celibates 



1 The high birth-rate in certain parts of Ireland said to be due to the influence 

 of the Roman Catholic Church in discouraging the use of contraceptive methods 

 may be leading to over-population. 2 Thus Marro found that children of 



older parents were more melancholy than those of younger parents (La Pubertd 

 studiata nelV uomo e nella donna). 



