SEX AND SOCIAL RELATIONS 225 



education. But if we ask these very people whether 

 they would be willing to attempt the rearing of a 

 family under such pinched conditions, they will 

 generally give a negative answer. This clearly 

 because cultivation brings aesthetic and educational 

 needs which require larger financial resources for 

 their satisfaction. 



But the question of the size of the family cannot be 

 settled from the standpoint of the individual family 

 alone. There is a far broader point of view which 

 must be kept in mind the effect of the size of the 

 family on the general welfare of the state. And it is 

 just at this point that the question becomes extremely 

 complicated. It is relatively simple for a given 

 couple to decide that they cannot wisely undertake 

 to rear more than three or four or five children. To 

 be sure, it is true that in so limiting the family there 

 is a somewhat arbitrary exclusion of other possible 

 children who might have exceptional talents. Yet 

 this is a vague possibility in which the world will 

 probably never greatly interest itself; and we may 

 conclude that the arbitrary limitation just suggested 

 is, from the standpoint of the parents and family, 

 both legitimate and prudent in a praiseworthy sense. 

 But what shall we say of this policy in its relation to 

 the state ? 



The first consideration that strikes us is that the 

 people most likely to limit their families in a legiti- 

 mate and intelligent way from the standpoint 

 of the family itself are just those who are the most 

 Q 



