520 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



occupation are fully recognized, and lead to appointments 

 as foremen, superintendents, or general managers, and 

 ultimately to the highest offices of the state. Every one 

 of these grades and appointments is made public ; and as 

 they constitute the only honours and the only differences of 

 rank, with corresponding insignia and privileges, in an 

 otherwise equal body of citizens, they are highly esteemed, 

 and serve as ample inducements to industry and zeal in 

 the public service. 



At first sight it may appear that in any state of society 

 whose essential features were at all like those here briefly 

 outlined, all the usual restraints to early marriage as they 

 now exist would be removed, and that a rate of increase of 

 the population unexampled in any previous era would be 

 the result, leading in a few generations to a difficulty in 

 obtaining subsistence, which Malthus has shown to be the 

 inevitable result of the normal rate of increase of mankind 

 when all the positive as well as the preventive checks are 

 removed. As the positive checks — which may be briefly 

 summarized as war, pestilence, and famine — are supposed 

 to be non-existent, what, it may be asked, are the preventive 

 checks which are suggested as being capable of reducing 

 the rate of increase within manageable limits ? This 

 very reasonable question I will now endeavour to answer 



Natural Checks to rapid Increase. 



The first and most important of the checks upon a too 

 rapid increase of population will be the comparatively late 

 average period of marriage, which will be the natural 

 result of the very conditions of society, and will besides 

 be inculcated during the period of education, and still 

 further enforced by public opinion. As the period of sys- 

 tematic education is supposed to extend to the age of 

 twenty-one, up to which time both the mental and physical 

 powers will be trained and exercised to their fullest capacity, 

 the idea of marriage during this period will rarely be enter- 

 tained. During the last year of education, however, the 

 subject of marriage will be dwelt upon, in its bearing on 

 individual happiness and on social well-being, in relation 

 to the welfare of the next generation and to the continuous 



