238 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



great number of women to celibacy, as there 

 never can be so many men of thirty-seven as there 

 are women of eighteen. Yet, though he has fixed 

 the age of marriage for the men at so late a pe- 

 riod, he still thinks that there may be too many 

 children, and proposes that the number allowed 

 to each marriage should be regulated ; and, if any 

 woman be pregnant after she has produced the 

 prescribed number, that an abortion should be 

 procured before the foetus has life. 



The period of procreating children for the state 

 is to cease with the men at fifty- four or fifty-five, 

 because the offspring of old men, as well as of 

 men too young, is imperfect both in body and 

 mind. When both sexes have passed the pre- 

 scribed age, they are allowed to continue a con- 

 nexion ; but, as in Plato's republic, no child which 

 may be the result is to be brought to light.* 



In discussing the merits of the republic pro- 

 posed by Plato in his books of laws, Aristotle is 

 of opinion that' he has by no means been suffi- 

 ciently attentive to the subject of population ; 

 and accuses him of inconsistency in equalizing 

 property without limiting the number of children. 

 The laws on this subject, Aristotle very justly 

 observes, require to be much more definite and 

 precise in a state where property is equalized 

 than in others. Under ordinary governments an 

 increase of population would only occasion a 

 greater subdivision of landed property ; whereas 



* Aristotelis Opera, de Repub. lib. vii. c.xvi. 



