OVERPOPULATION AND SOCIAL MISERY 885 



tary abstinence from multiplication beyond a certain limit can alone 

 effectually reduce this misery and promote greater happiness — physio- 

 logical and moral — among the masses. But to obtain this abstinence we 

 must reorganise our social life and our social ideals. ^ 



1 Mr. Algernon Qiarles Swinburne, in his Cry of the Outcasts, has well 

 expressed what must undoubtedly be the sentiments of those at the 

 bottom of the social ladder when appeal is made to them to-day in the 

 name of principles which they cannot understand ; and he has given a 

 remarkably vivid description of the state of affairs which an abnormal 

 growth of the economic at the expense of other social factors has brought 

 about : 



" Ye, whose meat is sweet. 



And your wine-cup red. 



Us beneath your feet 



Hunger grinds as wheat. 



Grinds to make you bread. 



" Ye whose night is bright 

 With soft rest and heat, 

 Clothed hke day with light, 

 Us the naked night 

 Slays from street to street. 



" How shall we as ye, 

 Though ye bid us, pray ? 

 Though you call, can we 

 Hear you call, or see. 

 Though you show us day ?" 



Obviously, as long as such social conditions as these prevail all hope of 

 social solidarity must be vain. It is equally obvious that as long as 

 rehgion is not a vivifying social principle, permeating all ranks of society, 

 exercising real and tangible influence on social life and work, it will be 

 incapable of making itself understood of the masses of the population. 



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