294 The Ideal State 



him in his degree to marry ; when the barrier of the 

 want of the means of subsistence is removed, what is 

 there to prevent him satisfying his desires in this 

 respect ? Undoubtedly we have a very difficult 

 problem before us here, but it is not insoluble to the 

 believer in the spiritual evolution of society. The State 

 would undoubtedly do everything in its power to 

 regulate marriage. In our own time the age of inci- 

 dence of marriage, particularly among the professional 

 and more highly educated classes, has been gradually 

 extending, and in all probability this would be extended 

 and fixed by statute in order to enable men and women 

 in the most active period of their lives to do work for 

 the State, always provided the limit of age was not so 

 advanced as to affect the physical welfare of the child. 

 A certain number from motives of pure altruism would 

 desire to remain unmarried ; others would be pre- 

 vented altogether from marrying by the State, and 

 would readily acquiesce, as all are trained to do in every 

 measure devised for the advantage of the people and 

 the generations who are to succeed. The further ques- 

 tion we have to answer is : Would those compelled to 

 remain unmarried be able to exert sufficient self- 

 control to prevent the creation of some such traffic as 

 that with which we have to deal to-day ? In answer 

 we can only point out that in such an advanced state 

 of spiritual evolution, and with no temptation to 

 private gain, such developments common to our earlier 

 civilisation will not only be impossible, but unthink- 

 able. We are well aware that we are dealing with one of 

 the most powerful primeval instincts, and one which is 

 absolutely essential to the perpetuation of the species, 

 and know the difficulty of asserting that impulse to 

 vice would cease to exist, but we can only contend that 

 it would be effectually prevented in the highest state of 

 evolution attainable to man by self-control and the 



