To that objection to the Neo-Malthusian propaganda which is usually successful with timid people, that incontinence would be increased if the means recommended by New-Malthusians were adopted, Mr. Place says: “I am of opinion it would not; so much depends on manners, that it seems to be by no means an unreasonable1 expectation that, if these were so improved as greatly to increase the prudential habits, and to encourage the love of distinction, the master-spring of public prosperity, and if, in consequence of the course recommended, all could marry early, there would be less debauchery of any kind. An improvement in manners would be an improvement in morals; and it seems absurd to suppose an increase of vice3 with improved morals.”
Mr. James Mill, a friend of Mr. Place, writing also in 1820, (article “Colony,” Encyclop. Brit.) speaks of the question of checking population rationally as “the most important practical problem to which the wisdom of the politician and the moralist can be applied5.” “If,” he says, “the superstitions6 of the nursery were discarded, and the principles of utility kept steadily7 in view, a solution might not be difficult to be found, and the means of drying up one of the most copious8 sources of human evil—a source which, if all other sources of evil were taken away, would alone suffice to retain the great mass of human beings in misery9, might be seen to be neither doubtful nor difficult to be applied.”
Mr. Francis Place and Mr. James Mill exhibited in these utterances10 one of the qualities of true men of science—that is, they were enabled to foretell11 truly what has taken place before the end of the century in civilised countries like England and France. The truth of their prophecies is shown in the fact that the inhabitants of France, who, at the commencement of this century, had a birth-rate of 33 children annually12 per 1000 of inhabitants, have now one of 26 per 1000; while the West 117End of London shows a still lower birth-rate than this—in Kensington of 20, in St. George, Hanover Square, of 19, and in Hampstead Parish of 22 per 1000. In France, the low birth-rate is due, as every intelligent person now knows, to Neo-Malthusian practices and not to celibacy13, for France contains, in every 1000 inhabitants, 140 married women between the ages of fifteen and fifty, against 133 in this country and under 128 in Prussia. This prudence14 among the French population, since the time of the French Revolution, seems to have been due to a certain extent to the acquisition of landed property by the masses of the population, and also to the law of equal inheritance in France, which prohibits parents from leaving their real or personal estates to one person. The extreme desire to keep the land in the hands of a few descendants has made the more respectable of the French peasants the most careful of Europeans. Thus we find, from an essay by the late Dr. Bertillon, that in the thirty departments of France where there are the greatest number of proprietors16 of land, 285 per 1000 inhabitants, the birth-rate is only 24·7, against 28·1 in those departments where there are only 177 proprietors per 1000 of the population. The professional classes in France are so thoughtful in regard to the number of children they bring into the world, that they do not have quite two children (1·75) to a family; whilst the average children to a family in France does not exceed 3, against 5 in Germany, 4? in England, 5? in Scotland, and 5? in poor and distressed17 Ireland. How true it is, then, what James Mill and Mr. Francis Place predicted!
Universally we may say of modern Europeans, that the poorer classes are less prudent2 in the size of their families; and, indeed, it has been said by M. de Haussonville (“La vie et les salaires à Paris”) that the number of children to a family in the poor quarters of Paris is three times as great as it is in the rich quarters. The same story holds nearly true in modern London since 1877—i.e., since the date of the trial of Mr. Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant; for the birth-rate in Kensington is at present 20 per 1000, against 40 per 1000 in Bethnal Green, a result which is yearly becoming due rather to small families in the West End than to late marriages or celibacy, the old-fashioned causes of lower birth-rates. The celebrated18 cases of “Regina v. Bradlaugh and Besant,” “Regina v. Edward Truelove,” and, at this moment, of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh against the esteemed19 and learned physician, Dr. H. A. Allbutt, of Leeds, who is threatened 118by that body with expulsion from the list of its members, because he has published, in a popular work of a practical character, what has been said so many times, that large families lead to early death, prostitution, and every horror to which mortality is subject, have disclosed the fact that there is an idea strongly implanted in the minds of the majority of mankind, that, if people in general knew, especially at an early age, what any medical student knows as soon as he commences to study anatomy20 and physiology21, vice and profligacy22 would immediately abound23. This is, indeed, a strange idea. Civilisation24 differs from savage25 life mainly in that civilised men know more of nature than savages26; but, just on that very account, civilised people are more moral than savages. “It is impossible for us to understand,” says M. Joseph Garnier, “how the counsels of marital27 prudence can lead to the abolition28 of marriage and the debauchery of the young. Has not prudence the effect of rendering29 the state of marriage more happy and more attractive? Youth is encouraged to marriage more easily by the example of prosperous and wisely managed households than by the example of households crushed under the tortures of misery.” And M. Villermé, one of the greatest writers on Health that this century has produced, mentions that the workmen of La Croix Rouge30, Lyons, had, in his day, an average of only 3? children to a family; and that “these workmen were the foremost in France for behavior and dignity of character.” “The question is,” says a distinguished31 Vice-President of the Malthusian League, Mr. Van Houten, Deputy at the Hague, “whether morality can demand that a married couple shall have offspring immediately after their marriage; that constantly, as soon as the mother, after giving birth to one, is able, a second one should at once succeed the first. The question is, whether those less blessed with worldly goods must restrain their desires and remain celibates32, because they are unable, while following the traditional morality, to provide for a family? Or whether those whose inclination33 for one another, or whose trust in the future was too great when their expectations proved deceptive34, must be condemned35, in the name of morality, to procreate children who will be insufficiently36 fed, tended and educated, and can never become energetic citizens, or who, if sickly, are born only to descend15 speedily to the grave, to be succeeded by others equally unfortunate.” Mr. Van Houten truly says: “An end must be put to our ignorance of physiology. Everyone ought to know; and it must be left to his own requirements and to his own judgment37 what use he will make of his knowledge.”
119How dangerous such superstitions as those referred to by Mr. Van Houten are to the happiness of mankind is best seen in the old civilisations of Hindostan and China. Owing to certain strange doctrines38 in those countries as to the importance of children as a religious duty, the unfortunate Hindoo people are so terribly over-peopled that a man will work hard for wages equivalent to six shillings a month. The most learned of Italian medical writers on health, Senator Paulo Mantegazza, mentions that his work was placed on the Index by the Pope of Rome in 1863, because he had ventured to recommend to persons afflicted39 with hereditary40 disease, such as insanity41 or epilepsy, or to excessively poor people, to marry but to have as few children as possible. When two human beings (says that author) love each other, and yet from the bad health of one or both of them there is every likelihood that diseased children will result, is it a greater fault to engender42 epileptic, insane, or scrofulous children, or to prevent such births? Or when, from the excessive increase of the family itself, human beings are brought into the world almost inexorably condemned to hunger, to degradation43, to disease, is it a greater sin to limit the number of children or to increase the sufferings of the human family? What reply ought we to give? Whilst the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is displaying to the denizens44 of the end of the 19th century, an amount of ignorance and conventional bigotry45 which will be incredible to the next generation, it is remarkable46 that what is usually considered the most benighted47 Church in Christendom, the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church, has latterly shown evident signs of admitting that Neo-Malthusian practices, which are so habitually48 made use of in France, must at least be acknowledged to be morally innocent. Thus, in 1870, the Vatican Council was implored49 by a French priest, Dr. Friedrich, to reconsider its judgment on conjugal50 prudence: “and not to cause the damnation of so many millions of souls by letting the directors (confessors) lay upon their consciences, commands or prohibitions51 impossible to observe. It will be our duty (he exclaims) to search in the holy books alone for condemnation52 of the act in question; if it be found to be forbidden neither by the decalogue nor by the other laws of God contained in Holy Writ4, nor by the apostles, nor by the commands of the Church assembled in Council General, nor by the Pope speaking ex cathedra, we shall say it (conjugal prudence) cannot be condemned by anyone.” Dr. Friedrich continues: “A learned and holy devotee of a very austere53 120Order says: ‘I have studied this case with all the powers of my intelligence and of my conscience, and I have come to this formal conviction, that we are on the wrong track. To my mind, this act is enormously below the smallest mortal sin, and it is enormously lessened54 by all the motives55 that provoke it, real motives of health, even of interest, of family, &c.’” Lastly, he informs us that Rome has enjoined56 on confessors to question very little and to dwell as little as possible upon this subject. Surely, after this, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh might hesitate! What Rome has done, other churches might surely do; and I am pleased to say that many excellent members of the English Establishment are inclined to side with the Malthusian League in its earnest recommendation to all classes of the community to replace the heartrending positive checks to population—war, pestilence57, and famine—and the torturing agonies of prolonged celibacy, which Dr. Bertillon’s statistics show to be so inimical even to longevity58, by the far more humane59 and rational plan of early marriage conjoined with very much smaller families than are at the present time the fashion among all classes. Some check to population we must submit to; and there is not the slightest doubt in my own mind that the morality of the near future will look upon the production of large families in European states as the most anti-social of all the actions of a citizen. Then, and not till then, will indigence60 disappear from the face of all civilised society.
The End
The End
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1
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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foretell
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| v.预言，预告，预示 | |
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annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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celibacy
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| n.独身(主义) | |
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prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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profligacy
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| n.放荡，不检点，肆意挥霍 | |
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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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marital
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| adj.婚姻的，夫妻的 | |
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abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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celibates
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| n.独身者( celibate的名词复数 ) | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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insufficiently
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| adv.不够地，不能胜任地 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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engender
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| v.产生，引起 | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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denizens
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| n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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benighted
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| adj.蒙昧的 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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conjugal
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| adj.婚姻的，婚姻性的 | |
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51
prohibitions
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| 禁令，禁律( prohibition的名词复数 )； 禁酒； 禁例 | |
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52
condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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53
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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55
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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56
enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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58
longevity
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| n.长命；长寿 | |
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59
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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60
indigence
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| n.贫穷 | |
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