68 NEO-MALTHUSIANISM

I will give, under the heading of " Population," quite
sufficient evidence to prove that Neo-Malthusianism is
increasing in England. Commenting upon its increase in
Germany, Nitti writes : " The proposals of the English
Neo-Malthusians have found a large acceptance, notwith-
standing their distasteful character, which would have caused
their repudiation by a nation imbued with ideality and the
Christian spirit." Mille, while deploring its widespread use in
France, makes one laugh at what an army composed of only
sons — and that is what the French one is coming to fast — would
be like. In a family where the children, in the true sense
of the word, are naturally allowed to increase, we have a
healthy rivalry and a legitimate ambition to succeed in life, a
proper stimulus to exertion. Where there is unhappily but
one child all these mujt certainly be lacking. " Every
measure "which "tenflf^tb^enfeeMe" the enai!^6r%iaTi ijs an
arrest of development." The indulgent and exotic maijmer
in which the single child of France is treated has consider^ibly
augmented the degeneracy of that country. The evidence of
the state of things which existed in France previous to I the
war of 1870 was clear and decisive, that luxury and immorality
had eaten out the very vitals of the nation. It could i not
be otherwise; nurtured in every extravagance, pampereji in
every luxury, frugahty despised, the FreaeifrtSenlTish^upon
their ruin. Their manhood, their virility, their best qualities,
were sapped at their very c ore ; the power to go forth conquering
and to conqtiep-'wa!^ annHSlate'dJ > In a very special degree,
during that terrible time of trial, the German love of home
and child-life, with all its necessary virtues, carried that
nation through the greatest ordeal it ever had to undergo.
