Malthus used the term "moral" in this connection, not so much in
relation to the _motive_ for the restraint, but in relation to the
result, viz., the limitation of the family. The "moral restraint" of
Malthus meant to him, restraint from marriage only, chiefly because of
the inability to support a family. It implied marriage delayed until
there was reasonable hope that the normal family, four in number, could
be comfortably supported, continence in the mean time being assumed.
Bonar interpreting Malthus says (p. 53) that impure celibacy falls under
the head of "vice," and not of "moral restraint."
To Malthus, vice and misery, as checks to population, were an evil
greatly to be deplored in civilized man, and not only did he declare
that moral restraint obtained as a check, but he also declared it a
virtue to be advocated and encouraged in the interest of society, as
well as of the individual.
His moral restraint was delayed marriage with continence. He trusted to
the moral force of the sexual passion in a continent man to stimulate to
work, to thrift, to marriage; to work and save so that he may enter the
marriage state with a reasonable prospect of being able to support a
wife and family.
Malthus never anticipated the changes and developments of recent years.
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