It has been practised for aeons, and it is the
aim of sound legislation and practice everywhere to-day.
As has been admitted, the more we express this principle, the lower will
fall, not necessarily the marriage-rate, but the parent-rate; fewer men
will become fathers, _but they will be fitter_. There will be fewer
children born, but they will be children planned, desired and loved in
anticipation, as every child should be, and will be in the golden
future. These children will not die, but survive; nor will their
development be injured by early malnutrition and neglect. The believer
in births as births will not be gratified, but there will be abundance
of gratification for the believer in births as means to ends.
The practical working-out of our principle is no more difficult than
might be expected if it be remembered that we are counselling nothing
revolutionary nor even novel. The demand simply is that the practice
which obtains among the more fortunate classes shall be made universal,
and that the State shall see that all fathers who can, do their duty.
The State will be quite busy and well employed in this task, which may
legitimately be allotted to it even on the strictly individualist and
Spencerian principles, that the maintenance of justice is alone the
State's province. We allot a great function to the State, but deny that
it can rightly or safely set the father aside and perform his duty for
him.
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