bearing upon special cases. The impartial reader will not suppose
that such folly is contemplated, but those who discuss and advocate new
views very soon learn that many readers are not impartial, and that for
one cause or another they do not fail of misrepresentation. This is not
a case, then, of "science laying down the law," and ordering this
individual to marry at this age, and that not to marry at another; and
yet though this rigorous individual application of our principles is
absurd, they are none the less worth formulating, if it be possible.

The question before us is very far from simple: it is not in the nature
of human problems to be simple, the individual and society being so
immeasurably complex. We have to consider far more points than occur on
first inspection. We have to ascertain when the average woman becomes
fit for marriage. But we must remember that we are dealing with marriage
under the conditions imposed by law and public opinion. Therefore, fit
for mating and fit for marriage are not synonymous, and to ascertain the
age of physiological fitness for mating, though an important
contribution to our problem, is not the solution of it. We have further
to consider how the taste and inclination of the individual vary in the
course of her development. We have to ask ourselves at what age in
general she is likely to make that choice which her maturity and middle
age will ratify rather than for ever regret. We have to consider the
relations of different ages to motherhood, both as regards the quality
of the children born, and as regards their probable number under natural
conditions. These are questions which certainly affect the individual's
happiness profoundly, and yet that is the least of their significance.
Again, we have to observe how the constitution of society varies as
regards the age of its members, according as marriage be early or late.
In the former case more generations are alive at the same time, and in
the latter case fewer. The increasing age at marriage would have more
conspicuous results in this respect if it were not for the great
increase in longevity; so that, though the generations are becoming more
spread out, we may have as many representatives of different generations
alive at the same time as there used to be; but of course there is the
great difference that society is older as a whole. This is a fact which
in itself must affect the doings and the prospects of civilization. An
a