carriage, whilst the women present are
entirely indifferent to it. A lady who has kept a girls' school for many
years told me recently that in her opinion the very nature of girls
seems changing, and love of dolls and babies is apparently decaying.
Can this be generally true? Is it possible that the higher education of
women has such grave drawbacks?

Fortunately for the honour and ideals of our country, the
philoprogenitive element is still in an overwhelming majority and many
people who for various reasons do not actually want children are ready
enough to welcome the Stork if he does elect to pay them a visit. In
after years they will tell one that they can't imagine what life would
have been like without the noise of little feet throughout the house,
the clamour of little voices, the tender faces of little children.

II

THE PROS AND CONS OF THE LIMITED FAMILY

'The child--Heaven's gift.' --TENNYSON.

On the other hand, though I think it the greatest possible mistake for
legally married people to intentionally remain childless, for any reason
other than mental or physical degeneration, I am strongly against the
Lutheran doctrine of unlimited families. Times have changed since
Luther's day, and the necessity for small families is fairly obvious in
the twentieth century for all but very wealthy people. Where money is no
object, and the parents are thoroughly robust, the great luxury of a
large family may be indulged in. And it _is_ a luxury, let cynics sneer
as they choose. We modern parents with our two and three children, or
our one ewe lamb who can scarcely be trusted out of our sight because he
is our unique creative effort--we miss much of the real domestic joy
that our mothers and fathers must have known, with their baker's dozen
or so of lusty boys and girls. Our children can't even get up a set of
tennis among themselves without borrowing one or more from another
household. Much of the anxiety and worry we suffer over our rare
offspring was unknown in the days when blessings were numerous, and
families ran into two figures as a matter of course.

Nowadays these joys are the luxuries of the wealthy, who, however,
rarely avail themselves of this special privilege of riches. With the
necessities of life getting dearer every year, a continual panic in the
money market, and the pressure of competition assuming nightmare
proportions--a small family of two or three children is all the man of
mode