ABSTRACT
But till quite recent times consideration of the subject with a view to the economic interest of the whole of society was scarcely possible. The interests of the family, the interests of the State, and the interests of religion were thought of, but the economic interests of society as a whole were not grasped, and would not have been regarded if they had been. Primitive parents in the prime of life supported their young children and their own old fathers and mothers or killed them off according as they thought best in the interest of the family-which meant chiefly themselves-without thinking or caring whether the course taken would benefit or damage outsiders. The governors of the little States of early times encouraged or discouraged the growth of population according as they thought it good or bad for the State-which meant again chiefly themselves-in regard to internal order and security from outside attack; the worse the
"If, Romans," he said, "we had the power of living without wives, we should all be free from that trouble; but nature has so disposed it that we can neither live very commodiously with them, nor without them exist at all; and we must then provide rather for perpetual security than for transient pleasure."
