enter upon marriage--a course that is obviously impracticable. _The Right View._--The prohibitions suggested in the section on “Proposed Reforms” are sound in principle. The prevention of the birth of such children as are born in the absence of effective prohibitions of this kind, effects an enormous social economy. The children of thoroughly healthy parents, who have married from love, are the healthiest; such marriages are, therefore, to be promoted. But it does not follow that all other marriages than these should be prevented. This would go too far, and would, moreover, be utterly impracticable. Marriage-prohibitions must not err by excess, and too energetic intervention in these matters is undesirable. For such a course of action would render it impossible for very many persons to marry; and, in fact, no one with any disease, mild or severe, and no one with any kind of defect of body or mind, could enter upon marriage. All that is practicable is, in the first place, to prevent the marriage of those who are obviously suffering from serious disease; and, in the second place, to prevent the marriage of persons exhibiting defects of bodily development, or in whom the sexual characters are inadequately developed, even though such persons cannot be said to be suffering from disease (_e.g._ women with weakly-formed breasts, with poor hips, with a badly-formed pelvis, &c.) Passing now to consider the objections in detail, (_a_) is true. But the mode of action of a State which introduces such marriage-prohibitions differs quantitatively only, not qualitatively, from the mode of action of other States to-day. The marriage-prohibitions now in existence certainly limit personal freedom; but in other departments of the activity of the modern State we encounter numerous institutions by which individual liberty is far more seriously impaired. Consider, for instance, compulsory military service: the modern State insists that all young men shall undergo a medical examination, and that those found to be physically fit shall devote the best years of their life to the service of the State. Besides, when we are considering the common weal, the question of individual liberty is no longer decisive. The notion that it is an inalienable right of every human being to found a family may be quietly dismissed as a piece of egregious sentimentality. (_b_) By punitive measures, and by the diffusion of enlightenment, it is possible to prevent the classes of persons here mentioned from entering into illegitimate sexual relationships. Women will not allow themselves to become entangled with men to whom, for the reasons here considered, marriage is forbidden; first of all, because such men are considered to be of inferior worth; in the second place, because, in view of the fact that an intimacy (_liaison_) cannot lead to marriage, the intimacy is regarded as fruitless, (_c_) The probability of transmitting venereal infection and the probability