emia, and
racial decay.

So far in this chapter prevention has been dealt with only in so far as
it is brought about by ante-nuptial and post-nuptial restraint.
Artificial checks were first brought prominently before the notice of
the British Public under the garb of social virtue, about the year 1877
by Mrs. Annie Besant and Mr. Charles Bradlaugh.

These checks to conception, though they are very largely used, can
hardly be defended on physiological grounds. Every interference with a
natural process must be attended, to some extent at least, with physical
injury. There is not much evidence that the injury is great, but in so
far as an interference is unnatural, it is unhealthy, and there is much
evidence to show that many of the checks advocated and used, are not
only harmful but are quite useless for the purpose for which they are
sold.

It will be conceded by most, no doubt, that with those capable of
bearing healthy children, and those unable to rear healthy ones when
born, prevention by restraint, ante-nuptial or post nuptial, is a social
virtue, while prevention under all other circumstances is a social vice.

Happiness has been defined as the surplus of pleasure over pain. What
constitutes pleasure and what pain varies in the different stages of
racial and individual development. In civilized man we have the
pleasures of mind supplementing and in some cases replacing the
pleasures of sense. We talk, therefore, of the higher pleasures--the
pleasures of knowledge and learning, of wider sympathies and love, of
the contemplation of extended prosperity and concord, of hope for
international fraternity and peace, and for a life beyond the grave.
Happiness to the highly civilized will consist, therefore, of the
surplus of these pleasures over the pains of their negation.

Self-preservation is the basal law of life, and to preserve one's-self
in happiness, the completest preservation, for happiness promotes
health, and health longevity.

The first law of living nature then is to preserve life and the
enjoyment of it, and the pleasures sought, to increase the sum of
happiness will depend on the sentiments and emotions, _i.e._, on the
faculties of mind that education and experience have developed, in the
race, or in the individual.

My first thought is for myself, and my duty is to increase the sum of my
happiness. But the mental state we call happiness is relative to the
presence or absence of this state in other