THE FORERUNNERS—FICHTE AND MARLO. 13 
encourage immorality, without arresting the increase of the 
inhabitants. The only way to attain this object is to aim at 
making education and property the inheritance of all. The 
man who enjoys a little comfort, and has received some educa 
tion, at once becomes provident He does not wish, by a 
premature marriage, to devote both himself and his family to 
certain misery. It is in France that population increases most 
slowly—so slowly, in fact, that some are alarmed at it ; and it is 
in France that land is divided among so large a number of 
persons, that those who do not possess any form the minority. 
Enlightened families in easy circumstances have so few children 
that they are in danger of extinction. In Ireland, on the con 
trary, the peasants plunged in misery and ignorance swarm with 
children. The more a man leads an intellectual life, the less 
powerful does the animal nature become in him. The majority 
of great men have left no posterity. The progress of enlighten 
ment and comfort is therefore the best antidote against a too 
great increase of population, and, by a kind of social harmony, 
the advance of civilization dispels the principal danger that 
threatens its future.