abandonment of marriage. This is especially
- Illicit experiences may have been so disillusioning, owing to the disaffecting nature of the consorts, that an attitude of pessimism and misanthropy or misogyny is built up. Such an attitude prevents marriage not only directly, but also indirectly, since persons with such an outlook are thereby less attractive to the opposite sex.
- A taste for sexual variety is built up so that the individual is unwilling to commit himself to a monogamous union.
- Occasionally, threat of blackmail by a jilted paramour prevents marriage by the inability to escape these importunities.
We consider next the relative birth-rate of the married and the incontinent unmarried. There can not be the slightest doubt that this is vastly greater in the case of the married. The unmarried have not only all the incentives of the married to keep down their birth-rate but also the obvious and powerful incentive of