The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

natural affection and become shy; unconscientious
mothers seek in their children a compensation for
the joys that they have had to forgo. In the one case
the child’s affections are starved, in the other they
are over-stimulated. In neither case is there any of
that simple and natural happiness that the family at
its best can provide.
In view of all these troubles, is it any wonder that
the birth-rate declines? The decline of the birthrate
in the population at large has reached a point
which shows that the population will soon begin to
dwindle, but among the well-to-do classes this
point has long ago been passed, not only in one
country, but in practically all the most highly
civilised countries. There are not very many
statistics available as to the birth-rate among the
well-to-do, but two facts may be quoted from Jean
Ayling’s book alluded to above. It appears that in
Stockholm in the years 1919 to 1922 the fertility of
professional women was only one-third of that of
the population at large, and that among the four
thousand graduates of Wellesley College, U.S.A.,