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

successfully threaten hell-fire, but it is only a
minority of the population that now takes this threat
seriously. And no threat short of this is adequate to
control behaviour in a matter so essentially
private. As for the State, its argument is altogether
too ferocious. People may agree that others ought
to provide cannon fodder, but they are not attracted
by the prospect of having their own children used
in this way. All that the State can do, therefore, is
to endeavour to keep the poor in ignorance, an
effort which, as the statistics show, is singularly
unsuccessful except in the most backward of
Western countries. Very few men or women will
have children from a sense of public duty, even if
it were far clearer than it is that any such public
duty exists. When men and women have children,
they do so either because they believe that children
will add to their happiness, or because they do not
know how to prevent them. The latter reason still
operates very powerfully, but it is steadily
diminishing in potency. And nothing that either the
State or the Churches can do will prevent this
diminution from continuing. It is necessary,