This opinion is held by Malthus, Sismondi, Say, Droz, Duchatel, &c.

But if the poor are to be PRUDENT, the rich must set the example.

Why should the marriageable age of the latter be fixed at eighteen years, while that of the former is postponed until thirty?
Again, they would do well to explain clearly what they mean by this matrimonial prudence which they so urgently recommend to the laborer; for here equivocation is especially dangerous, and I suspect that the economists are not thoroughly understood.

"Some half-enlightened ecclesiastics are alarmed when they hear prudence in marriage advised; they fear that the divine injunction--INCREASE AND MULTIPLY--is to be set aside.

To be logical, they must anathematize bachelors." (J.Droz: Political Economy.) M.Droz is too honest a man, and too little of a theologian, to see why these casuists are so alarmed; and this chaste ignorance is the very best evidence of the purity of his heart.