Then we may soon convince ourselves, not only that the human race is not committing suicide, but that not even a single one of the so-called civilised nations of which it is mainly composed is committing suicide.

Quite the contrary! Every one of them, even France, where this peculiar "suicide" is supposed to be most actively at work, is yearly increasing in numbers.
It is interesting to note, moreover, that the French have been increasing faster, that is to say the survival-rate has been higher in recent years just before the war, when the birth-rate was at its lowest, than they were twenty years earlier, with a higher birth-rate.

And if we take a wider sweep and consider the growth of the French population towards the end of the eighteenth century, we find the birth-rate estimated at the very high figure of 40.

But the death-rate was nearly as high, the average duration of life was only half what it is now.

So that the survival-rate in France at that time, with widely different rates of birth and death, was not much unlike it is now.