The multiplication of the fit is of the first importance to the State.
It supplies competent producers and courageous defenders, and the more
of these, consistent with space and food (using these terms in their
fullest significance), the better off the State.

If healthy happy citizens are the State's ideal, then limitation of
population well within the space and food will be encouraged. If
national wealth and prosperity in its material aspect are the State's
ideal, the harder the population presses on the means of subsistence the
sooner will that ideal be realised. For it cannot be denied, that the
greater the stress and hardship in life, the more strenuous the effort
put forth to obtain a foothold. The greater the competition the keener
the effort, and the higher the accomplishment; while to ensure an
adequate supply of labour in time of great demand there must always be a
surplus.

The waste of life must always be greater; but what of that! National
wealth is the ideal--the maximum amount of production. Child labour, and
women labour, are called in to fill the national granaries, though
misery and death attend the process.

If this be the ideal of the State, life is of less value than the
product of labour, for it can be more easily and readily replaced.

But the ideal of the perfect state is not wealth but the robust
happiness of its members.

The happiness of its members is best promoted by the maximum increase in
its numbers, consistent with ample space and food. With ample space and
food multiplication works automatically, being kept up to the limit of