Chapter 370 370

Usually, we can use two concise and clear criteria to judge the quality of a government.One is population.A nation whose population is decreasing day by day is tending to perish.And the most populous country, even the poorest in the world, is still the best governed in the world.But the population here mentioned must be the natural result of government and custom, and not the result of any other accidental or accidental cause, which would otherwise be the evident evidence of a diseased state.The decree of Augustus outlawing celibacy speaks for itself of the decline and fall of the great Roman Empire.If you want citizens to marry, it must be because of the benevolence and goodwill of the government, and they cannot be forced to marry by law.It is really unnecessary for us to study the effects of coercion by power, because these laws, contrary to the custom of nature, must have little effect and are just a dead letter.