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DHARMA IN PRACTICE.
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(5) the increase of poverty, and (6) the interruption of religious eduction generally.
It is not necessary to comment upon these six categories of misfortune resulting from early marriage at any great length, suffice it to say that where nuptial partners are forced on one another without consulting the feeling of the actual participants themselves, nothing but sexual impurity, discord and misery are likely to result from their living together under one roof. The shortening of the period of self-control also tends to engender sexual promiscuity, by exciting sex-passion which uncultured minds, not yet impressed with the necessity for its rigid control, are apt to regard as the greatest of earthly pleasures. The third form of evil, that is the procreation of unfit children, is a necessary consequence of early marriage, since in those cases where the father has no independent means of his own and is too young to be in a position to support a large and growing family, none but unhealthy paupers can be brought into existence. Health of a child, it should be observed, depends, to a large extent, on the development of the person of the mother, so that where a girl who is only fit to play with dolls is forced to develop a living baby in her womb, the growing embryo is necessarily deprived of the healthy nourishment which every child has a right to demand of its mother. In many cases where the pelvis is not sufficiently developed to form a suitable place for the physical growth of the embryo, inflammation and other unhealthy complications are also set up in the womb, causing the death of the child or its mother or both. The main thing to be known in connection with sexual gratification is that
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