does not
depend on the need for reform. How many people are affected? What votes
will the advocating of the reform gain? Grievances that will not gather
noisy crowds will continue unheeded. Modern parliaments are like badly
brought up children; they can be bribed with promises of votes or
frightened with fear of disorder, more easily than led by reason.

VI

As soon as we begin to consider the reform of the law, we come at once
to such a tangle of questions that I have the greatest difficulty in
finding the right end to unwind the skein. For the trouble with this
matter of our divorce laws, as with most other reforms, is to decide
just what ought to be done, how far are we prepared to go? where must
the marriage bond be held tight? where may it be loosened? These are but
examples of the questions that have to be answered. Hence the wrangling
and the failure in establishing any kind of united will, which prevents
anything at all being done. No one, for instance, can decide the causes
for which it would be right to extend the grounds of divorce. Almost
every individual interested, and every group of individuals, appears to
have a different opinion and offers opposing suggestions. And the issues
are further confused because any change that concerns marriage touches
us all so intimately, so that the attitude that we take up must be
strongly affected by our deepest emotions, which against our knowledge
are directed by our unconscious wills. This explains much apparently
unwise conduct, as well as persistent opposition to reform on the part
of many humane people, that otherwise would be difficult to understand.
There is much too great a timidity shown even by those who recognize
most the evil done by our existing laws and work for their reform. They
fear to ask too much, always the sure way to get nothing done.

This question of the causes for which divorce should be allowed is one
that is very unlikely to be settled. I doubt if it can be settled
wisely. In my opinion, an enlightened reform of our law must go much
further than the providing of ways of escape from marriage. Such exits
tend to destroy the happy working of marriage and open a direct way to
abuses; also they are unable to meet the needs of all classes, no matter
how wide and numerous they are, while directly they are numerous they
become ridiculous. They can never form the ultimate solution of what
ought to be done. They tend to make marriage contemptible, a