e forbade as few things as
possible; a wise legislation would do the same. It is folly to
make laws on subjects beyond human prerogative, knowing that in
the very nature of things they must be set aside. To make laws
that man can not and will not obey, serves to bring all law into
contempt. It is very important in a republic, that the people
should respect the laws, for if we throw them to the winds, what
becomes of civil government? What do our present divorce laws
amount to? Those who wish to evade them have only to go into
another State to accomplish what they desire. If any of our
citizens can not secure their inalienable rights in New York
State, they may in Connecticut and Indiana. Why is it that all
agreements, covenants, partnerships, are left wholly at the
discretion of the parties, except the contract, which of all
others is considered most holy and important, both for the
individual and the race? This question of divorce, they tell us,
is hedged about with difficulties; that it can not be approached
with the ordinary rules of logic and common-sense. It is too
holy, too sacred to be discussed, and few seem disposed to touch
it. From man's standpoint, this may be all true, as to him they
say belong reason, and the power of ratiocination. Fortunately, I
belong to that class endowed with mere intuitions, a kind of
moral instinct, by which we feel out right and wrong. In
presenting to you, therefore, my views of divorce, you will of
course give them the weight only of the woman's intuitions. But
inasmuch as that is all God saw fit to give us, it is evident we
need nothing more. Hence, what we do perceive of truth must be as
reliable as what man grinds out by the longer process of reason,
authority, and speculation.

Horace Greeley, in his recent discussion with Robert Dale Owen,
said, this whole question has been tried, in all its varieties
and conditions, from indissoluble monogamic marriage down to free
love; that the ground has been all gone over and explored. Let me
assure him that but just one-half of the ground has been
surveyed, and that half but by one of the parties, and that party
certainly not the most interested in the matter. Moreover, there
is one kind of marriage that has not been tried, and that is, a
contract made