rriage tie be loosened, that divorces
without number would take place. It was considered so, and so argued,
at the time that Zurich (the only Protestant canton in Switzerland that
did not permit divorce, except for adultery alone,) passed laws similar
to those of the other cantons; but so far from such being the case, only
one divorce took place, within a year after the laws were amended. What
is the reason of this? It can, in my opinion, only be ascribed to the
chain being worn more lightly, when you know that if it oppresses you,
it may be removed. Men are naturally tyrants, and they bear down upon
the woman who cannot escape from their thraldom; but, with the knowledge
that she can appeal against them, they soften their rigour. On the
other hand, the woman, when unable to escape, frets with the feeling
that she must submit, and that there is no help or hope in prospect; but
once aware that she has her rights, and an appeal, she bears with more,
and feels less than otherwise she would. You may bind, and from
assuetude and time, (putting the better feelings out of the question,)
the ties are worn without complaint; but if you bind too tight, you cut
into the flesh, and after a time the pain becomes insupportable. In
Switzerland, Germany, and I believe all the Protestant communities of
the old world, the grounds upon which divorce is admissible are as
follows:--adultery, condemnation of either party to punishment
considered as infamous, madness, contagious chronic diseases, desertion,
and incompatibility of temper.

The last will be considered by most people as no ground for divorce.
Whether it is or not, I shall not pretend to decide, but this is
certain, that it is the cause of the most unhappiness, and ultimately of
the most crime.

All the great errors, all the various schisms in the Christian church,
have arisen from not taking the holy writings as a great moral code, (as
I should imagine they were intended to be,) which legislates upon broad
principles, but selecting particular passages from them upon which to
pin your faith. And it certainly appears to me to be reasonable to
suppose that those laws by which the imperfection of our natures were
fairly met, and which tended to diminish the aggregate of crime, must be
more acceptable to our Divine Master than any which, however they might
be in spirit more rigidly conformable to his precepts, were found in
their working not to succeed. And here I cannot he