696 



DIVORCE. 



million times smaller Uuui a hemp seed. The vibrio 

 kneola occurs hi vegetable infusions, every drop con- 

 taining myriads of those oblong points. Of the monas 

 petiitinota, discovered in ditcli water, millions appear 

 in the field of a microscope, playing, like Uie sun- 

 beams, in a single drop of liquid. Insects have been 

 discovered so small as not to exceed the ten thou- 

 smdth part of an inch, so that 1,000,000,000,000 of 

 them might be contained within the space of one 

 cubic inch ; yet each animalcule must consist of parts 

 connected with cadi oilier, with vessels, with fluids, 

 and with organs necessary for its motions, for its in- 

 crease, for its propagation, &c. How inconceivably 

 small must those organs be ! and yet they are, un- 

 questionably, composed of other parts still smaller, 

 and still farther removed from Uie perception of our 



DIVORCE is a separation, by law, of husband and 

 wife, and is either a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, 

 that is, a complete dissolution of the marriage bonds, 

 ivhereby the parties become as entirely disconnected 

 as those who have not been joined in wedlock, or a 

 divorce a mensa et thoro (from bed and board), where- 

 by the parties are legally separated, but not unmar- 

 ried. The causes admitted by different codes of laws 

 as grounds for the modification or entire dissolution 

 of the marriage contract, as well as the description 

 of tribunal which has jurisdiction of the proceedings, 

 and the form ofjjp^uroceedings, are quite various. 



Accordiiij^fflBhe\LW of Moses (Deut. xxiv. 1), 

 when a fldRi-Bath taken a wife, and married her, 

 and it come to pass that she find no favour in his 

 eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her ; 

 then let him- write her a bill of divorcement, and give 

 it in I*JT hand, and send her out of his house." This 

 was a^ff I summary proceeding, and the provision 

 seems scaj^ly to recognise the force of a marriage 

 contract afirinding upon the husband, who, accord- 

 ing to the prevalent intcifv elation of this law among 

 the Jews, might be his own judge of ,th^ sufficiency 

 of the cause for repudiating his wife ; and' one school 

 of doctors, whose interpretations were bad in respect, 

 considered it to be sufficient cause if he preferred 

 another woman, or if his wife did not dress his vic- 

 tuals to his satisfaction. Tin's law is said (Matt, xix.) 

 to have been a concession to the hardness of heart of 

 the Jews, who were not prepared to receive a better 

 doctrine. The wife, on receiving her bill of divorce, 

 was at liberty to marry again, after waiting ninety 

 days, in order to avoid doubts as to the paternity of 

 her next born child. This law, like those of the 

 Eastern countries generally, pays very little respect 

 to the rights of the wife as a party to a matrijpmHal 

 contract. The husband might marry auwffier wife 

 immediately. The wife ccfuld not divorce the huff 

 band. 



The Mohammedan law of divorce, founded upon 

 some passages in the Koran, allows of a separation 

 by mutual consent, giving the wife the right of re- 

 taining her marriage portion, unless she agrees to 

 relinquish a part of it as the price of the separation. 

 The parties are permitted to separate and reunite 

 twice, if they can so agree, without any particular 

 conditions ; but, after the third divorce, the husband 

 is not permitted to receive his wife again, until she 

 shall have previously married another hiisliand. The 

 act of divorce is a judicial proceeding before the 

 cadi, who does not decree it until three montlis after 

 the application, which delay is made in order to de- 

 termine whether the wife is pregnant ; and if she be 

 so, the divorce Is delayed until after her delivery. 

 The magistrates throw obstacles in the way of di- 

 vorce, so that the expenses of the proceedings, and 

 the necessity of allowing the wife her marriage por- 

 tion back again, in case of divorce, sometimes dis- 



courage the husband from prosecuting the affair, and 

 induce him to make a composition. But here, ac- 

 cording to D'Arvieux's Memoirs, the magistrate in- 

 terposes, and will not permit a reconciliation and 

 discontinuance of the proceedings, until the wife is 

 first married to another person ; for which purpose 

 some youth is agreed with to act Uie part of second 

 liusband, so far as may be necessary in order to allord 

 a ground for the discontinuance of the proceedings, 

 and the relenting husband must be a spectator of 

 this second marriage and its incidents. A cadi in- 

 formed this traveller that this condition was rigidly 

 enforced, in order to prevent the tribunals from being 

 overburthened with applications for divorce. 



The Hindoo laws pay still less respect to the 

 women, who are considered very much in the light of 

 slaves to their husbands. According to a maxim of 

 these laws, " prudent husbands instantly forsake a 

 wife who speaks unkindly." Barrenness, the bear- 

 ing of daughters only, eating in her husband's pre- 

 sence, any incurable disease, or quarrelsomeness, is 

 each a sufficient cause of divorce. The same law 

 inculcates upon the wife the obligation to revere her 

 liusband as a god, although he is devoid of all good 

 qualities, or enamoured of another woman. If the 

 wife is superseded by the husband's taking another, 

 he must still maintain her. The wife is, however, 

 so far protected, that the husband is not allowed to 

 put her to death, or to mutilate her person, unless in 

 case of an amour with one of a lower caste. 



The Chinese laws of divorce are very similar to 

 the Hindoo, but add some other sufficient causes, 

 such as disregard to the husband's parents, loqua- 

 ciousness, and jealousy of temper. But the husband 

 cannot divorce a wife who has mourned tliree years 

 for his parents, or if his family has become rich- sub 

 sequently to his marriage, or if (to wife have no 

 parents living to receive her back again. A woman 

 who has been deserted tliree years by her husband 

 may marry anuther m 



The diiferent Grecian states had each their re- 

 spective laws of djvapce- At Sparta, they do not 

 seem to havfe gre"atly regarded the delicacy of the 

 marriage bed, when the interest of -the republic was 

 in questiojt ; but divorces appear to. have been rare, 

 since the ephori fined Lysander for repudiating his 

 wife. At Athens, eitherjflie husband or wife might 

 procure a divorce, by adhibiting a bill for this pur- 

 pose to the archon, was obtaining the verdict or con- 

 sent of a jury, to"Wnoin the question was referred. 

 But the party applying must, it seems, have made 

 application personally ; and Alcibiades, according to 

 Plutarel, took advantage of his authority as a hus- 

 band to prevent his wife from making the applica- 

 tion personally ; for, when she was going from her 

 brother's house, where she Had token refuge, to the 

 archon's, to sue tor a divorce, he forcibly seized upon 

 her, and confined her to his own house. 



The early laws of Rome permitted the husband to 

 divorce his wife for poisoning his children, counter- 

 feiting his keys, or adultery. But other causes were 

 afterwards. added ; for the first divorce recorded was 

 for the sterility of the wife. This was by Sp. C. 

 Huga, in the year 523 after the building of the city. 

 '^Divorces afterwards became very frequent, and a law 

 was, on this account, made by Augustus, requiring 

 additional ceremonies in a divorce ; among other 

 things, the presence of seven witnesses to the act of 

 dissolution of the marriage. By the Theodosian 

 code, the husband could divorce the wife for adultery, 

 or if she was a witch or a murderess, had sold a free- 

 born person into slavery, violated a sepulchre, com- 

 mitted sacrilege, been accessary to theft or robbery, 

 was given to feeding with strangers without the 

 knowledge, or against the wishes of the husband. 



