[776] See BERTILLON, _Note pour l'étude statistique du divorce_, 464 ff., 471-73, giving Berlin statistics for 1878 which show that divorced men remarry within the first three years at about the same rate as widowers, while divorced women remarry more rapidly than widows. The results obtained from Swiss statistics are nearly the same: see the table in BERTILLON, "Du sort des divorcés," _Jour. de la société de statistique de Paris_, June, 1884; reproduced by WILLCOX, _The Divorce Problem_, 27. On the other hand, OETTINGEN, _Die Moralstatistik_, 153-62, on the basis of statistics for Saxony (1834-49) and the Netherlands (1850-54), shows a strong tendency to remarry on the part of divorced persons of either sex, as compared with widows and widowers, the divorced women remarrying much more frequently than the men. DIKE, _Rep. of the Nat. Div. Ref. League_ (1891), 18, gives some facts for Connecticut. In 1889, 286 divorced persons were married, "135 men and 151 women, which is a little above one-third of the number divorced in the year. In 1890 there were 477 divorces granted, or 954 individuals divorced: and there were 350 divorced persons"--143 men and 207 women--"who married again." To be of much value these figures should be compared with the number of marriages of widowers and widows for the same period. After all, in this fact do we not catch a glimpse of the proper sphere of divorce legislation? Divorce is a remedy and not the disease. It is not a virtue in a divorce law, as appears to be often assumed, to restrict the application of the remedy at all hazards, regardless of the sufferings of the social body. If it were always the essential purpose of a good law to diminish directly the number of _bona fide_ divorces, the more rational course would be to imitate South Carolina and prohibit divorce entirely. Divorce is not immoral. It is quite probable, on the contrary, that drastic, like negligent, legislation is sometimes immoral. It is not necessarily a merit, and it may be a grave social wrong, to reduce the legal causes for a decree to the one "scriptural" ground. The most enlightened judgment of the age heartily approves of the policy of some states in extending the causes so as to include intoxication from the habitual use of strong drinks or narcotics as being equally destructive of connubial happiness and family well-being. Indeed, considering the needs of each particular society, the promotion of happiness is the only safe criterion to guide the lawmaker in either widening or narrowing the door of escape from the marriage bond. The divorce movement is a portentous and almost universal incident of modern civilization. Doubtless it signifies underlying social evils vast and perilous. Yet to the student of history it is perfectly clear that this is but a part of the mighty movement for social liberation which has been gaining in volume and strength ever since the Reformation.