In this paper, as in my former ones upon Marriage, I want only to take
the subject from the standpoint of common sense, while with reverence
I admit that if the moral conscience could be awakened by any
religious convictions whatever, so that it would keep each individual
from sinning, that would be the true solution of the problem. But,
while seeking to enforce its laws in opposition to the laws of the
State, the teaching of the Church seems somehow not to have been able
to retain much hold over the general conscience which, ever since the
first secular law came into being, has availed itself of the relief so
afforded to free itself from galling shackles. The point, then, to
look at sensibly is not whether divorce is right or wrong in itself,
but what sort of effect the making of it easier or less easy would
have upon the nation. There does not seem to be the slightest use in
applying any arguments to the subject which do not take into
consideration the immeasurable upheaval in ideas, manner of living,
relaxation of personal discipline, and loss of religious control which
have taken place since the last reform was made. The luxury of
existence, the rapid movement from place to place permitted by
motor-cars, the emancipation of women, the general supposed necessity
of indulging in amusements, have so altered all the notions of life,
and so excited and encouraged interest in sex relationships, that the
old idea of stability and loyalty in marriage is shaken to its
foundations. The temptations for people to err are now a thousand-fold
greater than they were fifty years ago, and very few young people are
brought up with ideas of stern self-control at all. This being the
case, it would seem that the only rational standpoint to view the
question of divorce reform or divorce restriction from is the one
which gives the vastest outlook over each side's eventuality,
realising present conditions and tendencies to be as they are, and not
as they were, or ought to be. The forces which produced these
conditions are not on the decline, but, if anything, on the increase,
and must therefore be reckoned with and not ignored. What are they
likely to bring in the future? Still greater intolerance of all
restraint, still more desire for change? And if this is so, will it
have been wiser to have made the law harder or more lenient? That is
the question we shall soon, as a people, have to try to decide.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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