PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

214 Of Divorce.
which she is almost necessarily deprived, by her dis ..
mission from her husband's family.
Where this objection does not interfere, I know
of no prineiple of the law of nature applicable to the
question, beside that of general expediency.
For, if we say, that arbitrary divorces are exclud.
ed by the terms of the marriage rontract; it may be
answered, that the contract might be so framed as to
admit of this condition.
H we argue with some moralists, that the oblig2..
tion of a contract naturally continues, so long as the
purpose which the contracting parties had in view,
requires ite; continuance; it will· be difficult to shew
what purpose of the contract (the care of children
ex~epted) should confine a man to a woman, fram
whom he seeks to be loose.
If we CQntend with others, that a contract cannot,
by the law of nature, be dissolved, unless the parties
be replaced in [he situation which each possessed before
the contract was entered into ; we shall be call ..
cd upon to prove this to be an universal or indispensable
property of contracts.
I confess myself wable to assign any circumstance
in the marriage contract, which esserttially distin-­
guifhes it from other contracts, or wfJidl prove~
t:lat it - contains~ what many have ascribed to it, a
l1atural illcapacity of being dissolved by the consent
of the parties, at the option of one of them, or ei".
ther of thenl. But if we trace the eif(;{:ts of such a
rule upon the general happiness of married Life, we,
shall perceive reasons of expediency, that abundant ..
Iy justify the policy of those laws which refuse to
dl(~'hlrsband the power of divorce, or restrain it to
;\ fe\v (~xtreme _ and specific provocations: and our
principles teach us to pronounce that to be contrary
to tile la\v of nature, \vhictl can be proved to be detri.
mental to the common happiness of the human species.
A lawgiver, whose counsels are directed by views
nf general utility, and obstructed by no local impediment,
would make the marr;~lge contract indissoluble