every side; and we went about
repeating to each other those wise saws about buying in the cheapest and
selling in the dearest market, and having whatever we wanted, and doing
whatever we liked with our own. We are, there is no denying it, a nation
of shopkeepers; and the spirit of trade can be tracked through every
relation of our lives. It is commerce gives the tone to all our
dealings; and we have carried its enactments into the most sacred of all
our institutions, and imparted a "limited liability" even to marriage.

Cheapness became the desideratum of our age, We insisted on cheap gloves
and shoes and wine and ribbons, and why not cheap divorces? Philosophers
tell us that the alternate action of the seasons is one of the purest
and most enduring of all sources of enjoyment; that perpetual summer
or spring would weary and depress; but in the ever-changing aspect
of nature, and in the stimulation which diversity excites, we find an
unfailing gratification. If, therefore, it be pleasant to be married,
it may also be agreeable to be unmarried. It takes some time, however,
before society accommodates itself to these new notions. The newly
divorced, be it man or woman, comes into the world like a patient after
the smallpox--you are not quite certain whether the period of contagion
is past, or if it be perfectly safe to go up and talk to him. In fact,
you delay doing so till some strong-minded friend or other goes boldly
forward and shakes the convalescent by the hand. Even still there will
be timid people who know perhaps that their delicacy of constitution
renders them peculiarly sensitive, and who will keep aloof after all. Of
course, these and similar prejudices will give way to time. We have
our Probate Court; and the phrase _co-respondent_ is now familiar as a
household word.

Now, however tempting the theme, I am not going to inquire whether we
have done wisely or the reverse by this piece of legislation; whether,
by instilling certain precepts of self-control, a larger spirit of
accommodation, and a more conciliatory disposition generally, we might
have removed some of the difficulties without the heroic remedy of the
decree _nisi_; whether, in fact, it might not have been better to teach
people to swim, or even float, rather than make this great issue of
cheap life-belts. I am so practical that I rather address myself to
profit by what is, than endeavour by any change to make it better. We
live in a statistical a