tter of fact the
prevalence of divorce in America is enormously exaggerated. The proportion
of divorced persons in the population appears to be less than one per
cent., and, contrary to a frequent assertion, it is by no means the rule
for divorced persons to remarry immediately. Taking into account the
special conditions of life in the United States the prevalence of divorce
is small and its character by no means reveals a low grade morality. An
impartial and competent critic of the American people, Professor
Muensterberg, remarks that the real ground which mainly leads to divorce in
the United States--not the mere legal pretexts made compulsory by the
precisianism of the law--is the highly ethical objection to continuing
externally in a marriage which has ceased to be spiritually congenial. "It
is the women especially," he says, "and generally the very best women, who
prefer to take the step, with all the hardships which it involves, to
prolonging a marriage which is spiritually hypocritical and immoral."[347]

The people of the United States, above all others, cherish ideals of
individualism; they are also the people among whom, above all others,
there is the greatest amount of what Reibmayr calls "blood-chaos." Under
such circumstances the difficulties of conjugal life are necessarily at a
maximum, and marriage union is liable to subtle impediments which must
forever elude the statute-book.[348] There can be little doubt that the
practical sagacity of the American people will enable them sooner or later
to recognize this fact, and that finally fulfilling the Puritanic drift of
their divorce legislation--as foreshadowed in its outcome by Milton--they
will agree to trust their own citizens with the responsibility of deciding
so private a matter as their conjugal relationships, with, of course,
authority in the courts to see that no injustice is committed. It is,
indeed, surprising that the American people, usually intolerant of State
interference, should in this matter so long have tolerated such
interference in so private a matter.

The movement of divorce is not confined to Christendom; it is a mark of
modern civilization. In Japan the proportion of divorces is higher than in
any other country, not excluding the United States.[349] The most vigorous
and progressive countries are those that insist most firmly on the purity
of sexual unions. In the United States it was pointed out many years ago
that divorce is most pr