An Unnatural Mode of Life

The agonies that are endured by those who have lived inharmoniously as man and wife—a life which is alike an outrage upon nature and delicacy—include so large a proportion of all marriages that it might be inferred that there are very few who are satisfied in their married life. What is not referred to are the petty squabbles, which are incidental to all human relationships and which may be caused by ill-temper due to disappointments in business, bad digestion, over excitement or the multitudinous worries of everyday life, having no connection with matrimonial troubles. These, of course, are not necessarily signs of matrimonial inharmony, although, in too many cases, they may be so. Let each one decide this for himself—but where there are perpetual bickerings and jarrings between husband and wife, running through a course of years, you may depend upon it that the absence of love—which is the only true basis of married life—is only too surely indicated. In all such cases, the continuance of cohabitation as husband and wife is a crime against God and man and must be atoned for and compelled to work out the full extent of the sentence which outraged nature inflicts on those who disobey her laws.