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342. where also she receives those who need her direct assistance. There unclear are so notorious, and are so much talked of, that one is absolved for the necessity of being at all reticent about them. No one, of course, wd. suppose that any practise of this kind, so abhorrent to our best natural instincts, cd. become universal: nor is it so in America: many denounce it. But still it spreads; & we cannot expect that it will die away, as long as the motives which prompt it, continue to be felt as strongly as they are at present. I will note one of the evil consequences of the practice. When those who have acted in this unnatural way are no longer young, & the motives which prompted their conduct have ceased to have any weight, the husband & wife find that there is no tie between them. [sentences struck through]. They have no reason to respect each other. Each condemns the other, & is in the other's presence self-condemned. And this is one of the causes of the numerous divorces which so much as unclear those who look into the social condition of American life. Nature, & our common moral sense will avenge themselves for such outrages.