Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/424

372 When wives are confined in a seraglio, the husband ought not to repudiate on account of an opposition of manners; it is the husband's fault if their manners are incompatible.

Repudiation because of the barrenness of the woman, ought never to take place but where there is only one wife; when there are many, this is of no importance to the husband.

A law of the Maldivians permitted them to take again a wife whom they had repudiated. A law O f Mexico forbad their being reunited under pain of death. The law of Mexico was more rational than that of the Maldivians: at the time even s of the dissolution, it attended to the perpetuity of marriage; instead of this, the law of the Maldivians seemed equally to sport with marriage and repudiation.

The law of Mexico admitted only of divorce. This was a particular reason for their not permitting those who were voluntarily separated, to be ever reunited. Repudiation seems chiefly to proceed from a hastiness of temper, and from the dictates of some of the passions; while divorce appears to be an affair of deliberation.

Divorces are frequently of great political use; but as to the civil utility they are established only for the advantage of the husband and wife, and are not always favourable to their children. Rh