,,divorce                               
versus                                  
,,democracy                             
,,by                             ,g4 ,k4
 ,,chesterton                           
,reprinted from 8,nash's ,magazine0     
,illustration3 ,,ihs                    
,loqure ut profifiliis                  
ciscantur                               
,israel                                 
,london                                 
,,the ,,society ,,of                    
,,ss4 ,,peter  ,,paul                   
,publishers to the ,church of ,england  
#cb ,george ,st41 ,hanover ,square1     
and #cjb ,regent ,st41 ,w4              
#aiaf          ,preface      ,i have    
been asked to put forward in pamphlet   
form this rather hasty  essay as it     
appeared in 8,nash's ,magazine02 and ,i 
do so by the kind  permission of the    
editor4 ,the rather chaotic quality of  
its journalism  it is now impossible to 
alter4 ,the convictions upon which it is
 based  are unaltered and unalterable4  

,indeed1 in so far as circumstances have
  since affected them1 they are greatly 
strengthened4 ,in so far as there  was  
something sporadic and seemingly        
irrelevant in the writing1 it was       
partly because ,i was contending against
 an evil that was diffused and          
indefinable1 at once tentative and      
ubiquitous4 ,since then that disease    
has come to a head and burst2 primarily 
in the ,north of ,europe4 ,by that      
historic habit which generally makes one
 ,european people the  standard-bearer  
of a social tendency1 which made the    
,empire a ,roman  ,empire and the       
,revolution a ,french ,revolution1 the  
,north ,germans have  become the        
peculiar champions of that modern change
 which would make the  ,state infinitely
 superior to the ,family4 ,it is even   
asserted that  ,prussian political      
authority is now encouraging the        
abandonment of  common morality for the 
support of population2 and even if this 
horrible  thing be untrue1 it is highly 

significant that it can be plausibly    
said  of ,prussia1 and certainly of no  
other ,christian ,state4 ,and in the new
  light of action it is possible to     
trace more clearly the trend towards    
divorce1 as also that trend towards the 
other pagan institution of  slavery1    
which would certainly have accompanied  
it4 ,but the enslaving  force in ,europe
 struck too early2 and the whole        
movement has been  brought to a         
standstill4    ,the same circumstances  
have given an importance to a formula of
 my own  which ,i still think rather    
important4 ,it may be summarised as the 
patriotism of the household4 ,in the    
experience of nationality we do not     
admit that any excess of despair can    
come into the same logical world as     
desertion4 ,no amount of tragedy need   
amount to treason4 ,the ,christian  view
 of marriage conceives of the home as   
self-governing in a manner  analogous to
 an independent state2 that is1 that it 
may include internal  reform and even   

internal rebellion2 but because of the  
bond1 not against  it4 ,in this way it  
is itself a sort of standing reformer of
 the ,state2  for the ,state is judged  
by whether its arrangements bear        
helpfully or  bear hardly on the human  
fulness and fertility of the free       
family4 ,thus  the ,wicked ,ten in ,rome
 were condemned and cast down because   
their public  powers permitted a wrong  
against the purity of a private family4 
,thus  the medival revolt against the   
,poll ,tax began by the authority of an 
official insulting the authority of a   
father4 ,men do not now1 any more  than 
then1 become sinless by receiving a post
 in a bureaucracy2 and if  the domestic 
affairs of the poor were once put into  
the hands of mere  lawyers and          
inspectors1 the poor would soon find    
themselves in positions  from which     
there is no exit save by the sword of   
,virginius and the  hammer of ,wat      
,tyler4 ,as for the section of the rich 
who are still  seeking a servile        

solution1 they1 of course1 are still    
seeking the  extension of divorce4 ,it  
is only 8divide et impera02 and they    
want the  division of sex for the       
division of labour4 ,the very same      
economic  calculation which makes them  
encourage tyranny in the shop makes them
  encourage licence in the family4 ,but 
now the free families of five great     
nations have risen against them2 and    
their plot has failed4                  
,g4 ,k4 ,,chesterton          ,divorce  
versus ,democracy      ,on this question
 of divorce ,i do not profess to be     
impartial1 for ,i have  never perceived 
any intelligent meaning in the word4 ,i 
merely 7and most  modestly7 profess to  
be right4 ,i also profess to be         
representative3 that  is1 democratic4   
,now1 one may believe in democracy or   
disbelieve in it4  ,it would be grossly 
unfair to conceal the fact that there   
are  difficulties on both sides4 ,the   
difficulty of believing in democracy is 
that it is so hard to believe--like ,god

 and most other good things4 ,the       
difficulty of disbelieving in democracy 
is that there is nothing else to        
believe in4 ,i mean there is nothing    
else on earth or in earthly  politics4  
,unless an aristocracy is selected by   
gods1 it must be selected  by men4 ,it  
may be negatively and passively         
permitted1 but either heaven  or        
humanity must permit it2 otherwise it   
has no more moral authority  than a     
lucky pickpocket4 ,it is baby talk to   
talk about 8,supermen0 or  8,nature's   
,aristocracy0 or 8,the ,wise ,few40     
8,the ,wise ,few0 must be either  those 
whom others think wise--who are often   
fools2 or those who think  themselves   
wise--who are always fools4    ,well1 if
 one happens to believe in democracy as 
,i do1 as a large trust  in the active  
and passive judgment of the human       
conscience1 one can have  no hesitation1
 no 8impartiality10 about one's view of 
divorce2 and  especially about one's    
view of the extension of divorce among  

the  democracy4 ,a democrat in any sense
 must regard that extension as the  last
 and vilest of the insults offered by   
the modern rich to the modern  poor4    
,the rich do largely believe in divorce2
 the poor do mainly believe  in         
fidelity4 ,but the modern rich are      
powerful and the modern poor are        
powerless4 ,therefore for years and     
decades past the rich have been         
preaching their own virtues4 ,now that  
they have begun to preach their  vices  
too1 ,i think it is time to kick4       
,there is one enormous and elementary   
objection to the popularising of        
divorce1 which comes before any         
consideration of the nature of marriage4
  ,it is like an alphabet in letters too
 large to be seen4 ,it is this3 ,that   
even if the democracy approved of       
divorce as strongly and deeply as the   
democracy does 7in fact7 disapprove of  
it--any man of common sense must  know  
that nowadays the thing will be worked  
probably against the  democracy1 but    

quite certainly by the plutocracy4      
,people seem to forget  that in a       
society where power goes with wealth and
 where wealth is in an  extreme state of
 inequality1 extending the powers of the
 law means  something entirely different
 from extending the powers of the       
public4  ,they seem to forget that there
 is a great deal of difference between  
what laws define and what laws do4 ,a   
poor woman in a poor public-house  was  
broken with a ruinous fine for giving a 
child a sip of shandy-gaff4  ,nobody    
supposed that the law verbally          
stigmatised the action for being  done  
by a poor person in a poor public-house4
 ,but most certainly nobody  will dare  
to pretend that a rich man giving a boy 
a sip of champagne  would have been     
punished so heavily--or punished at all4
 ,i have seen the  thing done frequently
 in country houses2 and my host and     
hostess would  have been very much      
surprised if ,i had gone outside and    
telephoned for  the police4 ,the law    

theoretically condemns any one who tries
 to  frustrate the police or even fails 
to assist them4 ,yet the rich  motorists
 are allowed to keep up an organised    
service of anti-police                  
detectives--wearing a conspicuous       
uniform--for the avowed purpose of      
showing motorists how to avoid capture4 
,no one supposes again that the  law    
says in so many words that the right to 
organise for the evasion of  laws is a  
privilege of the rich but not of the    
poor4 ,but take the same  practical     
test4 ,what would the police say1 what  
would the world say1 if  men stood about
 the streets in green and yellow        
uniforms1 notoriously  for the purpose  
of warning pickpockets of the presence  
of a  plain-clothes officer8 ,what would
 the world say if recognised officials  
in peaked caps watched by night to warn 
a burglar that the police were  waiting 
for him8 ,yet there is no distinction of
 principle between the  evasion of that 
police-trap and the other               

police-trap--the police-trap  which     
prevents a motorist from killing a child
 like a chicken2 which  prevents the    
most frivolous kind of murder1 the most 
piteous kind of  sudden death4    ,well1
 the ,poor ,man's ,divorce ,law will be 
applied exactly as all these  others are
 applied4 ,everybody must know that it  
would mean in practice  that            
well-dressed men1 doctors1 magistrates1 
and inspectors1 would have  more power  
over the family lives of ill-dressed    
men1 navvies1 plumbers1  and potmen4    
,nobody can have the impudence to       
pretend that it would mean  that        
navvies1 plumbers1 and potmen would     
7either individually or  collectively7  
have more power over the family lives of
 doctors1  magistrates1 and inspectors4 
,nobody dare assert that because divorce
 is  a ,state affair1 therefore the poor
 citizen will have any power1 direct  or
 indirect1 to divorce a duchess from a  
duke or a banker from a  banker's wife4 
,but no one will call it inconceivable  

that the power of  rich families over   
poor families1 which is already great1  
the power of  the duke as landlord1 the 
power of the banker as money-lender1    
might be  considerably increased by     
arming magistrates with more powers of  
interference in private life4 ,for the  
dukes and bankers often are             
magistrates1 always the friends and     
relatives of magistrates4 ,the  navvies 
are not4 ,the navvy will be the subject 
of the new experiments2  certainly never
 the experimentalist4 ,it is the poor   
man who will show to  the imaginative   
eye of science all those horrors which1 
according to  newspaper correspondents1 
cry aloud for divorce--drunkenness1     
madness1  cruelty1 incurable disease4   
,if he is slow in working for his       
master1 he  will be 8defective40 ,if he 
is worn out by working for his master1  
he  will be 8degenerate40 ,if he1 at    
some particular opportunity1 prefers to 
work for himself to working for his     
master1 he will be obviously insane4    

,if he never has any opportunity of     
working for any masters he will be      
8unemployable40 ,all the bitter         
embarrassments and entanglements        
incidental to extreme poverty will be   
used to break conjugal happiness1  as   
they are already used to break parental 
authority4 ,marriage will be  called a  
failure wherever it is a struggle2 just 
as parents in modern  ,england are sent 
to prison for neglecting the children   
whom they cannot  afford to feed4    ,i 
will take but one instance of the       
enormity and silliness which is  really 
implied in these proposals for the      
extension of divorce4 ,take the  case   
quoted by many contributors to the      
discussion in the papers--the  case of  
what is called 8cruelty40 ,now what is  
the real meaning of this  as regards the
 prosperous and as regards the          
struggling classes of the  community8   
,let us take the prosperous classes     
first4 ,every one knows  that those who 
are really to be described as gentlemen 

all profess a  particular tradition1    
partly chivalrous1 partly merely modern 
and  refined--a tradition against       
8laying hands upon a woman1 save in a   
way  of kindness40 ,i do not mean that a
 gentleman hates the cowing of a woman  
by brute force3 any one must hate that4 
,i mean he has a ritual1 taboo  kind of 
feeling about the laying on of a finger4
 ,if a gentleman 7real or  imitation7   
has struck his wife ever so lightly1 he 
feels he has done one  of those things  
that thrill the thoughts with the notion
 of a  border-line2 something like      
saying the ,lord's ,prayer backwards1   
touching  a hot kettle1 reversing the   
crucifix1 or 8breaking the pledge40 ,the
  wife may forgive the husband more     
easily for this than for many things2   
but the husband will find it hard to    
forgive himself4 ,it is a purely  class 
sentiment1 like the poor folks' dislike 
of hospitals4 ,what is the  effect of   
this class sentiment on divorce among   
the higher classes8    ,the first       

effect1 of course1 is greatly to assist 
those faked divorces  so common among   
the fashionable4 ,i mean that where     
there is a collusion1  a small pat or   
push can be remembered1 exaggerated1 or 
invented2 and yet  seem to the solemn   
judges a very solemn thing in people of 
their own  social class4 ,but outside   
these cases1 the test is not wholly     
inappropriate as applied to the richer  
classes4 ,for1 all gentlemen  feeling or
 affecting this special horror1 it does 
really look bad if a  gentleman has     
broken through it2 it does look like    
madness or a personal  hatred and       
persecution4 ,it may even look like     
worse things4 ,if a man  with luxurious 
habits1 in artistic surroundings1 is    
cruel to his wife1  it may be connected 
with some perversion of sex cruelty1    
such as was  alleged 7,i know not how   
truly7 in the case of the millionaire   
,thaw4 ,we  need not deny that such     
cases are cases for separation1 if not  
for  divorce4    ,but this test of      

technical cruelty1 which is rough and   
ready as applied  to the rich1 is       
absolutely mad and meaningless as       
applied to the poor4 ,a  poor woman does
 not judge her husband as a bully by    
whether he has ever  hit out4 ,one might
 as well say that a schoolboy judges    
whether another  schoolboy is a bully by
 whether he has ever hit out4 ,the poor 
wife1 like  the schoolboy1 judges him as
 a bully by whether he is a bully4 ,she 
knows  that while wife-beating may      
really be a crime1 wife-hitting is      
sometimes  very like just self-defence4 
,no one knows better than she does that 
her  husband often has a great deal to  
put up with2 sometimes she means him    
to2 sometimes she is justified4 ,she    
comes and tells all this to  magistrates
 again and again2 in police court after 
police court women  with black eyes try 
to explain the thing to judges with no  
eyes4 ,in  street after street women    
turn in anger on the hapless            
knight-errant who  has interrupted an   

instantaneous misunderstanding4 ,in     
these people's  lives the rooms are     
crowded1 the tempers are torn to rags1  
the natural  exits are forbidden4 ,in   
such societies it is as abominable to   
punish or  divorce people for a blow as 
it would be to punish or divorce a      
gentleman for slamming the door4 ,yet   
who can doubt1 if ever divorce is       
applied to the populace1 it would be    
applied in the spirit which takes  the  
blow quite seriously8 ,if any one doubts
 it1 he does not know what  world he is 
living in4    ,it is common to meet     
nowadays men who talk of what they call 
,free ,love  as if it were something    
like ,free ,silver--a new and ingenious 
political  scheme4 ,they seem to forget 
that it is as easy to judge what it     
would be  like as to judge of what legal
 marriage would be like4 8,free ,love0  
has  been going on in every town and    
village since the beginning of the      
world2 and the first fact that every man
 of the world knows about it is  plain  

enough4 ,it never does produce any of   
the wild purity and perfect  freedom its
 friends attribute to it4 ,if any paper 
had the pluck to head  a column 8,is    
,concubinage a ,failure80 instead of    
8,is ,marriage a ,failure80  the answer 
8,yes0 would be given by the personal   
memory of many men1 and  by the historic
 memory of all4 ,modern people          
perpetually quote some wild  expression 
of monks in the wilderness 7when a whole
 civilisation was  maddened by remorse7 
about the perilous quality of ,woman1   
about how she  was a spectre and a      
serpent and a destroying fire4 ,probably
 the  establishment of nuns1 situated a 
few miles off1 described ,man also as a 
serpent and a spectre2 but their works  
have not come down to us4    ,now all   
this old-world wit against ,benedick the
 married man was sensible  enough4 ,but 
so was the bachelorhood of the old      
monks1 who said it1  sensible enough4   
,it is perfectly true that to entangle  
yourself with  another soul in the most 

tender and tragic degree is to make1 in 
all  rational possibility1 a martyr or a
 fool of yourself4 ,most of the modern  
denunciations of marriage might have    
been copied direct from the maddest  of 
the monkish diaries4 ,the attack on     
marriage is an argument for  celibacy4  
,it is not an argument for divorce4 ,for
 that entanglement which  celibacy      
avowedly avoids1 divorce merely         
reduplicates and repeats4 ,it  may have 
been a sort of solemn comfort to a      
gentleman of ,africa to  reflect that he
 had no wife4 ,it cannot be anything but
 a discomfort to a  gentleman of        
,america to wonder which wife he really 
has4 ,if progress  means1 as in the     
ludicrous definition of ,herbert        
,spencer1 8an advance  from the simple  
to the complex10 then certainly divorce 
is a part of  progress4 ,nothing can be 
conceived more complex than the         
condition of a  man who has settled down
 finally four or five times4 ,nothing   
can be  conceived more complex than the 

position of a profligate who has not    
only had ten liaisons1 but ten legal    
liaisons4 ,there is a real sense  in    
which free love might free men4 ,but    
freer divorce would catch them in  the  
most complicated net ever woven in this 
wicked world4    ,the tragedy of love is
 in love1 not in marriage4 ,there is no 
unhappy  marriage that might not be an  
equally unhappy concubinage1 or a far   
more  unhappy seduction4 ,whether the   
tie be legal or no1 matters something to
  the faithless party2 it matters       
nothing to the faithful one4 ,the pathos
  reposes upon the perfectly simple fact
 that if any one deliberately  provokes 
either passions or affections1 he is    
responsible for them as  long as they go
 on1 as the man is responsible for      
letting loose a flood  or setting fire  
to a city4 ,his remedy is not to provoke
 them1 like the  hermit4 ,his           
punishment1 when he deserves punishment1
 is to spend the  rest of his life in   
trying to undo any ill he has done4 ,his

 escape is  despair--which is called1 in
 this connection1 divorce4 ,for every   
healthy  man feels one fundamental fact 
in his soul4 ,he feels that he must have
  a life1 and not a series of lives4 ,he
 would rather the human drama were  a   
tragedy than that it were a series of   
,music-hall ,turns and ,potted  ,plays4 
,a man wishes to save the souls of all  
the men that he has been3  of the dirty 
little schoolboy2 of the doubtful and   
morbid youth2 of the  lover2 of the     
husband4 ,re-incarnation has always     
seemed to me a cold  creed2 because each
 incarnation must forget the other4 ,it 
would be worse  still if this short     
human life were broken up into yet      
shorter lives1  each of which was in its
 turn forgotten4    ,if you are a       
democrat who likes also to be an honest 
man--if 7in other  words7 you want to   
know what the people want and not merely
 what you can  somehow induce them to   
ask for--then there is no doubt at all  
that this  is what they want4 ,you can  

only realise it by looking for human    
nature  elsewhere than in election      
reports2 but when you have once looked  
for it  you see it and you never forget 
it4 ,from the fact that every one thinks
  it natural that young men and women   
should carve names on trees1 to the     
fact that every one thinks it unnatural 
that old men and women should be        
separated in workhouses1 millions and   
millions of daily details prove  that   
people do regard the relation as        
normally permanent2 not as a  vision1   
but as a vow4    ,now for the           
exceptions1 true or false4 ,i would note
 a strange and even  silly oversight in 
the discussion of such exceptions1 which
 has haunted  most arguments for further
 divorce4 ,the ordinary emancipated prig
 or  poet who urges this side of the    
question always talks to one tune4      
8,marriage may be the best for most     
men10 he says1 8but there are           
exceptional natures that demand a more  
undulating experience2 constancy  will  

do for the common herd1 but there are   
complex natures and complex  cases where
 no one could recommend constancy4 ,i do
 not ask 7at the  present ,stage of     
,progress7 for the abolition of         
marriage2 ,i hereby ask  that it may be 
remitted in such individual and extreme 
examples40    ,now it is perfectly      
astounding to me that any one who has   
walked about  this world should make    
such a blunder about the breed we call  
mankind4  ,surely it is plain enough    
that if you ask for dreadful exceptions1
 you  will get them--too many of them4  
,let me take once again a rough parable4
  ,suppose ,i advertised in the papers  
that ,i had a place for any one who  was
 too stupid to be a clerk4 ,probably ,i 
should receive no replies2  possibly    
one4 ,possibly also 7nay1 probably7 it  
would be from the one man  who was not  
stupid at all4 ,but suppose ,i had      
advertised that ,i had a  place for any 
one who was too clever to be a clerk4   
,my office would be  instantly besieged 

by all the most hopeless fools in the   
four kingdoms4  ,to advertise for       
exceptions is simply to advertise for   
egoists4 ,to  advertise for egoists is  
to advertise for idiots4 ,it is exactly 
the bore  who does think that his case  
is interesting4 ,it is precisely the    
really  common person who does think    
that his case is uncommon4 ,it is always
 the  dull man who does think himself   
rather wild4 ,to ask solely for strange 
experiences of the soul is simply to let
 loose all the imbecile asylums  about  
one's ears4 ,whatever other theory is   
right1 this theory of the  exceptions is
 obviously wrong--or 7what matters more 
to our modern  atheists7 is obviously   
unbusinesslike4 ,it is1 moreover1 to any
 one with  popular political sympathies1
 a very deep and subtle sort of treason4
 ,by  thus putting a premium on the     
exceptional we grossly deceive the      
unconsciousness of the normal4 ,it seems
 strangely forgotten that the           
indifference of a nation is sacred as   

well as its differences4 ,even  public  
apathy is a kind of public opinion--and 
in many cases a very  sensible kind4 ,if
 ,i ask everybody to vote about ,mineral
 ,meals and do not  get a single        
ballot-paper returned1 ,i may say that  
the citizens have not  voted4 ,but they 
have4    ,the principle held by the     
populace1 against which this plutocratic
  conspiracy is being engineered1 is    
simply the principle expressed in the   
,prayer ,book in the words 8for better1 
for worse40 ,it is the principle  that  
all noble things have to be paid for1   
even if you only pay for them  with a   
promise4 ,one does not take one's       
interest out of ,england as one  takes  
it out of ,consols4 ,a man is not an    
,englishman unless he can endure  even  
the decay and death of ,england4 ,and   
just as every citizen is a  potential   
soldier1 so every wife or husband is a  
potential hospital  nurse--or even      
asylum attendant4 ,for though we should 
all approve of  certain tragedies being 

mitigated by a celibate separation--yet 
the more  real love and honour there has
 been in the marriage1 the less real    
mitigation there will be in the parting4
 ,but this sound public instinct  both  
about patriotism and marriage also      
insists that the first vow or           
obligation shall be mitigated1 not      
merely erased and forgotten4 ,many a    
good woman has loved and refused a      
doubtful man1 with the proviso that  she
 would marry no one else2 the old       
institution of marriage has the  same   
feeling about the tragedy that is       
post-matrimonial4 ,the thing  remains   
real2 it binds one to something4 ,if ,i 
am exiled from ,england ,i  will go and 
live on an island somewhere and be as   
jolly as ,i can4 ,i will  not become a  
patriot of any other land4              
,illustration