Note 315 — Chapter XI · HISTORY OF SEPARATION AND DIVORCE UNDER ENGLISH AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (continued 2)

"He said, confusion of progeny constitutes the essence of the crime; and therefore a woman who breaks her marriage vow is much more criminal than a man who does it. A man, to be sure, is criminal in the sight of God, but he does not do his wife any material injury if he does not insult her; if, for instance, he steals privately to her chambermaid. Sir, a wife ought not greatly to resent this. I would not receive home a daughter who had run away from her husband on that account. A wife should study to retain her husband by more attention to please him."—Boswell, Life of Johnson, III, 46 (ed. 1835). Some recent writers, who ought to know better, indulge in similar sophistry; cf. Nisbet, Marriage and Heredity, 18 ff.; Ap Richard, Marriage and Divorce, 25, 34, 35.