DIVORCE', a separation, by law, of husband and wife ; and is either a di vorce a vincula matrimonii, that is, a complete dissolution of the marriage bonds, whereby the parties become as entirely disconnected as those who have not been joined in wedlock, or a divorce mensa et Moro (from bed and board,) whereby the parties are legally sepa rated, hut not unmarried. The Jewish law of divorce is founded on the directions given in the 24th chapter of Deuteron omy ; but the permission therein con tained is subject to many obstacles and formalities in modern practice. In Greece, in classical times, the practice of divorce seems to have varied in different states; at Sparta it appears to have been unusual, in Athens great facilities were afforded by the law. In republican Rome great strictness in this branch of morals prevailed for a long period, al though parties were less impeded in pur suing a divorce by the difficulties im posed by the law than by public opinion.
Ent in the later period of the republic, and under the emperors, divorce became extremely common, and was obtained with equal ease by either sex. Our Sa viour's declaration to the Pharisee, in the 19th chapter of St. Matthew, became the foundation of the law on this subject in Christian countries, and divorces were consequently allowed in one particular case only ; but after the Roman church had erected matrimony into a sacrament, they became, as they now are in Catholic countriet, wholly impossible : the only dissolution of marriage being in eases where it is void ab initio. In nest Prot estant ..mmtries, the facility of divorce has been so much restored in latter times as to approximate to the heathen practice.
DO, is in music, a syllable used by the Italians instead of ul, than which it is by them considered more musical and reso nant.