t embarrassment. No
teacher ever had a more intimate classroom than mine. For my main
interest in literature, which I taught professionally, is its relation
to men and women. Browning said his poetry dealt exclusively with the
human soul; and it so happens that four poems of Tennyson's which,
intentionally or not, are placed together, deal with four terrific
passions. The poems are "The First Quarrel," "Rizpah," "The Northern
Cobbler," and "The Revenge." They deal respectively with sex, mother
love, drink, and patriotism. All four have produced happiness, and all
four have produced murder. Life is dangerous.

Students naturally wish to be successful in their chosen careers. I told
them the greatest and most important career was marriage; that, unlike
other careers, marriage was a career open to every one of them. For
among the many and striking differences between male and female we may
observe this: not every woman can be married, but every man can. There
is always some woman who will marry him.

The highest happiness known on earth is in marriage. Every man who is
happily married is a successful man even if he has failed in everything
else. And every man whose marriage is a failure is not a successful man
even if he has succeeded in everything else. The great Russian novelist
Turgenev said he would give all his fame and all his genius if there
were only one woman who cared whether he came home late to dinner. It
would have been well if he had known this when he was young.

I told my students: "Young gentlemen, although very few of you are now
engaged to be married and not one of you is married, _your wives are
alive_; they are living now. You do not know their names or where they
are; but isn't it exciting to think that you are every moment drawing
nearer to each other? She is half an hour closer to you now than when
you entered this classroom. Some in California are sound asleep, for it
is before dawn; some are eating breakfast in New York City; some are
eating lunch in Europe. But all your wives are as real as if they were
already living with you. What do you intend to do about it?"

Those preparing for the law or medicine take special studies; those
preparing for athletic contests take special training. If they did not,
they would be idiotic. Those who are preparing for marriage should not
leave success to chance. For, while happiness is sometimes dependent on
luck, in the majority of instances it is not; happin