n of abject slavery
up to the institution of marriage. Let me say right here, that I regard
marriage as the holiest institution among men. Without the fireside
there is no human advancement; without the family relation there is no
life worth living. Every good government is made up of good families.
The unit of good government is the family, and anything that tends to
destroy the family is perfectly devilish and infamous. I believe in
marriage, and I hold in utter contempt the opinions of those long-haired
men and short-haired women who denounce the institution of marriage.

The grandest ambition that any man can possibly have, is to so live, and
so improve himself in heart and brain, as to be worthy of the love of
some splendid woman; and the grandest ambition of any girl is to make
herself worthy of the love and adoration of some magnificent man. That
is my idea. There is no success in life without love and marriage. You
had better be the emperor of one loving and tender heart, and she the
empress of yours, than to be king of the world. The man who has really
won the love of one good woman in this world, I do not care if he dies
in the ditch a beggar, his life has been a success.

I say it took millions of years to come from the condition of abject
slavery up to the condition of marriage. Ladies, the ornaments you
wear upon your persons to-night are but the souvenirs of your mother's
bondage. The chains around your necks, and the bracelets clasped upon
your white arms by the thrilled hand of love, have been changed by the
wand of civilization from iron to shining, glittering gold.

But nearly every religion has accounted for all the devilment in this
world by the crime of woman. What a gallant thing that is! And if it
is true, I had rather live with the woman I love in a world full of
trouble, than to live in heaven with nobody but men.

I read in a book--and I will say now that I cannot give the exact
language, as my memory does not retain the words, but I can give the
substance--I read in a book that the Supreme Being concluded to make a
world and one man; that he took some nothing and made a world and one
man, and put this man in a garden. In a little while he noticed that
the man got lonesome; that he wandered around as if he was waiting for
a train. There was nothing to interest him; no news; no papers; no
politics; no policy; and, as the devil had not yet made his appearance,
there was no chance for reconcili