s very presence, and treated with every
conceivable ignominy--would you have her drag out a miserable
existence as his wife?" "No, no," says he; "in that case, they
ought to separate." Separate? But what becomes of the union
divinely instituted, which death only should part? (Applause).

The papers have of late been filled with the heart-sickening
accounts of wife-poisoning. Whence come these terrible crimes?
From the want of a Divorce law. Could the Hardings be legally
separated, they would not be driven to the commission of murder
to be free from each other; and which is preferable, a Divorce
law, to dissolve an unholy union, which all parties agree is no
true marriage, or a murder of one, and an execution (legal
murder) of the other party? But had the unfortunate woman, just
before the poisoned cup was presented to her lips, pleaded for a
divorce, Mrs. Blackwell would have read her a sermon equal to St.
Paul's "Wives, be obedient to your husbands," only she would have
added, "You must assert your equality," but "you must keep with
your husband and work for his redemption, as I would do for my
husband"; and Mr. Greeley would say, "As you chose to marry him,
it is your own fault; you must abide the consequences, for it is
a 'divine institution, a union for life, which nothing but death
can end.'" (Applause). The Tribune had recently a long sermon,
almost equal to the one we had this morning from our reverend
sister, on "Fast Women." The evils it spoke of were terrible
indeed, but, like all other sermons, it was one-sided. Not one
single word was said about fast men, except that the "poor victim
had to spend so much money." The writer forgot that it is the
demand which calls the supply into existence. But what was the
primary cause of that tragic end? Echo answers, "what?" Ask the
lifeless form of the murdered woman, and she may disclose the
terrible secret, and show you that, could she have been legally
divorced, she might not have been driven to the watery grave of a
"fast woman." (Applause).

But what is marriage? A human institution, called out by the
needs of social, affectional human nature, for human purposes,
its objects are, first, the happiness of the parties immediately
concerned, and, secondly, the welfare of society. Define it as