of slaves; and that's a pretty hard position to occupy for life.
They have been the slaves of slaves; and in my judgment it took
millions of ages for women to come from the condition of abject slavery
up to the institution of marriage. Let me say right here, tonight, 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 government is 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
long-haired men and short-haired women who denounce the institution of
marriage. Let me say right here--and I have thought a good deal about
it--let me say right here, 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, and there is no
success in life without it. If you are the grand emperor of the world,
you had better be the grand emperor of one loving and tender heart, and
she the grand empress of yours. 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
bear upon your person tonight are but the souvenirs of your mothers'
bondage. The chains around your necks and the bracelets clasped upon
your wrists by the thrilling hand of love, have been changed by the
wand of civilization from iron to shining, glittering gold. But nearly
every religion has accounted for 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 say that nearly every religion has accounted for all the trouble in
this world by the crime of woman. I read in a book--and I will say now
that I cannot give the exact language; 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