I have known of cases
where a man, recognized as a social blackguard of the worst type,
whose ways of life are too odious to be named, has been accepted as
a fitting mate for a young innocent girl just out of school, because
he is a Lord or a Duke or an Earl. Anything for money! Anything for
the right to stand up and crow over your neighbours! When an
inexperienced girl or woman is united for life to a loathsome
blackguard, an open sensualist, a creature far lower than the
beasts, yet possessed of millions, she is 'congratulated' as being
specially to be envied, when as a matter of strict honesty, it would
be better if she were in her grave. The prayers and invocations
pronounced at such marriages are not 'religious,'--they are mere
profanity! The priest who says 'Those whom God hath joined together
let no man put asunder,' over such immoral wedlock, is guilty of a
worse sacrilege than if he trampled on the bread and wine of
Christ's Communion! For marriage was not intended to be a mere union
of bodies,--but a union of souls. It is the most sacred bond of
humanity. From the love which has created that bond, is born new
life,--life which shall be good or evil according to the spirit in
which husband and wife are wedded.
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