“In the first place, have you ever thought from what source you received that great ‘_boon_’--your institution of marriage--which you say is ‘divinely instituted?’ Let us examine from whence you received it. According to the doctrine of evolution, the only theory of the genesis of man, which is supported by science, man slowly, through the lapse of countless ages, evolved from lower organisms by the agency of the survival of the fittest, etc. This implies, then, that all our ancestors were at one time savages. “We all know that the savage in the lowest stages of barbarism, even as he now exists, steals and forcibly takes his wife or wives from other tribes, etc. He also often _forces_ captives to become his wives. Somewhat later in the stage of social development, the man generally buys his wives without their consultation. At a still later period the old folks, instead of the young folks who are to be married, make the bargain. And still later on, the period in which you are now living, young boys and girls give each other away for life; at an age, too, you must remember, when they are young, inexperienced and blinded by first love, as you term it. No amount of after-knowledge on the sexual relations is of any value to the contracting parties as far as the contract is concerned, for, according to your doctrine, the parties are indissolubly bound together for life as man and wife. According to your marriage system, they are supposed to live together for life, whether they love each other or not. Whether they afterward quarrel or love some one else better cannot be taken into account. Nothing less than the cruelest abuse enables them to secure a divorce, and even then the divorced parties are looked upon with scorn and contempt. “You would, no doubt, think it cruel, Rev. Dudley, if some one should steal you, like a savage steals his wife, and compel you to live with a woman with whom you did not want to live or whom you did not love. But there is very little difference, when we examine the matter closely, whether a woman is stolen and compelled, from the start, to live with a man, or whether she voluntarily marries him, thinking that she loves him, but afterward finds that she does not love him, that she was mistaken like all mankind are at times likely to be. “You compel a husband and wife by law, superstition and public opinion, to live together, whether they really love each other, or whether they simply stay together to gratify their passions. Your church and state interfere with the marriage as well as with the dissolution of it. You can clearly see, then, that your system of marriage is based upon force, which, it is true, has gradually diminished from the lowest stages of barbarism, when the husband stole his wife, to the present time, when the contracting parties give each other away for life under a contract which they are not at liberty to make or dissolve without the interference of church and state.