Marriage is in fact a serious and a scientific problem, the solution of which may well engage the attention of the most profound intellects, and may well engage yours, because in its proper solution is embodied the advancement of society, the happiness of its members--nay, more, the salvation of the race itself; and yet it is, of all questions, most neglected. Young ladies and gentlemen reach maturity and marry without the first rudiments of knowledge in regard to the importance of the relation; in most cases in absolute ignorance of all the great physiological facts pertaining to conjugal selection and improvement of offspring, with little or no knowledge of the characters of either themselves or their consorts. The result is, what might be expected, a fruitful harvest of misery, crime, pauperism, disease, and death. Occasionally circumstances produce a happy combination, and the result is a reasonably correct union in spite of ignorance; but such cases are so rare that they are like oases in the desert, and the subject of universal admiration and comment when they occur. The most casual observer notes, that unhappiness is the rule in the married state, and conjugal felicity the exception. A recent discussion of the question, "Is Marriage a Failure?" has brought out so many exhibitions of domestic misery that society is startled into a serious consideration of the question at last. It is my purpose to show, in this lecture, that there is a sensible solution of this great problem. That whenever we bring to bear upon this question the same amount of scientific thought and reasoning common sense, that we display in all things pertaining to financial values, the results would be fully as satisfactory. I plead for Investigation; I ask for Knowledge; I beg for Candid Thought and Scientific Experimentation. When I was lecturing in Kansas, some years ago, I had occasion to visit an old friend, a wealthy farmer, who had an interesting family of seven very marriageable daughters. And in conversation with me, the old gentleman expressed himself as greatly concerned about their matrimonial prospects. Knowing that I was investigating the scientific bearings of matrimony, he said to me, that if there was any light which I could throw upon the subject, which would aid him or his daughters in the selection of suitable husbands for them, he would consider himself under obligations to me for life. "But," said the old man, sadly, "it's no use, marriage is a lottery anyhow. If you draw a prize, well and good; if you draw a blank, you must make the best of it. You may lecture from now until doomsday and it won't do any good. When they fall in love, they're going to marry, and they won't listen to reason."