Thus you
see, that though the ceremony hath a Heathen exterior, it hath a Christian
moral; God grant that we all forget the former, and remember the latter,
as best becomes our several characters and our common country. And now,
having done with the divinities and their legends--with the exception of
that varlet Silenus, whose misconduct, I promise you, is not to be so
easily overlooked--we will give some attention to mortal affairs. Marriage
is honorable before God and man, and although I have never had leisure to
enter into this holy state myself, owing to a variety of reasons, but
chiefly from my being wedded, as it were, to the State, to which we all
owe quite as much, or even greater duty, than the most faithful wife owes
to her husband, I would not have you suppose that I have not a high
veneration for matrimony. So far from this, I have looked on no part of
this day's ceremonies with more satisfaction than these of the nuptials,
which we are now called upon to complete in a manner suitable to the
importance of the occasion. Let the bridegroom and the bride stand forth,
that all may the better see the happy pair.
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