HISTORY OF MARRIAGE.
Polygamy and Monogamy. We propose to give only a brief dissertation on the principles and arguments of these systems, with special reference to their representatives in the nineteenth century. Polygamy has existed in all ages. It is, and always has been, the result of moral degradation or wantonness. The Garden of Eden was no harem. Primeval nature knew no community of love. There was only the union of two "and the twain were made one flesh." Time passed; "the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." The propensities of men were in the ascendant, and "God repented Him that He had created man." He directed Noah to take into the ark, two of every sort, male and female. But "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," and tradition points to Polygamy as the generally recognized form of marriage among the ancients. The father of the Hebrew nation was unquestionably a polygamist, and the general history of patriarchal life shows that a plurality of wives and concubines were national customs. In the earlier part of Egyptian history, Menes is said to have founded a system of marriage, ostensibly monogamous, but in reality it was polygamous, because it allowed concubinage. As civilization advanced, the latter became unpopular, and "although lawful, was uncommon," while polygamy was expressly forbidden. Solomon, according to polygamous principles, with his thousand women, should have enjoyed a most felicitous condition. Strange that he exclaimed "A woman among all these have I not found." According to the distinguished Rabbi, Maimonides, polygamy was a Jewish custom as late as the thirteenth century. When Cecrops the Egyptian King, came to Athens (1550, B.C.) he introduced a new system, which proved to be another step toward the recognition of Monogamy. Under this code a man was permitted to have one wife and a concubine. Here dawned the era of Grecian civilization, the glory of which was reflected in the social and political principles of Western Europe. During the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., concubinage disappeared, but, under the new regime, the condition of the wife was degraded. She was regarded as simply an instrument of procreation and a mistress of the household, while a class of foreign women, who devoted themselves to learning and the fine arts, were the admired, and often the beloved companions of the husbands. These were the courtesans who played the same role in Athenian history, as did the chaste matron, in the annals of Rome. When Greece became subject to Rome and the national characteristics of these nations were blended, marriage became a loose form of monogamy. In Persia, during the reign of Cyrus, about 560 B.C., polygamy was sustained by custom, law, and religion. The Chinese marriage system was, and is, practically polygamous, for, from their earliest traditions, we learn that although a man could have but one wife, he was permitted to have as many concubines as he desired.
In the Christian era the first religious system which incorporated polygamy as a principle was Mohammedanism. This system, which is so admirably adapted to the voluptuous character of the Orientals, has penetrated Western Europe, Asia, and Africa. Hayward estimated the number of its adherents to be one hundred and forty millions. The heaven of the Mohammedan is replete with all the luxuries which appeal to the animal propensities. Ravishing Houris attend the faithful, who recline on downy couches, in pavilions of pearl. On the Western Continent a system of promiscuity was practiced by the Mexicans, Peruvians, Brazilians, and the barbarous tribes of North America.
The Mormon Church was founded by Joseph Smith, and professes to be in harmony with the Bible and a special revelation to its leading Saint. According to the Mormon code, "Love is a yearning for a higher state of existence, and the passions, properly understood, are feeders of the spiritual life;" and again, "nature is dual; to complete his organization a man must marry." The leading error of Mormonism is that it mistakes a legal permission for a Divine command. The Mormon logic may be premised as follows: the Mosaic law allowed polygamy; the Bible records it; therefore, the Bible teaches polygamy.
A Mormon Saint can have not less than three wives but as many more as he can conveniently support. The eight fundamental doctrines of the Mormon Church are stated as follows: 1. God is a person with the flesh and form of a man. 2. Man is a part of the substance of God and will himself become a god. 3. Man is not created by God but existed from all eternity. 4. Man is not born in sin, and is not accountable for offenses other than his own. 5. The earth is a colony of embodied spirits, one of many such settlements in space. 6. God is president of the immortals, having under Him four orders of beings: (1.) Gods—i.e., immortal beings, possessed of a perfect organization of soul and body, being the final state of men who have lived on earth in perfect obedience to the law. (2.) Angels, immortal beings who have lived on earth in imperfect obedience to the law. (3.) Men, immortal beings in whom a living soul is united with a human body. (4.) Spirits, immortal beings, still waiting to receive their tabernacle of flesh. 7. Man, being one of the race of gods, became eligible, by means of marriage, for a celestial throne, and his household of wives and children are his kingdom, not only on earth but in heaven. 8. The kingdom of God has been again founded on earth, and the time has now come for the saints to take possession of their own; but by virtue, not by violence; by industry, not by force. This sect has met with stern and bitter opposition. It was successively located in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, from the last of which it was expelled by force of arms, and in 1848 established in Utah. Its adherents number, at the present time, more than two hundred thousand.
Another organization, differing from the Mormons, in many of its radical principles, is that of the "Communists," popularly termed "Free Lovers." It is located at Lennox, Madison Co., N.Y. Its members advocate a system of "complex marriage" which they claim is instituted with a conscientious regard for the welfare of posterity. They disclaim "promiscuity," and assert that the tie which binds them together is as permanent and as sacred as that of marriage. Community of property is commensurate with freedom of Love. They define love to be "social appreciation," and this element in their code of civilization, which they deem superior to all others, is secondary to "bodily support." The principles upon which their social status is founded may be briefly summarized as follows: "Man offers woman support and love (unconditional). Woman enjoying freedom, self-respect, health, personal and mental competency, gives herself to man in the boundless sincerity of an unselfish union. State—, Communism." In this, as in all forms of polygamous marriages, love is made synonymous with sexuality, and its purely spiritual element is lost. In every instance this spiritual element should constitute the basis of marriage, which, without it, is nothing more than legal prostitution. Without it, the selfish, degrading, animal propensities run rampant, while the emotions with all their boundless sweetness lie dormant. Woman is regarded as only a plaything to gratify the animal caprice.
That Monogamy is a law of nature is evident from the fact that it fulfills the three essential conditions which form the basis of true marriage: (1.) The development of the individual (2.) The welfare of society. (3.) The reproduction of the species.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
PHYSICALLY. Reciprocated love produces a general exhilaration of the system. The elasticity of the muscles is increased, the circulation is quickened, and every bodily function is stimulated. The duties of life are performed with a zest and alacrity never before experienced. "It is not possible for human beings to attain their full stature of humanity, except by loving long and perfectly. Behold that venerable man! He is mature in judgment, perfect in every action and expression, and saintly in goodness. You almost worship as you behold. What rendered him thus perfect? What rounded off his natural asperities, and moulded up his virtues? Love mainly. It permeated every pore, so to speak, and seasoned every fiber of his being, as could nothing else. Mark that matronly woman. In the bosom of her family, she is more than a queen and goddess combined. All her looks and actions express the outflowing of some or all of the human virtues. To know her is to love her. She became thus perfect, not in a day or a year, but by a long series of appropriate efforts. Then by what? Chiefly in and by love, which is specifically adapted thus to develope this maturity." But all this occurs only when there is a normal exercise of the sexual propensities. Excessive indulgence in marital pleasures deadens all the higher faculties, love included, and results in an utter prostration of the bodily powers. The Creator has endowed man and woman with passions, the suppression of which leads to pain, their gratification to pleasure, their satiety to disgust. Excessive marital indulgence produces abnormal conditions of the generative organs and not unfrequently leads to incurable disease. Many cases of uterine disease are traceable to this cause.