the polygamy of the ancient patriarchs engrafted upon the civilization of the nineteenth century. It is not made a binding duty of the Mormon to marry a plurality of wives, but is esteemed a right and a privilege, and those who are able to support a large family generally have from two to six wives. These wives may all live in the same house, or in separate houses, as the husband may decree; for his authority is absolute and unquestioned. Each takes charge of her own children, and assists in providing for the comfort of her husband. Adultery, as in the Jewish dispensation, is punishable with death.

The great majority of the Mormons have only one wife, but to marry is considered one of the most sacred of man's obligations.

Brigham Young, the chief priest, prophet, and president of the Mormon Church, is said to have not less than a dozen wives, who live in his houses, and with whom he associates in the matrimonial relation; but there is a large number of others who are "sealed" to him, and are nominally his wives, some of whom he scarcely ever sees, and toward whom he performs none of the duties of a husband, as such duties are generally understood.

The Mormons do not think it either morally or physiologically wrong to marry cousins, or even half-sisters-in fact, incest is not considered a crime among them. A saint who has married a half-sister quotes the example of Abraham and Sarai as a precedent. A Mormon may also marry a mother and her daughter, or several sisters.

"SEALING."

In his "New America," Mr. Hepworth Dixon says: "Much confusion comes upon us by the use of this word sealing in the English sense of marriage. It may mean marriage, or it may mean something else. A woman may be sealed to a man without becoming his wife, as in the case of Eliza Snow, the poetess, who, in spite of being sealed to Brigham Young, is called Miss Snow, and considered a spinster. Consummation, necessary in wedlock, is not necessary

in sealing. Marriage is secular; sealing is both secular and celestial. Sealing may be either for a time or for eternity. A woman who has been sealed to one man for time may be sealed to another for eternity. This sealing must be done on earth, and may be done in the lifetime of her earlier lord.

"Another familiarity, not less strange, which the Mormons have introduced into these delicate relations of husband and wife, is that of sealing a living person to the dead. The marriage for time is an affair of earth, and must be contracted between a living man and a living woman; but the marriage for eternity, being an affair of heaven, may be contracted, say these saints, with either the living or the dead; provided always it be a real engagement of the persons sanctioned by the prophet-and solemnized in proper form, which requires a living substitute, who shall take on earth the place of the heavenly bridegroom.”

THE GREAT SCHISM.

The doctrine of polygamy, which was not an original article of the Mormon faith, has not been introduced without a fierce struggle in the bosom of the church and a violent schism. Emma, the wife of Joseph Smith, and her four sons, oppose polygamy as an invention of the Messrs. Young and Pratt, and their followers now form a strong and active sect or party, generally known as Josephites, and claiming to be the rue Church of the Saints.

PANTAGAMY, OR COMPLEX Marriage.

The Perfectionists, or Bible Communists, whose principal seat is at Oneida Creek, New York, teach and practice a system of complex marriage for which even Webster's great dictionary furnishes no name, but which may be called pantagamy. The social system of these people being a Christian communism, like that of the primitive followers of our Saviour, they believe that it should include the love relations as well as those of property, and that in the close communion of Christian fellowship each man should love every woman, and each woman every man, constituting a universal marriage,

not of one man to one woman, but of all men to all women; but this is, of course, confined strictly to those within this church. A few of the principal points in this system are thus stated by a member of the Oneida Community:

"In the first place, the Communities believe, contrary to the theory of the novelists and others, that the affections can be controlled and guided, and that they will produce far better results when rightly controlled and rightly guided than if left to take care of themselves without restraint. They entirely reject the idea, that love is an inevitable and uncontrollable fatality, which must have its own course. They believe the whole matter of love and its expression should be subject to enlightened self-control, and should be managed for the greatest good. In the Communities, it is under the special supervision of the fathers and mothers,—or, in other words, of the wisest and best members, and is often under discussion in the evening meetings, and is also subordinate to the institution of criticism.

"It is regarded as better for the young of both sexes to associate in love with persons older than themselves, and, if possible, with those who are spiritual and have been some time in the school of self-control, and who are thus able to make love safe and edifying. This is only another form of the popular principle of contrasts. It is well understood by physiologists, that it is undesirable for persons of similar characters and temperaments to mate together. Communists have discovered that it is not desirable for two inexperienced and unspiritual persons to rush into fellowship with each other; that it is far better for both to associate with persons of mature character and sound sense.

"Another general principle, well understood in the Comnunities, is, that it is not desirable for two persons, whatever may be their standing, to become exclusively attached to each other-to worship and idolize each other-however popular this experience may be with sentimental people generally. They regard exclusive, idolatrous attachment as unhealthy and pernicious wherever it may exist. The Communities in sist that the heart should be kept free to love all the true

and worthy, and should never be contracted with exclusiveness or idolatry, or purely selfish love in any form.

"Another principle, well known and carried out in the Communities, is, that persons shall not be obliged to receive under any circumstances the attention of those whom they do not like. They abhor rapes, whether committed under the cover of marriage or elsewhere. The Communities are pledged to protect all their members from disagreeable social approaches. Every woman is free to refuse every man's attentions.

"Still another principle is, that it is best for men, in their approaches to women, to invite personal interviews through the intervention of a third party, for two important reasons, viz., first, that the matter may be brought in some measure under the inspection of the Community; and, secondly, that the women may decline proposals, if they choose, without embarrassment or restraint.

"Under the operation of these general principles, but little difficulty attends the practical carrying out of the social theory of the Communities. As fast as the members become enlightened, they govern themselves by these very principles. The great aim is to teach every one self-control. This leads to the greatest happiness in love, and the greatest good to all."

Believing that the reasons we have urged in preceding chapters in favor of monogamic marriage, backed up, as they undoubtedly are, by the facts of physiology and phrenology, and the better instincts of every well-constituted man and woman, are a sufficient defense of the institution as it now exists, by the authority of both Church and State in all Christian lands, we shall leave the exceptional phenomena of polygamy and pantagamy with the foregoing brief but fair statement of their true character. We present them as interesting subjects for study and investigation, and not as examples worthy of imitation. Time will test them, and history record their rise, progress, decline, and final extinction.

XVI.

Lobe Signs.*

There's language in her eye, her check, her lip;

Nay, her foot speaks, and love looks out

At every joint and motion of her body.-Shakspeare.
In many ways does the full heart reveal

The presence of the love it would conceal.-Coleridge.

UR happiness or misery in this world depends largely upon the state of our affections. To love and to be loved is the normal condition and destiny of

every well-constituted man and woman. Failing to attain this condition, our minds are apt to become more or less morbid or warped, and we generally either run into dangerous and sinful excesses of some kind, or, "the milk of human kindness" getting soured in our breasts, we become unsocial and cynical, if not misanthropic. At best, our earthly lives are to a greater or less extent irretrievably marred.

A few individuals may be found who are comparatively indifferent to love. A few others, in whom its manifestation is not naturally wanting, are able, when its object fails them, to substitute ambition or some other sentiment or passion for it; or to hold the whole lower nature in such absolute subjection to the spiritual faculties, that the ordinances of religion and the duties of Christian charity stand with them in the place of wife or husband, family and home; but these cases constitute the apparent exceptions which prove the rule.

While all men and women, not mentally or physically deficient to the extent of deformity or partial idiocy, may be said

*From "New Physiognomy, or Signs of Character." By Samuel R. Wells. New York: S. R. Wells, 1868. Price, $5.