th while to give these arguments, which
are very strongly presented, at least a brief passing notice. We will
consider them in the order in which we have stated them.

1. We deny most emphatically the assertion that polygamy is either
taught or approved by the Bible. It was tolerated in a people who had
long been in the darkness of Egyptian bondage, but never approved.
Indeed, the inspired writers have evidently taken pains to give
numerous examples of the evils growing out of that violation of the
law of God and Nature.

2. The second argument is based upon the asserted fact that man
naturally possesses stronger sexual demands than woman; that these
demands are imperative; and that it is not only impossible, but in the
highest degree injurious, to restrain them.

While it is true as a fact affirmed by constant observation that men
have stronger passions than women, in general, and that many men demand
of their wives a degree of sexual indulgence which is the cause of
serious injury to them, and even impossible for them to grant without
doing themselves the greatest wrong, it is by no means proven either
that these demands are imperative, that they are natural, or that they
are not injurious to the man as well as the woman, much less beneficial
to either. On the contrary, there is as great a weight of evidence as
could be required that restraint, self-control, and moderation in the
exercise of the sexual instinct is in the highest degree beneficial
to man, as well as to woman, and necessary for his highest development.

3. While it is true that there are a few more adult women than men,
the difference is not sufficiently great to require the introduction
of polygamy as a remedy for enforced celibacy. At any rate this would
be unnecessary until all bachelors had been provided with wives, when
there would be found no necessity for further provision, since there
are large numbers of women who are utterly unfit to marry, who would
be injured by so doing, and would only serve to degenerate the race,
besides making themselves more wretched than they already are.

Again, it is a well-known fact that more males than females are born,
the preponderance of adult females being caused by a greater mortality
among male children, together with the losses from accidents and war.
By a correct observance of the laws of health, together with the
abolition of wars, the disparity in relative numbers of the sexes would
disappear. Indee