e law recognizes only Monogamy; but domestic
unhappiness is a prominent feature of our national life; therefore,
argues the would-be free-lover, monogamy does not accord with the best
interests of mankind. The fallacy lies in the first premise. Legally,
our marriage system is monogamous but _socially_ and _practically_ it is
_not!_ Prostitution is the source of this domestic infelicity. The
"mistress" sips the sweet nectar that is denied to the deceived wife.
Legislators have battled with intemperance, but have done comparatively
little to banish from our midst this necessary (?) evil. They recoil
with disgust from this abyss of iniquity and disease. Within it is
coiled a hydra-headed monster, which invades our hearthstones,
contaminates our social atmosphere, and whose very breath is laden with
poisonous vapors, the inexhaustible source of all evil.

The perverted appetites of mankind are mistaken for the natural desires
and necessities of our being; and, accordingly, various arguments have
been advanced to prove that monogamy is not conducive to social
developement. It is curious that no one of these arguments refers to the
health and well-being of the _individual_, thus overlooking, perhaps
willfully, the great law of social economy. Even a few medical writers
sometimes advocate the principles of this so-called liberalism. In a
recently published work, there are enumerated only _two_ demerits of
polygamy and _six_ of monogamy. These six demerits which the author is
pleased to term a "bombshell," he introduces on account of his moral
convictions no less than humanitarian considerations. The same author
terms monogamy a "worm-eaten and rotten-rooted tree." The worm that is
devastating the fairest tree of Eden and draining its richest juices is
what our contemporary thinks, may be "_plausibly termed, a necessary
evil_." It is claimed that monogamy begets narrow sympathies and leads
to selfish idolatry. The fallacy of this argument lies in the
misapprehension of the term _selfishness_. Self-preservation is
literally selfishness, yet who will deny that it is a paramount duty of
man. If perverted, it may be vicious, even criminal; but selfishness, in
so far as it is generated by monogamy, is one of the chief elements of
social economy; furthermore, it favors the observance of the laws of
sexual hygiene. As we have said elsewhere, true love _increases
benevolence_, and correspondingly expands and develops the sympathies.
Se