officers, and the property of the offender would be sold at auction, for almost nothing; as well as, in all probability, a pistol-ball through his head for daring to interfere in a Mormon's domestic arrangements.
Not only this, but having all her few friends at Utah; seeing polygamy constantly practiced, and hearing submission constantly preached; no adverse public sentiment to support, or sympathy to console, and no one to protect her; alone and wavering in mind, she sinks, and to sink is to be lost. Besides, virtue deferred is virtue lost; for the practice of vice is like the waters of a fabled river, it soon petrifies the heart.
What are the effects of polygamy upon the children?
It is urged that polygamy is beneficial to increase of population. "It is not the question," shrewdly observes Paley, "whether one man will have more children by five wives, but whether those five women would not have more children, if they had each a husband?" That Brigham has more children. by his large number of wives, is certain; but whether there are as many children in the world as there would have been had each of his wives been married to a separate husband, and whether those children of Brigham are any better developed, physically or mentally, is an important question. Nature, as shown in the proportion of the sexes (see chapter on Theoretical Polygamy), points to monogamy, and she will punish any infringement of her law. This is plainly shown in Utah. The proportion of female to male births, is very much in favor of the female sex. In monogamic countries, the surplus is on the male side. In polygamic countries, as in Utah, it is the reverse of this. Were the inhabitants of Utah, there-
