WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
love a fashionable and popular custom among the affluent. Schopenhauer boldly affirmed that we, all of us, for some time at least, live in polygamy; and historians refer frequently to polygynous practices.
Referring to Western polygyny, and comparing it to Eastern polygamy, Alison writes: "In none of these respects, perhaps, is it (polygamy) so powerful an instrument of corruption as the female profligacy and promiscuous concubinage, which, comparatively cheap in its acquisition, and therefore pervading all ranks, is felt as so consuming an evil in all the great cities of Western Europe."
Tacitus alludes to the polygyny of the ancient Germans. The practice was known fairly widely in Russia, Norway, and Sweden in early times, and it still exists. Long after the conversion of Europe to Christianity the maintenance of concubines was a common custom. Hallam notes concubinage in parts of Europe; and that it was not entirely confined to the laity is proved by Lea in his instructive "History of Sacerdotal Celibacy."
It has been the unwritten law of most Western countries that sovereigns and princes shall be allowed to indulge in polygyny. Anyone only superficially acquainted with the histories of the courts of Europe can point to a number of instances.
When polygamy is interdicted men endeavour to
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