The laws of marriage prevailing in Europe consider the woman as the
equivalent of the man--start, that is to say, from a wrong position.
In our part of the world where monogamy is the rule, to marry means to
halve one's rights and double one's duties. Now, when the laws gave
women equal rights with man, they ought to have also endowed her with
a masculine intellect. But the fact is, that just in proportion as
the honors and privileges which the laws accord to women, exceed the
amount which nature gives, is there a diminution in the number
of women who really participate in these privileges; and all the
remainder are deprived of their natural rights by just so much as is
given to the others over and above their share. For the institution of
monogamy, and the laws of marriage which it entails, bestow upon
the woman an unnatural position of privilege, by considering her
throughout as the full equivalent of the man, which is by no means
the case; and seeing this, men who are shrewd and prudent very often
scruple to make so great a sacrifice and to acquiesce in so unfair an
arrangement.

Consequently, whilst among polygamous nations every woman is provided
for, where monogamy prevails the number of married women is limited;
and there remains over a large number of women without stay or
support, who, in the upper classes, vegetate as useless old maids, and
in the lower succumb to hard work for which they are not suited; or
else become _filles de joie_, whose life is as destitute of joy as it
is of honor. But under the circumstances they become a necessity; and
their position is openly recognized as serving the special end of
warding off temptation from those women favored by fate, who have
found, or may hope to find, husbands. In London alone there are 80,000
prostitutes. What are they but the women, who, under the institution
of monogamy have come off worse? Theirs is a dreadful fate: they are
human sacrifices offered up on the altar of monogamy. The women whose
wretched position is here described are the inevitable set-off to the
European lady with her arrogance and pretension. Polygamy is therefore
a real benefit to the female sex if it is taken as a whole. And, from
another point of view, there is no true reason why a man whose wife
suffers from chronic illness, or remains barren, or has gradually
become too old for him, should not take a second. The motives which
induce so many people to become converts to Mormonism[