relics of this sort of family organization still existing, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter. The latter was inaugurated by the advent in every community, where customs or laws protected the family association, of a class of women who would gratify the amative appetites of men for a pecuniary consideration. No doubt, originally, the women adopting this profession were mainly the homely or ugly ones, who were not available in the matrimonial market at any price. In the lapse of ages, however, pros titution has incomparably outgrown polyandry, having increased so steadily that wherever the laws of civilization maintain with the greatest rigidity the institutions of marriage, prostitution is found side by side with it. Not only so, but in early times prostitution was openly encouraged by the heads of families as necessary for the protection of the chastity of their own women. In Rome, under Augustus, the laws did not punish prostitution, but visited death upon the adulterers; they also held out rewards to the fathers of large families, and this combination of circumstances actually led ambitious husbands who were physically incompetent of becoming fathers to cause their wives to become public prostitutes, in order that numerous progeny might be obtained, and therewith the promised political favor and reward. In ancient Greece, in the days of Socrates, courtesans 'were the honored companions of their statesmen and philosophers." "That distinguished philosopher," says a writer, “not only visited them himself, but took his wife and daughters, that they also might have the advantage of their superior elegance and refinement; for these courtesans, who were foreigners, were rich, educated, and highly accomplished, and in these respects superior to the secluded and uncultured wives of Greece. They occupied the same social position in ancient society, that is now occupied by our distinguished female poets, novelists, actresses, singers, and artists."

Lady Augusta Hamilton, who wrote in the beginning of the present century, spoke of public-houses in the Netherlands which were licensed by the state for the reception of girls of the town. To these places, remarked this writer, "people of character resorted openly without fear or shame; there was as little scandal in being seen in one of them as being seen at a' play-house or any other place of amusement. The entertainments at these places were music and dancing; those not engaged in dancing were seated around the room with their paramours. Any one choosing to retire with one of them, there were small rooms adjoining, furnished with a bed and other conveniences. Their entrance to and exit from these rooms attracted no more attention than if they had stepped out to speak with a friend. It was the opinion that if they did not indulge the people in this particular, they should never be able to keep their wives chaste, and therefore of two evils they chose the least."

644

THE SEXUAL ORGANS.

In Japan, to-day, as will be seen further on, public women, or courtesans, may contract honorable marriage or return to the family hearth. Society does not point the finger of shame at them, and I make bold to say that if, as some contend, "prostitution is a necessary evil," this treatment of this unfortunate class is just as it should be. If our civil institutions cannot be so amended as to overcome the evil, or to put the proposition as it prac tically presents itself-if prostitution is an inevitable companion of our civilization-why, then, it is enough that the doomed women who must fill this social chasm be physically cursed, without being morally and socially condemned. For reasons presented in the essay on Prostitution in Part I., it is hardly possible that they can avoid becoming the victims of disease. Must they, in addition to all this physical misery, be social outcasts-candi. dates for physical, social, and moral damnation-coupled with the certainty of election by the action and voice of both sexes and the decree of a mer ciful Providence? All this, too, with the preservation of the personal respectability and possible sanctification of the souls of the men who have reduced them to this condition, and retain them in it? Poor women! Until mankind learns how to redeem you, the tears of sainted mothers will so whiten your stains that our gracious Father will not put his finger upon them.

In our civilization we have a heterogeneous mixture of the elements of past social organizations. We practically adopt the old Scandinavian idea that woman is physically the inferior of man-the old patriarchal Roman sentiment that she is morally inferior, for we attribute all her short comings, physical or moral, to the alleged fact that she is the "weaker vessel." In law governing our family relations, descent of property, etc., we partly adopt the old Scandinavian rule; in the complexity of all law, and our adhesion to it without too fine regard for equity, the peculiarities of the Roman empire under Augustus and Tiberius; in our sexual practices, privately-not publicly--the Greeks at the time of Socrates; in our prodigality and display, the Romans of the "Augustan " age; in our personal adornments, the rings and furbelows of the pagan world; in our religion, a mixture of the morals of the Mosaic dispensation, the word rather than the spirit of the Christian dispensation, and the idolatry of the worshippers of the golden calf. In our marriage customs we have the monogamy of the ancient Romans, the polygamy of the old Israelites, the omnigamy of the second century; and in our prostitution, practically the polyandry of some of the ancient communities of Africa. In our languages, with one common Latin root, we have as many branches and bendings as ever graced a water willow. Then we have gathered up all the bad habits of early oriental and European life, and added to them the chewing and smoking practices of the aborigines of America. While it may not appear

on investigation that we have, in forming our civilization, gathered only the dregs of the past, it is certain we have not taken the cream. We have not fallen further short of the vices of oriental nations than we have of the virtues of the ancient Germans.

In conclusion, allow me to remind the reader, that to fully observe the influence of the sexual organs on civilization, it is necessary to peruse the second essay in this chapter, and the one immediately preceding this. In the light of the three essays we see that they gave to man physical power over woman-that these powers were used to make woman hardly more than a slave in the early ages, and a "second fiddle" to man in nearly all ages and countries. When at any period she seemed likely to take an equal place with man, a reaction came in the masculine mind that remanded her to a secondary position. His advantage in physical strength has made him her master in the organization and continuation of unequal marriage regulations; in the formation of every plank in our social system; in the construction and working of our political machinery. And in this injustice is undoubtedly the concealed wormwood that embitters social life so extensively wherever our so-called Christian civilization prevails.

CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF MARRIAGE.

HE customs governing the intercourse of the sexes previous to the establishment of any arbitrary rules, are given in the last essay of the preceding chapter. We now come to the first attainable historical accounts of social or legal regulations appertaining thereto. The first man to inaugurate any civil code for the governance of man and woman in their sexual relations that the author is able to trace out was Menes, the first king of Egypt, who flourished about three thousand five hundred years before Christ. Some historians say three thousand eight hundred years. Previous to this epoch we have no account of marriage whatever, excepting that given in the Old Testament, at which period men took to themselves wives and concubines, according to their individual proclivities, without legal restraint. The next lawgiver we encounter is Fu-hi, who invented a marriage system for the Chinese, two thousand six hundred and fifty years before Christ. Next we find Moses, the leader and legislator of the Israelites, about the sixteenth century before Christ, laying down a variety of rules for the regulation of intercourse between man and woman. Cecrops, 1550 B. C., concocted a code for the Greeks; and the Romans at the very outset of their birth into the family of nations, are said to have had some stringent social-not legal-regulations for the governance of the sexes. Most of the northern nations of Europe were also discovered at the period of the Roman conquests to have rules as inviolable as law in the construction and maintenance of the family. In the new world we cannot go far back in this investigation; but we find that the early Peruvians attributed the origin of their marriage system to Manco Capac, in the twelfth century after Christ; and the Spanish invasion of Mexico, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, revealed the existence of a marriage institution sustained by law in the then most powerful empire in America.

In this chapter, I shall endeavor to give as brief and connected a history as possible of the rise and progress of the principal marriage systems which started with the dawn of civilization, and which have been handed down to us through successive ages. In collecting the facts upon which the essays

given in this chapter and those contained in the one which follows on the marriage customs of to-day are based, I beg leave to say that neither time, patience, nor expense have been spared to make the historical matter complete, and though it is not as much so as I could wish, owing to the scarcity of reliable works giving information on the subject, it is probably more suc cinct, comprehensive, and connected than can be found in any volume printed in the English language at the present writing. Possibly some inaccuracies may occur, for most of this volume has been written in the intervals of fatiguing professional labors. I am greatly indebted to the industry of my wife for translating from the dry legal pages of a new and able French work, some of the most valuable facts herein presented. This work is entitled "Study upon the Private Condition of Woman in Ancient and Modern Law," etc., by Paul Gide, and was undoubtedly written for the legal profession. The work having received the approval of the French Academy of Science, it may be regarded as reliable authority. I am under great obligations to a clergyman of this city, for having called my attention to this work, and for the use of probably the only copy in this country at this time; also to the same gentleman for commending to my perusal a work entitled the "History of European Morals, from Augustus to Charlemagne," by William Edward Hartpole Lecky, M. A.

Many facts have been obtained from the American Bureau of Literary Reference, Mr. Frank H. Norton, formerly connected with one of our large city libraries, having been employed by that useful institution to collect them especially for these pages. Many more have been excavated from standard works, musty old books, magazines, and newspapers, by the author, who has endeavored to arrange all these detached fragmentary facts into a connected and entertaining history. With the foregoing introductory and explanatory words, the reader's attention will first be invited to the

History of Polygamy.

In writing any history of marriage whatever, it is difficult to avoid the controversy going on between the theologists and scientists as to the origin of man, the unity of the races, etc., and yet be thorough in its presentation. But the author pleads lack of ability, preparation, time, and space to enter into this limitless arena of debate. Whether or not the reader accepts the belief entertained by so many in Christendom of the descent of the whole human family from one pair, traditions both sacred and profane point to polygamy as the oldest form of marriage. It Adam had but one wife, "circumstances over which he had no control" (!) might have prevented him from having more, for we do not descend far in the history of his family before we find Lamech with two. Then, in Noah's time, we find, according to Genesis [Chapter 6], that "the sons of God saw the daughters