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of adaptation has been properly observed; but supposing the hidden germ referred to develops, adding a decided lymphatic element, so that, in course of time, the two, to use a popular expression, become a fat and jolly couple;" you shall usually find that the jolly is all on the outside, and that their internal life is not so smooth as their fully distended skins. Unless the bilious or sanguine is possessed by one or the other to a considerable degree, their incompatibility shall place its blighting fingers not only on their domestic bliss, but on their health, and on the life of their offspring. In the animal kingdom, below man, undoubtedly the same changes take place, so far as temperamental adaptability is concerned, but they instinctively change their mates-the birds, I believe, once a year, or, in other words, every time they are about to raise a family.

With this sixth criticism I will close my argument in the case. There are other faults our popular marriage-system presents which might be given, but the foregoing will suffice. There is also one which, in the present condition of society, may be suggested, but not urged. It may be stated for the mental digestion of good and intelligent people, but the time has not yet come when it may be safely pressed upon the great mass of mankind. In society where the monogamic marriage system prevails, the physician engaged in a national practice like mine, and who may be consulted by letter, or in person, by people who may never meet him again, and who would not intrust such secrets to home physicians, encounters swarms of impotent men, and a still greater number of sexually apathetic women. The causes of these infirmities may, in many instances, be ascribed to disease, bad habits, etc., which have been treated of in their proper places. But may not the cause, in many more, be ascribed to the generally recognized law-"that variation of stimulus is necessary to preserve the tone and health of any organ of sense, and that prolonged application of the same stimulus exhausts it?" And further, may not matrimonial infidelity, instances of which are constantly breaking out on the eruptive skin of fashionable life, and now and then coming to the surface of the smooth cuticle of rural society, result from the restlessness of repressed nature under the dis regard of this law? Needle-women may save the strength of their vision by not confining their work too constantly upon cloth of one color. A constant writer need not contract that form of paralysis called "steel-pen dis ease," if he will use pens of a variety of metal; or, in other words, change from one kind to another. There cannot be a particle of doubt that the disease is induced by too constant contact of the fingers with one metal. Some may not be aware that there is such an affection as steel-pen disease; many cases of it have been presented to my notice for treatment. The sense of smelling is made sick or paralyzed by an irritation with one odor, however agreeable when not too long applied. The sense of hearing is not impaired

by loud, variable noises, but under the constant din of monotonous sound The sense of taste becomes sated if only one article of food is used for a long time, and unless a person subsisting upon it is engaged in manual labor which causes great physical waste, loss of appetite will be an inevitable penalty. Frictionize the ends of your fingers for a long time on any one ching, and they will become numb, and I have no doubt that if the hands should be exclusively employed in handling some one material they would become paralyzed.

Perhaps for reasons of fickleness and discontentment, which the human family ought to overcome, the mind, too, is dissatisfied, if not disgusted, with monotony. Whether natural or because of evil adulterations, every. body is seeking change-change of air, change of food, etc. We are no less delighted with new things in our adult age than we were in childhood. Men and women have their playthings as well as boys and girls, and they are almost as constantly changing them. Here, then, is another secret which assists in accounting for the irrepressible tendency of mankind, as exhibited in all ages, to break down any arbitrary regulations which society has imposed for governing the sexes in their conjugal relations.

Now, dear reader, I have presented for your perusal a very radical (do you say presumptuous ?) chapter, haven't I? Well, God knows my heart, that I do not want to injure the moral well-being of any of you. "Fools venture in, where angels fear to tread," and it may be that I am one of that unfortunate class first named. But I have felt impelled by moral convictions, no less than humanitarian considerations, to throw this bombshell into the very heart of our present rotten social system, and I trust, if it be ill-timed or unwise, that some good may sometime come of it.

CHAPTER VI.

THE REMEDY.

VERYBODY is painfully conscious of the existence of evil-evil which must be rooted out before the human family can settle down to a condition of peace and enjoyment. A majority of the Christian world ascribe all of our afflictions to the "Fall of Adam." Another large class tell us, that the race is only in its infancy, and that the evils we encounter are the results of our ignorance, and that this ignorance is to be gradually dispelled by the light of science and the advance of art. By them it is supposed we are just emerging from the darkness of night: the rays of knowledge are ...but just shooting up behind the distant hills in the east. Practically it is immaterial which is right, so far as the social question is concerned; because, while the former should put their shoulders to the wheel and work faithfully for the realization of the millennium so long promised, the latter must fulfill the expectations of the world's people who are looking forward with enthusiastic hope for the "Good time coming."

It may be inferred by many from the title of this chapter that I am going to prescribe a panacea, or a kind of one cure-all," for all the evils presented in the preceding chapter. I shall have to disappoint the hopes of all who are thus sanguine. May be an interrogation point, rather than a period, should have been placed after our heading. In Part IV. will be found many suggestions for the improvement of monogamic marriage, which, if heeded, I am confident would make things a little better. But to effect what is necessary both of the old marriage-systems must be pulled to pieces and a new order of things established, and until this is done, and it must be the work of religion, ingenuity, and time, it would be well not only to continue monogamy, but to tolerate polygamy, and even to encourage the new system of "Complex Marriage" as practised by the religious, industrious, and thrifty communities at Oneida and Wallingford. In making this suggestion, I presume I shall shock the sensibilities of some readers. There is an educated prejudice against polygamy, especially, which has considerable root in truth, and a great deal in bigotry. The newspaper press

catering to this prejudice, visits Mormon polygamy with the most sweeping denunciation. To my personal knowledge, many of these articles are written by men who personally hold to different opinions than those which they publish. In the literary world writing is regarded as a business from which to acquire a subsistence, if not wealth. And you cannot always judge of the personal proclivities of the newspaper-writer by his editorials. It pays at this juncture to denounce without qualification Mormon polygamy, and for this reason mainly it is done.

By looking over the results of the Complex Marriage System as presented in another place (see page 719), it will be observed that to all external appearances, it is working well on a small scale, and that it has already stood the test of a score of years. So long as there are some good people ready to hazard their temporal happiness in a new social experiment, when the old ones are so defective, the least we can do is to let them alone so long as they do not disturb the public peace. No one can say that the State of New York has suffered any moral deterioration in consequence of its toleration of the Oneida Community. On the contrary, monogamic society immediately surrounding it seems to have been benefited by its presence. That attractive writer "Jenny June," paid a visit to the Community, and wrote a letter to the "New York World" in which she spoke of the Communists as follows:

"This visit was not one of mere curiosity. Advancing civilization is developing new forms of social evil, to remedy which everybody has a theory. The Oneida Communists have in certain ways proved themselves a great success. They excel in the arts and manufactures to which they have devoted themselves; they have established a high character for just dealing, probity, and honor. They have lived down prejudice in their own neighborhood and enriched the surrounding country by utilizing labor, teaching the small farmers how to turn their land into fruit-farms, cultivate them profitably, and supplying them with a market. We had furnished our table for two years with their canned fruit and vegetables, and wished to see with our own eyes if this was the only good to come out of this Nazareth.

"Reformers have not a reputation for much æsthetic taste, and with this impression, and the memory of a visit once paid to the North American Phalanx, brought vividly back to my mind, I confess I was astonished at the extent and beauty of the domain we saw spread out before us. The main building is a very spacious and imposing structure of brick, with white-stone facings. The walls are, many of them, covered luxuriantly with the Madeira vine, with its brilliant blossoms, and the extensive grounds are laid out with the taste, and kept in the perfect order of the most admirable private residence."

It strikes me to be sound policy to let this new system grow side by side

with monogamy and polygamy, and if it shall show greater products of religion, morality, industry, individual progress, and happiness, take good care of the young shoot, and it may be that in the distant future the old worm-eaten and rotten-rooted tree-monogamy, and the black old stumppolygamy, may be dug out altogether. Henry Ward Beecher, though he may not second a motion like this, has said that man is higher than insti tutions. "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath !” "That sentence," remarks Mr. Beecher, "is passed upon every usage, custom, law, government, church, or institution. Man is higher than them all. Not one of them but may be changed, broken, or put away, if the good of any man require it. Only, it must be his higher good, his virtue, his manhood, his purity and truth, his life and progress, and not his mere capricious material interests."

What I am dealing with every one who has read the preceding chapter must see appertains to something more than the "mere capricious material interests," of the human family. When, then, so good a man as Mr. Beecher says, that under certain circumstances old institutions however sacred may be laid aside, certainly a doctor of medicine may propose the same thing, when in his opinion there is a world full of sick people, who need something to elevate them above the reach of physical disease and moral pollution.

There are many merits-possibly many demerits-in the "Complex Marriage System," as presented to us by the Oneida Community. Prominent among the former are,—it overcomes the disparity existing in our popular system of marriage between the pubescent age of demand and the marriageable age of supply; it overcomes the evil of incompatible parentage, for when there is no restraint, attraction takes place only between those of such opposite natures or conditions as to insure viable offspring; it promotes a higher standard of average health in the Community, because the free interchange of magnetic forces among a great number, if the health-element predominates, raises the weak without perceptibly depressing the strong; and, if my notion respecting the creation of magnetism, by the union of male and female magnetism, be correct, an immense amount of new life force is generated under their Complex Marriage System; it provides against the utter breaking up of a far by the death of a parent, as often occurs in our system of marriage; it provides for the training of children by those who are especially adapted to this family function, thereby preventing society from being overrun with spoiled children, who, in adult age, are no less spoiled men and women; it unites the business faculties of one person to the intellectual faculties of another, and brings all these to the direction of strong muscle which in return supplies what the former are incapable by themselves of producing, so that the strong help the weak, and the weak help the strong, and no one suffers for bread. If its general