POLYGAMY 201 



during many generations of European or American 

 life, cannot be eradicated in a day. Not one of the 

 polygamous societies of the West has succeeded in 

 establishing itself upon a permanent basis. In the 

 working of the system of "complex marriage," as 

 practised at Oneida Creek, we find a remarkable illus- 

 tration of the force of inherited sentiment, and the 

 virtual failure of Father Noyes's community may be 

 regarded as typical of the fate of all such experiments 

 unless they happen to be backed up by religious faith 

 of a powerful and enduring character. Complex 

 marriage is a euphemism for free love, its principle 

 being that within the limits of the community any 

 men or women may cohabit by natural consent, the 

 children being reared in a common nursery. 



Considering that Father Noyes's adherents are 

 without exception of European blood, we should ex- 

 pect the growth of exclusive attachments to be the 

 bane of the free love system, and in point of fact that 

 has proved to be the case. The members of the 

 Oneida Creek community find in practice, says Nord- 

 hofif, " a strong tendency towards what they call seK- 

 ish love — that is to say, the attachment of two per- 

 sons to each other, and their desire to be true to each 

 other — and there are here and there in their publica- 



