170 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



crimes are virtues instead of vices ! Such argument is 

 hardly worthy of serious ref utal, since it stultifies itself. 



5. The fact that monogamy was practiced among 

 the ancient Greeks and Romans, is in no way deroga- 

 tory of it as an institution. Even if it could be shown 

 that it originated with those nations, still this would 

 in no way detract from its value or respectability. But 

 monogamy did not originate with the Greeks, neither 

 was it invented by the Romans, nor by any other na- 

 tion. It originated with the great Originator of the 

 human race. It is an institution which has come down 

 to us, not from Greece or Rome, but from Paradise. 



If it was so important that man should have more 

 than one woman to supply his sexual demands, why 

 was the Creator so short-sighted as to make but one 

 Eve? It would have been as easy to remove two or 

 three or half a dozen ribs from Adam's side as one; 

 and as the whole world had yet to be populated, a plu- 

 rality of wives would certainly have accelerated the 

 process. Surely, if polygamy was ever required or 

 excusable, it ought to have been allowed at the start. 



Again, when Noah went into the ark, taking with 

 him an assortment of all species of animals, he took 

 some kinds by pairs and some by sevens, from which 

 we might suspect, at least, that he observed the laws of 

 nature respecting polygamous and monogamous ani- 

 mals. But he took only one wife for himself, and only 

 one for each of his sons. "V^^iy not two or half a dozen 

 instead? Polygamy would certainly have accelerated 

 the repopulation of the earth most wonderfully; but 

 Noah was monogamous. Likewise Abraham, the 

 ''friend of God," had but one wife when called to be 

 the "father of the faithful;" and it is unjust to charge 

 Jacob with a purpose of polygamy because of the 



