PLURALITY OF WIVES. 137 



sidered a perfectly virtuous and honourable one, and the lady 

 maintains, without blemish, the same position in society to which 

 she would be entitled were she the sole wife of her husband. In- 

 deed, the connection being under the sanction of the only true 

 priesthood, is deemed infinitely more sacred and binding than any 

 marriage among the gentile world, not only on account of its higher 

 and more sacred authority, but inasmuch as it bears directly 

 upon the future state of existence of both the man and the woman ; 

 for it is the doctrine of the church, that no woman can attain to 

 celestial glory witliout the husband, nor can he arrive at full per- 

 fection in the next world without at least one wife : and the greater 

 the number he is able to take with him, the higher will be his seat 

 in the celestial paradise. 



All idea of sensuality, as the motive of such unions, is most in- 

 dignantly repudiated; the avowed object being to raise up, as 

 rapidly as possible, "a holy generation to the Lord," who shall 

 build up his kingdom on the earth. Purity of life, in all the do- 

 mestic relations, is strenuously inculcated ; and they do not hesitate 

 to declare, that when they shall obtain the uncontrolled power of 

 making their own civil laws, (which will be when they are admitted 

 as one of the States of the Union,) they will punish the departure 

 from chastity in the severest manner, even by death. 



As the seer or president alone possesses the power to approve 

 of these unions, so also he alone can absolve the parties from their 

 bonds, should circumstances in his judgment render it at any time 

 either expedient or necessary. It may easily be perceived, then, 

 what a tremendous influence the possession of such a power must 

 give to him who holds it, and how great must be the prudence, 

 firmness, sagacity, and wisdom required in one who thus stands in 

 the relation of confidential adviser, as well as of civil and eccle- 

 siastical ruler, over this singularly constituted community. 



Upon the practical working of this system of plurality of wives, 

 I can hardly be expected to express more than a mere opinion. 

 Being myself an "outsider" and a "gentile," it is not to be sup- 

 posed that I should have been permitted to view more than the 

 surface of what is in fact as yet but an experiment, the details of 

 which are sedulously veiled from public view. So far, however, 

 as my intercourse with the inhabitants afi'orded me an opportunity 

 of judging, its practical operation was quite different from what I 

 had anticipated. Peace, harmony, and cheerfulness seemed to 

 prevail, where my preconceived notions led me to look for nothing 



