POLYGAMY. 33 
mate and respectable, and, without their fault, becom- 
ing illegitimate and outcasts, are driven from a home 
to which they are bound by many ties. Had less ob- 
jection been offered to polygamy, far greater progress 
might have been made in christianizing Polynesia 
and many other parts of the world, where a man is esti- 
mated in a great measure by the number of his wives, 
and it becomes a serious thing to ask him to lower 
himself in public estimation by putting away all his 
wives save one. Had or were the broad principle 
admitted, that a man might remain a_ polygamist 
on becoming Christian, but not add to his number, 
many would have been induced to join the Christian 
community who, under present circumstances, hung back 
as long as they possibly could. The whole question 
has often presented itself; and, in the earlier stages 
of Christianity, the Church distinctly proclaimed the 
necessity of admitting polygamists. Of course, as all 
males born of the newly-converted would at once be- 
come Christians, and only be allowed to have one 
wife, polygamy would die out altogether in one gene- 
ration. I am persuaded that this is the nght view 
to take of the subject, whatever some theologians may 
argue to the contrary. When at Bau, the subject of suc- 
cession to the throne was discussed, and the missionaries 
were for seeing it descend upon Cakobau’s youngest 
son, because he was the son of his Christian wife, a boy 
of very tender age; and to fix the stigma of bastardy 
upon his eldest son, the child of the highest woman of 
his household, and to whom the king was not married 
by Christian ritual, yet legitimately united according to 
D 
