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Show I 34 PRACTICAL POLYGAMY. baser motives, which I leave to the imagination of the reader, to discharge what he believes a religious duty, with out a thought of the holy and intimate relationship which should exist between husband and wife. The woman is taken that she may become the mother of his children, and the church benefited by her progeny, and she, from the fact of being a wife, is to have her eternal glory increased. Thus the husband's discharge of duty is also a great act of magnanimity, which is to re dound to his future happiness. This is the most favorable construction that can be put on the motives of a Mormon polygamist. That woman is degraded by polygamy, is a fact of which I have had the most unquestionable evidence, in my own observation, and from the reliable testimony of others, who have had better opportunities of witnessing the practical workings of their iniquitous system. The polygamous wife of a Mormon is rendered unhappy by all manner of jealousies incident to her life. The piety and affection of a Sarah could not restrain her feelings under such circumstances, and the Mormon wife, with Hagars, and Ishmaels, and Isaacs, often multiplied, could hardly be expected to. But in addition to these natural causes of discontent, arise the unavoidable trials that grow out of her debased situation, in being regarded and treated as the inferior of man the " weaker vessel " in every thing. Abraham loved Sarah, whatever may have been his feelings toward Hagar, but where is the Mormon who really loves his wife ? There is a class of " celestial wives," consisting of women who are sealed as spiritual wives for eternity only. They are not supposed to be regarded or treated as wives in this life, but are married to secure to themselves greater happiness in heaven. Brigham Young has a number of this class, in addition to his eighteen or twenty terrestrial wives. The " sealed wives " are to have the same privi leges in heaven as if they had been bona fide wives on earth. Indeed, unless a wife is sealed to her husband for |