William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[203] given to any other woman than herself. The prophet's sons denounce the doctrine of polygamy as the spawn of hell. These were no pleasant things for Godbe to discern. This elder, a chemist, lived in a fine house, with three wives, and had a garden full of boys and girls. How, under his new lights, was he to deal with his domestic facts? The women were his wives, the children were his flesh and blood. The past was past, for good and evil. But the future? If polygamy were not divine, he must not seal another wife so long as any of the three women in his household were left alive. The same conclusion has been forced on many others.

“Do you wish me to infer,” I ask Apostle Taylor, “that the rich and educated Mormons are giving up polygamy, and that the poor and ignorant brethren are taking to it?”

“No,” he answers me with meek reproof, “we should not like to put the matter so. Some worldly men are weary of obedience to the law; while others, pure in heart and true in faith, are ready to assume their cross.”