have given her to him as an honorable wife. These circumstances give rise to murder, infanticide, suicide, disease, remorse, despair, wretchedness, poverty, untimely death, with all the attendant train of jealousies, heartrending miseries, want of confidence in families, contaminating disease, etc.; and, finally, to the horrible license system, in which governments called Christian license their fair daughters, I will not say to play the beast, but to a degradation far beneath them; for every species of the animal creation, except man, refrain from such abominable excesses, and observe in a great measure the laws of nature in procreation.

"I again repeat that Nature has constituted the female differently from the male, and for a different purpose. The strength of the female constitution is designed to flow in a stream of life, to nourish and sustain the embryo, to bring it forth, and to nurse it on her bosom. When Nature is not in operation within her in these particulars and for these heavenly ends, it has wisely provided relief at regular periods, in order that her system may be kept pure and healthy, without exhausting the fountain of life on the one hand, or drying up its river of life on the other, till mature age and an approaching change of worlds render it necessary for her to cease to be fruitful, and give her to rest a while, and enjoy a tranquil life in the midst of that family circle, endeared to her by so many ties, and which may be supposed, at this period of her life, to be approaching the vigor of manhood, and therefore able to comfort and sustain her.

"Not so with man. He has no such drawback upon his strength. It is his to move in a wider sphere. If God shall count him worthy of a hundred fold in this life of wives and children, and houses, and lands, and kindreds, he may even aspire to patriarchal sovereignty, to empire; to be the prince or head of a tribe or tribes; and, like Abraham of old, be able to send forth, for the defense of his country, hundreds and thousands of his own warriors, born in his own house.

“A noble man of God, who is full of the Spirit of the Most High, and is counted worthy to converse with Jehovah or with the Son of God, and to associate with angels and the spirits of just men made perfect--one who will teach his children, and bring them up in the light of unadulterated and eternal truth-is more worthy of a hundred wives and children than the ignorant slave of passion, or of vice and folly, is to have one wife and one child. Indeed, the God of Abraham is so much better pleased with one than with the other, that he would even take away the one talent, which is habitually abused, neglected, or put to an improper use, and give it to him who

has ten talents.

"In the patriarchal order of family government the wife is bound to the law of her husband. She honors,' calls him lord,' even as Sarah obeyed and honored Abraham. She lives for him, and to increase his glory, his greatness, his kingdom, or family. Her affec tions are centred in her God, her husband, and her children.

"The children are also under his government worlds without end. 'While life, or thought, or being lasts, or immortality endures,' they are bound to obey him as their father and king.

"He also has a head to whom he is responsible. He must keep

the commandments of God and observe his laws. He must not take a wife unless she is given to him by the law and authority of God. He must not commit adultery, nor take liberties with any woman except his own, who are secured to him by the holy ordinances of matrimony.

"Hence a nation organized under the law of the Gospel, or, in other words, the law of Abraham and the patriarchs, would have no institutions tending to licentiousness; no adulteries, fornications, etc., would be tolerated. No houses or institutions would exist for traffic in shame, or in the life-blood of our fair daughters. Wealthy men would have no inducement to keep a mistress in secret, or unlawfully. Females would have no grounds for temptation in any such lawless life. Neither money nor pleasure could tempt them, nor poverty drive them to any such excess, because the door would be open for every virtuous female to form the honorable and endearing relationships of wife and mother in some virtuous family, where love, and peace, and plenty would crown her days, and truth and the practice. of virtue qualify her to be transplanted with her family circle in that eternal soil where they might multiply their children without pain, or sorrow, or death, and go on increasing in numbers, in wealth, in greatness, in glory, might, majesty, power, and dominion, in worlds without end.

"Oh my dear sister, could the dark veil of tradition be rent from your mind—could you gaze for a moment on the resurrection of the just-could you behold Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives. and children, clad in the bloom, freshness, and beauty of immortal flesh and bones-clothed in robes of fine white linen, bedecked with precious stones and gold, and surrounded with an offspring of immortals as countless as the stars of the firmament or as the grains of sand upon the sea-shore, over which they reign as kings and queens forever and ever, you would then know something of the weight of those words of the sacred writer which are recorded in relation to the four wives of Jacob, the mothers of the twelve patriarchs, namely, 'These did build the house of Israel.'

"Oh that my dear kindred could but realize that they have need to repent of the sins, ignorance, and traditions of those perverted systems which are misnamed 'Christianity,' and be baptized-buried in the water, in the likeness of the death and burial of Jesus Christ, and rise to newness of life in the likeness of his resurrection; receive his Spirit by the laying on of the hands of an apostle, according to promise, and forsake the world and the pride thereof. Thus they would be adopted into the family of Abraham, become his sons and daughters, see and enjoy for themselves the visions of the Spirit of eternal truth, which bear witness of the family order of heaven, and the beauties and glories of eternal kindred ties, for my pen can never describe them.

'Dear, dear kindred: remember, according to the New Testament, and the testimony of an ancient apostle, if you are ever saved in the kingdom of God, it must be by being adopted into the family of polygamists-the family of the great patriarch Abraham; for in his seed, or family, and not out of it, shall all the nations and kindreds of the earth be blessed.

'

"You say you believe polygamy is licentious, that it is abominable,' 'beastly,' etc.; 'the practice only of the most barbarous nations, or of the Dark Ages, or of some great or good men who were left to commit gross sins.' Yet you say you are anxious for me to be converted to your faith; and that we may see each other in this life, and be associated in one great family in that life which has no end.

"Now, in order to comply with your wishes, I must renounce the Old and New Testaments; must count Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their families, as licentious, wicked, beastly, abominable characters; Moses, Nathan, David, and the prophets, no better. I must look upon the God of Israel as partaker in all these abominations, by holding them in fellowship; and even as a minister of such iniquity, by giving King Saul's wives into King David's bosom, and afterward by taking David's wives from him, and giving them to his neighbor. I must consider Jesus Christ, and Paul, and John, as either living in a dark age, as full of the darkness and ignorance of barbarous climes, or else willfully abominable and wicked in fellowshiping polygamists, and representing them as fathers of the faithful and rulers in heaven. I must doom them all to hell, with adulterers, fornicators, etc., or else, at least, assign to them some nook or corner in heaven, as ignorant persons, who, knowing but little, were beaten with few stripes; while, by analogy, I must learn to consider the Roman popes, clergy, and nuns, who do not marry at all, as foremost in the ranks of glory, and those Catholics and Protestants who have but one wife as next in order of salvation, glory, immortality, and eternal life.

"Now, dear friends, much as I long to see you, and dear as you are to me, I can never come to these terms. I feel as though the Gospel had introduced me into the right family, into the right lineage, and into good company. And, besides all these considerations, should I ever become so beclouded with unbelief of the Scriptures and heavenly institutions as to agree with my kindred in New Hampshire in theory, still my practical circumstances are different, and would, I fear, continue to separate us by a wide and almost impassable gulf.

"For instance, I have (as you see, in all good conscience, founded on the Word of God) formed family and kindred ties which are inexpressibly dear to me, and which I can never bring my feelings to consent to dissolve. I have a good and virtuous husband whom I love. We have four little children which are mutually and inexpressibly dear to us. And, besides this, my husband has seven other living wives, and one who has departed to a better world. He has in all upward of twenty-five children. All these mothers and children are endeared to me by kindred ties, by mutual affection, by acquaintance and association; and the mothers in particular, by mutual and long-continued exercises of toil, patience, long-suffering, and sisterly kindness. We all have our imperfections in this life; but I know that these are good and worthy women, and that my husband is a good and worthy man; one who keeps the commandments of Jesus Christ, and presides in his family like an Abraham. He seeks to provide for them with all diligence; he loves them all, and seeks

to comfort them and make them happy. He teaches them the commandments of Jesus Christ, and gathers them about him in the family circle to call upon his God, both morning and evening. He and his family have the confidence, esteem, good-will, and fellowship of this entire Territory, and of a wide circle of acquaintances in Europe and America. He is a practical teacher of morals and religion, a promoter of general education, and at present occupies an honorable seat in the Legislative Council of this Territory.

"Now, as to visiting my kindred in New Hampshire, I would be pleased to do so were it the will of God. But, first, the laws of that State must be so modified by enlightened legislation, and the customs and consciences of its inhabitants, and of my kindred, so altered, that my husband can accompany me with all his wives and children, and be as much respected and honored in his family organization and in his holy calling as he is at home, or in the same manner as the patriarch Jacob would have been respected had he, with his wives and children, paid a visit to his kindred. As my husband is yet in his youth, as well as myself, I fondly hope we shall live to see that day; for already the star of Jacob is in the ascendency; the house of Israel is about to be restored; while 'Mystery Babylon,' with all her institutions, awaits her own overthrow. Till this is the case in New Hampshire, my kindred will be under the necessity of coming here to see us, or, on the other hand, we will be mutually compelled to forego the pleasure of each other's company.

"You mention in your letter that Paul the apostle recommended that bishops be the husband of one wife. Why this was the case I do not know, unless it was, as he says, that while he was among Romans he did as Romans did. Rome at that time governed the world, as it were; and, although gross idolaters, they held to the one-wife system. Under these circumstances, no doubt, the apostle Paul, seeing a great many polygamists in the Church, recommended that they had better choose for this particular temporal office men of small families, who would not be in disrepute with the government. This is precisely our course in those countries where Roman institutions still bear sway. Our elders there have but one wife, in order to conform to the laws of men.

"You inquire why Elder W., when at your house, denied that the Church of this age held to the doctrine of plurality. I answer that he might have been ignorant of the fact, as our belief on this point was not published till 1852. And had he known it, he had no right to reveal the same until the full time had arrived. God kindly withheld this doctrine for a time, because of the ignorance and prejudice of the nations of mystic Babylon, that peradventure he might save some of them.

"Now, dear sister, I must close. I wish all my kindred and old acquaintances to see this letter, or a copy thereof, and that they will consider it as if written to themselves. I love them dearly, and greatly desire and pray for their salvation, and that we may all meet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God.

"Dear sister, do not let your prejudices and traditions keep you from believing the Bible, nor the pride, shame, or love of the world

keep you from your seat in the kingdom of heaven, among the royal family of polygamists. Write often and freely.

"With sentiments of the deepest affection and kindred feeling, I remain, dear sister, your affectionate sister,

"BELINDA MARDEN PRATT."

CHAPTER XI.

Last Days at Great Salt Lake City.

I NOW terminate my observations upon the subject of Mormonism. It will be remarked that the opinions of others-not my own-have been recorded as carefully as my means of study have permitted, and that facts, not theories, have been the object of this dissertation.

It will, I think, be abundantly evident that Utah Territory has been successful in its colonization. Every where, indeed, in the New World, the stranger wonders that a poor man should tarry in Europe, or that a rich man should remain in America; nothing but the strongest chains of habit and vis inertia can reconcile both to their miserable lots. I can not help thinking that, morally and spiritually, as well as physically, the protégés of the Perpetual Emigration Fund gain by being transferred to the Far West. Mormonism is emphatically the faith of the poor, and those acquainted with the wretched condition of the English mechanic, collier, and agricultural laborer-it is calculated that a million of them exist on £25 per annum-who, after a life of ignoble drudgery, of toiling through the year from morning till night, are ever threatened with the work-house, must be of the same opinion. Physically speaking, there is no comparison between the conditions of the Saints and the class from which they are mostly taken. In point of mere morality, the Mormon community is perhaps purer than any other of equal numbers.* I have no wish to commend their spiritual, or, rather, their materialistic vagaries—a materialism so leveling in its unauthorized deductions that even the materialist must reject it; but with the mind as with the body, bad food is better than none. wealth shall be less unequally distributed in England, thus doing away with the contrast of excessive splendor and utter destitution, and when Home Missions shall have done their duty in educating and evangelizing the unhappy pariahs of town and country, the sons of the land which boasts herself to be the foremost among the nations will blush no more to hear that the Mormons or Latter-Day Saints are mostly English.

When

About the middle of September the time of my departure drew nigh. Judge Flennikin found a change of venue to Carson Valley necessary; Thomas, his son, was to accompany him, and the * I refer the reader to Appendix IV.