For the institution of
monogamy, and the laws of marriage which it entails, bestow upon
the woman an unnatural position of privilege, by considering her
throughout as the full equivalent of the man, which is by no means
the case; and seeing this, men who are shrewd and prudent very often
scruple to make so great a sacrifice and to acquiesce in so unfair an
arrangement.
Consequently, whilst among polygamous nations every woman is provided
for, where monogamy prevails the number of married women is limited;
and there remains over a large number of women without stay or
support, who, in the upper classes, vegetate as useless old maids, and
in the lower succumb to hard work for which they are not suited; or
else become _filles de joie_, whose life is as destitute of joy as it
is of honor. But under the circumstances they become a necessity; and
their position is openly recognized as serving the special end of
warding off temptation from those women favored by fate, who have
found, or may hope to find, husbands. In London alone there are 80,000
prostitutes. What are they but the women, who, under the institution
of monogamy have come off worse? Theirs is a dreadful fate: they are
human sacrifices offered up on the altar of monogamy.
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