a plurality of wives or husbands, in the possession of one man or woman, at the same time. Many arguments have been offered to prove the unlawfulness of polygamy; one of the principal of which is, that the males and females brought into the world are nearly on a balance; only abating for a small excess on the side of the males, to make up for the extraordinary expense thereof in war and at sea; whence it evidently follows, that nature only intends one wife, or one husband, for the same person; since if they have more, some must go without any at all. Hence it is justly concluded, that the Christian law, which prohibits polygamy, is more agreeable to the law of nature than the Mahometan, and, we may add, than the Jewish law, by which polygamy was tolerated. See BIGAMY.