the polygamous races, especially Islam, through the equalization of woman and man, and by establishing monogamous marriage and securing it by legal, religious, and moral ties.
If Mohammed was actuated by a desire to raise woman from her place as a slave and means of sensual gratification to a higher social and matrimonial plane, nevertheless, in the Mohammedan world woman remained far below man, to whom alone divorce was allowed and also made very easy.
Islam kept woman from any participation in public life under all circumstances, and thus hindered her intellectual and moral development. In consequence of this the Mohammedan woman has ever remained essentially a means of sensual gratification and procreation; while, on the other hand, the virtues and capabilities of the Christian woman, as housewife, educator of children, and equal companion of man, have been allowed to unfold in all their beauty. Islam, with its polygamy and harem-life, is glaringly contrasted with the monogamy and family life of the Christian world.
The same contrast is apparent in a comparison of the two religions with reference to the conception of the hereafter. The picture of eternity seen by the faith of the Christian is that of a paradise freed from all earthly sensuality, promising the purest of intellectual happiness; the fancy of the Mussulman fills the future life with the delights of a harem full of houris.
In spite of all the aids which religion, law, education, and morality give civilized man in the bridling of his passions, he is always in danger of sinking from the clear height of pure, chaste love into the mire of common sensuality.
In order to maintain one’s self on such a height, a constant struggle between natural impulses and morals, between sensuality and morality, is required. Only characters endowed with strong wills are able to completely emancipate themselves from sensuality and share in that pure love from which spring the noblest joys of human life.
It is yet questionable whether, in the course of the later centuries, mankind has advanced in morality. It is certain, however, that the race has become more modest; and this phe-
