WHAT IS MARRIAGE'! 18 



and oppression. Polygamy, as sanctioned by all the 

 great religions of the East, is an undoubted evil, 

 sapping the vitality of the races brought under its 

 sway, and unfitting them for the task of holding their 

 own in the world. On the other hand, the influence 

 of Christianity, with its practical equalisation of the 

 sexes, has been healthful and regenerative. Mono- 

 gamy, upon which the progress of the human race 

 so largely depends — we shall see in due time how 

 — was not invented by Christianity, but it gained 

 enormously from the support of Christian doctrine. 

 That marriage is a "divine institution" is true 

 only in the sense in which every institution, 

 whether monarchy or universal suffrage, is divine. 

 Its various forms, as the reader will have gathered, 

 are essentially so many convenient arrangements for 

 the distribution of wives and the rearing of children, 

 and by keeping this fact before us we shall be able 

 to appreciate not only the development it has already 

 undergone, but that of which it is still susceptible — 

 a matter of some importance to mankind. 



