270 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



remember when it made no difference how exalted 

 in character men might be : if a certain pigment of 

 their bodies was dark, they were * niggers.' They 

 had no 'souls' as pale men had, and no more 

 chance of paradise than cattle. At the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century, incredible as it may 

 seem, every country of Europe and America held 

 slaves, and was engaged in the soulless avocation 

 of man-hunting in Africa. Tens of thousands of 

 Africa's children were annually seized by prowling 

 pirate bands and exported to distant lands to 

 wear their lives out in disgrace and drudgery. It 

 was not until the latter part of the nineteenth 

 century that civilised nations, following the initia- 

 tive of England, finally abolished human slavery, 

 the United States and Brazil being the last to act. 

 The Christian sneers at all who do not bow down 

 to his deities and worship according to his ritual, 

 as * heathens ' or ' freethinkers,' and to the Mos- 

 lem all who are not followers of 'the True 

 Prophet ' are ' infidel dogs.' The history of these 

 two religions is a chronicle of almost unparalleled 

 crimes upon disbelievers. 



But it is not necessary to go to Arabia or 

 Cathay, nor even necessary to read history, in 

 order to find examples of bigotry and provincial- 

 ism. It is only necessary to open our eyes. 

 Americans are not a peculiar people — unless it be 

 in the unbridled character of their conceit. All 

 the barbarism is not behind us nor around us. 

 History looks dark and discouraging to us, as we 

 turn its terrible pages, but we would see some- 



