INTRODUCTION. 
XXV 
a lack of industry, a want of intensity of character, 
a love of ease and luxury, which leads to a devotion 
to sensuality,—to a plurality of wives, which lowers 
the character and position of woman. Woman, reduced 
to that false position, ceases to exercise her proper influ¬ 
ence upon man ; she becomes the mere slave of passion, 
and, instead of holding her sphere as the emblem of 
civilization, she becomes its barrier. The absence of 
real love, engendered by a plurality of wives, is an 
absolute bar to progress; and so long as polygamy 
exists, an extension of civilization is impossible. In 
all tropical countries polygamy is the prevailing evil: 
this is the greatest obstacle to Christianity. The Mahom- 
medan religion, planned carefully for Eastern habits, 
allowed a plurality of wives, and prospered. The 
savage can be taught the existence of a Deity, and 
become a Mussulman; but to him the hateful law of 
fidelity to one wife is ,a bar to Christianity. Thus, in 
tropical climates there will always be a slower advance 
of civilization than in more temperate zones. 
The highest civilization was originally confined to 
the small portion of the globe comprised between 
Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. In those countries 
