10 A V0I0H FROM
o-rowth, tried to address itself to the needs of
Arabian civilization a. Mahomet with ms cu-
cumscribed power, saw them. The Arab was
a nomad. Home to him meant Ins present
camping place. That deity who, according
to our western ideals, makes and sanctifies
the home, was to him a transient bauble to be
toyed with so long as it gave pleasure and
then to be thrown aside for a new one. As a
personality, an individual soul, capable of
eternal growth and unlimited development,
and destined to mould and shape the civiliza¬
tion of the future to an incalculable extent,
Mahomet did not know woman. There was
no hereafter, no paradise for her. The heav¬
en of the Mussulman is peopled and made
gladsome not by the departed wife, or sister,
or mother, but by houri-a figment of Ma¬
homet's brain, partaking of the ethereal qual¬
ities of angels, yet imbued with all the vices
and inanity of Oriental women. The harem
here and-" dust to dust" hereafter, this was
the hope, the inspiration, the summum bonum
of the Eastern woman's life ! With what re¬
sult on the life of the nation, the "Unspeaka¬
ble Turk," the "sick man" of modern Europe
can to-day exemplify.
Says a certain writer: "The private life of
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