of freedom and civilization.  “By these the unity of the household is fatally broken and the purity and virtue of the family tie weakened; the vigor of the dominant classes is sapped; the body politic becomes weak and languid, excepting for intrigues, and the throne itself liable to fall a prey to a doubtful or contested succession"[76]—­contested by the progeny of the various rivals crowded into the royal harem.  From the palace downward polygamy and servile concubinage lower the moral tone, loosen the ties of domestic life, and hopelessly depress the people.

[Sidenote:  The veil.] Nor is the veil, albeit under the circumstances a necessary precaution, less detrimental, though in a different way, to the interests of Moslem society.  This strange custom owes its origin to the Prophet’s jealous temperament.  It is forbidden in the Koran for women to appear unveiled before any member of the other sex with the exception of certain near relatives of specified propinquity.[77] And this law, coupled with other restrictions of the kind, has led to the imposition of the boorka or purdah (the dress which conceals the person and the veil) and to the greater or less seclusion of the harem and zenana.

[Sidenote:  Society vitiated by the withdrawal of the female sex.  Mohammedan society, thus truncated, incapable of progress.  The defects of Mohammedan society.] This ordinance and the practices flowing from it must survive, more or less, so long as the Koran remains the rule of faith.  It may appear at first sight a mere negative evil, a social custom comparatively harmless; but in truth it has a more debilitating effect upon the Moslem race perhaps than any thing else, for by it woman is totally withdrawn from her proper place in the social circle.  She may, indeed, in the comparatively laxer license of some lands be seen flitting along the streets or driving in her carriage; but even so it is like one belonging to another world, veiled, shrouded, and cut off from intercourse with those around her.  Free only in the retirement of her own secluded apartments, she is altogether shut out from her legitimate sphere in the duties and enjoyments of life.  But the blight on the sex itself from this unnatural regulation, sad as it is, must be regarded as a minor evil.  The mischief extends beyond her.  The tone and framework of society as it came from the Maker’s hands are altered, damaged, and deteriorated.  From the veil there flows this double injury.  The bright, refining, softening influence of woman is withdrawn from the outer world, and social life, wanting the gracious influences of the female sex, becomes, as we see throughout Moslem lands, forced, hard, unnatural, and morose.  Moreover, the Mohammedan nations, for all purposes of common elevation and for all efforts of philanthropy and liberty, are (as they live in public and beyond the inner recesses of their homes) but a truncated and imperfect exhibition of humanity.  They are wanting in one of its constituent