Id.... “There is nothing which men so easily learn as this self-worship: all privileged persons, and all privileged classes, have had it.... Philosophy and religion, instead of keeping it in check, are generally suborned to defend it.”—J. S. Mill (“The Subjection of Women,” p. 77).
Id.... A. Dumas fils speaks of “les femmes, ces éternelles mineures des religions et des codes;” and of “les arguments à l’aide desquels l’Eglise veut mettre les femmes de son côté”; and shows as the effect that “Il y a des femmes honnêtes, esclaves du devoir, pieuses. Leur religion leur a enseigné le sacrifice. Non seulement elles ne se plaignent pas des épreuves à traverser mais elles les appellent pour mériter encore plus la récompense promise, et elles les bénissent quand elles viennent. Tout arrive, pour elles, par la volonté de Dieu, et tout est comme il doit être dans cette vallée des larmes, chemin de l’éternité bienheureuse.... D’ailleurs elles ne lisent ni les journaux, ni les livres où il est question de ces choses-là; cette lecture leur est interdite. Si, par hasard, elles avaient connaissance de pareilles idées, ... elles en rougiraient, elles en souffriraient pour leur sexe, et elles prieraient pour celles qui se laissent aller à propager de si dangereuses erreurs et à donner de si déplorables exemples.... Mais, pas plus que le bonheur, la ruse, l’ignorance, la misère et la servitude, la foi aveugle, l’extase, et l’immobilité volontaire de l’esprit ne sont des arguments sans réplique.”—(“Les Femmes qui Tuent,” &c., pp. 10, 91, 103.)
The evil which Dumas points out is common to all religions, of whatever race or make; the hall-mark of every creed, from Confucianism to Comtism, has been the subjection of woman, under the affectation of advocating her highest interests. The pious compound has usually been altered to meet the growing intellectual requirements of common-sense and justice and humanity, and hence the precepts of religion as to feminine conduct have by no means always lain in such lines as the multitude in our modern Western civilisation still enjoins on women. No more than the whole and universal attitude of religion, ancient or modern, as regards woman, is exposed or expressed in the following recapitulation of present or historic facts:—“It is not the chastity of women, as we understand it, but her subjection, that Japanese morality requires. The woman is a thing possessed, and her immorality consists simply in disposing freely of herself.
“As regards prostitution, Brahmanic India is scarcely more scrupulous than Japan, and there again we find religious prostitution practised in the temples, analogous to that which in ancient Greece was practised at Cyprus, Corinth, Miletus, Tenedos, Lesbos, Abydos, &c. (Lecky, ‘History of European Morals,’ Vol. I., p. 103). According to the legend, the Buddha himself, Sakyamouni, when visiting the famous Indian town of Vasali, was received there by the great mistress of the courtesans. (Mrs. Spier, ‘Life in Ancient India,’ p. 28).”—Letourneau (“The Evolution of Marriage,” Chap. X.).
The enforcement, or commendation, or acceptance of the practice of prostitution, with its profanation of the dignity and individuality of woman, and its utter carelessness and disregard for either her physical or intellectual well-being, is indubitable evidence of the man-made (i.e., male) origin of such a scheme of religion or ethics or economics. For, as Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham truly remarks:—“If a doubt yet remains on the mind of any reader that I have stated truly the part of the masculine as cause in this terrible phenomenon, let it be considered how man has always introduced prostitution in every country that he has visited, and every island of the sea. Does anyone believe, for example, that if the voyages of discovery and trade had been made by women instead of men, to the islands of the Pacific, this scourge would have been left as the testimony of their visit, so that, in a few generations, the populations native there would have fallen a literal sacrifice to their sensuality, as they are actually falling to man’s at this day? There is no comment needed on the illustration, I am sure. The common sense of every reader will furnish the best comment and answer the question correctly.”—(“Woman and Her Era,” Vol. II., p. 299.)
Id.... Lastly, but most convincingly, as to the wilful and intentional degradation and subjugation of woman by the teaching and rites of religion, let it be noted that, among the Jews, the very fact of being a woman is made a disgrace; and woman, the mother of the human race, is insulted accordingly. In the morning synagogue service of prayer, directly after unitedly blessing “Adonai,” for bestowing on the barn-door fowl the power to distinguish between night and day, and for not having created the worshippers present heathens or slaves, each member of the male portion of the congregation thanks the same Adonai “that Thou hast not fashioned me as a woman,” while each member of the segregated female portion of the company is instructed to submissively give thanks “that Thou hast fashioned me after Thine own pleasure.” The male thanks for not being heathens seem, under the circumstances, conspicuously premature.—(See “Ohel Jakob,” i.e., “Jacob’s Temple,” the “Daily Prayer of the Israelites,” Fraenkel’s ed., Berlin.)
That the spirit of this Mosaic or Hebrew sexual teaching, with its incongruous assertions and inferences, has communicated itself deeply to Christianity, may be observed from such passages as 1 Tim. ii. 13, 14; 1 Cor. vii., 9; Eph. v. 24; Col. iii. 18; 1 Pet. iii. 1, 5; and many others.
Id.... Buckle quotes from “Fergusson on the Epistles,” 1656, p. 242:—“The great and main duty which a wife, as a wife, ought to learn, and so learn as to practice it, is to be subject to her own husband.” (See also Note XVII., 8.) And Buckle further cites, from “Fox’s Journal,” “After the middle of the seventeenth century the Quakers set up ‘women’s’ meetings, to the disgust of many, and (query, because) in the teeth of St. Paul’s opinion.”—(“Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works,” Vol. I., pp. 375, 384.)
Id.... As already said, the “sanctimonious” claim of “woman’s duty” runs through all religions. Here, for instance, is what is reported in a leader of the Manchester Guardian of August 15th, 1892:—
“In this country no one would place suicide in the ranks of the virtues. Here it is a crime, but in China under certain circumstances it is regarded as an act of heroism and devotion worthy of sympathy and of national recognition. Thus the Governor of Shansi forwarded to the Emperor of China a memorial setting forth the virtues as daughter and wife of a lady in that province. She was of good family, both her father and grandfather having been officials in the district. At the age of ten she showed her love for her mother in a peculiarly Chinese fashion. One of the Celestial beliefs is that medicine acquires efficacy by having mingled with it some human flesh, and the little girl cut some from her own body to be used for the purpose of curing an illness which threatened her mother’s life. In 1890 she was married to an ‘expectant magistrate,’ whose expectations were realised by his appointment last autumn to a judicial post. What she had, as a good daughter, done for her mother, she, as a good wife, did also for her husband, who fell ill; but her remedy was inefficacious, and he died. She was now in a position which, according to the Chinese code of ethics, has no responsibilities for a woman. Without parents, husband, or children to demand her affectionate care, she decided to commit suicide, and apparently not only communicated her intentions to those around her, but had their sympathy and support in her decision. We are told that, “only waiting till she had completed the arrangements for her husband’s interment, she swallowed gold and powder of lead. She handed her trousseau to her relations to defray her funeral expenses, and made presents to the younger members of the family and the servants, after which, draped in her state robes, she sat waiting her end. The poison began to work, and soon all was over.” The story of a distracted wife seeking refuge in death from the sorrows of widowhood might doubtless be told of any country in Europe, but the sequel is possible only in China. The Governor of Shansi, struck with the courage of the lady in what he evidently regards as a very proper though somewhat unusual exhibition of conjugal affection, asks in his memorial that the virtuous life and death of the lady may be duly commemorated. The prayer of the memorial has been granted by the Emperor and a memorial arch is to be erected in honour of the suicide.”