We must also bear in mind that
from time to time, under the sway of the Crescent, different sections
of the civilised world have been brought under the rule of the
Sultans, and all that was good and noble in the lives of peoples newly
incorporated into the faith of the Arabian Prophet has contributed in
no small degree to the strength of a system which has in its own bosom
the seeds of decay and which will ultimately become effete and pass
away. Mohammed Ali, the founder of the present Khedivial house of
Egypt, had in his veins old Macedonian blood, and his views respecting
marriage and domestic life, as well as the traditions of his family
in his old home at Kavala, had much to do with the development of his
character and his brilliant career; and hence neither he nor others
like him in the Turkish Empire can be singled out to prove that
a religion which looks upon woman as an inferior being to man is
excellent in its tendencies and produces a noble fruitage. What
Napoleon once said with respect to France, that she needed good
mothers, is true as regards China. Where woman is held in honour and
where the domestic virtues are woven into a beautiful chaplet of
spring-time blossoms to bedeck her brow, there you will find good and
great men.
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