individually considered as gods? Well, that depends on how you define the
word god. The following definition would cover the ground, I think:--"Gods
are beings superior to man, capable of assisting or injuring him, and to
be placated by sacrifice and prayer." Now according to this definition, I
think that the attitude of man towards woman in Western countries might be
very well characterized as a sort of worship. In the upper classes of
society, and in the middle classes also, great reverence towards women is
exacted. Men bow down before them, make all kinds of sacrifices to please
them, beg for their good will and their assistance. It does not matter
that this sacrifice is not in the shape of incense burning or of temple
offerings; nor does it matter that the prayers are of a different kind
from those pronounced in churches. There is sacrifice and worship. And no
saying is more common, no truth better known, than that the man who hopes
to succeed in life must be able to please the women. Every young man who
goes into any kind of society knows this. It is one of the first lessons
that he has to learn. Well, am I very wrong in saying that the attitude of
men towards women in the West is much like the attitude of men towards
gods?

But you may answer at once,--How comes it, if women are thus reverenced as
you say, that men of the lower classes beat and ill-treat their wives in
those countries? I must reply, for the same reason that Italian and
Spanish sailors will beat and abuse the images of the saints and virgins
to whom they pray, when their prayer is not granted. It is quite possible
to worship an image sincerely and to seek vengeance upon it in a moment of
anger. The one feeling does not exclude the other. What in the higher
classes may be a religion, in the lower classes may be only a
superstition, and strange contradictions exist, side by side, in all forms
of superstition. Certainly the Western working man or peasant does not
think about his wife or his neighbour's wife in the reverential way that