ps), yet this must
be said, for it is true. By experience and science the nations which by
name are Christian have reached ways which are better fitted, on the
whole, for well living than those of the Mohammedan nations, although
this superiority is not by any means so complete and sweeping as current
opinion in Christian countries believes. If Christians and Mohammedans
come together and argue, they never make the slightest impression on
each other. During the crusades, in Andalusia, and in cities of the near
East where they live side by side, they have come to peace, mutual
respect, and mutual influence. Syncretism begins. There is giving and
taking. In Egypt at present the Moslems see the power of the English to
carry on industry, commerce, and government, and this observation
produces effect on the folkways. That is the chief way in which folkways
are modified or borrowed. It was by this process that Greeks and Romans
influenced the folkways of barbarians, and that white men have
influenced those of negroes, Indians, Polynesians, Japanese, etc.

+504. Morals and deportment.+ Different groups and different ages have
differed much in the place in the social codes in which certain subjects
have been placed; that is, for instance, as to whether the treatment of
women by men should be put under morals, or under manners, or under good
taste; whether public exhibitions deserved more attention than
deportment, etc. For instance: "There is hardly a word, in the
instructions of Plutarch, upon schools and schooling, but he alludes
casually to the strange scenes which boys were allowed to
witness,--criminals dressed up with robes and crowns, and presently
stripped and publicly tortured; paintings of subjects so objectionable
that we should carefully explain to the child the distinction between
art as such and art as a vehicle of morals. On the other hand,
deportment was strictly watched: for example, it was the rule not to use
the left hand unless it were to hold bread at dinner, while other food
was taken with the right; to walk in the street without looking up; to
touch salt fish with one finger; fresh fish, bread, and meat, with two;
to scratch yourself thus; to fold your cloak thus."[1654]

+505. The relation of the social codes to philosophy and religion.+
Amongst the widest differences of opinion would be that on the question
whether the social codes issue out of and are enthused by philosophy or
religion. We are told th