Note 92 — Chapter VI · RELIGION AND NON-RELIGION AMONG WOMEN.

Sir Rutherford Alcock says also, that in Japan it is very rare to see any other worshippers in the temples than women and children; the men are always extremely few in number and belong to the lower classes. At least five-sixths and often nine-tenths of the pilgrims who come to the temple of Juggernaut are women. Among the Sikhs the women are said to believe in more gods than the men. These examples, borrowed as they are from different races, and at different epochs, show sufficiently, in Spencer’s opinion, that, when we find an analogous state of things in Catholic countries, and even in some measure in England, we are not to attribute it solely to the education of women; the cause, he thinks, is deeper, lies in their nature. (See Spencer’s Study of Sociology.)