258 AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY. 



"Would that some truly learned man would " let his thoughts 

 play freely " round tins view of the mystery, and see wdiat 

 can be made out of it. But whatever is made out, on either 

 view, it will still remain a mystery to me at least, as much 

 as to Isaiah of old how this utterly abnormal and astonish- 

 ing animal called man first got into his foolish head that he 

 could cut a thing out of wood or stone which would listen 

 to him and answer his prayers. Yet so it is ; so it has been 

 for unnumbered ages. Man may be defined as a speaking 

 animal, or a cooking animal. He is best, I fear, defined as 

 an idolatrous animal ; and so much the worse for him. But 

 wdiat if that very fact, diseased as it is, should be a sure 

 proof that he is more than an animal ? 



