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other sentient being ; and as language is based upon limited 
and internal thought, so religion is based upon unlimited and 
external thought, i.e ., Grod. A safe superstructure can only 
rest upon a sure foundation ; but language, the superstructure 
of thought, is in itself reliable, and is thus satisfactorily based ; 
and human thought, therefore, is, when within the sphere of 
its involuntary operation, perfectly worthy of belief.* The 
fact, then, that religion is confessedly founded upon the im- 
material, should offer no stumbling-block to our acceptance of 
it ; or, if we regard the immaterial as a fallacious basis, then, 
to be consistent, we must also reject language and consider it 
an imposture. But, as language postulates human thought, 
which is obviously limited, so religion postulates superhuman 
thought,f and, as no limitation of this is mentally visible, it 
follows that (so far as we either are or can be concerned) it is 
unlimited ; and as religion is to language, so is superhuman 
thought to human thought, i.e., indefinitely superior. Again, 
the higher animals have simple cognitions, and, indeed, definite 
opinions : e.g ., a dog may regard A as an offensive person, to be 
always barked at and driven away ; and such an opinion may, 
as in the case of a human being, continue for years and gain 
strength by time ; but when a dog compels obedience, he does 
so by the exercise of force alone, without reference to the feel- 
ing, wish, or opinion of the creature with whom he deals ; in 
the same way that a stone, striking a man, may compel him to 
fall to the earth ; that is to say, no animal, except man, has 
any wish to promulgate his ideas or opinions by persuasion, or 
generally heeds whether others entertain them or not, whilst, 
on the other hand, man is essentially a propagandist of ideas, 
teacher, preacher, converter, perverter, and probably almost 
his keenest pleasure frequently consists in seeing his notions, 
good, bad, or indifferent, warmly accepted. The harmony 
of existence, therefore, necessitated the possession of language 
as a legitimate outlet for this passion ; and, conversely, 
other animals have not, and never had, and never will have, 
any such power, because the economy of their nature does 
not demand it ; and thus language upon the mind of a dog 
would be but an excrescence unsightly and inharmonious, and 
* "Vide P.M.A., sec. 5. 
t Mr. Tylor, for his purpose, gives “as a minimum definition of religion 
the belief in spiritual beings 11 {Prim. Cult. i. 383). Prof. Muller regards 
religion “ as a subjective faculty for the apprehension of the Infinite /? 
(Hibbert Lects ., 1878, p. 22). I do not feel it necessary to attempt an exact 
description here, because we may have a thorough practical knowledge of 
what is intended by a term, without necessarily crystallizing our conceptions 
into a perfectly satisfactory verbal definition. 
2 A 2 
