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it is probable that even the animal’s bark is not natural but 
acquired from association with man. Now man, as we have 
noticed, is a religious animal, and although religion does not 
consist in the promulgation of individual ideas, yet this is a 
necessary feature in it ; since we cannot imagine as religious 
any being who, whilst personally entertaining any of those ideas 
which we regard as religious, had a thorough dog-like indiffer- 
ence to an external and non-forcible communication of them 
(as, e.g ., in prayer to Divinity). A religious animal, therefore, 
must be a language-possessing animal ; and, conversely, a non- 
language-possessing animal cannot be a religious animal. If 
this were not so, we should see a phenomenon similar to that 
which would be exhibited by a water-requiring creature whose 
constitution made it unable to obtain water ; a frightful 
spectacle such as nature never presents. Language is thus the 
natural vehicle and servant of religion, and the closeness of the 
connexion is evidenced, amongst other circumstances, by the 
fact that even after the establishment of regular literary com- 
position almost all literature continued to be either of an 
absolutely or of a semi-religious character. As the Yedic 
Indian of old saw in the ordinary panorama of nature the per- 
formance of a divine ritual, which he imitated by his earthly 
sacrifices and daily life ; as we are commanded to pray without 
ceasing, and to be religious in the most trivial actions of our 
existence ; so, in proportion as we advance towards the high 
standard of Christianity, and our life in its externals becomes 
more and more a not unworthy ritual, will language approxi- 
mate towards a union with religion ; for, were our thought holy, 
its product would not be inferior : and perfected beings com- 
bining in choric adoration, that is to say, employing at the 
same time melodious sound and vocal rhythmic harmony, which 
together form the noblest combination of utterance, would 
supremely illustrate the indissolubility of the two great gifts to 
man when with one mind (Religion) and with one mouth 
(Language) they glorified God. Such terms as Logos ( = Lat. 
ratio -f oratio) and Fatum, “ the spoken-word,” illustrate the 
close connexion between language and religion ; and Yach 
(■ i.e ., Yox, Yoice), personified as a goddess by- the Yedic Indians, 
is said to rush onward like the wind and make him whom she 
loves a poet (jpoietes , i.e ., a maker of word-clothed ideas) and a 
sage. As soon as the science of Comparative Philology was 
firmly established, the comparative study of religion followed as 
a matter of course ; and in archaic times language is by far the 
most important, and frequently the only, factor in the explana- 
tion of religious ideas. We observe, then, that language and 
religion are inseparable, exhibit diversity in unity, are in origin 
