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 astonishing 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 what if that very fact, diseased as it is, should be a sure proof that he is more than an animal?
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