[128] This study of religions hardly gives sufficient prominence to Christianity; Max Müller says: “I make no secret that true Christianity, I mean the religion of Christ, seems to me to become more and more exalted the more we know and the more we appreciate the treasures of truth hidden in the despised religions of the world.”--_Introduction to the Science of Religion_, p. 28. “It may be said that my chief object has been to magnify Christianity, by showing that it is the fulfilment of all that the world has been hoping and striving for. In one sense that is true. But if I hold that Christianity has given the best and truest expression to what the old world had tried to express in various and less perfect ways, I have at least given the facts on which I rely.”--_Anthropological Religion_, p. 388. [129] On this subject Max Müller says: “The ancient Fathers of the Church spoke on these subjects with greater freedom than we venture to use in these days.”--_Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. i., Pref. xxix. [130] _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. i., Pref. xxix. [131] In the seventh century the Personality was clearly set forth in the Athanasian Creed. CHAPTER XII OF WORDS “Nomina si nescis, perit et cognitio rerum.”--LINNÉ. If language is the true autobiography of the human mind, our present language may also be called a perfect photograph of our mind in its present state of fog. Whether ignorant or learned we still talk and discuss, and we seldom arrive at an understanding of the subject, owing to our want of knowledge of the precise meaning of the terms. The most advanced sciences are those about whose terms we no longer dispute, mathematics, for instance. When we are quite convinced of the identity of thought and speech, we shall introduce into our ideas, and consequently into all our discourses, whether familiar or philosophical, a clearness impossible to obtain in any other manner. It would be a great help to know the etymology of words, but that would not suffice. “L’étymologie,” said Voltaire, “est une science où les voyelles ne font rien, et les consonnes fort peu de choses.” This sally bears on its face the date of the century of which this could be said in all truth. At the time of Voltaire the science of etymology was confined to ascribing the derivation of a word to another word to which it bore a close resemblance in sound; and the clever writer was not the only one to rally the few learned men who considered it possible to trace words to a source which one can hardly suspect of being related to them. If Voltaire had known that his sarcasm was nothing more than a simple scientific truth, he would perhaps have found less pleasure in expressing it. The science of etymology--a growth of our day--has discovered that words, which in appearance have nothing in common, neither sound nor meaning, yet have a common origin.