The Colour Sense. 37 



and profit by what comes — in plants. Some intermediate forms still 

 record to ns the long struggle during which the schism was not yet 

 complete. 



" If I may be pardoned for pursuing this digression further, T 

 would say that it is the plants, and not we, who are the heretics. 

 There can be no question about this ; we are perfectly justified, 

 therefore, in devouring them. Ours is the original and orthodox 

 belief, for protoplasm is much more animal than vegetable. It is 

 much more true to say that plants have descended from animals 

 than animals from plants. Nevertheless, like many other heretics, 

 plants have thriven very fairly well. There are a great many of 

 them, and, as regards beauty, if not wit — of a limited kind, indeed, 

 but still wit — it is hard to say that the animal kingdom has the 

 advantage. The views of plants are sadly narrow ; all dissenters 

 are narrow-minded ; but within their own bounds they know the 

 details of their business sufficiently well — as well as though they 

 kept the most nicely-balanced system of accounts to show them 

 their position. They are eaten, it is true ; to eat them is our 

 intolerant and bigoted way of trying to convert them : eating is 

 only a violent mode of proselytizing, or converting ; and we do 

 convert them — to good animal substance of our own way of 

 thinking. If we have had no trouble we say they have ' agreed ' 

 with us ; if we have been unable to make them see things from 

 our point of view, we say they ' disagree ' with us, and avoid being 

 on more than distant terms with them for the future. If we have 

 helped ourselves to too much, we say we have got more than we 

 can ' manage.' And an animal is no sooner dead than a plant will 

 convert it back again. It is obvious, however, that no schism could 

 have been so long successful without having a good deal to say for 

 itself. 



" Neither party has been quite consistent. Whoever is or can 

 be ? Every extreme — every opinion carried to its logical end will 

 prove to be an absurdity. Plants throw out roots and boughs and 

 leaves : this is a kind of locomotion ; and as Dr. Erasmus Darwin 

 long since pointed out, they do sometimes approach nearly to what 

 is called travelling ; a man of consistent character will never look at 

 a bough, a root, or a tendril, without regarding it as a melancholy 

 and unprincipled compromise. On the other hand, many animals are 

 sessile ; and some singularly successful genera, as spiders, are in the 

 main liers-in-wait." 



