Sense-Life and Sensibility 



"God surely collects into one concert of harmony 

 the emotions and sensations of all living creatures, and 

 how far apart and separate would be the living instru- 

 mentalists if the whole plant world were excluded from 

 participation therein. Think of a forest through which 

 a roebuck, and that at very rare intervals, sometimes 

 passes on its solitary way ! " 



There can be but one opinion as to the beauty of these 

 ideas, but most botanists, and especially Schrammen, 

 may not at first perceive that there is an argument, and 

 one of some cogency, underlying their fantastic idealism. 



For it is a fact that protoplasm, in plants and animals 

 alike, breathes or respires, works, becomes fatigued, and 

 eventually dies. What authority have we for the state- 

 ment that consciousness is dependent on the possession 

 of a nervous system ? Is it not an essential condition 

 of protoplasmic life that it can do things of itself and does 

 them on purpose ? However, the reader must be referred 

 to Fechner's u Nanna " for further details, in which he 

 will find much that is of great interest. 



There is also on this subject a recent work by Maeter- 

 linck, 4 whose attitude can be at once understood from 

 the following striking passage : — 



a I shall never forget the admirable example of heroism 

 exhibited by an enormous centenarian laurel, which I 

 found the other day in those wild yet charming gorges 

 of the river Loup in Provence. One could read with- 

 out any difficulty the whole drama of its stubborn and 

 difficult life clearly written on every line of its strained 

 and almost tortured (pour ainsi dire convulsif) trunk. Some 

 bird or perhaps the wind had deposited the seed on a 

 bare rock which fell straight downwards below it like 

 an iron curtain. The tree was born there 200 yards 

 above the torrent bed, inaccessible and solitary amongst 

 barren and sun-scorched stones. 



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