646 



and things, in the reaching out of their arms and clasping of their 

 tendrils ; and energy of resistance, and patience of suffering, and be- 

 neficence one toward another in shade and protection, and to us also 

 in scents and fruits (for of their healing virtues, however important to 

 us, there is no more outward sense nor seeming than of their proper- 

 ties mortal or dangerous)." — p. 94. 



" Let us next observe the conditions of ideality in vegetables. Out 

 of a large number of primroses or violets, I apprehend that, although 

 one or two might be larger than all the rest, the greater part would 

 be very sufficient primroses and violets. And that we could by no 

 study nor combination of violets, conceive of a better violet than many 

 in the bed. And so generally of the blossoms and separate members 

 of all vegetables. 



" But among the entire forms of the complex vegetables, as of oak 

 trees, for instance, there exists very large and constant difference, 

 some being what we hold to be fine oaks, as in parks, and places 

 where they are taken care of, and have their own \^'ay, and some are 

 but poor and mean oaks, which have had none to take care of them, 

 but have been obliged to maintain themselves. 



" That which we have to determine is, whether ideality be predic- 

 able of the fine oaks only, or whether the poor and mean oaks also 

 may be considered as ideal, that is, coming up to the conditions of 

 oak, and the general notion of oak. 



" Now there is this difference between the positions held in crea- 

 tion by animals and plants, and thence in the dispositions, with which 

 we regard them ; that the animals being for the most part locomo- 

 tive, are capable both of living where they choose, and of obtaining 

 what food they want, and of fulfilling all the conditions necessary to 

 their health and perfection, for which reason they are answerable for 

 such health and perfection and we should be displeased and hurt if 

 we did not find it in one individual as well as another. 



" But the case is evidently different with plants. They are intended 

 fixedly to occupy many places comparatively unfit for them, and to 

 fill up all the spaces where greenness and coolness, and ornament, 

 and oxygen are wanted, and that with very little reference to their 

 comfort or convenience. Now it would be hard upon the plant if, 

 after being tied to a particular spot, where it is indeed much wanted, 

 and is a great blessing, but where it has enough to doto live, whence 

 it cannot move to obtain what it wants or likes, but must stretch its 

 unfortunate arms here and there for bare breath and light, and split 

 its way among rocks and grope for sustenance in unkindly soil ; it 



