Evolution of Form. 145 



kingdom we left, let us take the next stage ; Ishvara 

 can now expand and modify His material a little more 

 than was originally possible without breaking it up. 

 He begins the moulding of the vegetable kingdom, 

 and there also he sets axes of growth, as " imagin- 

 ary " and as real in their controlling force as in the 

 crystal , though they are not always quite as easy 

 to trace, they are nevertheless there. All the vege- 

 table matter is built in according to these axes, and 

 the natural classification of plants is largely deter- 

 mined by the numerical relations of the'parts ; thus 

 the law of number shapes the form. As the matter 

 becomes more plastic and yields more readily to the 

 indwelling life, the higher members of that king- 

 dom begin to show the dawning of sensation. 

 That is due to the beginning of the vivification of the 

 next sheath above the physical, composed of 

 what we call astral matter, that which goes to make 

 part of the manomaya kosha of the Vedantin. We 

 see in that a growing susceptibility, an increas- 

 ing sensory power, very slight in the vegetable 

 world, but still present, and developed much more 

 largely where the vegetable has a long experience 

 of separated life. Take for instance a tree that has 

 endured for centuries, and let me just trace the 

 stages in which the dawning sensation is found, and 

 even a dawn, though I hardly venture to use the 



