THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



hard for me to convey the idea to the minds of 

 others. 



That there has always, however, been need for 

 a word to express the idea is shown by the exist- 

 ence of living things like the well-known Sensitive 

 Plant, which closes all its leaflets tightly together 

 if you merely touch it. 



What word is there to express the feeling which 

 prompts the Sensitive Plant thus to resent in- 

 terference? We cannot credit it with our human 

 sense of resentment and apprehension, because it 

 . c/ , is merely a plant. Yet its action is so suggestive 

 fal of feeling similar to ours, that we often use the 

 Sensitive Plant as a simile for some gentle human 

 ./'being with nerves so highly-strung that the slight- 

 est touch causes mental agony. Since we have 

 no word to express the difference between the 

 sensitiveness of the Sensitive Plant and the sensi- 

 tiveness of a human being, I have tried to mark 

 the difference by calling one kind of sensitiveness 

 " unconscious " and the other " conscious." 



When I talk as above about the feelings of 

 a plant, all are probably willing to concede that 

 there is a manifest difference here, and that " un- 

 conscious sensitiveness " may be allowed to de- 

 scribe the feelings of a vegetable that moves when 

 touched. But where will you draw the line be- 

 tween the animal and the vegetable? Men of sci- 

 [38] 



