88 SYMBIOSIS 



" knowledge "which is " pre-digested " by the plant. What 

 is the essence of this " knowledge " ? Is it sense-knowledge ? 

 It is ; but of sense tempered by service and, hence, making for 

 vital perceptions and vital knowledge. We can thus see reason 

 for the observation made by an American writer, John Dewey, 

 that " it is not we who think in any actively responsible sense ; 

 thinking is rather something that happens in us." Some thinking 

 at any rate, I should say, somewhat passively happens in us ; 

 for thought processes would seem to begin with the plant, to be 

 carried a stage further by the animal. A great deal of essential 

 thinking in the world would seem to be performed distributively 

 as between symbiotic partners. 



The idea of this dependence of mind upon the co-operation 

 of the lowly plant, of course, is one apt to grate on our pride. 

 But we must not allow pride or prejudice to deter us in our quest 

 of truth. 



I have been told recently by a critic that Prof. Bergson has 

 given a much clearer exposition than is to be found in my book 

 on Symbiogenesis of the relations between the plant and the 

 animal kingdoms. That may be so. One thing, however, is 

 certain, namely, that Prof. Bergson's is not a bio-economic 

 interpretation of evolution. Far from it. He is, of course, 

 obliged to admit the existence of various systems of mutual 

 service between plant and animal, and between higher plant and 

 bacteria. He specially repudiates, however, the term " division 

 of labour " as giving no exact idea of evolution, such as he 

 conceives of it. Bergson thinks that harmony between plant and 

 animal existed only at the start of evolution, which subsequently 

 was " discontinuous " so far as complementary processes are 

 concerned ; and, in his opinion, sexual generation is perhaps 

 only a luxury for the plant though he is willing to admit that 

 it was a necessity to the animal. Evidently this is disregarding 

 the whole significance of bio-economic services and of the vast 

 system of inter-action upon which evolution is based. It was 

 shown in Symbiogenesis that sexual reproduction represents 

 the highest form of domestic Symbiosis, that it in turn depends 

 upon the highest forms of biological Symbiosis, and further, 

 that we have to regard the sexual generation of the plant not as 

 a luxury, but as an important and indispensable forward step 

 progressive evolution. It was shown at the same time that the 

 economic laws of Nature are eternal, and that the only luxury 



