Vegetal Causes. 175 



magnet — that is the magnetic force superimposed 

 upon the normal magnetic energy resident in the 

 piece of iron itself — is withdrawn or reversed, decom- 

 position, so to speak, takes place, and the rapidity of 

 dissolution corresponds with the rapidity of growth, 

 both being almost instantaneous. 



A similar duality pervades the plant-magnet. A 

 tree brought from a distance has an energy which is 

 the combined energy of all its atomic constituents, 

 but it shows no sign of life, that is, it does not grow 

 until it is planted in the soil. The tree thus practi- 

 cally possesses both energy and life, but the life is 

 dormant, like the seed in the Egyptian sarcophagus, 

 until suitable conditions cause it to be manifested, 

 that is, until it has been supplied with its stomach 

 and battery by being planted in the soil. 



Similarly, when a plant dies it is only this super- 

 imposed energy or special manifestation of energy, 

 called life, which is withdrawn ; that energy, namely, 

 which is the evidence that the plant is a growing 

 magnet suffused with magnetic influences. Hence, 

 though the inherent magnetic energy of the atoms 

 contained in the withered plant still remains an 

 energy sufficient to exhibit gravity and cohesion, it 

 cannot manifest life as a whole, because through 

 some failure in its mechanism its combined magnetic 

 current has been broken. Still, new magnetic centres 

 may be set up in the rotting stalk sufficient to evolve 

 and maintain life, though on a much smaller scale — 

 mould and other parasitical fungi. 



