278 Anima Mundi. 



it If you ask an ordinary botanist the reason 

 of the lorm of a leaf, he will tell you it is a 

 ' developed tubercle,' and that its ultimate form 

 'is owing to the directions of its vascular 

 threads.' But what directs its vascular threads? 

 ' They are seeking for something they want,' 

 he will probably answer. What made them 

 want that ? What made them seek for it thus ? 

 Seek for it, in five fibres or in three ? Seek for 

 it, in serration, or in sweeping curves ? Seek 

 for it in servile tendrils, or impetuous spray ? 

 Seek for it in woollen wrinkles rough with 

 stings, or in glossy surfaces, green with pure 

 strength, and winterless delight ? " It is Mr. 

 Ruskin who asks these questions : and it is 

 Mr. Ruskin who adds, " There is no answer." l 



Then too this leaf, whatever its form, is alive. 

 It points, not more to a Formative Cause than 

 to a Living Power. Polarity of atoms, mole- 

 cular movements, chemical affinities, may be 

 adduced to explain, even while in fact they con- 

 ceal, the phenomena of structure and configura- 

 tion in the inorganic world. But when the 

 chemical affinities are brought under the in- 

 fluence of the air, and of solar heat, the forma- 

 tive force enters an entirely different phase. 

 " It does not now merely crystallize indefinite 

 1 " Queen of the Air," p. 104. 



