268 THE BIOCOSMOS PARTICULARIZED. 



fected on its surface. The Plant, having no 

 such organic center and hence no such power 

 of centralization, cannot make general what 

 affects it, and hence has no general sensation, 

 but only a partial one, in proportion as each 

 vegetal organ may be a partial center. Thus 

 it may be acknowledged that Plants have a 

 limited and local sensation, as we may ob- 

 serve in the Sensitive Plant. To be sure, 

 Animals differ much in this regard, accord- 

 ing to the degree in which their organism is 

 centralized. The cycle of sensation always 

 sweeping from circumference to center and 

 back again is what emphatically individual- 

 izes the animal organism, rounding it out in 

 a perpetual process within itself and against 

 its environment, which it posits as distinct 

 from itself and separated. Thus the animal 

 body within its sphere is a self-determining 

 unit, yet keeps up a continual clash with ex- 

 ternal determination, from which it cannot 

 wholly escape, especially as it draws thence 

 its sustenance. Sensation is indeed a kind of 

 consciousness, not yet internalized but on the 

 way thither: its two sides fall asunder into 

 separate organs which, however, return into 

 each other, though externally, through the 

 nerves. The process of the Psyche is at 

 work in sensation, though not yet through 

 itself purely, but incorporate in the body's 



