ANIMAL LIFE IN GENERAL. 271 



a diversion of activity. The tree cannot lie 

 down like man and go to sleep, for it is al- 

 ready asleep; that is, it is already in imme- 

 diate communion with the Earth-life. So the 

 Animal mediates its repose sleep we may 

 call a mediated repose, which alternates with 

 the waking state. The Animal in sleep un- 

 centers itself, gives up that centralized indi- 

 viduality and returns to its primal creative 

 unity with Nature. This is signified in its 

 prostrate position, which no longer resists 

 gravitation but drops back into the original 

 oneness of the Cosmos. It closes its eyes and 

 all the senses, which take a fresh dip into 

 that creative life-stuff, out of which they were 

 originally differentiated. Thus in the waking 

 struggle the Animal becomes exhausted and 

 must return in sleep to the primordial reser- 

 voir of vital existence for a new draught. 

 Strange, but every twenty-four hours the Ani- 

 mal must be re-born vitally. It goes back for 

 a spell into the womb of its All-Mother Na- 

 ture (not into that of its particular mother) 

 where it is individuated afresh, apparently 

 in every cell, which must be the ultimate seat 

 of fatigue. Now the Plant never loosens its 

 hold on the breast of Nature but keeps suck- 

 ing, with possibly a light nap occasionally; 

 it never gets fully differentiated into waking 

 and sleeping; it never fully breaks its con- 



