THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



These few inches of humus represent a space oi 

 many million years. Millions of years ago it 

 was stone. Two different worlds touch eacl^ 

 other in this space of a hand-breadth: th( 

 earth of today, with its Alpine roses, and th« 

 stony surface of a primitive earth, that is broken 

 off in the crumbling slate-stone. Many milliot 

 years must separate us from the life of yonde^ 

 mussel and sea-lily, but how did the life of thai 

 time become embedded in the stone? 



The coral-garden is the answer. I grasp 

 bravely to uproot a little bunch of rose-red ani- 

 mal blossoms. Before I have even touched them, 

 something happens which shows me that I am 

 dealing with animals: the flower-tops sud- 

 denly disappear into a formless red clump. They 

 have perceived my approach; they are fright- 

 ened; they close like a sensitive eye before a; 

 blow. Yet I recall the mimosa pudica amona 

 plants, that closes its gi'een feathei*-like leave! I 

 also of its own initiative, upon being touched! 

 There is no fundamental difference here: it is 

 only as though the Alpine rose had the same 

 sensitiveness which the mimosa and the coral 

 possess. Is sensitiveness then not an acquisition 

 but rather a fundamental characteristic of life? 

 I seize into the soft animal mass and attempt 

 to uproot it. My hand encounters something 

 hard aind stone like. In order to loosen a small 

 eolaoiy of tJi^cse flbwe^r animials, I nrust take my 

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