THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



a light trap. In it also we find the living glass 

 globe that concentrates the weak light that falls 

 into it in the twilight into a strong glow in the 

 interior and when this glow is partially reflected 

 we see from outside the frightful appearance 

 as if the retina itself glowed with a phosphores- 

 cent light of its own. 



This comparison leads our thoughts to wan- 

 der, dreaming, far away. With marvelous ring- 

 ing we hear again the great melody of the total- 

 ity of life. Even in the cat's eye light is cap- 

 tured, but it is not captured as in the plant in 

 order to cook. The animal can not cook with 

 light in the sense of the plant. He can not 

 do it for he does not need to. The plants cook 

 for their own nourishment. The corn that the 

 plants create in the light is eaten by the mouse 

 and in turn by the cat. Because this is so the 

 animal has long ago forgotten this method of 

 cooking, it has relinquished it to the plants. We 

 sit quietly in the home and the com cooks in 

 the sun for us also. Thie animal eye does not have 

 its apparatus, either, in order to strengthen its 

 own source of illumination from within towards 

 the outer world, as does the deep sea fish with 

 its reflector. It captures light simply in order 

 to see. It is not its kitchen that stands behind 

 its light capturing glass globe, but its sensa- 

 tion, its intelligence. The illuminated moss in 

 the cave cleft invented its apparatus in its life 

 1.30 



