THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



struggle as a help in a desperate situation. In 

 the protected cleft it found a safe spot. Now, 

 however, it could not secure enough light there 

 in order to do its cooking. So the light trap 

 came into operation. The eye of the cat also 

 lies in a cave for its protection, in the shaft of 

 the great skull cave. In the sliull it is wholly 

 dark. The light trap leads the rays of the sun 

 to the retina in the shaft, but what the plants 

 found a necessity only for a single occasion 

 becomes to the animal an endless increase of 

 his whole capacity for existence. With this eye 

 the eagle as he floats like a point in the blue 

 rules over all that falls within his vision. The 

 eye has first opened to the individual great pos- 

 sibilities. Consider for a moment the feeling 

 of touch of the largest animal. Then think of 

 the eye that touches the sun itself and reaches 

 out billions of miles beyond the realm of the 

 earth into the world space. With the eye man 

 has looked upon the stars! It is the eye that 

 has spurred life on to an annihilation of space 

 such as no blind touch has ever thought of. By 

 means of the eye the reptile long ago passed 

 through the air from tree to tree, first by 

 springs, then by flight, until it became a bird. 

 By means of the eye man could first sail over 

 the ocean. Then came the ships. Today he 

 wanders with the eye anxiously, yearningly 

 from planet to planet. 



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