THE COSMIC ADAPTATION OF THE SEED 441 



that the transition from the seed to the full-grown plant is a 

 transition from the less conditioned to the more conditioned 

 state of plant-life. The seed often appears to be largely 

 independent of its conditions on the earth's surface ; but this 

 could only be true in a relative sense as compared with the 

 plant. The plant is conditioned only for terrestrial existence, 

 the seed for existence in the cosmos. This it is that makes 

 the seed so often seem to be out of touch with terrestrial 

 conditions. Whilst there is so much about the seed and 

 its fate that appears to be haphazard and to be determined 

 by accidents when regarded from the standpoint of our 

 planet, it may be, as before observed, that regarded from 

 the broader standpoint of the cosmos such a lack of harmony 

 does not exist. 



The seed in the universe or cosmos may be like a great 

 traveller on the earth adapted to all climes and acquainted with 

 all peoples. He is cosmopolitan in his habits, and as such 

 seems fitted for all conditions. Yet if we were to ask the 

 peoples of the different countries amongst whom he had lived, 

 we should find that they judged him merely from the restricted 

 standpoint of their experience, and that only in proportion as 

 he acquired proficiency in their special way of living would 

 he be regarded as a profitable member of their society. His 

 general fitness would not be appreciated by a North American 

 Indian if he could not follow a trail, or by a Pacific islander if, 

 when stranded on a coco-nut islet, he could not climb the tree. 

 Thouo-h in a general sense fitted to live everywhere, in a special 

 sense he would be suited for nowhere. Yet the judgment of 

 the savage would be the pity born of ignorance. 



So it is with ourselves and the seed. We only notice its itspotenti- 

 want of special fitness for its terrestrial life. Whether it will senrus'with 

 reach a suitable soil or whether it will ever germinate at all fJ^^^^<S- 

 seem to be matters of chance. Yet we are apt to forget that ^I^J^^^^^^** 

 its great capacity for preserving its vitality presents us with a beyond the 

 range of conditions that extends beyond the earth. A seed 

 that could withstand the intense cold of space, or is able to ger- 



