118 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



life. The vegetable which has the power of drawing 

 its sustentation directly from inorganic substance, has 

 no need of locomotion, because its source of food is so 

 universal that wherever it has originated there is susten- 

 tation, from which it is supplied with little effort on its 

 part. Of course, such an organism never rises to actual 

 consciousness. There is but one choice on its part. It 

 takes what comes to it, through the natural elements 

 of the earth, the soil, water and air, and it cannot move 

 in search of more somewhere else. In this way the 

 vegetable kingdom stores up in its fibres, not only the 

 simple elements necessary to its own growth and pres- 

 ervation, but in the only form in which the animal 

 kingdom can assimilate them. Therefore the vegetable 

 preceded the animal in its appearance on the globe. 

 The animal in seeking its food, had to have the power 

 of locomotion. It could not be confined to one spot ; 

 although in the ocean, which is, itself, in constant 

 motion, some crustaceans remain fastened to the rocks. 

 Their food is brought to them by the motion of the 

 water. The vegetable has no nervous system, yet the 

 sensitiveness of the "Venus fly Trap" would indicate 

 that the reflex action of some vegetables is scarcely 

 distinguishable from that of many animals. But, in a 

 technical sense, at least, we can say that vegetables and 

 the very lowest animals have no distinct nervous sys- 

 tem. But the nerves, as differentiated tissue, begin to 

 appear in very low forms, the earth worms, for ex- 

 ample, having a distinct nervous system. From 

 these to man, precisely the same chemical and 

 protoplasmic elements, enter into the composition 

 of not only the somatic cells, but those of the nerves as 

 well. Not only this, but the same general plan, or 

 system, outlines the body nerves of all animals, from 



