156 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv 



motion, because the energy by which the plant 

 does its work is supplied by the sun — the prim- 

 ordial capitalist so far as we are concerned. But 

 it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the 

 mind that sunshine, air, water, the best soil that 

 is to be found on the surface of the earth, might 

 co-exist ; yet without plants, there is no known 

 agency competent to generate the so-called 

 " jDrotein compounds," by which alone animal life 

 can be permanently supported. And not only 

 are plants thus essential ; but, in respect of par- 

 ticular kinds of animals, they must be plants of 

 a particular nature. If there were no terrestrial 

 green plants but, say, c}^resses and mosses, 

 pastoral and agricultural life would be alike 

 impossible; indeed, it is difficult to imagine the 

 possibility of the existence of any large animal, as 

 the labour required to get at a sufficiency of the 

 store of food-stuffs, contained in such plants as 

 these, could hardly extract from them an equi- 

 valent for the waste involved in that expenditure 

 of work. 



We are compact of dust and air ; from that we 

 set out, and to that complexion must we come 

 at last. The plant either directly, or by some 

 animal intermediary, lends us the capital which 

 enables us to carry on the business of life, as we 

 flit through the upper world, from the one term 

 of our journey to the other. Popularly, no doubt, 

 it is permissible to sjDcak of the soil as a " pro- 



