NEWS OF SPRING 



^The organism of the plant by an inconceivable miracle, 

 seemed to foresee the necessity of passing through the grain 

 stage, lest it should perish outright during the wintry season." 



In any case, to destroy the objection which we mentioned 

 above and which has caused us to travel so far from our im- 

 mediate subject, it would be enough to establish one act of 

 intelligent progress, were it but for a single occasion, outside 

 mankind. But, apart from the pleasure which one takes in 

 refuting a self-sufficient and antiquated argument, how little 

 importance, when all is said, attaches to this question of the 

 personal intelligence of the flowers, the insects or the birds! 

 Suppose that we say, speaking of the Orchid and the bee alike, 

 that it is nature and not the plant or the insect that calculates, 

 that combines, that adorns, invents and thinks: what interest 

 can this distinction have for us? A much greater question 

 and one much worthier of our eager attention soars above 

 these details. What we have to do is to grasp the character, 

 the quality, the habits and perhaps the object of the general 

 intelligence whence emanate all the intelligent acts performed 

 upon this earth. It is from this point of view that the study 



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