INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



27 

 Still speaking from our human point of view and per- 

 severing in the necessary illusion, let us add to our first re- 

 mark one a little more extensive, a little less hazardous and 

 perhaps big with consequences, namely, that the genius of 

 the Earth, which is probably that of the universe, acts, in the 

 vital struggle, exactly as a man would act. It employs the 

 same methods, the same logic. It attains its aim by the same 

 means that we would use: it gropes, it hesitates, it corrects 

 itself time after time; it adds, it suppresses, it recognizes and 

 repairs its errors, as we should do in its place. It makes great 

 efforts, it invents with difficulty and little by little, after the 

 manner of the engineers and artisans in our workshops. Like 

 ourselves, it fights against the huge, ponderous, obscure mass 

 of its being. It knows no more than we do whither it is 

 going; it seeks and finds itself gradually. It has an ideal 

 that is often confused, but one wherein, nevertheless, we dis- 

 tinguish a host of great lines that rise towards a more ardent, 

 complex, nervous and spiritual life. Materially, it disposes 

 of infinite resources, it knows the secret of prodigious forces 

 of which we know nothing; but, intellectually, it appears 

 strictly to occupy our sphere: we cannot prove that, hitherto, 



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