BOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 31 



II.—WHY DO WE STUDY PLAXT LIFE. 



We stiidv plant life, or let us say, nature in general, with 

 several objects : 



(o.) For the purpose of obtaining a better and clearer idea 



of the vrays of what we call the Deity. The 



reader must not suppose that by Deity I mean a 



personal Deity, but only that universal energy which 



controls evervthing. It mav, for all we know at 



present, be ultimately established that, what we have 



been calling the Deity is that protean electrical energy 



which is capable of development everywhere, and under 



all circumstances. Whatever that may be, however, 



we cannot get the Deity out of our mind. It is part 



and parcel of it, and the more we learn of the ways 



of the Deity, the better and more suited our actions 



and thoughts will be to It. 



It is very doubtful whether man \d\\ be ever free from 



agnosticism. All people are, strictly speaking, " agnostic," 



although most people fancy they are not so. If, however, you 



hunt them into a corner by a series of questions, they must 



end by replying '• I don't know " to certain ultimate questions. 



A clergyman once told me that such questions are enough to 



upset any theology ! 



Let us then not quarrel about whether that universal 

 energy is the Deity, or whether that is only machinery, and 

 that the Deity is something at the back of it all. 



Probably we shall not reach equilibrium, if ever man do 

 reach it, till our mind becomes thoroughly attuned to what is 

 outside of it, that is, till nature, and its reflection in our 

 mental mirror become owe, just as the figure and its reflection 

 in a plain looking glass are one and the same thing. 



(6.) Another object in studying plants is for the purpose of 

 getting what benefit we can out of the study of sur- 

 rounding nature, and of ourselves, as part of nature, 



