172 Eibliographp. 



of plants, if we compare them with analogous relations in animal life. 

 We are not, however, able to trace in them a higher sense, under- 

 standing, or free will.' 



" With the preceding is immediately connected a memoir by M. v. 

 Marlins,* which treats of the immortality of plants. The idea of the 

 immortality of plants is the next step to the proof of the existence of 

 a vegetable soul ; but M. v. Martins himself observes, in the introduc- 

 tion, that it is true that many scientific men, to whom the power of - 

 comprehending- the transcendental has been imparted in a lower de- 

 gree, will regard the consideration of such a subject as a digression; 

 he however believes that the greater part of mankind are so organ- 

 ized, that they will adopt conclusions, and acquiesce in consequences, 

 which rise above the world of sensible contemplations and percep- 

 tions into the higher world of the spirit. The conviction of the im- 

 mortality of plants can however in no case be deduced from any proof 

 derived from the nature of plants, but it must be peculiarly the con- 

 ception of the individual mind. 



" In the corporeal life of the plant there exist intention, tendency, 

 and means for their attainment; nay, we even see this controlled by 

 the fitness of time, in the same way as in more highly endowed man. 

 The plant, like the animal, has inward intentions to fufil outwardly, 

 fulfils them like the latter, and indeed in the same way, more or less 

 perfectly, according to the various conditions of which they consist. 

 There is therefore only a difference of degree between the unknown 

 unity which predominates over all this activity, and which in man is 

 termed his soul, and the spontaneous power analogous to this soul, 

 which the plant exhibits in action during its whole hfe. We do there- 

 fore an injustice to the plant when we consider it as not being, like 

 the animal, endowed with a common primary force, penetrating through 

 all parts, and directing them all to certain actions. From these views, 

 however, it would result, that all inorganic bodies are also endowed 

 with a soul, a thought which has been already asserted in the most 

 ancient times ; nay. Von Martius arrives at the conclusion, that every 

 thing earthly, and therefore also the plant, possesses a soul, and the 

 numberless fraternity of similar creatures, which act so prominent a 

 part in the universal life of our planet, are, according to their scale, 

 governed by a soft, peaceful spirit, an Anima blandida trepidula." 



4. The Journal of Botany, &c. ; by Sir Wm. J. Hooker, LL. D., 

 &c. — We some time since noticed the resumption of this periodical 

 Journal, and gave a list of the contents of the first two numbers, viz. 



* L. c. p. 261—286. 



