576 THE PLANT'S PLACE IN NATURE 



welfare, and that all we shall learn about this or any other 

 aspect of their lives may serve to enrich our own. Thus, 

 an inexhaustible interest as well as an increasing command 

 over the resources of our world is the reward of our endeavor. 

 An even deeper interest than l^clongs to any idea of use or 

 harm is also sure to be aroused by watching the behavior of 

 these our fellow-creatures that are so different from us in 

 almost every way. For, again, these verj' differences give 

 them an endless fascination as objects of stud}'; and, finally, 

 it is just these differences which enable us to distinguish the 

 incidental from the essential powers of life. In these or- 

 ganisms we see individualized wills expressed under condi- 

 tions as different as possible from those which permit the 

 action of our own power of choice. We cannot hope to 

 fathom the mysteries to which the humblest plant may lead 

 us; we can only say with the poet Tennyson — 



''Flower in the crannied wall, 



I pluck you out of the crannies. 



Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 



Little flower — Isut // I could understand 



What j'ou are, root and all, and all in all, 



I should know what God and man is." 



