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CHAPTEE XIX. 



Conclusion. 



And now I bring this book to a conclusion. So many 

 things requiring attention have happened since it was 

 begun that I leave it in a very different shape to the 

 one which it was originally intended to bear. I have 

 omitted much that I had meant to deal with, and have 

 been tempted sometimes to introduce matter the con- 

 nection of which with my subject is not immediately 

 apparent. Such, however, as the book is, it must now 

 go in the form into which it has grown almost more 

 in spite of me than from malice 'prepense on my part. 

 I was afraid that it might thus set me at defiance, 

 and in an early chapter expressed a doubt whether 

 I should find it redound greatly to my advantage with 

 men of science ; in this concluding chapter I may say 

 that doubt has deepened into something like certainty. 

 I regret this, but cannot help it. 



Among the points with which it was most incum- 

 bent upon me to deal was that of vegetable intelli- 

 gence. A reader may well say that unless I give 

 plants much the same sense of pleasure and pain, 

 memory, power of will, and intelligent perception of 



