THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 201 



centre and infinity at which some new endow- 

 ment intercepts the line. 



Descending the scale of life by long strides, 

 from man to the lowest forms of zooids, we can- 

 not designate the point at which a faculty is first 

 imparted to the form which has it, and this truth 

 extends throughout the vital cosmos. 



The line of demarcation which separates the 

 animal and vegetal is but a wavering, blended 

 mezzotint, and the highest forms of vegetable 

 life seem to overlap the lowest forms of animal 

 so far that no dividing line is positively fixed. 

 The highest types of vegetable seem to have the 

 faculty of expression in a degree corresponding 

 to and in harmony with the rest of their organ- 

 ism. I do not mean to say that the impulse tin- 

 der which a plant acts is synonymous with that 

 which prompts the animal, but both appear to 

 be the effect of the same cause. 



In some forms of vegetation the selection of 

 food of certain kinds and the aversion to other 

 certain kinds would indicate that the organism 

 is capable of design and purpose in a degree per- 

 haps much higher than some of the lowest forms 

 of the animal kingdom. The reaching out of 

 roots in search of food in the earth, the opening 



