CHAPTEE XVI 



THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM IN ITS SPECIAL EELATION 



TO MAN 



It is obvious that, as animal life has from its very origin 

 depended upon and been developed in relation to plant life, 

 the entire organisation of the former would, by the continuous 

 action of variation and survival of the fittest, become so 

 harmoniously adapted to the latter, that it would inevitably 

 have every appearance of the plant having been formed and 

 preordained for the express purpose of sustaining and benefit- 

 ing the animal. This harmonious co-adaptation cannot there- 

 fore be adduced as, of itself, being any proof of design, but 

 neither is it any proof against it. So with man himself, so 

 far as his mere animal wants are concerned, his dependence 

 on plants, either directly or indirectly, for his entire sus- 

 tenance by food, and therefore for his very life, affords no 

 grounds for supposing that either of the two kingdoms came 

 into existence in order to render the earth a possible dwelling- 

 place for him. But as regards those special qualities in which 

 he rises so far above all other animals, and especially those 

 on which the higher races found their claim to be " civilised," 

 there seem to be ample grounds for such an argument, as I 

 hope to be able to show. 



Taking first the innumerable different kinds of wood, whose 

 qualities of strength, lightness, ease of cutting and planing, 

 smoothness of surface, beauty, and durability, are so exactly 

 suited to the needs of civilised man that it is almost doubtful 

 if he could have reached civilisation without them. The con- 

 siderable range in their hardness, in their durabilitv when ex- 

 posed to the action of water or of the soil, in their weight 

 and in their elasticity, render them serviceable to him in a 



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