Personality of plants

THE HIGHER LIFE OF PLANTS
If plants have every property of the human
soul, why have men been so slow to admit their
kinship with the trees and the flowers? Life,
law and love are divine and bind man to all
creation. He is spiritually as well as physically
related to the plants. In the past, he has en-
deavoured to set himself apart from Nature and
look down upon her as upon another world.
Because he has a brain, he has imagined that
anything which has none cannot possibly pos-
sess an intelligence and an inner life. To uphold
this theory he has shut his eyes to a thousand
denying facts.
All plants and animals of whatever kind
begin life on exactly the same level. The way-
side Daisy and the Human Being both start their
earthly careers as single cells. In both cases,
there is no visible machinery of life and con-
sciousness, yet we can say "Here is a potential
Daisy. Here is a potential Man." The wonder-
ful, all-pervading spirit of life belongs to both.
The language of the Bible classifies man with
all life under the Hebrew term Nephesh chayxah,
that is, living soul or creature. The Old
Testament favours a rigorous protection of
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