Personality of plants

THE HIGHER LIFE OF PLANTS
forces of bodily dissolution, must it not also be
infinite, immortal?
With so many modern people doubting (or
pretending to doubt) the immortality of man,
it may seem presumptuous to claim immortality
for the plants, yet that is the unescapable con-
clusion to which the writers of this book are
driven. All life is one, indivisible and insepar-
able. There is a divine spark in every living
creature and it is reasonable to expect it to live
beyond death. Immortality by reproduction is
not enough. If it were true that the eternal
principle continually passes from parent to off-
spring, and that when the parent dies, he is
dead spiritually as well as physically, then we
should expect immediate degeneracy and death
after reproduction takes place. That a portion
of soul essence descends through countless gen-
erations we do not doubt, but each plant and
animal is also a spiritual entity. Man and plants
are both tools in the hands of Maeterlinck's all-
prevailing intelligence. Yet man feels that he
is a free agent. Why not the plants also?
Every plant has racial and family traits, and
each one also has a marked personality. If im-
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