Allan Kardec-THE Spirit's Book_ The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine (1989)

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CHAPTER XI
THE THREE REIGNS
1. MINERALS AND PLANTS - 2. ANIMALS AND MEN - 3. METEMPSYCHOSIS.
Minerals and Plants.
585. WHAT do you think of the division of the natural world into three reigns, the mineral,
vegetable, and animal, to which some naturalists add a fourth class-viz., the human species;
or that other division of the world into two classes-viz., the organic and the inorganic? Which
of these divisions is to be preferred?
"They are all good; as to which is best, that depends on your point of view. From the point of
view of matter, there are only inorganic and organic beings; from the moral point of view,
there are evidently four degrees."
These four degrees are, in fact, distinguished by well-marked characteristics, although their extremes
seem to blend into each other. Inert matter, which constitutes the mineral reign, possesses only
mechanical force; plants, composed of inert matter, are endowed with vitality animals, composed of inert
matter, and endowed with vitality, have also a sort of instinctive intelligence, limited in its scope. but
giving them the consciousness of their existence and of their individuality man, possessing all that is found
in plants and animals, is raised above all the other classes by special intelligence, without fixed limits,
which gives him the consciousness of his future, the perception of extramaterial things, and the knowledge
of God.
586. Are plants conscious of their existence?
"No; they do not think; they have only organic life."
587. Do plants feel sensations? Do they suffer when they are mutilated?
"Plants receive the physical impressions which act upon matter, but they have no perceptions;
consequently they do not feel pain."
588. Is the force which attracts plants towards each other independent of their will?
"Yes; for they do not think. It is a mechanical force of matter that acts upon matter; they
could not resist it."
589. Some plants, as, for instance, the mimosa and the dionea, have movements which give
evidence of their possessing great