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PHYSIOLOGY OP PLANTS. 301
whole scale of beings, and by recalling the gradual transition
from absolute subjectivity to the highest degrees of objec
tivity in the intellect. Inorganic Nature namely, is abso
lutely subjective, no trace whatever of consciousness of an
outer world being found in it. Stones, boulders, ice-blocks,
even when they fall upon one another, or knock or rub
against one another, have no consciousness of each other
and of an outer world. Still even these are susceptible to
external influence, which causes their position and move
ment to change and may therefore be considered as a first
step towards consciousness. Now, although plants also
have no consciousness of the outer world, and although the
mere analogue of a consciousness which exists in them
must, on the contrary, be conceived as a dull self -enjoyment ;
yet we see that they all seek light, and that many of them
turn their flowers or leaves daily towards the sun, while
creepers find their way to supports with which they are
not in contact; and finally we see individual kinds of
plants show even a sort of irritability. Unquestionably
therefore, there is a connection and relation between their
movements and surroundings, even those with which they
are not in immediate contact ; and this connection we must
accordingly recognise as a faint analogue to perception.
With animal life first appears decided perception that
is, consciousness of other things, as opposed to that clear
consciousness of ourselves to which that consciousness of
other things first gives rise. This constitutes precisely
the true character of animal-nature, as opposed to plantnature.
In the lowest animals, consciousness of the outer
world is very limited and dim : each increasing degree of
understanding extends it and makes it clearer, and this
gradual increase of the understanding again adapts itself
to the gradually increasing requirements of the animal, and
thus the process continues through the whole long ascend
ing scale of the animal series up to Man, in whom conscious-