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 conclusion to which the writers of this book are driven. All life is one, indivisible and inseparable. 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 offspring, 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 generations 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 immortality is a fulfilling, a conserving continuance of the present earthly existence, then the plants deserve and have a right to expect a chance for infinite development. The plants serve to make this earth a floral paradise. Why should they not be equally necessary in a world of spirit? It is to man’s credit that he has always pictured heaven as a place made beautiful by great hosts of trees and flowers. CHAPTER XV PLANTS AND MEN “_Our human souls Cling to the grass and water brooks._” --_Athanase_ The average city man gives little thought or attention to his vegetable neighbours, yet their continued existence is quite as vital to him as the air he breathes. Directly or indirectly he is utterly dependent upon them. Every time he sits down to a dinner table, he is paying an unconscious tribute to the food-producing abilities of plantdom. In a general way, plants are the world’s food producers and the animals are the consumers. Plants are able to build up living tissue from inorganic material. Animals must prey upon that elaborated structure to keep themselves alive. Plants separate oxygen from carbon dioxide and water, thereby storing up sunshine as potential energy. Animals reverse the process, and, re-combining oxygen with the plant tissue, liberate heat and power. In a desert region, animals soon perish, because even carnivorous species live on herbivorous fellows which in turn are eaters of plants. This is why the distribution of men and animals is so greatly influenced by that of plants.