Behold  how  the  trees  grip  the  rocks  and  soil,  and
brace  themselves  against  the  wind !  This  struggle  is,
of  course,  not  a  conscious  one.  Apart  from  the  origi-
nal push  of  life,  it  can  all  be  explained  in  terms
of  physics  and  chemistry.  The  bio-chemist  will  tell
143


ACCEPTING  THE  UNIVERSE

you  why  the  plant  leans  toward  the  light,  and  why
it  rights  itself  when  pressed  down;  but  why  or  how
matter  organizes  itself  into  the  various  living  forms
is  a  question  before  which  natural  philosophy  is
dumb.  Neither  chemistry  nor  physics  can  give  us
the  secret  of  life.  The  ingenious  devices  to  secure
cross-fertilization  among  certain  plants,  devices  for
scattering  the  seed  among  others,  —  the  hooks,  the
wings,  the  springs,  —  to  me  all  seem  to  imply  in-
telligence, not  apart  from,  but  inherent  in,  the
things  themselves.  Power  of  adaptation  —  to  take
advantage  of  wind  and  flood,  of  solid  and  fluid  —
is  one  of  the  mysterious  attributes  of  life.  And  yet
we  know  that  vegetable  life  takes  advantage  of
these  things  not,  as  we  do,  by  forethought  and
invention,  but  by  a  mysterious  inherent  impulse.
