She makes her nest outside of herself for convenience' sake, but the nest
is not more of a machine than the egg-shell is. A 'machine' is only a
'device.'"
Then returning to consciousness, and endeavouring to detect its earliest
manifestations, the writer continued:-
"There is a kind of plant that eats organic food with its flowers: when a
fly settles upon the blossom, the petals close upon it and hold it fast
till the plant has absorbed the insect into its system; but they will
close on nothing but what is good to eat; of a drop of rain or a piece of
stick they will take no notice. Curious! that so unconscious a thing
should have such a keen eye to its own interest. If this is
unconsciousness, where is the use of consciousness?
"Shall we say that the plant does not know what it is doing merely
because it has no eyes, or ears, or brains? If we say that it acts
mechanically, and mechanically only, shall we not be forced to admit that
sundry other and apparently very deliberate actions are also mechanical?
If it seems to us that the plant kills and eats a fly mechanically, may
it not seem to the plant that a man must kill and eat a sheep
mechanically?
"But it may be said that the plant is void of reason, because the growth
of a plant is an involuntary growth.
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