Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/281

 matter organized in the first degree. Plants are matter organized in the second degree. They have an external body from grosser matter, and also a more internal organization of sap and fluids sensitive to plant life-force. Animals are an organization still higher, having a sensory organization, volition, and instinct. These three kinds of life mark three great divisions. Though life in one sense may comprehend all existing forms, varying by increments from pure elementary substance up to and including human beings, our understanding need not be confused. Some plants are called sensitive, but their sensitiveness is not conscious sensation; nor is their movement due to a specially organized will. Their sensitiveness is not sensation because they have no self-consciousness. Their seeming sensation and action are from the Divine Will and Understanding, and like the seeming will and understanding in the atom, they are the appearance of the Divine Will and Understanding in the ultimate. The sensory organization, together with volition and instinct, properly distinguish animals from plants. The animal has an organism much superior to but fundamentally like that of the plant, the flesh and bones being analogous to the body of the plant; the bark to the skin; and blood to the sap. In addition, the animal has a nervous