Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/284

 human life from the Creator, yet animals, a degree lower, have not that human structure, and are not responsive to love and wisdom from the Creator; nor are plants, which are still lower, and yet both live. Why then can not the spiritual degree be dispensed with altogether, and plants live simply from the material part; and if plants live without the spiritual part, why can not animals, and even man? Because matter, including the whole material universe, is the ultimate of creation and is fixed, passive, and dead. Matter must have something to imbue it with properties, qualities and life, build it into form, and hold it in shape. The substances of the spiritual world are not fixed, dead, and passive. They are continually responsive to the life-force from the Creator, and act perpetually upon the material universe from within.

In order that there be a material plant or animal, there must be the builder and the material. Nature affords the material; the spiritual counterpart is the builder. The plant has not a form