Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/295

 development of flowers and fruits by cultivation and pruning. This is because a seed derives its powers from its soul-form, which, being organized and in the world of causes, shapes the seed and the plant after its own pattern.

After the first creation, which will be considered subsequently, plant life is conveyed in the channels of a previously formed seed, and can but take upon itself the genus of the seed.

How plants receive their distinctive life from the common sphere of plant-force in the spiritual world may be illustrated by two machines connected to a common shaft rotated by the same engine. One machine weaves a delicate silk fabric; the other extracts metal from the ore. Though the same force is transferred to the machines, they variously manifest it according to their forms. Each seed and plant receives force from the fountain of life, wherein there are infinite potencies, and manifests it, as it only can, according to its constituted form.

Having explained with such detail in regard to plant forms, it may be briefly said that in a