Potatoes in dark cellars have sent out roots or sprouts twenty and thirty feet to reach light.  Plants will send out roots many feet to reach water.  They know where the water and light are, and where to reach them.  The tendrils of a plant know where the stake or cord is, and they reach out for it and twine themselves around it.  Unwind them, and the next day they are found again twined around it.  Move the stake or cord, and the tendril moves after it.  The insect-eating plants are able to distinguish between nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food, accepting the one and rejecting the other.  They recognize that cheese has the same nourishing properties as the insect, and they accept it, although it is far different in feeling, taste, appearance and every other characteristic from their accustomed food.

Case after case might be mentioned and cited to show the operation of the Will in plant-life.  But wonderful as are many of these cases, the mere action of the Will as shown in the growing of the plant is just as wonderful.  Just imagine a tiny seed, and see it sprout and draw to itself the nourishment from water, air, light and soil, then upward until it becomes a great tree with bark, limbs, branches, leaves, blossoms, fruit and all.  Think of this miracle, and consider what must be the power and nature of that Will that causes it.

The growing plant manifests sufficient strength to crack great stones, and lift great slabs of pavement, as may be noticed by examining the sidewalks of suburban towns and parks.  An English paper prints a report of four enormous mushrooms having lifted a huge slab of paving stone in a crowded street overnight.  Think of this exhibition of Energy and Power.  This wonderful faculty of exerting force and motion and energy is fundamental in the Will, for indeed every physical change and growth is the result of motion, and motion arises only from force and pressure.  Whose force, energy, power and motion?  The Will’s!

On all sides of us we may see this constant and steady urge and pressure behind living forces, and inorganic forms as well—­always a manifestation of Energy and Power.  And all this Power is in the Will—­and the Will is but the manifestation of the All-Power—­the Absolute.  Remember this.

And this power manifests itself not only in the matter of growth and ordinary movements, but also in some other ways that seem quite mysterious to even modern Science.  How is it that certain birds are able to fly directly against a strong wind, without visible movement of their wings?  How do the buzzards float in the air, and make speed without a motion of the wing?  What is the explanation of the movements of certain microscopic creatures who lack organs of movement?  Listen to this instance related by the scientist Benet.  He states that the Polycystids have a most peculiar manner of moving—­a sort of sliding motion, to the right or left, upward, backward, sideways, stopping and starting, fast or slow, as it wills.  It has no locomotive organs, and no movement can be seen to take place in the body from within or without.  It simply slides.  How?