select and draw to itself just the elements needed to build up the single cell.  Then taking up its abode in that cell—­using it as a basis of operations, it proceeds to duplicate its previous performance, and so cell after cell is added, by the simple reproductive process of division and subdivision—­the primitive and elemental sex process—­until the mighty plant is built up.  From the humblest vegetable organism up to the greatest oak the process is the same.

And it does not stop there.  The body of man is also built up in just this way, and he has this vegetative mind also within him, below the plane of consciousness, of course.  To many this thought of a vegetative mind may be somewhat startling.  But let us remember that every part of our body has been built up from the vegetable cell.  The unborn child starts with the coalition of two cells.  These cells begin to build up the new body for the occupancy of the child—­that is, the mind principle in the cells directs the work, of course—­drawing upon the body of the mother for nourishment and supplies.  The nourishment in the mother’s blood, which supplies the material for the building up of the child’s body, is obtained by the mother eating and assimilating the vegetable cells of plants, directly or indirectly.  If she eats fruit, nuts, vegetables, etc., she obtains the nourishment of the plant life directly—­if she eats meat she obtains it indirectly, for the animal from which the meat was taken built up the meat from vegetables.  There is no two ways about this—­all nourishment of the animal and human kingdom is obtained from the vegetable kingdom, directly or indirectly.

And the cell action in the child is identical with the cell action in the plant.  Cells constantly reproducing themselves and building themselves up into bodily organs, parts, etc., under the direction and guidance of the mind principle.  The child grows in this way until the hour of birth.  It is born, and then the process is but slightly changed.  The child begins to take nourishment either from the mother’s milk or from the milk of the cow, or other forms of food.  And as it grows larger it partakes of many different varieties of food.  But always it obtains building material from the cell life of the plants.

And this great building up process is intelligent, purposeful, to a wonderful degree.  Man with his boasted intellect cannot explain the real “thingness” of the process.  A leading scientist who placed the egg of a small lizard under microscopical examination and then watched it slowly develop has said that it seemed as if some hand was tracing the outlines of the tiny vertebrae, and then building up around it.  Think for a moment of the development of the germ within the egg of the humming-bird, or the ant, or the gnat, or the eagle.  Every second a change may be noticed.  The germ cell draws to itself nourishment from the other part of the egg, and then it grows and reproduces another cell.  Then both cells divide—­then subdivide until there are millions and millions and millions of cells.  And all the while the building up process continues, and the bird or insect assumes shape and form, until at last the work is accomplished and the young bird emerges from the egg.