Consider the lilies : an address delivered at the opening of the course of lectures in physiology in the Victoria University of Manchester / by William Stirling.

William Stirling

Date:: 1910

Credit: Consider the lilies : an address delivered at the opening of the course of lectures in physiology in the Victoria University of Manchester / by William Stirling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$I '\ 8 any longer to cool tlie heat of tlie Heart, with their ventilation, are with Conserves made of my stamped Leaves, restori'd to their former soimdnesse againe.” EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE. i The Geologists tell us that tliere was a time in the history (jf the earth when it was destitute of life. The first forms in which life appeared on the earth were forms capable of feeding on inorganic matter. From these simplest forms the Botanists trace the evolution of the vegetable kingdom until we reach the flowering plants, which include not only the lilies of the field and all lowly flowering plants, but also those mighty monarchs of the forest, whose .\gk is measured not by a paltry three score years and ten. but by centuries. Thei/ are the great builders raising their architectural edifices far above the ground, true builders whose days are as the days of a people. P LA NTS N 0 SO I' L. N (J M INI). Although plants live, grow, and evolve, .something more is re([uired in the highest conception t>f life. At best they ‘‘vegetate, as it is said some human beings do. The vegetable kingdom with all its wonderful achievements never manifests those phenomena we call mind. The highest evolution is to be i' found not in the physical, but in the psi/e/iical. | Still, it is a pleasant jthilosophy. is that of ordsworth— ' “And bis my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it brt*athes. .Man himself is “ not wholly brain, niitgnetic mockerit's: “not only cunninir casts in clay. (In Memoriam). THE EARTH VEIL. d'he race of plants deserve b(mndless affection and admira- tion from us, not onlv on aecmtnt <if the ‘‘ infinitt* womlerfnines-t there is in vegetation,” but bt'cause. as Ruskiti says, the earth at its surface “ ministers to us through a veil of strange inter- mediate being, which hrcathes but has no voict*: moves but » catinot leave its appointed ])lace: jiasses througli life without i consciousness, to death without bitterness: wears the beauty Ji of youth without its passion, and declines to the weakness of }i age without its regret.” Of their sweet I’eath are sweetest * odours made.” What is the meaning of it all? The words over Fitzgerald’s grave, “ It is He that hath made us, and not$