The Earth
THE SPIRITUAL EARTH
- Chapter 46 -
The boundaries among nature's kingdoms
Naturalists have not, to this day, been able to determine where the mineral kingdom passes over into the plant kingdom, and the plant kingdom into the animal kingdom. What is the last and most complete plant, beyond which no other plant develops? And all the more, where will the first animal, of course still most incomplete, begin?
On the surface of the Earth, there are many plants that seem more animal in nature than plant. Then there are animals that resemble plants more than animals. There are also minerals that might be taken more for plants than for stones, and vice versa. Many animals still display plant-like extremities, and there are plants that almost appear to be well-developed animals.
Therefore, it should be understood that it is very difficult to determine an exact boundary, mainly because there is a great multitude of species of animals and plants that are hardly known, since most of these peculiar plants and animals grow in and inhabit the depths of the oceans.
For instance, it has not been fully determined yet if corals belong to the mineral, plant, or animal kingdom. The competent naturalist knows that corals are formed by kinds of worms which are very small; they adhere to one another and gradually form a coral twig. These tiny worms are animals. When they harden, their mass is as firm as precious stones. The form, however, that gradually develops by the joining together resembles a defoliated little tree with branches and little twigs. This makes this growth, agreeable to its manner of formation, a conglomeration of countless animals - as a mass a mineral, and as a form a plant.
In the oceans there are a multitude of large and small animals that obviously belong to all three kingdoms, considerably more than corals. Let us take, for instance, the great octopus. It is, without doubt, the largest animal on Earth; fully grown, it measures 930 yards in length (850 meters) and approximately 186 yards (170 meters) in width and thickness. This animal does not have a particular form; at times, when it comes to the surface of the ocean, it resembles a misshapen island, displaying sporadically abundant vegetation. On its back moss, seaweed, and even little sea trees grow frequently, and besides that you will even find many red rocklike elevations which are frequently thrown off by the octopus; they float on the surface of the ocean resembling dark red pumice stones.
In appearance, this animal resembles a plant and a mineral. When a small ship crosses over the back of this gigantic animal, the animal surfaces immediately and raises numerous brilliantly white arms, 56 yards (51 meters) in length and resembling elephant trunks, on all sides to the same height. This polyp squeezes the ship with its arms into its inordinately wide gullet and consumes it. Its stomach possesses a digestive power which nothing can resist, not even stones, metals, or wood; it absolutely consumes everything; nothing remains, not even the smallest particle. And since this animal digests so many different things, it explains why so many parasites of the vegetable and mineral kind appear upon its surface.
The question arises again: To which kingdom shall this animal be attributed? In accordance with its form it appears to be a mineral, like a piece of earth. Since several kinds of plants grow on this creature, it might also be considered a large ocean plant tuber, or an oversized, underwater carnivorous plant.
For someone who critically examines these points, it would be very difficult to place this being in a particular kingdom. And how difficult would it be for every naturalist to place the Earth herself in a particular category! The Earth is, in all probability, certainly a mineral, since she produces a multitude of minerals on her surface. But she is with the same certainty also a plant, because so many plants sprout from her; and it is even more certain that the Earth is an animal, because she brings forth animal life in abundance.
Ultimately, however, there is no such thing as a separate mineral, plant, or animal kingdom. There is only one kingdom, and that is the kingdom of beings with all their different forms. Originally, everything is animal, not mineral or plant. Herein lies the reason why the distinctive marks between the three putative kingdoms are so very hard to determine. Only in the order of the ascent of beings are separate levels present.