NewThoughtLibrary.com / DivineLibrary.org

water, so that in sinking it will touch the point of one tentacle, and instantly that tentacle closes on it. The anemone's world has widened.

It perceives the existence of something which is not itself and not the water. And you soon find that it perceives also some of the properties of that thing; for after clutching it for a second or two it relaxes its hold and drops it, whereas if you try the same experiment with a piece of raw meat, it will clutch tighter and tighter and draw the morsel inward toward its mouth, which will open and admit it. Should a luckless shrimp come in contact with one of the tentacles, it will he seized in the same way, but as it struggles to free itself, other tentacles will close in and hold it fast, and altogether your anemone will display an energy which it did not display when it was dealing with the shell or the meat. It perceives not matter only, this time, but motion. Assuming, then, that the anemone has consciousness, we find that it has perceived the existence of matter not itself and of some of the properties of matter resistance, hardness or softness and weight, also of motion. So far it has penetrated into the mystery of things." Now does it not occur to you that our position in this world is very like that of the anemone? Is not our life a continual attempt to penetrate the mystery of things? The anemone