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MR. WHITE. 1309
"While, on the one hand, it is clear that, in this so deliberate
and formal denial of the common doctrine of vegetable sexuality,
Swedenborg disputes no fact of science; on the other hand, in the
rest of the paragraph taken in connection with the preceding, he
presents very strong rational considerations in support of what he
declares to be the true analogy and significance of the facts ; and
he confirms the doctrine that the earth alone is the common mother,
by reference to its correspondence in the Word. He says:-"That
the earth is the common mother may also be spiritually illustrated ;
and is illustrated, by the fact that in the Word the earth signifies
the church, and the church is the common mother [of her members ],
as she is also called in the Word’ (Ibid.).
"But let us look at the relative functions of the vegetable king
dom, and the earth, in the matter of reproduction. The vegetable
kingdom, like the male of animals, produces only seed. If there are
actually two sexes in that kingdom, there should be one class of
individuals that bring forth young plants, or, at least, what is equi
valent to the egg. But the duality of function, which is observable
in the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, is only for the production
of seed. A similar duality of function, according to our author,
exists in the male of animals, for the same purpose, and this is the
true analogy of the dual function of plants, which has been called
sexual. He says, ’The human seed is conceived in the understanding,
and formed in the will’ (T. C. R. no. 584). Again, the seed of the
male fructifies the female; so the seed of plants fructifies the earth.
The seed of the male contains the soul, while the body or form is
from the female (T. C. R. no. 103) ; so the vegetative soul or essence
of the plant is in the seed, while the body or form is from the earth.
"It has been held-and the idea seems plausible at first sight
that the seeds of plants are equivalent to the eggs of oviparous
animals [see White, II, p. 352 ] ; but a careful consideration of all
the elements of the problem will show that this is not the case.
The egg, containing within itself, as it does, both the paternal and
the maternal elements of organization, will develop into the perfect
animal, simply by a favourable temperature. This is a well-known
fact, and it is attested by our author in A. E. no. 1198. It is not
so with the seeds of plants. They have not within them all the
elements necessary to the organization of the plant. The paternal
is there, but not the maternal. They must therefore, like the seed
of the male, be implanted in the womb of the earth; and the earth,
like the mother, actually contributes of her purest essences to the
development of the seed, causing it to germinate, as Swedenborg
fully explains in T. C. R. nos . 585 and 499.
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