Untitled

6" ,
( CHAHAR
MAQALA. PHYSIOLOGY
that interspace which lies between the Water and the air, the
vegetable kingdom, was- manifested. Then God, blessed and
exalted is He, created for that substance wherefr^m the plants
wpre made manifest four subservient forces and three faculties.
Of these four subservient forces one is that which draws to itself
, whatever is suitable for its purpose, and this is called " the Force
Attractive "
(Jddhiba). Another retains what the first may have
attracted, and this is called " the Force" Retentive "
(Mdsika).
The third is that w'hich assimilates what has been attracted,
and transmutes it from .its former state until it becomes like unto
itself, and this is called " the Force Assimilative" (Hddima). The
fourth is that which rejects what is not appropriate, and it .is
t
called "the Force Expulsive" (Ddfi'e^. And of its thrte faculties
one is that which increaseth it (i) by diffusing throughout it
nutritious matters with a proportionate and equable diffusion.
The second is mat which accompanies this nutriment until it
reaches the extremities. The third is that which, when the
organism has attained perfection and begins to tend towards
decline, appears and produces ova, in order that, if destruction
overtake the parent in this world, this substitute may take its
place, so that the order of the world may be immune from
injury, and the species may not become extinct. This is called
" the Reproductive Faculty "
(Quwwat-i-Muwallida).
So this Kingdom rose superior to the inorganic world in these
and the far-reaching
several ways which have been mentioned ;
Wisdom of the Creator so ordained that these Kingdoms should
be connected one with another successively and continuously, so
that in the inorganic world the first material, which was clay,
underwent a process of evoluti6n and became higher in organisation
tintil it grew to coral (marjdn, bussad}, which is the ultimate
term of the inorganic world 1 and is connected with the most
primitive stage of plant-life. And the mosj: primitivq.thing in the
vegetable kingdom is the thorn, and the most highly developed
the date-palm and the grape, which resemble th