in the plant may shine through its outer surface.

*

In this 'climbing up the spiritual ladder' Goethe learned to recognize
one of nature's basic principles. He termed it Steigerung
(heightening). Thus he saw the plant develop through Metamorphosis and
Heightening towards its consummation. Implicit in the second of these
two principles, however, there is yet another natural principle for
which Goethe did not coin a specific term, although he shows through
other utterances that he was well aware of it, and of its universal
significance for all life. We propose to call it here the principle of
Renunciation.

In the life of the plant this principle shows itself most conspicuously
where the green leaf is heightened into the flower. While progressing
from leaf to flower the plant undergoes a decisive ebb in its vitality.
Compared with the leaf, the flower is a dying organ. This dying,
however, is of a kind we may aptly call a 'dying into being'. Life in
its mere vegetative form is here seen withdrawing in order that a
higher manifestation of the spirit may take place. The same principle
can be seen at work in the insect kingdom, when the caterpillar's
tremendous vitality passes over into the short-lived beauty of the
butterfly. In the human being it is responsible for that metamorphosis
of organic processes which occurs on the path from the metabolic to the
nervous system, and which we came to recognize as the precondition for
the appearance of consciousness within the organism.

What powerful forces must be at work in the plant organism at this
point of transition from its green to its coloured parts! They enforce