ABSTRACT
The earthly manifestations of “God’s world” began with the realm of plants, as a kind of direct communication from it…. Man and the proper animals, on the other hand, were bits of God that had become independent. That was why they could move about on their own and choose their own abodes. Plants were bound for good and ill to their places. They expressed not only the beauty but the thoughts of God’s world, with no intent of their own and without deviation. Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place I felt closest to the deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings.
