GENERAL METHODS OF WORK 



rich in varied opportunities for initial selec- 

 tion. Out of this initial selection he makes 

 final choice of the best. 



Sometimes he has marked out a certain 

 line of life for a flower. He has bred and se- 

 lected to that end. For a time all goes as he 

 had planned, but suddenly a new trait de- 

 velops, something which completely throws all 

 former plans out of gear. He does not aban- 

 don the test, but watches with the intensest 

 interest the new development. If the plant 

 persists in its way, and the new way is 

 better, he leaves the old and follows the new. 

 No man is quicker to give up, when convinced 

 that giving up is best. But he is not con- 

 vinced easily ; the evidence against him must 

 be unanswerable. Now and then out of the 

 muck of some slum, reeking with moral filth, 

 and developing with unwholesome rapidity 

 the seeds of anarchy and crime, a white, pure 

 life springs up, persists, maintains its guard 

 against all temptations, comes back, mayhap, 

 in later years to help redeem its birthplace. 

 And so in a similar way a flower sometimes 

 breaks away from the line of life all logic and 

 reason would say it should follow. 



33 



