IIORIZON LINES 



nature is perfect of its kind, that is, suited to its 

 place in the scheme of organic life. But how dif- 

 ferent with man! It is the price he pays for his 

 freedom, his power of choice. The birds and the 

 beasts have no power of choice, they are entirely 

 in the hands of Nature. They are all moulded to 

 one pattern. 



The advantage that comes to man from his power 

 of choice is greater variation, hence greater prog- 

 ress. He crosses or reverses or turns aside the laws 

 of Nature, or bends them to his will, and for this 

 privilege he pays the price of idiocy, deformity, and 

 the vast mass of commonplace humanity. Hisjjaju 

 is now and then men of exceptional ability, g en- 

 iuses, who lead the race forward. We know that 

 every improved breed of chicken or sheep or swine 

 will come true, but we do not know in anything like 

 the same degree of certainty that the Emersons and 

 the Lincolns and the Tennysons will repeat and 

 continue the type. Cultivated fruit relapses in the 

 seed, and cultivated persons often do the same. 



On the other hand, rude and ordinary humanity 

 now and then far transcends itself in its offspring, 

 just as the new and choice apple or peach or plum 

 has its humble origin in a seedling. 



XII. ILLUSIONS 



In his "Conduct of Life" Emerson has an essay on 

 "Illusions" in which he describes the semblance to 



239 



