ON VARIATION 
by splitting in two; and those two each becoming 
two, and so on endlessly. 
Observe that, with only a single line of 
parentage from which to draw tendencies, the 
individualities to be found in this, the lowest form 
of life we know, are molded wholly by the differ- 
ence in the saltiness of the water, or the variation 
in its temperature, or those other limited changes 
within a short-lived environment. 
And then consider the geranium, and the 
Chinese arum, and the orchid, and the corn—with 
a thousand added complications in their lives 
brought about by a single dominant purpose—a 
thousand self-imposed difficulties and obstacles 
which would be needless except for that guiding 
desire to give the offspring a better chance than 
the parent had! 
What a price to pay for variation! What 
ingenuity and effort each new combination of 
heredities has cost! How many must have been 
the plants which advertised for insects that did 
not come! How many, finding themselves in an 
unequal struggle, have perished in the attempt! 
Truly, if the cost of things may be taken 
as a measure of their value, how much must this 
dearly bought variation be worth in the Scheme 
of Things! 
[93] 
