SELECTIVE EVOLUTION 217 



weak many steps which look like backward 

 steps instead of forward ones many apparent 

 oversights, yet my own work has shown that this 

 is true, that these are simply elements in a neces- 

 sary scheme of false construction, without which 

 the final object could not be achieved. 



The price of all progress is experiment, 

 and successful experiment is brought about, 

 always, at a terrific expense of individual 

 failures. 



But who shall say that progress, any progress, 

 is not worth all its costs? 



It is simply by eliminating steps and provid- 

 ing short cuts, and bringing the human mind 

 with its ideals, will, judgment, and persistence 

 into the environment that we are able to produce 

 new colors in a few months when, without our 

 influence, nature might easily have taken till 

 4020. 



The real work before us, then, is to study 

 nature's processes to learn to read the history 

 of plants, to uncover tendencies and understand 

 their trends and then to provide short cuts so 

 that the far distant improvement may be made 

 a matter of months, instead of centuries. 



These short cuts and their application, from 

 this point on, will be our principal study; per- 

 haps a single illustration here, more comprehen- 



