THE NEW EARTH 



the ideal he had set for it from the beginning. 

 Oftentimes strange new traits have developed, 

 and these have been carefully fostered if they 

 seemed to lead to something better; but if they 

 merely seemed to promise something spectac- 

 ular, they have at once been consigned to the 

 fire. So he has gone forward, making improved 

 flowers, fruits, grasses, nuts, trees and vege- 

 tables, — indeed, more than this, creating wholly 

 new ones by combinations hitherto believed 

 impossible. Where he can guide the forces of 

 Nature for the benefit of man, he does so ; 

 where he can lead her beyond her usual mani- 

 festations, he does so with the utmost rever- 

 ence for her. If he sees that two widely 

 separated plants may be united to produce a 

 third far better than either, he does not hesi- 

 tate to do that which Nature unaided could 

 never accomplish in a thousand years, — he 

 joins them in the most intimate union, merg- 

 ing one life for all time into the other. 



In accomplishing all that he has achieved, 

 he has worked along two main lines, — the sci- 

 tific and the practical, — never losing sight of 

 either. He is the most practical of men in 

 making a new plant or recreating an old one; 



U2 



