Selecting the Farm 53 



survival like the aggregate flora of the globe. 

 There were no mules in the Garden of Eden though 

 there are dinosaurs in the fossil beds, ^ons ago 

 these shrubs and trees and grasses of our wild did 

 not exist, and aeons hence they will be known only 

 by the records of the rocks, — ^an imprint, here and 

 there. We are all on our way to a niche in some 

 museum. There were no Lincolns or Washingtons, 

 no Shakespeares or Miltons, no Fultons or Edisons 

 in the Age of Stone, nor can we foretell what shall 

 be the type and service of man ages hence. But 

 this we know, whether the age be Devonian or 

 Miltonian, that the law of survival is working, 

 and weaklings go to the wall. The world is for 

 healthy people, though the lame, the halt, and the 

 blind seem to possess it, and sickness the rule rather 

 than the exception. Banish disease and death and 

 soon we must remove to other planets for standing- 

 ground. Or, would lifers cycle close, and the gaps 

 merely fill up? If the human machine wore out 

 by age instead of breaking down by functional 

 disturbance, decay of tissue, or accident, and men 

 attained the normal bound of life's journey, would 

 there be room and food for all? Having no experi- 

 ence in this, the world can only theorize, but if 

 analogy can guide us, man would live his cycle, 

 like plants and other animals: no less, no more. 



The new books are always telling us that the 

 average of life is increasing. It is the charm of 

 doing slum- work — ^the '^call*' of the ''submerged" 

 to very worthy people — to extend life; and sta- 



