CHAPTER VIII 



THE EVOLUTION PROCESS ONCE MORE 

 REINTERPRETED 



The evolution process again reinterpreted — Antithesis of 

 vegetation and reproduction; applications in the plant 

 world — Justification from rustic experience — Evolution in 

 the animal kingdom — Summary and conclusions. 



Though we must leave that rich mastery 

 of the evolution secret we once hoped for to 

 the successors we would fain send out so 

 much better equipped, can we not meantime 

 be going at least a step or two farther be- 

 fore we leave life's wonder-feast — readers 

 and writers alike? Here, then, in preceding 

 chapters have been offered summaries and 

 interpretations not a few: some are master- 

 keys, tested by long and world-wide use, 

 others awaiting trial and verification; but 

 most, surely, of some applicability. In con- 

 clusion, and not as dogmatically pressed, but 

 suggestively offered, the reader may be inter- 

 ested in some brief outlines of a different 

 reinterpretation of the evolution process — 

 one not as yet fully published, still less 

 seriously criticized by other biologists; one 

 suggested at the close of our "Evolution of 



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