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- 



