CHAPTER XXI 



THEORIES AND CONCLUSIONS 



T OOKING backward over the achieve- 

 -•^ ments of IVIr. Burbank, one might natu- 

 rally be led to ask, What of the inner life of 

 the man ; has it, too, shown marked lines of 

 development ? 



The physical life of the world has been 

 changed by him as perhaps no other man 

 who has ever lived has changed it. In his 

 study of the subtler life of Nature he has 

 arrived at conclusions and developed theories 

 and disproved so-called laws in so significant 

 a manner as to entitle him to consideration 

 among the foremost thinkers of his generation. 



No man, however prosaic by Nature, could 

 share Mr. Burbank's life -long series of ex- 

 periments in plant improvement and plant 

 creation without being more or less attracted 

 to and influenced by the inner life of Nature — 

 the subtle, intangible, but none the less real 

 life upon which man has been building 



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