LUTHER BURBANK 



"But when, through a change of environment, 

 that balance is disturbed, no man can predict the 

 outcome. 



"So when a seed is planted, no man can be sure 

 whether the twentieth century tendencies will 

 predominate; or whether long-forgotten tendencies 

 may suddenly spring into prominence and carry 

 the plant back to a bygone age." 

 ***** 



"How can seeds store up the tendencies of their 

 ancestry?" some one asked Mr. Burbank. 



"How can your mind store up the impressions 

 which it receives?" he asked in reply. 



***** 



Hidden away in the twists and turns of our own 

 brains, needing but the right conditions to call 

 them forth with vividness, there are hundreds of 

 thousands, perhaps millions of impressions which 

 have been registered there day by day. 



The first childhood's scare on learning of the 

 presence of burglars in the house may make us 

 supersensitive to night noises in middle age. 



The indelible recollection of a mother's love 

 and tenderness may arise, after forty years, to 

 choke down some harsh word which we are about 

 to utter. 



The combined impressions of a thousand expe- 

 riences with other human beings seem to blend 



[54] 



