LUTHER BURBANK 



an infinite number of variations, an infinite 

 combination of those variations, eacli variation 

 representing the result of present environment 

 reacting upon all of the environments of the ages, 

 stored away. 



As a people, we traveled by stage till the 

 railroad came; and then in a single generation, 

 because of the variation and the adaptability 

 among us, we found surveyors to push their 

 transits over the hills, and valleys, and streams; 

 we found woodchoppers to make ties, we found 

 steel makers who for the first time in their lives 

 fashioned a rail, we found engineers, and firemen, 

 and switchmen and superintendents, and railroad 

 presidents, each to play his part in fulfilling the 

 common desire for transportation, each able to 

 adapt himself to new duties — and all because of 

 this variation that is in us. 



As a people, we submitted to a ruler across the 

 seas till among our variant individuals there 

 arose some who, different from the rest, adapted 

 themselves to the formulation of a declaration of 

 independence, the framing of a code of principles, 

 the organization of a successful revolution. 



As a people, threatened with the constant peril 

 of cures which were worse than their diseases, 

 there appeared out of the variable mass one who 

 gave us antiseptic surgery. 



[136] 



