The illustrated story of evolutionGauvin, Marshall J. (Marshall Jerome)
History
The illustrated story of evolution
Gauvin, Marshall J. (Marshall Jerome)
Evolution (Biology)
The plant creations of Luther Burbank are renowned throughout the
world. The Burbank potato, the Burbank rose, the new walnut trees, the
varieties of plums and prunes, the pineapple quince, the spineless
cactus, the everlasting flower, the beautiful lilies—the many new
species of vegetables, plants, fruits and flowers which Burbank
has created by crossing inferior forms and breeding from the best
resulting specimens—these experimental triumphs in the plant world are
indubitable proofs of the truth of evolution. Mr. Burbank has shown
that plant life is not fixed in form, but plastic and ever-changing,
and that by breeding and selecting in accordance with Nature’s laws,
man can cover the earth with new vegetables, fruits and flowers and
vines and trees and grasses, more luxuriant and more wonderful than any
found in an uncultivated condition.
Life, like clay, is malleable. Slowly, under the urge of Nature,
rapidly in the hands of man, it shapes itself into new moulds. A
problem in mathematics is known to be solved when it can be proved.
In like manner, evolution is known to be certainly true, since, by
following its laws, man now brings into the world new species of
animals and plants that did not exist before.
A wonderful panorama is the story of evolution. From nebula to crusted
earth, to life’s first spark in the primal sea, to the myriad forms
that fought with teeth and claws in forest wilds, to the fierce-browed
creature that earth first knew as human, to the warmth of love and the
glow of thought in the heart and brain of finished man, the forces of
Nature have shaped existence and crowned it with the power of the human
brain. Man the builder, so long the victim of ignorance and fear, may
now shape his destinies in a world fashioned to his choice. The desert
has been made to blossom like the rose; cities of solid masonry have
arisen from the noisome swamp; industries supplying a thousand human
wants now occupy the sites where wild beasts once filled the jungle
with their savage roars; the ocean, earth and air have yielded to the
conquering power of thought; invention, art, discovery, have tapped
exhaustless stores of wealth and culture; literature, the press,
schools, disseminate intelligence; and, rising above earth, man now
solves the secrets of the stars and calculates with precision their
changing movements. Man, Nature’s gifted son, is Nature’s conqueror!
Let him then learn the means by which to further improve his life. Let
him equip his mind with truth. Let him solve his problems in the light
of knowledge and enjoy a rational existence in a well ordered world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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