Selfdiscovery Or Why Remain a Dwarf Author:Orison Swett Marden What corresponds to man's ambition, the desire to grow, in the dwarfed scrub oaks on the Norwegian mountains makes the most out of the hard conditions. The life principle in the plant tries its best to produce a creditable tree, but when it strikes conditions which it cannot overcome, it stops growing and expanding. Hence we have the dwarfed tre... more »e. A similar thing is true of the human dwarfs. This life principle which is always pushing in every direction, we call evolution, and this force will make just as much of the plant or of the man as the environment will permit. Under the most favorable conditions it will produce a magnificent birch tree or a superb specimen of manhood. Human beings are like the great American desert before water was applied to it; full of magnificent possibilities sleeping in its soil; capable of producing a bountiful harvest and untold wealth; but absolutely useless and valueless without water. The one thing needed to develop the locked-up wealth of the desert is water.« less