Holism And Evolution

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OSMANIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Call No. 110/S^fiH Accession No. 1

Author Smuts, T.C.

Title Holism r^ evolution

This book should be returned on or before the date last marked below.

HOLISM AND EVOLUTION

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

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TORONTO

HOLISM AND
EVOLUTION

BY

GENERAL THE RIGHT HON. J. C. SMUTS

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1927

COPYRIGHT

trst Edition . . 1926
Stcond Edition . . 1927

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

IT is very gratifying that a book dealing with such abstruse
topics as this work should within a comparatively short
period of months call for a second edition. I am indeed
grateful for this favourable reception. I had the fear at the
beginning that this effort of one whose life-work had lain
in other spheres might perhaps not be taken seriously. On
the contrary, whatever its many shortcomings, it has been
received seriously and considered on its merits not only by
the general public but by many workers who occupy a fore-
most place in science and philosophy. The little seed seems
really to have fallen into fruitful soil, and there I am content
to leave it. Holism, whether old or new, is essentially a
great idea and, like all great ideas, it will once it has
appeared on the horizon move of its own momentum and
reach its own fruition.

It must be clear to those who look below the surface of
things that far-reaching changes in our fundamental ideas
and attitudes are setting in, and that the world of to-morrow
will be a very different one from that which carried us into
the abyss in 1914. In this connection a grave duty arises
also for our science and philosophy. The higher thought of
our day should not exhaust itself in fine-spun technicalities
of speculation or research, but should regard itself as
dedicated to service and should make its distinctive contri-
bution towards the upbuilding of a new constructive world-
view. We are passing through one of the great transition
epochs of history ; we are threatened with reaction on the
one hand and with disintegration on the other. The old
beacon lights are growing dimmer, and the torch of new ideas
has to be kindled for our guidance. The word is largely
with our intellectual leaders. In the last resort a civilisation

vi PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

depends on its general ideas; it is nothing but a spiritual
structure of the dominant ideas expressing themselves in
institutions and the subtle atmosphere of culture. If the
soul of our civilisation is to be saved we shall have to find
new and fuller expression for the great saving unities the
unity of reality in all its range, the unity of life in all its
forms, the unity of ideas throughout human civilisation, and
the unity of man's spirit with the mystery of the Cosmos in
religious faith and aspiration. Holism is in its own way a
groping towards the new light and to new points of view.
And I cannot help feeling that if the full extent of its implica-
tions is realised, both science and philosophy will enter into
a more favourable atmosphere for further advance.

Several of my friendly critics have pointed out meta-
physical difficulties and omissions in this book. The
omissions are deliberate, the difficulties perhaps unavoidable.
I recognise that there is a Metaphysic or Logic of Holism
which has still to be written ; but it is not for me to write it.
There are others who are trained for the job and who, I feel
sure, will do justice to it. All I have attempted is to explain
the broad idea, to show some of its more important applica-
tions, and to create a general atmosphere favourable to it.
This I may fairly claim to do for Holism; I have felt its
power, and I have found it an idea that works. I therefore
believe in it and do not view it merely as an interesting bit
of speculation.

It has been a cheering discovery since the publication of
this book to see along how many different lines the idea of
the whole is already inspiring research in science and thought.
But few apparently have realised the wide scope of the idea.
And I hope this book has done some good in pointing out
its fundamental and universal character. The more it is
realised by workers along the new lines that they work under
the impulse of a common idea and ideal, the sooner we shall
attain to the great vision of the unity of knowledge, and
through it of the unity of reality.

No great alterations have been made in the body of the
work. Minor slips or obscurities of expression have been

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION vii

corrected, an additional sentence or paragraph here or there
will, I hope, bring out more clearly the meaning. But the
main principles and contentions of the book remain un-
*afected. Special reference is made to the important
work of Professor A. N. Whitehead, who is partly influenced
by Professors Alexander and Lloyd Morgan, and who is
evidently wrestling with the same problem as myself,
though from a different standpoint and on different lines.
Even so, however, there is a striking similarity in the
solutions suggested.

J. C. SMUTS.

February 1927.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

THIS work deals with some of the problems which fall
within the debatable borderland between Science and
Philosophy. It is a book neither of Science nor of Philo-
sophy, but of some points of contact between the two. To
my mind it is the surface of contact between the two that will
prove fruitful and creative for future progress in both, and
to which special attention should be directed. Some border
problems between the two are here considered in the light
of recent advances in physical and biological science. And a
re-examination of fundamental concepts in the light of these
advances reveals the existence of a hitherto neglected
factor or principle of a very important character. This
factor, called Holism in the sequel, underlies the synthetic
tendency in the universe, and is the principle which makes
for the origin and progress of wholes in the universe. An
attempt is made to show that this whole-making or holistic
tendency is fundamental in nature, that it has a well-marked
ascertainable character, and that Evolution is nothing
but the gradual development and stratification of progressive
series of wholes, stretching from the inorganic beginnings
to the highest levels of spiritual creation. This work deals
with our primary concepts of matter, life, mind and person-
ality in the light of this principle, and discusses some of the
problems of Evolution from this new point of view. The
discussion is not technical, specialist or exhaustive in any
sense. It is intended to sketch and explain the general lines
of argument rather than to go into details. It is especially
the fundamental concept of Holism which I wish to explain
and justify, as well as the scientific and philosophic view-
point to which it leads. The detailed elaboration must be
left to more competent hands and to those favoured with

ix

x PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

more leisure than I can find in a busy public life. I have
tried to sketch the general lines of reasoning in a way which,
while I hope scientifically accurate so far as they go, are yet
popular enough to be readily understood by readers with
a fair average reading in general science.

It is my belief that Holism and the holistic point of view
will prove important in their bearings on some of the main
problems of science and philosophy, ethics, art and allied
subjects. These bearings are, however, not fully discussed
in this work, which is more of the nature of an introduction,
and is concerned more with the laying of foundations than
with the superstructure. I have no time at present to do
more than write an introductory sketch ; but I hope in the
years to come to find time to follow up the subject and to
show how it affects the higher spiritual interests of mankind.
The old concepts and formulas are no longer adequate to
express our modern outlook. The old bottles will no longer
hold the new wine. The spiritual temple of the future, while
it will be built largely of the old well-proved materials, will
require new and ampler foundations in the light of the
immense extension of our intellectual horizons. This little
book indicates the lines along which my own mind has
travelled in the search for new and more satisfactory concepts.

A generation ago, when I was an undergraduate at Cam-
bridge, the subject of Personality interested me greatly, and
I wrote a short study on " Walt Whitman : a Study in the
Evolution of Personality," in order to embody the results I
had arrived at. This study was never published, but the
subject continued at odd intervals to engage my attention.
Gradually I came to realise that Personality was only
a special case of a much more universal phenomenon,
namely, the existence of wholes and the tendency towards
wholes and wholeness in nature. In 1910 I sought relief
from heavy political labours in an attempt to embody my
new results in a study called " An Inquiry into the Whole/'
which also was not published. I had no time to return to
the subject until, in 1924, a change of government released
me from burdens which I had continuously borne for more

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION xi

than eighteen years. When I came to read once more the
MS. of fourteen years earlier I found much of the scientific
setting out of date and I found my conception of Holism
had also altered in certain respects. I therefore decided once
more to make a fresh start with my study of wholes and
Holism in nature. The present work is the first-fruits of this
fresh effort. The aspects and bearings of Holism in which I
am mainly interested are not yet reached in this study,
which, as I have said, is of an introductory character. But I
feel that unless I now make a determined attempt to pre-
pare at least a part of my inquiry for publication, it will in
all probability never get beyond the incubation stage in
which it has remained so many years. This I would person-
ally regret, as I think that in Holism we have an idea which
may perhaps prove valuable and fruitful, and which for
better or worse should be lifted out of the obscurity in which
it has so long remained in my mind. Whether my partiality
for the idea, which has been my companion throughout a
crowded life, will be shared by others, time alone will show.
The work has unfortunately had to be written in some-
what of a hurry and amid the pressure of many other calls
on my time. Nor in writing it have I had the advantage of
consulting any expert friends on details. This must be my
excuse for any incidental mistakes or slips which may be
found in it.

J. C. SMUTS.

Irene , Transvaal,
September 1925.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION v

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION ix

I. THE REFORM OF FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS . . i

II. THE REFORMED CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME . 23

III. THE REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER ... 36

IV. THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM .... 60
V. GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM .... 87

VI. SOME FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES OF HOLISM . 125

VII. MECHANISM AND HOLISM 152

VIII. DARWINISM AND HOLISM 190

IX. MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES . . . 233

X. PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE .... 270

XL SOME FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS OF PERSONALITY . 299

XII. THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 326

INDEX 354

xiii

HOLISM AND EVOLUTION

CHAPTER I

THE REFORM OF FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS

Summary. In spite of the great advances which have been made
in knowledge, some fundamental gaps still remain ; matter, life and
mind still remain utterly disparate phenomena. Yet the concepts
of all three arise in experience, and in the human all three meet and
apparently intermingle, so that the last word about them has not yet
been said. Reformed concepts of all three are wanted. This will
come from fuller scientific knowledge, and especially from a re-survey
of the material from new points of view. The fresh outlook must
accompany the collection of further detailed knowledge, and nowhere
is the new outlook more urgently required than in the survey of these
great divisions of knowledge.

Take Evolution as a case in point. The acceptance of Evolution
as a fact, the origin of life-structures from the inorganic, must mean
a complete revolution in our idea of matter. If matter holds the
promise and potency of life and mind it is no longer the old matter of
the physical materialists. We have accepted Evolution, but have
failed to make the fundamental readjustment in our views which
that acceptance involves. The old mechanical view- points persist,
and Natural Selection itself has come to be looked upon as a mere
mechanical factor. But this is wrong : Sexual Selection is admittedly
a psychical factor, and even Natural Selection has merely the
appearance of a mechanical process, because it is viewed as a statis-
tical average, from which the real character of struggle among the
concrete individuals has been eliminated.

Nineteenth-century science went wrong mostly because of the hard
and narrow concept of causation which dominated it. It was a
fixed dogma that there could be no more in the effect than there was
in the cause ; hence creativeness and real progress became impossible.
The narrow concept of causation again arose from a wider intellectual
error of abstraction, of narrowing down all concepts into hard definite
contours and wiping out their indefinite surrounding " fields." The
concept of " fields " is absolutely necessary in order to get back
B

2 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

to the fluid plastic facts of nature. The elimination of their " fields "
in which things and concepts alike meet and intermingle creatively
made all understanding of real connections and inter-actions im-
possible. The double mistake of analysis, abstraction or generalisa-
tion has led to a departure in thought from the fluid procedure of
nature. Abstract procedure with its narrowing of concepts and
processes into hard and rigid outlines, and their rounding off into
definite scientific counters, temporarily simplified the problems of
science and thought, but we have outlived the utility of this pro-
cedure, and for further advance we have now to return to the more
difficult but more correct view of the natural plasticity and fluidity
of natural things and processes. From this new view-point a re-
survey will be made in the sequel of our ideas relating to matter,
life and mind, and an attempt will be made to reach the funda-
mental unity and continuity which underlie and connect all three.
We shall thus come to see all three as connected steps in the same
great Process, the nature and functions of which will be investigated.

AMONG the great gaps in knowledge those which separate
the phenomena of matter, life, and mind still remain un-
bridged. Matter, life, and mind remain utterly unlike each
other. Apparently indeed their differences are ultimate, and
nowhere does there appear a bridge for thought from one to
the other. And their utter difference and disparateness pro-
duce the great breaks in knowledge, and separate knowledge
into three different kingdoms or rather worlds. And yet they
are all three in experience, and cannot therefore be so utterly
unlike and alien to each other. What is more, they actually
intermingle and co-exist in the human, which is compounded
of matter, life, and mind. If indeed there were no common
basis to matter, life, and mind, their union in the human
individual would be the greatest mystery of all. What is
in fact united in human experience and existence cannot be
so infinitely far asunder in human thought, unless thought
and fact are absolutely incongruous. Not only do they
actually co-exist and mingle in the human, they appear to
be genetically related and to give rise to each other in a
definite series in the stages of Evolution ; life appearing to
arise in or from matter, and mind in or from life. The actual
transitions have not been observed, but are assumed to have
taken place under certain conditions in the course of cosmic

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 3

Evolution. Hence arise the three series in the real world :
physical, biological and psychical or mental. These con-
nections between them, which are based not on thought but
on the facts of existence and experience, tend to show that
they cannot be fundamentally alien and irreconcilable, and
that some sort of a bridge between them must be possible,
unless we are to assume that our human experience is
indeed a mere chaotic jumble of disconnected elements.

As I have said, the problem does not arise from the facts
either of experience or of existence. The problem is one for
our thought and our science. It is for our thought that the
mystery exists, and it is for knowledge that the great gaps
between the physical, the biological and the mental series
arise. The solution must therefore ultimately depend on
our more extended knowledge of these series and the dis-
covery of interconnections between them. The great dark-
nesses and gaps in experience are mostly due to ignorance.
Our experience is clear and luminous only at certain points
which are separated by wide regions of obscurity; hence
the apparent mystery of the luminous points and of their
isolation and unlikeness. Hence also the still greater
mystery of the actual union of the three series in the
threefold incarnation which constitutes human personality.

But it is just this union which ought to warn us that the
apparent separateness of these three fundamental concepts is
not well founded in fact, and that a wider knowledge and a
deeper insight might be able to clear up the mystery, at least
to some extent, and to lead to some sort of union or harmony
of these apparently unrelated or independent elements in
our real world. More knowledge is wanted. Our physical
science ought to provide the solvent for our idea of hard
impenetrable inert matter, and in the third chapter I
shall inquire in how far there are already the materials
for such a solvent. Again, our biological science should
dispel the vagueness of the concept of life, and replace
it by a more definite meaningful concept, which will yet
not depend on purely material or physical elements. At
present the concept of life is so indefinite and vague that,

4 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

although the kingdom of life is fully recognised, its govern-
ment is placed under the rule of physical force or Mechanism.
Life is practically banished from its own domain, and its
throne is occupied by a usurper. Biology thus becomes a
subject province of physical science the kingdom of Beauty,
the free artistic plastic kingdom of the universe, is inappro-
priately placed under the iron rule of force. Mind again,
which is closest to us in experience, becomes farthest from
us in exact thought. The concepts in which we envisage
it are so vague and nebulous, compared with the hard and
rigid contours of our concepts of matter, that the two appear
poles asunder. Here too a reformed concept of mind might
bring it much closer to a reformed concept of matter. And
thus, out of the three at present utterly heterogeneous polar
concepts of matter, life and mind it might be possible to
develop concepts moulded more closely to fact and experience,
freed of all adventitious and unnecessary elements of
separateness and disparity, and forming (as in all true science
they should rightly form) the co-operative elements and
aspects in a wider, truer conception of Reality. It may be
said that in making this demand for new concepts of matter,
life, and mind we are imposing an impossible task on thought.
We are asking it to go beyond itself and deal with matters
entirely beyond its own proper world. Matter, it may be
urged, is essentially outside and beyond thought, something
hard and impervious to thought, an object to thought which
thought can only just barely reach up to in its utmost effort,
and no more. Life is, of course, not alien to thought in the
same sense as matter, but still it also falls outside the province
of thought, it also has a reality of its own beyond thought,
and it also is a terminus to thought. How then could thought
embrace these provinces, how could it be a measure of these
provinces beyond its ken ; how could the part envisage the
whole? Our standard of measurement is inadequate, our
task therefore impossible.

The answer is that, while mind or thought may not have
made matter, it has undoubtedly assisted in making the
concept of matter ; and this concept, based as it largely is on

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 5

empirical tradition and inadequate knowledge, and covered
with a thick over-burden of unsifted tradition, calls for
a thorough overhauling. A reform of the concept of matter
is urgently required, and is indeed amply justified by the
unprecedented recent advances in physical science, and
especially in our knowledge of the constitution of matter.
And a reform will, as I shall show in the third chapter, bring
matter considerably nearer to the concept of life.

With regard again to the concept of life, what is most
urgently required is that it should be rid of that haziness,
indefiniteness, and vagueness \\hich makes it practically
worthless for all exact scientific purposes. Biological
science has not in recent years made the same gigantic
strides forward in the knowledge of fundamentals that
physical science has taken, and yet for Biology too the sky
has considerably cleared, and what two or three decades ago
was still hotly disputed is to-day generally accepted. Besides,
the greatest development in Biology during this century
has taken place in the science of Genetics, and the trend
there has been steadily away from the hard mechanical
conceptions which dominated Biology more than a generation
ago. The time here too may be ripe for a reconsideration of
some of the fundamental concepts and standpoints. I may
express the hope that the masters of this science will not
concentrate all their attention on special researches, how-
ever promising the clues at present followed may be, but
that they will find time for a reconsideration of the wider
conceptions which is becoming urgently necessary. Unless
Biology can succeed in clarifying and harmonising her
fundamental conceptions there is risk of great confusion
in a science in which old general ideas have persisted in
spite of great progress in detailed knowledge and the
elaboration of a host of new fruitful ideas. If in the sequel
I join in the discussion of the foundations of Biology, not as
entitled of right to speak but more in the character of a
friendly spectator urging the importance of a certain point of
view, I hope my presumption in so doing may be forgiven me.

For welcome as any new and deeper knowledge would be

6 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

on these high matters, the present situation calls even more
urgently for fresh points of view. Matter, life, and mind
are, so to speak, the original alphabet of knowledge, the
original nuclei round which all experience, thought, and
speculation have gathered. Their origin is purely empirical,
their course has been shaped by tradition for thousands of
years, and all sorts of discarded philosophies have gone
towards the making of their popular meanings. In spite,
therefore, of the great fundamental aspects of truth which
they embody, the kernel of truth in them has become over-
laid by deep deposits of imperfect and erroneous knowledge.
Modern science and philosophy have repeatedly ventured on
reforms, but the popular use of these terms tends to
obliterate all fine distinctions. I do not believe that an
abiding scientific or philosophic advance in this respect will
be possible until a more exact nomenclature has been
adopted. A particular suggestion towards such a reform
I am going to advocate and develop in the sequel, but in the
meantime I wish to emphasise how important it is, not
merely to continue the acquisition of knowledge, but also to
develop new view-points from which to envisage all our vast
accumulated material of knowledge. The Copernican revo-
lution was not so much a revolution in the acquisition of new
knowledge, as in view-point and perspective in respect of
existing knowledge. The most far-reaching revolutions in
knowledge are often of this character. Evolution in the mind
of Darwin was, like the Copernican revolution, a new view-
point, from which vast masses of biological knowledge
already existing fell into new alignments and became the
illustrations of a great new Principle. And similarly
Einstein's conception of General Relativity in the physical
universe, whatever its final form may yet be, is a new view-
point from which the whole universe and all its working
mechanisms acquire a new perspective and meaning.

More knowledge is undoubtedly required, but its acquisi-
tion must go hand in hand with the exploration of new con-
cepts and new points of view. It will not help merely to
accumulate details of which, even in the special departments

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 7

of the separate biological sciences, the masses are already
becoming more than any individual mind can bear. New
co-ordinations are required, new syntheses which will sum
up and explain and illuminate the otherwise amorphous
masses of material. While research is being prosecuted as
never before, while in biological science great, and in the
physical sciences unprecedented, progress is being recorded,
the call becomes ever more urgent for a reconsideration of
fundamental concepts and the discovery of new view-points
which might lead to the formulation of more general prin-
ciples and wider generalisations. Nowhere are new view-
points more urgently called for than in respect of the funda-
mental concepts of matter, life, and mind, of which the reform
is overdue and the present state is rapidly becoming a real
obstacle to further progress. And I may point out that the
formulation of new view-points will depend not so much on
masses of minute details, as on the consideration of the
general principles in the light of recent advances, the collation
and comparison of large masses of fact, and the survey of
fairly large areas of knowledge. The road is to be dis-
covered, not so much by minute local inspection as by wide
roaming and exploration and surveying over large districts.
Both methods are needed, and the question narrows itself
down to one of comparative values. Just as happened in
the cases of Newton and Einstein, so here too the new clues
are more likely to be indicated by certain crucial dominant
facts than by small increments of research. It would there-
fore be a great mistake to let the completion of present
detailed researches take precedence over the more general
and urgent questions to which I am drawing attention.

Let me in this connection mention one matter of crucial
significance to which I think sufficient importance has not
yet been attached. To-day I think it is generally accepted
that life has in the process of cosmic Evolution developed
from or in the bosom of matter, and that mind itself has its
inalienable physical basis. I do not think that among those
who have given thought and attention to these matters there
are to-day any who seriously question this position. Life is

8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

no dove that has flown to our shores from some world beyond
this world ; mind or soul is not an importation from some
other universe. Life and mind are not mere visitants to this
world, but not of this world. There is nothing alien in them
to the substance of the universe ; they are with us and they
are of us. The popular view still looks upon the association
of life and mind with matter as a sort of symbiosis, as the close
living together of three different beings, as the dwelling of life
and the soul in the body of matter, just as in the organic world
one plant or animal organism will be found normally living
with and in another. This popular traditional view comes
from the hoary beginnings of human thought and speculation,
but it is definitely abandoned by all those who have assimi-
lated the modern view-point of Evolution. For them in some
way not yet fully understood, but accepted as an undoubted
fact, both life and mind have developed from matter or
the physical basis of existence. The acceptance of this fact
must have far-reaching consequences for our world-view.

But before I refer to these consequences let me point
out how this acceptance affects the grave issues over which
our fathers fought a continuous battle royal during the latter
half of the nineteenth century. The materialists contended
for this very point, namely, that life and mind were born of
matter. From this priority of matter they proceeded (quite
illegitimately) to infer its primacy and self-sufficiency in the
order of the universe, and to reduce life and mind to a
subsidiary and subordinate position as mere epiphenomena,
as appearances on the surface of the one reality, matter.
To use the Platonic figure, to them matter was the lyre,
and the soul was the music of that lyre ; the lyre was the
substantive and abiding reality, and the music a mere
passing product. And thus the priority and dominance of
matter made of life and the soul merely transient and
embarrassed phantoms on the stage of existence. This
materialism was most hotly resented and contested by those
who held to the spiritual values and realities. They denied not
only the primacy of matter but also its priority or that life or
mind sprang from it and were dependent on it in any real

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 9

sense. In fact they denied the principle of Evolution as
undermining all the spiritual and moral values of life. Both
sides, materialists and spiritualists alike, were under the in-
fluence of the hard physical concepts of cause and effect which
played such a great part in the science and philosophy of the
nineteenth century. There could be nothing more in the
effect than there was already in the cause; and if matter
caused the soul, there could be nothing more in the soul
than there already was in matter. In other words, the soul
was merely an apparent and no real substantial advance
on matter. The general validity of this argument was
never questioned and was thoroughly believed in by both
sides. Hence those who affirmed the theory of Evolution
logically tended to be materialists, and those who were
spiritualists were logically forced to deny Evolution.

Without their knowing it the great battle raged, not over
the facts of Evolution, but over a metaphysical theory of
causation in which they both believed and were both wrong.
Such is the irony of history. To-day we pick the poppies on
the old bloody battlefield of Evolution, and can afford to be
fair to both sides. The essential terms have changed their
meaning for us. We believe in Evolution, but it is no more
the mechanical Evolution of a generation or two ago, but a*
creative Evolution. We believe in the growth which is
really such and becomes ever more and more in the process.
We believe in Genesis which by its very nature is epigenesis.
For us there is no such thing as static evolution, a becoming
which does not become but in its apparent permutations
ever remains the same. The absolute equation of cause
and effect, which was a dogma implicitly believed in by
the men of that day, does not hold for us, as I shall in due
course explain. The temperature has changed, the view-
point has shifted, and to-day thoughtful men and women
are sincere and convinced evolutionists, without troubling
themselves over the dead and forgotten issue of materialism
versus spiritualism. We accept the theory of descent, of
life from matter, and of the mind from both. For educated
men and women to-day Evolution is just as much part

io HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

and parcel of their general outlook, of their intellectual
atmosphere, so to say, as is the Copernican theory.

As I said before, this is a fact with very far-reaching
consequences. If we believe that life and mind come from
matter, if they are evolved from matter, if matter holds the
promise, the dread potencies of life and mind, it can for us
no longer be the old matter of the materialists or the
physicists. The acceptance of the view for which the
materialists fought so hard means in effect a com-
plete transformation of the simple situation which they
envisaged. Matter discloses a great secret ; in the act of
giving birth to life or mind it shows itself in an entirely
unsuspected character, and it can never be the old matter
again. The matter which holds the secret of life and mind is
no longer the old matter which was merely the vehicle of
motion and energy. The landmarks of the old order are
shifting, the straight contours of the old ideas are curving,
the whole situation which we are contemplating in the
relations of matter, life and mind is becoming fluid instead
of remaining rigid. The point to grasp and hold on to
firmly is that the full and complete acceptance of Evolution
must produce a great change in the significance of the
fundamental concepts for us. Life and mind now, instead
of being extraneous elements in the physical universe,
become identified with the physical order, and they are all
recognised as very much of a piece. This being so, it
obviously becomes impossible thereupon to proceed to erect
an all-embracing physical order in which life and mind are
once more declared aliens. This cat and mouse procedure
is simply a case of logical confusion. This in-and-out game
will not do. If Evolution is accepted, and life and mind are
developments in and from the physical order, they are in
that order, and it becomes impossible to continue to envisage
the physical order as purely mechanical, as one in which
they have no part or lot, in which they are no real factors,
and from which they should be logically excluded. If
Evolution is right, if life and mind have arisen in and from
matter, then the universe ceases to be a purely physical

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 11

mechanism, and the system which results must provide
a real place for the factors of life and mind. To my mind
there is no escape from that argument, and its implications
must have a very far-reaching effect on our ideas of the
physical order, and on a biology in which mechanical views
are still dominant.

The point I have been trying to make is that our
ultimate concepts need reconsideration, and that above all
new view-points are necessary from which to re-survey the
vast masses of physical and biological knowledge which have
already accumulated. I have said that certain large domi-
nant facts may be sufficient to lead to a new orientation of
our ideas. And I have taken the accepted fact of Evolution
as a case in point. The older materialists and the present-
day mechanical biologists have both fought hard for the
acceptance of Evolution as a fact, without realising that such
an acceptance must inevitably mean a transformation of
their view-points, and that both the meaning of the concept
of matter and the idea of the part played by mechanism in
biology must be seriously affected by such acceptance. It
is clear that the full significance of the great dominant idea
of Evolution and its effect on the ordering of our ultimate
world-view are not yet fully realised, and that we are in"
effect endeavouring simultaneously to go forward with two
inconsistent sets of ideas, that is to say, with the idea
of Evolution (not yet adequately realised) and the pre-
Evolution physical ideas (not yet quite abandoned). This
is, however, sheer confusion, and a clarification of our
ideas and the realisation of new view-points have become
necessary.

Let me now leave the general fact of Evolution as bearing
on our world- view and call attention to another and some-
what similar case which arises in Darwin's theory of
Descent. In that theory Natural Selection is usually but
erroneously taken to be a purely mechanical factor. It is
understood to operate as an external cause, eliminating
the unfit in the struggle for existence, and leaving the
fit in possession of the field to reproduce their kind and to

12 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

continue the story of Evolution. Natural Selection, from
whatever cause arising and in whatever way operating, is
on this view taken to be merely a mechanical cause or factor,
just as is a hailstorm which kills plants and animals with
hailstones, or a drought which kills them from want of water.
Whether the destruction arises from physical mechanical
causes like storms or drought or lightning, or whether it
arises from the action of living agencies in the organic
struggle, makes no difference to the result, which is in
either case the same. A broad generalised statistical view
of the causes of elimination has been taken and Natural
Selection, thus considered at large and in bulk, has assumed
the appearance of a mere external mechanical factor. On
this view of Natural Selection, therefore, Darwin's theory of
Evolution has come powerfully to reinforce the generally
prevalent mechanical position. The effect has been just
the opposite to what one might have expected from a
great biological advance. The Kingdom of life, instead of
fighting for its own rights and prerogatives, has tamely
and blindly surrendered to the claims of physical force
and actually joined hands with it and contributed to
its supremacy. The acceptance of Darwinism, therefore,
so far from stemming the tide of mechanical ideas, has
actually furthered and assisted it, and raised it to full
flood. Through too broad and abstract a view of Natural
Selection the mechanical ideas have invaded the domain of
life, where opposition might have been expected, and through
the conquest and occupation of that domain the mechanical
position, which would otherwise have been confined to the
material physical sphere, has been extended and powerfully
consolidated. This result was due, as I say, to the generalised
and abstract statistical concept of Natural Selection, irrespec-
tive of the concrete manner in which the selection occurred
in individual cases.

There is, however, one form of Selection which cannot be
thus indiscriminately dealt with. It arises not only from
organic causes, but still more narrowly and quite indisputably
from psychical causes. Darwin called it Sexual Selection,

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 13

and in spite of the opposition of A. R. Wallace and others he
attached great importance to it, and as time went on and he
saw his great vision more clearly, he gave it an ever-growing
emphasis in his theory of Descent. Natural Selection operates
on the unfit by destroying them or killing them off ; Sexual
Selection, on the contrary, has a more limited operation and
applies only in respect of males, whose mating it promotes or
handicaps by making them attractive or repulsive to females.
I In other words it is a struggle among males for the possession
of females, and in this struggle males are assisted not only
by their superior strength or fighting powers, but also by their
superior power of song or beauty or scent or general attrac-
tiveness or excitiveness to females. It is clear that the real
motive power of this form of selection is mostly emotional and
psychical. The female is stimulated, excited, and attracted
by superior fighting force or superior artistic endowments
among males competing for her favour. And when one con-
siders the degree of perfection to which the male forms have
attained largely under this stimulus of the female sex instinct,
one is struck with amazement at the emotional sensitiveness
thus implied on the part of female insects, birds, and beasts,
and at the wonderful subtlety and fineness of the emotional
discrimination which has shaped the male forms. The beauty *
of form and colour which characterises, for instance, the
peacock's feathers is such that even our human eye can
scarcely do justice to it. And yet on the principle of Sexual
Selection that perfection of beauty is due to the amazing
emotional sensitiveness and appreciation of the peahen,
which through countless generations must have been
attracted by the minute superiority of the one male over
others scarcely inferior in this respect. And the same applies
in regard to the wonderful power of song among male birds
and all the other secondary male characters. And it makes
no difference whether by his arts arid display the male
makes a direct appeal to mating, or merely invites the
female to his territory. The psychical emotional powers
implied on the part of the female on this theory are
so wonderful as to be almost unintelligible; in many

14 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

respects they are superhuman, and would appear to
throw an astonishing light on the unconscious psychical
developments of what we are pleased to call the lower
creatures. If secondary sexual characters with all thei*
perfection of form and colour did originate and develop
under the stimulus of Sexual Selection, we shall have to
revise our views radically as to the psychical sensitiveness
and endowments of large classes of these lower animals.
If, for instance, the human female showed the same sensitive
choice and discrimination for the superior male as the
female bird or insect shows in her sensitive sex instinct,
what supermen we sorry males in time would become ! I
am afraid, however, that the theory of Sexual Selection
as ordinarily understood does not tell the whole story,
and that there is more in the sexual situation than appears
from that theory. I shall refer to the subject again
in Chapter VIII. But for my present purpose it is
only necessary to emphasise that this form of selection
is not mechanical but psychical. If Sexual Selection plays
the great part in organic Evolution which Darwin, Weismann
and many other great biologists assign to it, we can only
conclude that to that extent at any rate the motive force in
Evolution is essentially psychical and not merely mechanical.
I would go further and, in opposition to current views,
I would contend that even Natural Selection, in so far
as it is really an organic struggle and not merely the
pressure or age-long effect of the inorganic environment,
is fundamentally psychical. The advance takes place
generally because the more fit organism for its own
purposes destroys the less fit organism. In its essence
the organic struggle creates a psychical situation just
as much as war among humans is a psychical situation.
And it is only because we abstract from the situation its real
character of individual struggle and view the total statistical
effect of innumerable situations as itself a sort of personified
operative force in the form of Natural Selection, that the
appearance of a mechanical external factor is created,
operating on Evolution from the outside and determining

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 15

its course mechanically. Looked at in general, and at a
distance in which all concrete cases are blurred in the general
view, the struggle for existence among animals and plants
seems to operate blindly and mechanically without any
reference to that improvement of species which results.
But this general struggle is actually composed of infinite little
concrete struggles in which the fit destroy the unfit, and
the idea of improvement is thus involved. And the
trend of the struggle is towards organic progress actually
because of the character of the little concrete struggles.
I do not mean to say that the striving, struggling individual
in nature intends to improve its species. But it does fight
for itself or its family or its tribe ; and in so far as it is more
" fit " than its beaten opponent it is in effect fighting the
battle of organic progress. The psychical semi-purposive
character of the little concrete struggles should thus impart
a psychological almost purposive character to the generalised
factor of Natural Selection. In fact the current view of
Natural Selection is a very striking illustration of the way in
which a so-called mechanical force or cause is gratuitously
constituted by abstraction and generalisation and statistical
summation from elements which in their individual character
and isolation are undoubtedly psychical and sometimes even
purposive. And this only shows how careful we must be to
scrutinise concrete details and not to rest satisfied with large
abstract generalisations, if we would know what really
happens in nature. Abstraction and generalisation, how-
ever useful and necessary for scientific purposes, do largely
deprive real events of their true characters, which are vital
to a correct understanding of reality.

To sum up, therefore : apart from the influence of the
physical environment, the motive and directive forces of
organic Descent in the form of Natural and Sexual Selection
are largely psychical and not merely mechanical. And
this result of the special Darwinian theory is therefore in com-
plete accord with the more general result which we derived
from the consideration of Evolution in general. Both in
Evolution as a whole and in Darwin's more special theory of

16 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

organic Descent, life and mind are no mere shadows or unreal
accompaniments of some real mechanical process ; they are
there in their own right as true operative factors, and play a
real and unmistakable part in determining both the advance
and its specific direction. From the point of view of
Evolution each of them must be looked upon as essentially
a real vera causa. This does not affect what I have already
said about the vagueness and unsatisfactoriness of their
present concepts and the necessity of looking for more
definite and adequate concepts. All I mean to say is that
the things they stand for are real factors in nature and not
mere words or appearances. In the sequel an effort will be
made to give greater defmiteness to these concepts, and to
determine the nature and character of the activity of these
factors. Here it must suffice to emphasise that the nature
of Evolution has been obscured by mechanistic conceptions,
and that erroneous views as to the character and operation
of causation have contributed to this misunderstanding.
And it may be useful, before concluding this introductory
chapter, to add a few remarks on this subject, to which I
have already briefly referred above.

The science of the nineteenth century was like its philo-
sophy, its morals and its civilisation in general, distinguished
by a certain hardness, primness and precise limitation and
demarcation of ideas. Vagueness, indefinite and blurred
outlines, anything savouring of mysticism, was abhorrent to
that great age of limited exactitude. The rigid categories of
physics were applied to the indefinite and hazy phenomena
of life and mind. Concepts were in logic as well as in science
narrowed down to their most luminous points, and the rest
of their contents treated as non-existent. Situations were
not envisaged as a whole of clear and vague obscure elements
alike, but were analysed merely into their clear, outstanding,
luminous points. A " cause," for instance, was not taken
as a whole situation which at a certain stage insensibly
passes into another situation, called the effect. No, the
most outstanding feature in the first situation was isolated
and abstracted and treated as the cause of the most out-

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 17

standing and striking feature of the next situation, which
was called the effect. Everything between this cause and
this effect was blotted out, and the two sharp ideas or rather
situations of cause and effect were made to confront each
other in every case of causation like two opposing forces.
This logical precision immediately had the effect of making
it impossible to understand how the one passed into the
other in actual causation. The efficient activity, which had
of old been construed on the analogy of our voluntary
muscular activity, was therefore resorted to in order to supply
the explanation. As the voluntary muscular movement pro-
duces external action, so material cause was supposed to
produce a material effect. Even then the mind found it
difficult to realise the passage from the one to the other.
Every causation seemed to imply some action at a distance,
unless cause and effect were in absolute contact. But we
know that there is no such thing as absolute contact even in
the elements of the most closely packed situation. Hence
causation of this rigid type really became unintelligible.
Not even the old fiction of an ether which embraced all
material things, and as a vehicle made transmission of influence
from one to the other possible, seemed able to overcome the
contradictions into which thought had landed itself through
its hard and narrow concepts of cause and effect. And in
fact there is no way out of the impasse but by retracing our
steps and recognising that these concepts are partial and
misleading abstractions. We have to return to the fluidity
and plasticity of nature and experience in order to find the
concepts of reality. When we do this we find that round every
luminous point in experience there is a penumbra, a gradual
shading off into haziness and obscurity. A " concept "
is not merely its clear luminous centre, but embraces
a surrounding sphere of meaning or influence of smaller or
larger dimensions, in which the luminosity tails off and
grows fainter until it disappears. Similarly a " thing "
is not merely that which presents itself as such in clearest
definite outline, but this central area is surrounded by
a zone of vague sense-data and influences which shades
c

i8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

off into the region of the indefinite. The hard and abrupt
contours of our ordinary conceptual system do not apply
to reality and make reality inexplicable, not only in the case
of causation, but in all cases of relations between things,
qualities, and ideas. Conceive of a cause as a centre with a
zone of activity or influence surrounding it and shading
gradually off into indefiniteness. Next conceive of an effect
as similarly surrounded. It is easy in that way to under-
stand their interaction, and to see that cause and effect are
not at arm's length but interlocked, and embrace and
influence each other through the interpenetration of
their two fields. In fact the conception of Fields of force
which has become customary in Electro-Magnetism is
only a special case of a phenomenon which is quite
universal in the realms of thought and reality alike.
Every " thing " has its field, like itself, only more
attenuated; every concept has likewise its field. It is in
these fields and these fields only that things really happen.
It is the intermingling of fields which is creative or causal
in nature as well as in life. The hard secluded thing or
concept is barren because abstract, and but for its field it
could never come into real contact or into active or creative
relations with any other thing or concept. Things, ideas,
animals, plants, persons : all these, like physical forces, have
their fields, and but for their fields they would be unintelli-
gible, their activities would be impossible, and their relations
barren and sterile. The abstract intelligence, in isolating
things or ideas, and constituting them apart from their fields,
and treating the latter as non-existent, has made the real
concrete world of matter and of life quite unintelligible and
inexplicable. The world is thus in abstraction constituted
of entities which are absolutely discontinuous, with nothing
between them to bridge the impassable gulfs, little or great,
which separate them from each other. The world becomes
to us a mere collection of disjecta membra, drained of all
union or mutual relations, dead, barren, inactive, unintelli-
gible. And in order once more to bring active relations into
this scrap-heap of disconnected entities, the mind has to

i FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 19

conjure up spirits, influences, forces and what not from the
vasty deep of its own imagination. And all this is due to the
initial mistake of enclosing things or ideas or persons in hard
contours which are purely artificial and are not in accordance
with the natural shading-off continuities which are or should
be well known to science and philosophy alike. One of
the most salutary reforms in thought which could be
effected would be for people to accustom themselves to
the idea of fields, and to look upon every concrete thing
or person or even idea as merely a centre, surrounded by
zones or aurae or penumbrae of the same nature as the centre,
only more attenuated and shading off into indefiniteness.
The concept of "fields" will be developed in subsequent
chapters.

There is one more remark I wish to make in regard to the
activity of the abstract intelligence in construing our actual
experience. I have already shown how in a special
case this abstract activity has converted the psychical
factor of Natural Selection into the semblance of a
mechanical force. The risk of error is, however, much
greater than that particular instance would serve to
indicate. One may say that the analytical character of
thought has a far-reaching effect in obscuring the nature
of reality, which has to be carefully guarded against. In
order to understand and explore any concrete situation,
we analyse it into its factors or elements, whose separate
operation and effects are then studied, in isolation so to say.
This procedure is not only quite legitimate, but the only one
possible, if we wish to understand and investigate the com-
plex groupings of nature. It is the analytical method which
science has applied with such outstanding success ; and but
for this analysis of a complex phenomenon or situation into
its separate elements and the study of these in isolation, it
is fair to assume that very little progress would have been
possible in the understanding of Nature with all her obscure
processes. When the isolated elements or factors of the
complex situation have been separately studied, they are
recombined in order to reconstitute the original situation.

20 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Two sources of error here become possible. In the first
place, in the original analysis something may have escaped,
so that in the reconstruction we have no longer all the
original elements present, but something less. I have
already shown how " fields " escape in the idea of things
and even in concepts. The same happens in regard to the
elements into which a situation is analysed. And it is certain
that in every case of analysis and reconstitution of a concrete
situation something escapes which makes the artificial
situation as reconstructed different from the original
situation which was to be explored and explained. An
element of more or less error has entered. This may be
called the error of analysis.

In the second place, we are apt after the analysis and
investigation of the isolated elements or factors to look upon
them as the natural factors of the situation, and upon the
situation itself as a sort of result brought about by them.
The abstract analytical elements thus become the real
operative entities, while the concrete situation or phenomenon
to be explained becomes their product or resultant. As a
matter of fact, just the opposite is the case. We start in
nature with the complex situation or sensible phenomenon as
the reality to be explained. The analytical elements or
factors are merely the result of analysis, and might even be
merely abstractions. But because they are simpler and
admit of closer scrutiny and experiment, we have come
to look upon them as real or constitutive, and upon
the situation from which they were abstracted or analysed,
as artificial or constituted. Thus it has come about that
in physical science, for instance, the elements of matter
or force into which bodies have been analysed have
tended to become the reals. Thus scientific entities like
electrons and protons, and the physical energies or
forces which they represent, are taken to be the real
entities in nature, and sensible matter or bodies as
something derivative and merely resulting from their
activities. The abstract thus becomes the real, the concrete
is relegated to a secondary position. This inversion of

I FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 21

reality is very much the same procedure as was condemned
in the case of the scholastic and other philosophers who
attributed reality to universals instead of to concrete
particulars. This may be called the error of abstraction
or generalisation. Against both these forms of error we
have to guard, if we wish faithfully to interpret Nature
as we experience her.

Analysis, abstraction and generalisation are indeed neces-
sary as instruments of scientific understanding, but they also
necessarily involve a departure from the concrete, and thus
a possible element of error which in its ultimate effects may
produce a serious distortion in our general view of reality.
The concrete whole of a situation comes to be deduced from
its abstract parts, and the principle of natural explanation
thus proceeds by way of the parts to the whole. The whole
as so understood is confined to its parts and comes to suffer
from the same limitations as its parts. For the full concrete
reality comes to be substituted a more limited scheme or
pattern of parts, an aggregation rather than a natural
organic synthesis.

Our object in studying and interpreting Nature is to be
faithful to our experience of her. We do not want to,
recreate Nature in our own image, and as far as possible we
wish to eliminate errors of observation or construction which
are due to us as observers. We do not wish to spread Nature
on a sort of Procrustes bed of our concepts and cut off here
and there what appears surplus or unnecessary or even non-
existent to our subjective standards. Our experience is
largely fluid and plastic, with little that is rigid and with
much that is indefinite about it. We should as far as
possible withstand the temptation to pour this plastic
experience into the moulds of our hard and narrow pre-
conceived notions, and even at the risk of failing to explain
precisely all that we experience we should be modest and loyal
in the handling of that experience. In that way a good deal
of what we have hitherto felt certain may once more
become uncertain ; the solid and recognised landmarks may
once more become blurred or shifting; the stable results

22 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP, i

of nineteenth-century science may once more become
unstable and uncertain. But the way will be open for the
truer constructions of the future, and the foundations of
our future science will be more deeply and securely laid.

In the following chapters a modest effort will be made to
apply the above ideas and principles to a new interpretation
of Nature, including, as it does, Matter, Life, Mind, and
Personality. Matter, Life, and Mind, so far from being dis-
continuous and disparate, will appear as a more or less
connected progressive series of the same great Process. And
this Process will be shown to underlie and account for the
characters of all three, and to give to Evolution, both
inorganic and organic, both psychical and spiritual, a funda-
mental unity and continuity which it does not seem to possess
according to current scientific and philosophical ideas. 1

1 It is interesting to note how Professor A. N. Whitehead in his
Science and the Modern World deals with the situation which I have
tried to meet by means of the concept of " fields/' He also takes the
view that the thing or event taken by itself in its spatial limits is a
false simplification, which he calls the fallacy of Misplaced Concrete-
ness. According to him, the mistake is due to the assumption of
the simple location of things or events, in other words, to the mis-
taken belief that a thing or event, as it appears in a definite space at a
certain time, is all there is of it, and that it has nothing to do with
other spaces or other times. This mistake of simple location is
therefore identical with that pointed out above of confining a thing
or event to its apparent spatial contours or boundaries, with nothing
of it beyond them. 1 following the lead of physical science
attempt to remedy the mistake by extending the thing or event into
its " field " beyond these contours or boundaries. Professor White-
head proceeds in a more radical and perhaps more correct way by a
re-examination of the status of Space-Time in relation to things and
events. In this way he arrives at the result that a thing or event
is not confined to its own simple Space-Time location, and is thus not
itself alone, but that it reflects the aspects of all other things and
events from its particular standpoint, and thus in a sense involves
their locations also. In the larger context of nature the thing or
event is, therefore, a synthesis ot itself with the aspects or perspec-
tives of everything else as mirrored from its standpoint. White-
head's searching analysis leads to results which closely resemble those
of Leibniz's Monadology, and involve a radical transformation of
current practical and scientific concepts. The alternative concept
of " fields," while less revolutionary and simpler to understand,
seems to meet the purpose in view sufficiently well. On both views
a thing or event transcends its apparent limits. That the popular
view of " simple location " involves a most insidious and far-
reaching error of abstraction is common ground to both Professor

CHAPTER II

THE REFORMED CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME

Summary. It is not only in organic Evolution that the old fixed
concepts and counters of thought are breaking down. Recent
advances in physical science have extended the revolution to the
domain of the inorganic ; the fixity of the atom has followed that of
species into the limbo of the obsolete. In many directions new
concepts, more in harmony with the fluid creative process of nature,
are called for.

We begin with the new concepts of Space and Time, which in the
system of Relativity are taking the place of the old Newtonian
concepts still commonly accepted. The new ideas of Space and
Time arose from researches in the higher mathematics and physics,
and were primarily concerned with the relative character of all
actual motion in the universe, and the mathematical and physical
consequences of this relativity. Thus according to the mathematical
physicists, to a moving observer a moving body appears to contract
or to be shorter than it would be to a stationary observer, and the
faster either of them moves the greater the contraction becomes.
Time varies similarly, but in the opposite direction ; while the
space of the moving body appears to contract, its time appears
to expand, so that it takes a longer time to pass a point than it
would do if viewed by a stationary observer. This joint and
inseparable variation of Space and Time was not only most
important in itself, but led directly to the revolutionary conception
that neither of them existed independently, but that together
they form the Space-Time medium of the real physical world. From
this point of view bodies and things as merely spatial are not real
but abstractions, while events, which involve both Space and Time,
Action in Space-Time, are real and form the units of reality. The
deposition of the old Space and Time and their replacement by
Space-Time have been tested in the most searching way both in the
immense world of astronomy and the most minute world of the atom,
and in both cases the new concepts have been found to work -satis-
factorily.

The variation of Space and Time has led to the further conclusion
that in a world of relative motion such as ours, where all observers

23

24 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

and all observed bodies are in motion, all standards of measurement
and all clocks of Time are themselves variable and give no constant
results. But a varying standard must produce a warped or twisted
field. Applying this conclusion to gravitation and the rotational
movements of the universe, we find that the Space-Time medium of
the universe is curved and warped and not of the homogeneous
character which was attributed to Space and Time according
to the old ideas. In all gravitational fields events happen in
curves and follow the fundamental curves of the Space-Time
universe. The result is that the entire universe acquires a definite
structural character, and is not a diffuse homogeneity as was formerly
supposed. According to the new Space-Time concept, structure,
definite organised structure, becomes the essential characteristic
of the physical universe, and this structural character accounts for
many hitherto inexplicable phenomena.

Newton's and Kant's ideas of Space and Time compared with
those of Einstein.

IN the preceding chapter I have tried to explain how the
acceptance of the theory of Evolution must inevitably and
profoundly affect our views as regards the nature of matter.
In this chapter I proceed to inquire what bearing recent
far-reaching physical researches and speculations have on
this position. Our problem is to break away from the hard
and narrow conceptions of the Victorian age, to see Nature
once more in her fluid and creative plasticity, and to formu-
late our conceptions afresh from this deeper point of view.
A great change has come over our views of Nature, a change
great enough in the end to amount to one of the fundamental
revolutions in human thought. But we are still in the
process of that change, and it is therefore difficult for us to
realise its full significance. Three dates stand out in bold
relief as inaugurating that change : 1859, when Darwin's
Origin of Species was published; 1896, when Becquerel
discovered Radioactivity; and 1915, when Einstein pub-
lished his General Theory of Relativity. Round these three
great events other discoveries of profound interest have taken
and are still taking place ; and in the result our entire view-
points and standpoints as regards Nature and reality are
undergoing a fundamental change which must in the end
affect every province of human thought and conduct. The

ii CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME 25

fixity of organic species is gone; the fixity of inorganic
elements is going. The position is once more becoming
fluid, the old rigid order is visibly dissolving, the fixed land-
marks and beacon-points by which former generations steered
their course in science are becoming submerged. And the
task awaits the future out of this fluid situation and these
instabilities once more to build a stable world of ideas, which
will be in closer harmony with the reality around us and within
us. One of the aspects of Darwin's Theory has already briefly
engaged our attention in the last chapter, and other aspects
of it will be considered in Chapter VIII. In the present
chapter reference must be made to Einstein's General Theory
of Relativity and the bearing it has on our ideas of space and
time as the framework in which events are located, and the
medium in which Evolution takes place. The resulting
view of the universe as structural, and of the element of
structure as fundamental to the universe and all its forms, is
important for the subject and the argument of this work.

People become frightened when they are invited to consider
Einstein's theory. Its refined abstractions, its abstruse
mathematical form, its complete novelty and reversal of
ordinary common-sense view-points make it a terror to the,
uninitiated. And yet I believe the Einstein view-point can
be quite simply and intelligibly put. Indeed it must be so
put if it is ever to become part and parcel of ordinary
educated thought. We must distinguish between the simple
and clear view-point itself, and the recondite mathematical
processes by which it was reached, and the technical mathe-
matical form in which it is expressed, and from which for
all ordinary purposes it can be separated. The understand-
ing and appreciation of the Relativity view-point are not
dependent on a knowledge of the process by which Einstein
reached that view-point. The result is quite distinct from
the process. It is like groping our way through a long, dark,
rough tunnel, and at the end emerging into the clear daylight
beyond : it is not necessary for the appreciation of the new
view that one should plunge back into the dark tunnel.
Besides, I must frankly state my own lay impression that the

26 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Einstein theory, as distinguished from the broad view-point
attained, has not yet found its final expression. All great
truths are in their essence simple; and the absence of
simplicity of statement only shows that the ultimate form
has not yet been reached. The day may yet come when the
ten recondite Einstein equations of gravitation may appear
as but the scaffolding of the simpler structure yet to arise,
the naturalness and inevitableness of which will be as evident
to every educated person as the heliocentric conception of
Copernicus has become.

The Einstein theory arose originally from researches in
the higher mathematics and physics, and a brief reference
to this mathematical origin will be useful. Galileo
and Newton were the fathers of the modern classical
mechanics; they (and especially Newton) formulated
the laws of moving bodies in an exact mathematical
science. Now the germ of the new Relativity mechanics is
the almost obvious fact that the motion of a body is never
absolute, but is always relative to some other body or point.
If this body or point of reference is stationary, Newton's
laws of motion apply completely, and the geometry of
Euclid also applies, so that the movements of bodies can be
represented by geometrical figures. Such bodies are said
to move in Euclidean space, which is the same and homo-
geneous all through and in all directions. Now since New-
ton's time a great deal of attention has been given to the
case where the body of reference or the observer is not
stationary but is also in motion. This case is important,
because it is actually that of all bodies in our universe, in
which all observers or points of reference are themselves in
motion. A point on the earth, for instance, rotates with a
certain velocity round the centre of the earth, while the earth
again rotates with another velocity round the sun. The sun
itself is not stationary but moving with reference to some
star in the constellation Hercules, which is itself in motion
with reference to the star stream of the Milky Way. It
is this case of the moving observer or point of reference
with which Einstein's theory deals, and it is therefore

ii CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME 27

clear that this theory faces the problem of motion as
it actually exists in the universe. The impression of
rest or stationariness to us as observers in the universe
is a mere illusion, and the great service of Einstein was
to explore this illusion and to show in exact mathematical
form to what extent it affects our vision and judgment of
movement in the world. Let us therefore take the case of
moving observers. Now when a moving object (say a train
in motion) is viewed by an observer in motion (say an
observer in a motor-car moving on a road parallel to the
train), certain curious results have been worked out by
Fitzgerald and Lorentz, of which the following are two
important samples :

(A) The train appears a little shorter than it would to a
stationary observer.

(B) The time taken by the train to pass a point appears a
little longer (or the train appears to move somewhat more
slowly) than it would to a stationary observer.

In other words, to a moving observer the length or the
space occupied by a moving body is smaller in the direction
of its motion than it would appear to a stationary observer^;
and similarly the time taken by the observed body to pass
a point will be longer. And the faster the observer
or observed body moves, the more the space and time
of the observed body will vary for him, compared to what
they would do if he were at rest. These two variations
of space and time are joint variations, happening simul-
taneously but in an opposite direction, the one becoming
less in proportion as the other becomes more to the
moving observer. Space contracts and time expands in
inverse proportions according to the rate of motion of a
moving body of reference or a moving observer. One
may generalise this result and say that so long as
several observers move at different rates but uniformly
and in straight lines with regard to each other, the velocity
or speed of the moving body which they are observing
follows the same law for all of them, as the proportional

28 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

covariations of their respective spaces and times cancel each
other out, so to say. This is a popular way of stating the
main principle of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity > first
published in 1905, in rigorous mathematical form. It
explained the fact, which had been repeatedly confirmed by
the most accurate experiments of Michelson and Morley,
that the velocity of light is always the same, whatever the
velocity of its source, and however great may be the
difference in velocities of the moving observers who are
trying to measure it. An observer moving away from a
flash of light at a rate which is half that of light will
see the flash at the same time as a stationary observer,
and not later as one might suppose. The reason is that
the time and space measures of the moving observer
have changed jointly so as to neutralise the results which
his motion might have on his observation. For all bodies
or observers moving at ordinary terrestrial rates the
change is so small as to be negligible, and it is only when one
or both of them move at a rate approaching that of light
that the apparent contraction and expansion become
important and have to be considered in actual calculations.

The two salient facts to bear in mind as a result of the
above is : that to moving observers clocks and standards
of measurement in motion are no longer absolute but vary
according to the rates of motion of these observers or
of the clocks or standards, and that there is this curious
joint and opposite variation of the space and time
measures of moving observers or bodies. In fact separately
Space and Time must be mere abstractions, as in all actual
movements they are always found in inseparable conjoint
action.

From this co- variation of Space and Time it is but a step to
Minkowski's great idea, first formulated in 1908, that in
natural events Space and Time are not independent factors,
and that in the mathematical representation of events the
correct way is to introduce time as a fourth dimension, not
of space, but of the Space-Time continuum in which events
really take place. Time is, of course, in many ways unlike

ii CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME 29

space and is not another dimension of it, but this inseparable
co-variation in all events which happen in nature makes it
both feasible and proper that we should substitute the real
Space-Time continuum of events for the old abstract three-
dimensional space of bodies or points in space. In passing
it may here be pointed out that the old notion of the separate
reality of space and of time involved both the errors of
analysis and of abstraction to which attention was drawn in
the last chapter, and Minkowski's brilliant idea has simply
brought us back to the natural fact as it occurs in experience,
where nothing ever happens in space alone or in time alone, but
always in both together, and where objects are not observed
by themselves, but always as elements or items in the stream
of perceived events. Nay more, it can be easily shown that
the very ideas of Space and Time interpenetrate each other
and are dependent on each other. Succession or the time-
series, and co-existence or the space-series, are necessary to
each other and would not be even intelligible apart from
each other. For the succession (time) would perish at each
step and would not even form a series, unless it had enduring-
ness or co-existence (space). And similarly the co-existence
(space) would stop at its first step and would not be spread
out or extended unless it had also succession (time).

To Einstein this concept of a Space-Time continuum
proved most welcome and fruitful, and he proceeded to
apply it to the explanation of all movements in the universe,
not only to uniform and rectilinear motions which take place
in uniform Euclidean space, but also to rotating and accele-
rated motions which take place in a gravitational field of a
non-Euclidean character.

His first step was to illustrate, by purely theoretical
considerations, the fact that a body under the influence of a
constant force, and therefore moving with a constantly
increasing acceleration, would to an observer situated on it
behave in exactly the same way as a body acted on by
gravitation. Thus suppose a man enclosed in a cage so that
he cannot observe any other body and cannot notice his own
motion. And suppose this cage suspended in distant space

30 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

where there is no gravitation. And suppose further that
this cage is drawn upward with a constant force, so that it
moves faster and faster with a constantly increasing accelera-
tion. In truth the case is therefore one of acceleration. But
by the enclosed observer this motion and acceleration of the
cage and himself will not be noticed. He would only feel
like being pulled down by his own weight. If he loses any
object from his hand, it will fall to the bottom of the cage
like a stone dropped on the earth. What is more, the rate
at which the object drops is the same, whatever its figure or
size or amount of material. The fact italicised is distinctive
of gravitation. In other words, the man in the cage will
think that he and the cage and the object therein are all acted
upon by gravitation. What is really due to acceleration
appears to be a case purely and simply of gravitation. Thus
we see acceleration and gravitation are really the same
phenomena and only different in appearance to observers.
Acceleration and gravitation are, in fact, equivalent expres-
sions. Einstein's closed cage may yet become as historic
as Newton's falling apple.

Now take rotation, which is simply a special case of
acceleration. And let us imagine an observer situated on a
rotating or revolving plane circular disc and proceeding to
measure the area of the disc and the rate at which it is
revolving. He has two identical clocks, one of which he puts
near the centre of the disc and the other near the circum-
ference in order to take some time measurements. When he
proceeds to take the time of the clock near the centre he finds
that it moves faster than when he proceeds to read the
clock placed near the circumference. We have already seen
why this is so. The motion of the disc at the centre is
nil, and its motion at the circumference quite marked, and
the times of identical clocks near these two points will
therefore vary to the observer. And similarly the rate
of any identical clock will vary according to the distance of
its position on the surface of the disc from the centre, as the
motions of all points on the disc will differ according to their
distance from the centre, where the motion is slower.

ii CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME 31

He then proceeds to apply identical measuring rods
and finds the same continual variation. He finds that
the identical measuring rods vary in length according
to their position on the disc; one placed on the circum-
ference is shorter than one placed near the centre.
And the differing lengths of the rods will measure up
different spaces. The observer will become utterly con-
fused, and will finally conclude that the spaces on the
disc are not the same everywhere and in all directions, but
appear to vary in all directions and to be twisted, warped
and curved. Or, as we would say, the space of the disc is
not straight-line homogeneous uniform Euclidean space, but
curved and non-Euclidean. Taking the variations of the
spaces and times on the rotating disc together, we conclude
that the disc is not a Euclidean space but a non-Euclidean
Space-Time continuum.

As we have seen that the phenomena of acceleration
(including rotation) and gravitation are equivalent, these
considerations in reference to the rotating disc apply also to
every gravitational body. We know that gravitation acts
at a distance from the centre of the gravitational body;
in fact every such body is surrounded by a gravitational
field far larger than itself. Therefore the non-Euclidean
characters will also distinguish the Space-Time continuum
in this field. In other words, movements and happenings
in this field will not follow the law of a uniform time and a
homogeneous identical space in all directions. They will
take place in curves, exactly as on our rotating disc. A body
falling in space through such a field will on entering
it and while in it follow, not a straight path, but
the curve which coincides most closely with its original
straight path ; a ray of light passing through the field will
similarly follow the nearest curve instead of a straight line.
And indeed any physical event within that field will, in so far
as it is of a translational character, follow the curve on which
it happens to take place. These deductions from theory
have been experimentally verified in the most important
particulars.

32 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

According to this theory the mysterious " attractive "
power of matter, which is called gravitation, assumes quite
a different character. The apparent attraction is simply the
curved or bent paths due to the movements in the universe
of masses charged with energy, which (except as pushes and
pulls on our bodies) we ourselves do not particularly notice as
we happen to partake of the same movements as the observed
phenomena. This, however, does not make of gravitation an
unreality, due to the subjective vagaries of the observer.
Gravitation, as we have seen, now becomes the curves of the
real Space-Time world ; it marks the inevitable paths which
all events must follow in the physical universe. So far
from being subjective or merely relative to the observer,
gravitation becomes the very structure of the real world and
connotes the stratification which characterises the vast fields
of the Space-Time continuum. Our whole conception of the
universe is altered. Instead of conceiving the universe as
consisting of material bodies floating in a medium of uniform
homogeneous space, we now look upon the vast variable
masses of " matter " associated with high-speed energies as
developing huge " fields " called Space-Time, in which
the curves of the lines can be calculated and the course of
events happening in them can be predicted. For events
follow the curves and their future course can be calculated,
once their position on the curves is determined. The
physics of Nature thus becomes in part an annex
of the geometry of Space-Time, and a new power is
placed in the hands of man, limited only by the limitations
of his mathematical insight and genius. The distance be-
tween mind and matter is immeasurably reduced, and matter
appears to become plastic to the moulding power of mind.
The concept of the " field " becomes all-important in science
and in thought. The " field " of matter is simply the curved
structure of the real Space-Time, which extends far beyond
sensible matter itself. Throughout its vast " fields " the
universe assumes a form not very much unlike the curved
contours and unevennesses which we associate with the
physical appearance of this globe. The contours of the

[i CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME 33

unseen universe of our field which surrounds us follow very
much the lines which meet our eye on sea and land. But
these lines are not mere empty form. They are not mere
curves of beauty; they are real and causal, for they
determine the course of events in the universe. The
peripheries of rotating bodies are such curves, the planets
move round the suns in such curves; light is propagated
along such curves; in fact these curves are the path-
ways of the physical universe which all physical events
must follow. The inmost nature of the universe is active
Energy or Action and involves the interplay of tre-
mendous activities, whose result is expressed in these
curves; and these curves are nothing but the actual
orientation or direction of events in the Space-Time
framework of the universe.

What is or would be the situation beyond the material
universe and its vast fields ? There we pass beyond the
bounds of gravitation, where there is neither rotation
nor acceleration, where " bodies " (if such astral ab-
stractions could be imagined) persist in their state of rest
or of uniform motion in a straight line according to
Newton's First Law. There Space-Time, if it could be
imagined to exist, would not be warped or curved, but would
be homogeneous and continuous, and would be exactly the
form of empty nothingness. In fact, homogeneous Euclidean
Space-Time beyond all real fields is simply a limiting con-
ception of thought and would correspond to nothing that we
have any knowledge of in our universe, in which the great
masses of matter everywhere produce curved fields.

It may be interesting, in conclusion, to point out the
difference between this conception of Space-Time in the
Relativity Theory and the conceptions of Space and Time
formulated by Newton and Kant. For Newton both Space
and Time were absolutes ; that is to say, were real invariable
permanent entities or characters of things and events. They
were each homogeneous and continuous and therefore
adequately expressible by the geometry of Euclid. There
was nothing subjective about them. For Kant, who in other

D

34 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

respects profoundly admired the Newtonian system, the great
problem of knowledge was how to determine the relative con-
tributions made to our knowledge of the world by the sub-
jective and objective factors respectively, and especially how-
much and what the mind brought into the common pool of
knowledge and experience. His answer in effect was that
the action of the mind was creative in experience and that
it contributed to our knowledge (a) the elements of Space
and Time which are nothing but the mind's own sensuous
forms of intuition or perception imposed on the materials
of sense and experience, and (b) the general conceptual system
of knowledge which follows from the categories of the Under-
standing, and (c) certain ultimate regulative principles of the
human Reason. According to this view, therefore, Space and
Time are nothing but the necessary forms of man's sensuous
perception ; they do not exist in external reality, but are
imposed by the mind on all objects of sense. While accepting
the homogeneous universal Euclidean characters which New-
ton ascribed to Space and Time, Kant denied that they were
real entities or characters of things or events. If these
characters belonged to things, Kant failed to understand
how the a priori synthetic character of mathematical
knowledge was possible, and he could only explain this fact
by making the sensuous form of things a subjective con-
tribution of the mind itself. According to him the uni-
versal forms of Space and Time in experience were due,
not to the things or the world to which they seemed to
belong, but purely and simply to the perceiving mind
which invested all things or events with them.

In contradistinction to both these theories, Space and Time
in the theory of Relativity as conjoint co-ordinate forms
belong both to the mind and to things ; and the whole effort
of Einstein was to separate the subjective appearance from
the objective reality, to separate the relative, variable and
disturbing contribution made by the observing mind from
the real permanent Space-Time factor which is inherent in
the physical universe. If the confirmation of theory by
facts means anything it must be admitted that Einstein has

ii CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND TIME 35

been singularly successful in his analysis and evaluation of
these two subjective and objective aspects of the Space-
Time concept. That Space and Time were not, on the one
hand, merely subjective conditions of experience as Kant
held, nor, on the other, merely objectively given elements
for experience as Newton held, but that they were both
subjective and objective contributions to experience, might
have been the discovery of a sound psychology or episte-
mology. But that these two factors of Space and Time have
been fused into one synthesis, from which both the subjective
and objective elements have been properly sorted out and
isolated and valued and rigorously determined, is an achieve-
ment of the most outstanding importance not only for
science but also for philosophy. It is unnecessary to point
out that in the Theory of Relativity Space and Time are not
metaphysical conceptions or forms. The infinite homo-
geneous Space and Time which to Kant were mental pre-
suppositions and preconditions of all sensuous experience,
and to Leibniz the pre-established permanent universal order
of co-existence and succession among things, are to Einstein
mere limiting pseudo-concepts, metaphysical abstractions
without relation to our real experience. In our experience
Space and Time are given elements just as colour, weight and
the rest. The task of science is to co-ordinate these elements
in an intelligible form, and in doing so Einstein has simply
explored them as if they were real physical experience like
the rest. The result is the elimination of certain historic
errors from the concepts of Space and Time, and the deter-
mination of their physical qualities in line with the rest of
our physical experience and concepts. The Space-Time
continuum, instead of being a vague, homogeneous, formless,
metaphysical concept, becomes a part of physical reality,
becomes the " field " of the material world, with a definite
structure of its own. Structure, real differentiated structure,
becomes the inmost form of the real Space-Time world.
The close bearing of this on the main argument of this work
will appear from the following chapters.

CHAPTER III

THE REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER

Summary. Coming now from the Space Time continuum to
Matter we find the feature of structure much more conspicuous and
important. The physical and chemical constitution of matter is
almost entirely a matter of structure. Chemistry has traced matter
to its ultimate units or atoms, and to the combination of these into
molecules and substances according to structural schemes dependent
on the placing and spacing of the different units in the various
chemical combinations. The New Physics has carried the process
a step further back by analysing atoms into their constituent elec-
trons and protons, or units of negative and positive electricity.
These units are so arranged structurally as to approximate to the
form of more or less complicated solar systems, with central
positive nuclei and revolving planetary electrons. The explanation
of the physical and chemical properties of matter has been traced
to the structural arrangements in these atomic systems and the
number and changes in position of their various units. Matter is
thus a structure of energy units revolving with immense velocities
in Space-Time, and the various elements arise from the number and
arrangement of the units in an atom; as these can be varied, the
transmutation of elements becomes possible, as in Radioactivity.
The peculiar serial character of the Periodic Table of the elements is
thus due to the number of units and their architecture in the atoms.
Atomic Weights and Atomic Numbers reflect this inner arithmetical
character of the atoms.

The states of matter, as gaseous, liquid or solid, are also the results
of the residual surface forces in atoms and molecules, due to their
inner structure. Crystal structure is another result of inner atomic
structure. But perhaps the most remarkable state of matter is a
combination of the other states ; this is called the colloid state, in
which very minute particles of one material are dispersed throughout
another. This colloid state is much more universal than is commonly
thought, and is specially important because the protoplasm of cells
is organised in this state. The minuteness of the dispersed particles
means the exposure of a maximum surface area compared to their
mass. These surfaces bring into play the surface forces and show
peculiar affinities or selective properties of various kinds, and in this
way certain chemical and physical reactions are facilitated at these
surfaces, which make them useful in the industries as well as in the

CHAP, in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 37

processes of organic life. In fact, some reactions in the colloid state
approximate strangely to the biological type.

From the above analysis of the structural energetic constitution of
matter certain conclusions can be drawn which very much narrow
the gulf between matter and life.

In the first place, the old view of matter as inert and passive dis-
appears completely. Matter like life is intensely active, indeed is
Action in the technical physical sense ; the difference is not between
deadness and activity, but between two different kinds of activity.
Through their common activities the fields of matter and life thus
overlap and intermingle, and absolute separation disappears.

In the second place, Radioactivity in matter plays a somewhat
analogous r61e to Organic Descent in life. Both render fluid the old
fixed entities and forms ; although the difference between them must
not be minimised. Especially must it be recognised that Radio-
activity is regressive, while Organic Descent is progressive. But
this may be due to the extreme age of matter as compared with the
youth of life in the history of the earth.

In the third place, the Periodic Table of Chemistry has a distinct
resemblance to the Systems of Botany and Zoology ; the concepts
of families, genera and species could be applied to both. This shows
that the characters of activity, plasticity and probably of develop-
ment and genetic relationships apply to both the organic and inorganic
domains.

In the fourth place, the structural character of matter indicates
that it is also creative, not of its own stuff, but of the forms, arrange-
ments and patterns which constitute all its value in the physical
sphere. Just as life and mind are creative of values through the
selective combinations and forms which they bring about, so matter
also, instead of being dispersive, diffusive, and structureless, effects
through its inner activities and forces structural groupings and com-
binations which are valuable, not merely to humans, but in the order
of the universe. But for its dynamic structural creative character
matter could not have been the mother of the universe.

In the fifth place, matter in its colloid state in protoplasm discloses
properties and manufactures substances, such as chlorophyll and
haemoglobin, which are necessary for the functions of life, and which
go far toward bridging the great gap between the two. In its colloid
state we thus see matter reaching up to the very threshold of life.
A great leap may have taken place across what remained as a gap.
A great " mutation " may have occurred. But as life probably
began on a much lower level than the lowest forms we know to-day,
the mutation may after all not have been so great. In any case a
close scrutiny of the nature of matter, as revealed by the New
Physics, and especially colloid chemistry, brings it very near to the
concept of life.

38 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

LET us now proceed to consider how recent advances in
our knowledge of the constitution of matter have empha-
sised the importance of this same feature of structure in the
physical universe. Chemistry had for a century been explor-
ing with great success the structure and constitution of
matter, but the New Physics of Radioactivity has during
the last twenty years proved a most powerful aid to Chemistry
and led to discoveries which are little short of revolutionary.
To Chemistry was due the analysis of matter into a certain
number of elements, each with its own physical and chemical
properties ; the discovery of the atom as the ultimate unit
of each element of matter ; the union of atoms of each element
into simple molecules of that element, and the union of atoms
of various elements into compound molecules. The com-
binations of elements in definite quantitative proportions
was explained as the union of one or more of the atoms of
these elements with each other. From this it might be
inferred that the combinations of Chemistry were like the
combinations of Arithmetic, and that the whole numbers of
Arithmetic might properly represent the atoms of Chemistry
and their combinations into compounds. This inference has,
however, only been actually verified by the recent physical
discoveries. It was not only the fact of numerical or
quantitative structure that was important to Chemistry ;
the spatial or positional structure of matter, the order of
placing and spacing of the atoms in the chemical substance,
the architecture of matter became almost equally important,
and in many cases the properties of a substance could only
be explained on the basis of its real or supposed inner
structure and configuration. Thus molecules of carbon
could be either coal or graphite or diamond, and this great
dissimilarity in the same chemical substance was explained
as the result of the difference of structure in the placing
and spacing of the atoms in the carbon molecule. Sulphur
and many other elements show a similar polymorphous or,
as it is called, allotropic character. It was, however, when
chemists had to explain the different characters of quite
distinct chemical compounds, which yet had the same

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 39

chemical composition, that the importance of " structure "
and constitution became most highly accentuated. Such
compounds are called isomers. So important is structure
to matter that without it one may safely say that
organic chemistry becomes unintelligible. The more
complex the composition of substances (as in organic
chemistry), the larger the number of permutations and
combinations that are possible in the relative positions and
placings of atoms or groups of atoms in the make-up of
matter, the more important does the phenomenon of
isomerism become, and the greater is the part played by
structure and configuration in the building up of matter.
The chemical formula is no longer sufficient, it is a mere
abstract notational shorthand which may be thoroughly
misleading in the absence of a diagrammatic representation
of the constitution or structure of the compound substance.
The crystal forms of solids illustrate not only the structural
character of chemical substances, but also the invariable way
in which the same substance follows the same pattern of
structure. To Chemistry structure, or the proper representa-
tion of relative positions of atoms or their groups in the
three dimensions of space, has become indispensable. And
the New Physics has now gone a step further and shown that
this minute structure of the chemical atom and compound
is not static in space, but dynamic and intensely active in
that Space-Time continuum which we have already found
dominant in the relations of astronomical bodies and
events. Space-Time prevails at both ends of physical
infinity and everywhere between.

To Chemistry the atom was a hard indivisible unit, the
constitution of which (if there was any) could not be known ;
nor could it explain chemical affinity or why atoms combined
into molecules; nor could it explain the strange serial
character of the Periodic Law in reference to the atomic
weights and the properties of atoms. These triumphs were
reserved for the New Physics, and they have traced structure
back into the innermost recesses of the atom. The discovery
of Radioactivity by Becquerel in 1896 at Paris was the first

40 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

indication that the atom was not indivisible and could break
up spontaneously in nature. The discovery in the previous
year of the X-rays by Rontgen for the first time revealed the
existence of invisible rays whose wave-length was as small
as atoms, and the elaboration of the spectrum of these rays
has provided an instrument of incredible power and accuracy
in the investigation of the almost infinitesimally small
phenomena of atomic structure. Then followed in 1897 the
isolation by Sir J. J. Thomson of the ultimate unit of nega-
tive electricity in the electron; and in 1900 Max Planck
of Berlin University discovered what came to be known
as the quantum, the unit of radiant action emitted by
all radiant bodies or even dark bodies. The application of
these new ideas and means of investigation by a number of
brilliant researchers has led to the elucidation of the nature
and constitution of the atom of matter in the theory which is
specially associated with the names of Sir Ernest Rutherford
and Professor Niels Bohr. Without entering into details
which do not concern us, and simply to illustrate the element
of " structure " in the atom with which we are dealing, I shall
summarise the salient points in this theory. According to
it, an atom is an electrical constellation somewhat like our
gravitational solar system ; the centre of the system being a
minute very massive nucleus positively electrified, round
which revolve equally minute electrons or negative particles
of very small mass so small that in the Hydrogen atom,
for instance, the nucleus has 1835 times the mass of the
electron. The electrons revolve at various rates in their
different orbits, all of which can be measured through their
X-ray spectrum; and an electron can suddenly and all at
once jump from one orbit to another, increasing its orbit
when it receives one or more quanta of radiation from some
outside body, or decreasing its orbit and taking one nearer
the central nucleus, and in the act of doing so releasing one
or more quanta of radiation. It is these quanta of radiation,
released when the electron jumps to a narrower orbit in the
atom, that account for the light which comes from the sun
and the stars, and in fact all radiant bodies ; and it is the

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 41

definite quanta of radiation so emitted which account for the
peculiar spectrum of the elements in the spectroscope. Why
atomic light should be emitted in these definite amounts or
quanta is not yet known, but it is known that the quanta
follow a scale somewhat similar to the notes in music, and
we may therefore think of light as the music of the spheres,
in which the total harmony or light effect is made up of
definite discontinuous notes instead of continuous variations
of light. The wonderful thing is that in regard to all these
matters we have the most minute and accurate knowledge :
the amount of a quantum ; the mass, velocity and orbits of
an electron ; the mass and velocity of rotation of a nucleus,
and the total sphere of an atom, with its small nucleus and
electrons and vast empty spaces, comparable to the empty
spaces in our solar system. The electron is by now very
well known, and indeed all electric currents are nothing but
streams of free electrons. But of the corresponding positive
unit which is called a proton next to nothing is known, as
the proton has never yet been isolated. Now the nucleus of
an atom may be simple or complex; it may be a proton,
as in the case of the Hydrogen atom, or it may consist of
several protons, some of which, again, may be neutralised
by closely associated electrons, and some remain unneu-
tralised, so that the nucleus as a whole always remains
positively electrified. In the Hydrogen atom there is one
proton in the nucleus, and hence there is one electron
revolving round it. In the Helium atom, again, there is a
nucleus of four protons, two of which have electrons in
association with them, and two not ; the nucleus, therefore,
has two positive units, to which correspond two electrons
which revolve round the nucleus in the atom. The com-
bination of four protons and two electrons in the Helium
nucleus appears to persist in other nuclei, so that the nuclei
of the other elements appear to be a combination of simple
(Hydrogen) and complex (Helium) nuclei. The number of
revolving electrons in an element always corresponds to the
number of unsatisfied positive units in the nucleus, which
is called the atomic number of the element, and which is

42 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

always an integer; and thus the atomic numbers of
the elements run from i in the case of Hydrogen to
2 in the case of Helium, 6 in the case of Carbon, and so on
to 92 in the case of Uranium, the heaviest of all the known
elements. Of these 92 possible elements, very few have not
yet been isolated, although their atomic numbers and weights
and positions in the Periodic Table and their approximate
properties are known. 1 Atomic weights are in every case
integers, the apparent exceptions being cases where we
have to do with isotopes or elements of which the atoms
are not all identically the same but slightly different in
their electron contents. Thus the New Physics has inci-
dentally explained the mystery of the Periodic Table.

The mystery of the atom has now largely narrowed down
to the nucleus, which consists of an inner revolving system
of protons of which comparatively little is known except that
they rotate round their centre with an enormous velocity
probably not much less than that of light and that the
quantum law as well as the mass law of Relativity holds
with regard to them. As space or volume contracts with
velocity in Space-Time, the mass of the nucleus increases
with high speeds out of all proportion to its size, and
the positive nucleus of the atom is therefore its virtual mass,
the rest of the atom being either empty space or very light
insubstantial electrons. Owing to its massiveness the nucleus
of protons is therefore coming to be identified with matter,
as if matter were ultimately only high-speed densely massed
positive electricity. The proton may thus yet prove to be
the fundamental unit of matter. The significance of this
view is that it reduces matter simply to a form of energy,
or rather Action, and therefore still further simplifies the
scheme of the universe.

There is another fact which shows the intimate relation
between energy on the one hand and structure or mass on
the other. The mass or atomic weight of the free Hydrogen

1 If the claims to the recent discoveries of Hafnium, Masurium
and Rhenium are allowed, only at most a couple of further elements
await discovery.

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 43

atom has been determined as 1-0077. ^ n the Helium
nucleus, as we have seen, there are four protons or Hydrogen
nuclei, but here their mass only appears as one. In other
words, the free Hydrogen atoms or protons (they are practi-
cally identical as regards mass) suffer a diminution of mass
when they are concentrated into the Helium nucleus, as if
in this nucleus, which is itself an inner constellation system,
the protons and electrons are so close as to jam each other,
and therefore move more slowly and thereby decrease their
mass or matter. When the Helium nucleus is again split up
into Hydrogen protons, this loss of mass would be recover-
able in the form of energy, which, small as it is in the
Helium nucleus, must be enormous in the world, as in all
matter the nuclei are composed either of Hydrogen pro-
tons or Helium protons (their compressed form) or both.
Should this energy ever become economically available, the
greatest potential source of energy in the universe will
be opened up for the benefit of mankind.

This would involve the artificial breaking up of matter,
and this is the phenomenon which we actually witness in
a natural spontaneous form in Radioactivity. In Radio-
activity the nuclei of the heavier elements (Uranium,
Thorium, and Radium) spontaneously break up and eject
Helium at an invariably slow rate, which is regular
enough to be a geological clock, now being used as a
measure to calculate the age of the oldest rock-formations
of the earth. 1 Thus the Periodic Table shows that the
expulsion of three Helium atoms from Uranium will con-
vert it through Thorium into Radium; the expulsion of
one more Helium atom will convert Radium into an
element called Radium Emanation; and so on until
eight Helium atoms have been expelled, when Lead will be
reached. If the process of expulsion could be continued,
Mercury will next be reached, and next after that Gold,
The alchemists were then not so far out when they guessed

1 The age of these oldest formations, the Algonkian mountains oi
Canada, has thus been calculated as approximately 1400 million years
Thus on this basis we obtain the lowest limit for the age of the earth

44 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

that Mercury could be transmuted into gold ! Unfortunately
(or rather I should say fortunately as a citizen of the
greatest gold-producing country) this spontaneous break-
up of matter has not yet been observed to proceed beyond
lead. And the artificial break-up of matter in the labora-
tory has only just begun in the experiments of Sir Ernest
Rutherford, who by bombarding Nitrogen gas with a
particles from Radium C has succeeded in splitting the
Nitrogen atom into Hydrogen atoms and a residual apparent
combination of Helium nuclei which might result in Carbon
according to the Periodic Table, but which is more likely to
split up into Helium atoms. To what extent this artificial
destruction of the elements is possible, and whether, if
possible, it would be economically feasible, are questions for
the future to answer.

We have seen that the positive charges of the nucleus have
to be balanced by the corresponding number of negative
electrons grouped in their orbits round the nucleus. On the
number and grouping of these planetary electrons the external
physical and chemical properties of the atom will depend.
If the orbits followed impose a strain on the equilibrium of
the atom, a quantum adjustment to a different orbit will be
made. If the number of electrons and their orbit distribu-
tions produce complete equilibrium the atom will be very
stable internally and inert or inactive external!} 7 ; it will
belong to one of the inert group (Helium, Argon, Neon,
Krypton), On either side of this inert group of elements in
the Periodic Table we find elements whose atoms have one
electron too many or too few ; in other words, they are not
internally in equilibrium and have a negative or positive
charge unsatisfied; they will therefore combine with any
other element which has an opposite charge unsatisfied. At
another remove from the inert elements in the Periodic Table
we find elements with two negative or positive charges un-
satisfied, which will again combine with another element
which has two opposite charges unsatisfied. And so on to
the elements which have three, four or five charges un-
satisfied. In this way both chemical affinity and the valency

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 45

(monovalency, divalency, etc.) of the elements are accounted
for. In every case the external properties of the element
are simply the expression of its internal structure and its
condition of stable or unstable equilibrium in respect of its
inner elements.

Not only the combination of atoms into molecules, but the
formation of the most complex compounds rests on this con-
dition of unstable equilibrium due to unsatisfied negative or
positive charges in the combining elements. The compound,
instead of being a single system of the solar type, is a far more
complex affair, and represents the case where suns with their
attendant planets again revolve round a greater central sun,
or where several solar systems are linked together externally
and not by a common centre. In either case the distribution
and equilibrium of the moving internal electric units deter-
mine the structure of the substance as matter as well as its
physical and chemical properties, while the movements of
the substance as a whole and of its parts relatively to each
other create the gravitational field or curved Space-Time
system which forms the medium and the field of the
substance. There is thus structure through and through,
not only in matter or the energies which in their extreme
concentration and velocity assume the massive form of
matter, but also in the field which surrounds this matter.

The gaseous, liquid and solid forms of matter are also the
result of this inner condition of electrical stability in the
atom and molecule. If the positive and negative charges are
quite equal and properly distributed the result, as we have
seen, is an inert element. And this element will also be a
gas, as the inner satisfaction of the charges and balance of
the system will make it inactive or inert externally. All
gases are states of matter where the inner balance of equili-
brium in the atoms and the molecules is such that there is no
residual force to work externally; the atoms (in inert
elements) and molecules (in others) therefore move freely
and unhampered. If the inner balance of charges is not quite
complete, there will be some external residual force as be-
tween the molecules, and the liquid state will result. If this

46 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

inner satisfaction is lessened still further, the resultant
external strain among the molecules will increase, they will
attract each other still more strongly and tend to closer
aggregation, and thus the solid form will appear. The
negative or positive electrical condition of the gas, liquid or
solid will be an index of the still unsatisfied charges residing
in the substance in that state. The free and unhampered
movement of atoms in an inert gaseous element and of
molecules in other gases makes the question of the particular
forms of such elements or gases immaterial; they have as
gases no particular form. In the case of liquids, however,
the resultant residual forces of the atoms and molecules will,
as is the case in electrical bodies, act mostly at the surface,
where the resulting force between the molecules of the surface
layer, or the surface tension, as it is called, will give a par-
ticular form or shape to the liquid (as in a drop of water).
The molecules inside a liquid appear to be stratified into layers
loosely superimposed on each other. And in the case of
solids the still larger residual force will result in arranging
the molecules in a definite crystal structure on the pattern
of a lattice, which is the special and specific form of solid
chemical substances. Crystal structure is to solid com-
pounds what the planetary structure is to the atom not only
a specific ordering of inner units, but the index and source
of all external properties and activities. One of the most
interesting recent discoveries is that in crystals there is a unit
body or minute structure consisting of two or more molecules
which is of atomic or radicle character in that it always acts
as a unit in the upbuilding of the crystal.

Besides the gaseous, liquid, and solid phases of matter just
discussed there is a fourth, to which in recent years an ever-
increasing amount of attention has been and is being devoted.
This is the colloid state, in which one substance is dispersed
throughout another in very minute particles which are yet
larger than molecules. Originally substances were divided
into colloids and non-colloids ; but more recently it has been
shown that non-colloids (like mineral salts) can under certain
conditions be reduced to the colloid state. And now this

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 47

division has been abandoned, and the colloid state is recog-
nised as a fourth form of material aggregation applying to
substances generally under certain conditions. Much of the
earth and the air exists in the colloid state ; but the colloid
state is specially important because it seems to be distinctive
of all life-forms the protoplasm of all organic cells being
organised in the colloid state. The protoplasm of the cells
contains solid substances in most minute form dispersed
throughout its jelly-like fluid, and this colloid state seems to
link the inorganic with the organic elements in the cell.

Owing to their minute size, particles in the colloid state
expose the maximum surface area in comparison with their
mass ; and the colloid state in consequence brings into action
the play of surface energies more than any other phase of
matter. In all forms of aggregation the surface molecules
of matter are specially orientated ; the active sides of the
molecules being turned inwards, and the outer surface thus
consisting of the weak ends of these molecules. This
orientation affects the surface tensions, chemical behaviour
and energies of the surface molecules ; and as colloids expose
a maximum of such surfaces they show properties which are
of a distinctive character. Thus at these surfaces loose
unstable combinations with other special substances are easily
formed, and colloids appear in consequence to have a peculiar
and almost mysterious selective action for other substances.
The phenomenon is called " adsorption " ; the selected sub-
stances being adsorbed at the colloid surfaces. Colloids are
thus used in many industrial processes to separate other
substances from each other, to remove impurities, and in
other ways to act as a selective separator of mixed sub-
stances. They also act as catalysts ; that is to say, at their
surfaces chemical actions take place and combinations are
effected which otherwise would not be brought about.
The colloid surface is apparently a special field of force or
influence in which other chemical or physical reactions besides
selective adsorption are facilitated. The enzymes, for
instance, in the protoplasm of the cell are complex chemical
substances in very minute colloid form, with the surface

48 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

molecules or radicles specially orientated so as to facilitate
in a most marvellous way the chemical and physical pro-
cesses which are necessary for the organic activities of life.
But enzymes are very particular in their action, and each
particular process has its own particular enzyme to bring it
about. Thus enzymes transform the sugar or sugar-like con-
tents of certain plants into alcohol ; but each species of plant
has its own enzyme, which will only operate on the material
of that species. Similarly chlorophyll is probably a complex
chemical compound probably in colloidal dispersion in the
protoplasm of leaf cells and other green cells, and its colloidal
surfaces are " fields " in which the energy of sunlight can
synthesise the carbon dioxide of the air into organic com-
pounds which ultimately take the form of sugar, starch and
cellulose. No laboratory has ever been able to make sun-
light perform this wonder ; l but the colloidal surface
" field " of chlorophyll can do it, and in that way provide
for the sustenance of all organic life on this globe.

The marvellous behaviour of matter at its surfaces in the
colloid state, and especially its mysterious "selective power,
has raised the hope that here the bridge may yet be found
between the inorganic and the organic. Thus Dr. E. F.
Armstrong says : " Enough has been said to show how the
conception of an orientated active structure at the surface
of a colloid aggregate might endow it with selective power of
so fine a nature as almost to merit the description of intelli-
gence; the further prosecution of research on these lines
may well serve to bridge the gap between us and the full
understanding of vital activity/ 1 2

It has been usual to distinguish "physical from
" chemical " combination. The New Physics has, however,
made it clear that there are two types of chemical change,
involving two types of chemical combination and structure.
The one type, which prevails among the salts, acids, and
bases of inorganic chemistry, is a much looser, less rigid
combination or union than the other, which prevails among

1 See, however, p. 70 below.

1 Chemistry in trie Twentieth Century, p. 17.

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 49

the carbon compounds of organic chemistry. Thus common
salt, which is a combination of sodium and chlorine, is now
understood to be a more or less loose aggregation of free
positive sodium atoms or ions held in equilibrium by an
equal number of free negative chlorine atoms or ions ; the
equilibrium being fairly stable, without any actual union
of the atoms such as was assumed by orthodox chemists.
In organic compounds, however, the linkage of the constituent
atoms is real, and the compound is not a system of free ions
in equilibrium, but a real combination or fixed structure of
the atoms concerned. Organic compounds thus display an
advance in respect of chemical structure in substances.
While in inorganic salts and similar substances the looser
arrangement of the atoms or ions approximates to the type of
" physical " combination, in organic substances, on the other
hand, the chemical union is more thorough and intense, and
leads to a closer structural character, linked together by
common electrons. In this connection it is important to
remember that organic compounds are the mechanisms of life :
we may therefore say that as we approach life we witness
a more intense element of structure in chemical compounds.
Life may have arisen in at least it now uses as its
mechanisms chemical substances of a subtler structure
than that which characterises inorganic compounds.

In connection with the explanation of the structure of the
atom given above the question arises whether the structure
of the atom is really as above indicated, or whether we have
merely to do with a hypothesis to explain certain facts.
The question is important, because it raises one instance of
the general method of scientific explanation. Science deals
with sensible phenomena and tries to co-ordinate them in
accordance with known physical laws, and in doing so has
often to interpret the sensible phenomena in a particular way
in order to effect the necessary intelligible co-ordination.
Thus, in the case of the atom, its existence as a fact is no
longer disputed, but its structure on the model of a planetary
system is no more than an inference from well-grounded
sensible phenomena ; and we cannot, therefore, say for
E

50 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

certain that the above is the actual structure of the atom.
The sensible phenomena are quite different from the inferred
structure, but they are quite definite, and have been most
minutely measured or calculated. The electron and the
nucleus have not been observed, but certain light effects,
which they accurately express, have been observed, and from
these effects their mass and other properties have been cal-
culated. The sensible phenomena actually observed include
light effects, which are explained on the hypothesis of their
transmission in particular wave-lengths ; these explanations
accord with the observed effects, and again form the basis
of the supposed velocities, rotations and orbits of the electrons
and nuclei, which are not directly observed but calculated
with extraordinary minuteness and accuracy on the basis
of the observed light effects. Similarly the light from the
atom comes in definite observed quantities, which it has
hitherto only been possible to interpret intelligently as sudden
changes in the orbits of the rotating electrons. The observed
phenomena are light effects of various definite qualities and
quantities; the rest is theory or hypothesis, in which the
elements of quality and quantity in the sensible phenomena
are so minutely analysed and translated into elements of
time and space as to result in the structure of the atom above
given. And this hypothetical structure is then tested by all
the phenomena which call for explanation, and it is only finally
accepted when it affords a complete explanation of them all.
The electrons, the nucleus, the revolutions of the electrons
round the nucleus, the sudden leaps of the electrons from one
orbit to the other : these are not observed realities or sensible
phenomena, but they all rest on a basis of sensible light
effects, which have been most meticulously determined and
tested by reference to other observed phenomena. They are
therefore not sensible realities but scientific realities. They
are not directly observed, but deduced from observations.
They are the reflection, so to say, of the sensible phenomena
in the human mind with its particular conceptual equipment.
And if they are not the actual forms of nature, they are so
close to them and measure and represent them so com-

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 51

pletely, that for us humans they are accepted as true and
correct, that is, in experimental accord with the deliverances
of our senses. Thus the apparently unrelated and unintelli-
gible data of sense in a particular case are by hypothesis con-
strued into the structure of the atom ; and the atoms with all
their inner units and arrangements become the conceptual or
scientific entities which correspond to, reproduce, and repre-
sent the data of sense. In other words, the conceptual or
scientific order arises on the basis of the sensible observed
order, and as long as the two are in complete accord we accept
them both together as the explanation of Nature. While thus
according complete respect to both orders, we should always
bear in mind that the sensible order is the governing factor to
which the conceptual order has to conform. As long as it does
so conform we accept it, not as sensible reality, but as an
accurate measure and expression and completion of sensible
reality. The hypothetical structure of the atom reproduces
and expresses the observed facts ; without such structure the
observed facts are unintelligible and inexplicable. We
therefore accept the structure as a true and accurate
explanation of the observed facts, even though it has not
been directly observed as a structure. But the structure is
really no more than a hypothesis, to be discarded as soon
as it comes into conflict with new facts.

I conclude this chapter with a few general reflections on
the nature of matter which will serve to emphasise and
interpret the results of the foregoing discussion.

As indicated in the first chapter, the object of this work is
to make a modest contribution towards the reform of the
fundamental concepts of matter, life and mind, to assist in
bridging the apparently impassable gaps between them
and to interpret them in such a way as to present them as
successive more or less continuous forms and phases of one
great process, or as related progressive elements in one total
coherent reality. In pursuance of that general object my aim
in this chapter is to pave the way for a reform of the concept
of matter, to break down the old concept of matter as
something inert, passive, barren, dead, as something with

52 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

absolute contours and nothing beyond, as something present-
ing an impassable barrier to the kingdoms of life and mind
beyond. This cannot be done by general philosophical
reflections on the nature of matter as an object of thought,
nor by launching a general invective against it, but only by a
careful consideration of the concept of matter by the light
of all the available physical knowledge. This must be my
excuse for having referred to the Relativity Theory and the
New Physics at some length. Certain general results emerge
from our discussion which have an important bearing on the
concept of matter.

In the first place, the old concept of matter as dead, pas-
sive, inert is clearly inconsistent with the recent develop-
ments of physical science. The old contradictory notion of
dead matter as the vehicle and carrier of life must disappear
in the light of our new knowledge. The difference between
matter and life is no longer measured by the distance between
deadness or absolute passivity on the one hand, and activity
on the other a distance so great as to constitute an impass-
able gulf in thought. The difference between them is merely
a difference in the character of their activities. So far from
matter being pure inertia or passivity, it is in reality a mass
of seething, palpitating energies and activities. Its very
dead-weight simply means the push of inner activities. Its
inertia, which is apparently its most distinctive quality and
has been consecrated by Newton in his First Law, has received
its death-blow at the hands of Einstein. From the new point
of view the inertia of matter is simply the result of the move-
ment of Nature's internal energies; its apparent passivity
is merely the other side of its real activity. Matter itself
is nothing but concentrated structural energy, energy stereo-
typed into structure. As space contracts with velocity, so
mass or the inertia of matter increases through that con-
traction, and both the mass of matter and its quality of
inertia or passiveness are therefore mere variable dependent
aspects of Nature's high-speed energies. From this point
of view matter is but a form of energy, concentrated by its
exceeding velocity, and structured to appear massive or

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 53

substantial. The very nature of the physical universe is
activity or Action. The Law of the Quantum rules all.

The repercussion of all this on the old concept of matter
is deadly. Once the new point of view is thoroughly realised
and assimilated into popular thought, the bugbear of matter
will cease to trouble our peace. We shall no longer continue
to stare at a hopeless irreconcilable contradiction in ex-
perience. With the dissolution of the old traditional concept
of matter the dead-weight of its utter passivity will dis-
appear from men's minds, and one of the greatest partition
walls in knowledge will fall down. The contacts with life
may still be very difficult to establish. But at any rate the
impassable gulf will have disappeared. With the contours
of matter razed, its field will itself point the way for the
transition to the kingdom of life beyond. For the fields of
matter and life will overlap, intermingle, and interpenetrate
each other, the fruitful contacts will be established, and the
enriched and broadened concepts of matter and life will
appear as what they are different phases in the evolution
of an essential unity. The breakdown of the old concept of
matter will have prepared the way for a great advance
towards a new synthetic world-conception.

In the second place, another advance of the New Physics
has perhaps even greater significance in effecting a rapproche-
ment between matter and life. I refer to the effect of Radio-
activity in destroying the permanence of the natural elements,
and in explaining the genesis of the elements from one
another. Radioactivity has done a somewhat similar work
for matter as Darwin's theory of Organic Descent did for
life two generations ago. The fixity of the types of matter
has followed the fixity of the types of life to the limbo of
the obsolete. Of course there are marked differences in the
operation of Radioactivity and Organic Descent. In one
respect Radioactivity has not proved as powerful a factor
as Organic Descent, for it holds out no promise of the creation
of new species or elements beyond those already known.
The Periodic Table does indeed indicate the vacant places
for one or two more guests yet to arrive. But the number

54 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of elements is definitely and narrowly limited, and we have
no reason to look forward to any large increase beyond those
already known. In another important respect Radioactivity
differs from Organic Descent. Organic Descent professes
to show how new and future species arise through variation
and selection from those already existing. Radioactivity
operates in the opposite direction and indicates how by
elimination of certain unit constituents from a complex
element there may be established a regress to another
simpler known element. In the time-series Organic Descent
professes to move forward, while the process of Radioactivity
appears to be backward, or to retrace evolutionary steps
taken in the past. In still another respect Radioactivity
appears to be even more effective than Organic Descent,
for it exhibits before our eyes the process of the transmuta-
tion of elements, while it is not yet definitely established
that any natural species has yet been raised in the laboratory
or will ever be raised in any period of time short of
geological periods. In a final respect there is a striking
similarity between the two factors in that they both appear
to proceed by definite substantial increments or decrements
in effecting transmutations. Radioactivity expels definite
numbers of Helium nuclei as steps in the transmutation of
elements. According to De Vries and others the process
of advance from old to new species or varieties is by way of
definite marked mutations, and not by the slow summation
of minute discontinuous variations. And the present day
Geneticists emphasise this similarity still more by identify-
ing all organic variations with differences of chromosomes
or genes in the nuclei of varying or mutating species.

The above differences in the operation of the two factors
of Radioactivity and Organic Descent arise partly no doubt
from inherent differences between matter and life, but also
partly from other possible differences in their circumstances
of a less fundamental character. Thus life is a mere child on
this globe and is yet in the heyday of its growth and increase.
As yet it .recognises no limit or barrier in its first flush of
youth. It spends with a lavish prodigality, which is in

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 55

striking contrast to the frugality and conservatism of matter,
for which the laws of Conservation and of Least Action have
become the last word of wisdom and the unbroken rule of
action. But then matter is old, old as the beginning, so old
that its wrinkles are the fundamental curves of the Space-
Time universe. Life has only just begun, since the yester-
day of Eozoic times, in the upbuilding of its new forms
and types, and in this task it can proceed for millions of
years to come. Matter, on the contrary, had completed
its active race probably more than a thousand million years
before life began. It had built up slowly and laboriously
in nebular and solar heat, and amid conditions beyond the
possibility of our knowledge or imagination, the elements
from their simplest to their most complex forms, and from
these again substances and compounds in rising complexity
until at last protoplasm was reached. And in the favouring
bosom of protoplasm life could be nurtured from its simple
chemical beginnings and launched on its great career, most
of which is still before it. The work of matter is done ; in
the great Space-Time curve it is now regressing from the
more complex to the simpler types or elements, just as in
organic Evolution we see a tendency for the most highly
evolved and differentiated types to hark back for stability
to simpler and stronger types. Radioactivity is doing to-
day what Organic Descent (when it will indeed have become
a descent) will do in the fullness of its time, when Life's spirit
of adventure will have abated, and its aim will be safety and
conservation rather than progress.

When all allowance has been made for the differences in
character and operation of Radioactivity and Organic
Descent, there still remains a striking and unmistakable
similarity between them. And between the Periodic Table
of Chemistry on the one hand and Systematic Botany and
Zoology on the other there remains something very much
like a family resemblance. The concepts of orders, genera
and species could be applied to both ; and in both cases there
is a fluidity and plasticity of types which proves that,
although they are in different kingdoms, yet they are in the

56 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

same world of forms and geneses. One rises from a study of
the Periodic Table and the New Physics with the feeling that
matter can quite justifiably claim some distant relationship
with life, and that life need not be quite ashamed of the
rock whence she was hewn.

The intimate character of structure which the material
universe and its field disclose justifies another general
observation as bearing on the concept of matter. We have
already seen that, properly understood, the ideas of activity,
plasticity and development apply to matter in a sense not
entirely dissimilar to that in which they apply to life. I
am going to make a more daring suggestion and to indicate
that in another even more important respect matter approxi-
mates to life. The structure of matter indicates that matter
is also in a sense creative creative, that is to say, not of its
own stuff, but of the forms, arrangements and patterns which
constitute all its value in the physical sphere. It is creative
in a sense analogous to that in which we call life or mind
creative of values. Remember that according to the new
point of view we have not to judge of matter from the out-
side and as indifferent external spectators. We have to
identify ourselves with the point of view of matter, so to
speak. We have humbly to get into that closed cage; we
have to take our post on that plane circular rotating disc. 1
We have to interpret matter from the inside, from a point of
view which is that of matter and not remote from and indiffer-
ent to it. And from that intimate angle matter is seen to
create its structures and patterns and values very much as
life or mind does on another much higher plane. Hitherto
the idea of creativeness has been confined to the organic
and mental aspects of the universe. Those who have called
the universe creative have implicitly referred to the activity
of life and mind in creating new arrangements, meanings
and values. It has not been suggested that, from another
point of view, the physical universe is also creative. The
principles of the conservation of matter and energy have
effectively barred any such idea. Novelty, originativeness

1 See pp. 30-31.

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 57

and creativeness are quite inconsistent with the ordinary
point of view and the popular ideas of matter as well as the
more rigid mechanistic conceptions of science. Nobody,
however, could have followed the above exposition of
the structural character of matter without beginning to
appreciate that in its evolution or creation of the forms,
structures and types which characterise it from beginning
to end, matter or the physical element in the universe is in
a sense as truly creative as is organism or mind, The
" values " of matter or the physical universe arise purely
from these structures and forms. If the stuff of matter or
energy or action were not definitely structural but diffuse
throughout space, the entropy of the universe would be abso-
lute, and its value for this cosmos from all points of view
would be nil. The efficiency, utility and beauty, in short
the values of matter, arise from the structures which are the
outcome and the expression of its own inherent activities.
In a very real sense the idea of value applies as truly
and effectively in the domain of the physical as in that
of the biological or the psychical. In both cases value is
a quality of the forms and combinations which are brought
about. Whether they are structures resulting from the
activities of matter, or works of art or genius resulting
from the activities of the mind, makes no real difference to
the application of the ideas of creativeness and value in either
case. Once we get rid of the notion of the world as consisting
of dead matter, into which activity has been introduced from
some external or alien source ; once we come to look upon
matter not only as active, but as self-active, as active with its
own activities, as indeed nothing else but Action, our whole
conception of the physical order is revolutionised, and the
great barriers between the physical and the organic begin to
shrink and to shrivel. Organism has by its inner activities
and the influences of the environment evolved its own forms
and types, and this great life-process is still going on before
our eyes. As I have already suggested, a similar evolution
of material structures and elemental types may have gone
on during the practically infinite period of past time. And

58 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

it may even be that, although new elements will no more be
evolved, derived structures are still being created under
suitable conditions. It is interesting to note, for instance,
that under novel laboratory conditions new substances are
continually being synthetically produced. The whole
romance of the Aniline dyes is a tribute to the still active
" creativeness " of matter under the proper external con-
ditions.

These considerations, in so far as they have any force,
must influence our concept of matter and tend towards reduc-
ing the utter heterogeneity which marks our traditional
concepts of matter and life. Of course a great difference
remains between these two concepts, between the chemical
compound on the one side and the organic cell on the other.
It would be futile to attempt to argue away this difference.
It is and remains great, but its character has been funda-
mentally transformed. We may put the conclusion of our
discussion in this way. In organic Evolution we come across
mutations not absolute breaks with the past, but sudden
long steps of advance on the past, where one species or
variety leaps forward from and in advance of another. In
the advance from matter to life there is a leap forward, not
as between species, but as between kingdoms. And we may
conclude by saying that, instead of the old impassable gulf
between matter and life, between the chemical compound and
the cell, we have found on closer scrutiny only a mutation
the greatest mutation of all undoubtedly in the whole range
of science, but essentially nothing more than a mutation.
They present the faint lineaments of a family resemblance,
and as science advances and our philosophy looks more
deeply, the resemblance will become clearer and more unmis-
takable.

Lastly, we have seen that matter in its colloidal state dis-
closes properties and shows a behaviour which seem in some
way to anticipate the processes and activities of life in its
most primitive forms. In any case it begins to lay the basis
of those physical and chemical reactions which are specially
required for vital activities. It shows a certain power of

in REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 59

selectiveness, which may be related to chemical affinity, but
which seems to have a farther reach and to partake of the
character of life. It begins to manufacture substances, such
as chlorophyll and haemoglobin, which are the special
mechanisms of life, and without which life as we know
it could not be. These substances are the links which
connect material structure with the life structures which
are to follow in the course of Evolution. They are them-
selves inorganic chemical substances, but they are the special
instruments and the very basis of life, so to say. At
their colloidal surfaces the energies of Nature are utilised
to convert the inorganic material of Nature into the most
complex organic substances required for the sustenance of
life ; and the conversion is brought about by processes which,
however simple and direct apparently, have hitherto defied
all attempts at imitation in our most highly equipped labora-
tories. We therefore see matter in this colloidal state
reaching up to the very threshold of life, so to speak. A gap
remains ; a great leap may have taken place across it. But
beyond a doubt some forms of matter in their colloidal state
are fairly close to life in their properties. And it may even
be that life began with much more primitive forms an$
structures than any of which we have knowledge to-day.
Thus the gap may not have been so wide nor the leap so
great as would appear to us to-day.

CHAPTER IV

THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM

Summary. The cell is the second fundamental structure of the
universe. It is possible that both before and after the origin of
atoms and cells, as well as in between, other structures arose in the
course of cosmic Evolution. If so, they have passed away, and we
have now only these two permanent survivals which we can scrutinise
for clues as to the basic character of the universe.

In the study of animate nature Evolution or Organic Descent has
till recently attracted most attention. But more recently the study
of the structure and functions of the cell has come rapidly to the front
and now probably forms the principal centre of interest in Biology.
That all plants and animals consist of cells; that cells contain
certain peculiar bodies called nuclei ; that all higher organisms arise
from cell-fusions in which the nuclei play a prominent part all
these facts have been discovered only in comparatively recent years ;
and our knowledge of cells is therefore stil in its earliest stage. But
Cytology is now, with much-improved methods and appliances,
making rapid strides, and great discoveries are confidently looked
forward to.

Besides the nucleus the cell consists principally of a rapidly
circulating jelly-like fluid, enclosed in a more or less well-marked wall
or membrane of a permeable character; and the fluid contains
numerous exceedingly complex chemical compounds in solution or in
the colloid state. The structure of a cell is therefore most complex,
and in fact comparatively little is yet definitely known about it. Its
functions are even more mysterious, for they include practically all
the activities which we see in developed organisms birth, growth,
breathing, feeding, digestion, self-healing, reproduction and death.
Its most distinctive function is metabolism, which means that it
thoroughly alters and transforms all food materials before assimi-
lating them; and all its apparently physical activities are of this
transformative metabolic character instead of being simple mechan-
ical operations. It appears to form complex chemical compounds,
called enzymes, which in their colloid state enable these distinctive
radical transformations to be effected. The apparently simple
physical processes such as osmosis, etc. in the cell are really much
more complicated, as they are effected through enzyme action,

60

CHAP, iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 61

which is a physico-chemical mechanism distinctive of organisms.
The laboratory attempts to repeat organic processes throw, therefore,
little light on the exact nature of these processes.

The origin of the cell is the origin of life and is still a profound
mystery. However, the reproduction of cells seems to admit us to
the inner secrets of life, and the cell-divisions which precede cell-
fusions in reproduction have an extraordinary semblance to electrical
situations, and seem somehow to connect the electrical structure of
the atom with a possible electrical origin of the cell. It is now,
however, impossible to follow up this clear semblance further, as the
original electrical processes (if any) have probably become overlaid
with other developments which have transformed them.

Judging from the action of sunlight in the growth of plants it is
not improbable that the cell of life arose when the sun was both
warmer and richer in chemically active rays, and when the waters
of the earth still contained many substances in solution and colloid
dispersal. The adhesion of cells to each other would account for the
origin and development of multi-cellular organisms; and the
divisions of cells, which we now see in growth and reproduction, may
have arisen originally from the breakdown of cells or groups which
had become too complex to be stable.

The reproduction of plants and animals, including the preparatory
reduction division of the sexual cells, follows largely the same plan ;
and it is therefore probable that this wonderful organic mechanism
was evolved before the bifurcation of life into the plant and animal
forms took place, and thus dates back to the early beginnings of life on
this globe. The plant type arose from its dependence for food on
air and earth, which was consistent with fixed positions; while
animals, needing organic foods, required mobility, and in consequence
developed a motor system, with a nervous system to work it, and
ultimately a brain to co-ordinate and control it.

The cell differs from the atom or molecule in its far greater com-
plexity of structure and function, in the differentiation and special-
isation of its parts and organs, and in the system of co-operation
among all its parts which make them function for the whole. This
co-operative system exists not only in the single cell but among the
multitudinous cells of organisms. The system of organic regulation
and co-ordination among an indefinitely large number of parts which
makes all the parts function together for certain purposes is a great
advance on the system of physical equilibrium in atoms and com-
pounds, and is yet quite distinct from the control which, at a later
stage of Evolution, Mind comes to exercise in animals and humans.
Mind as we know it should therefore not be ascribed to the cell or the
lower organisms ; but organic regulation seems on that lower level
to be even more effective than Mind is at a later stage.

This organic regulation and synthesis of functions is seen not only

62 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

in all the ordinary functions of organisms, but more especially in
their capacity for self-restoration in case of mutilation. In such
phenomena there seems to be something more in actual operation than
merely the parts ; the parts appear to play a common part and to
carry out some common purpose or to act for the common well-
being. They seem to respond to some central pressure. There seems
to be a central regulator. We have seen a factor in matter making
for structure ; we now see a factor in organism making for central
regulation and co-ordination of all parts. We are evidently in the
presence of some inner factor in Evolution which requires identifi-
cation and description. That will be attempted in the next chapter.

THE atom and the cell are the two fundamental structures
in the universe that we at present know of the atom being
the unit of the world of matter, the cell the unit of the world
of life. In the last chapter we considered the structure of
the atom and showed how the external properties of the
atom were the expression and resultant of its internal
energies and their structural grouping inside the atom. We
saw the atom as a little complex world of its own, under-
lying the outward properties as well as the field of that
little world. We now pass on to consider the vastly more
complicated little world of the cell and its field. In the
science of life the two most significant conceptions are
Evolution and the Cell, the one being the unit structure
and the other the general character and trend of the
activities or functions of life. Round the investigation and
development of these two governing conceptions most of
the progress and interest in biological science since the
middle of the nineteenth century has centred; and the
results hitherto obtained have been most important, and
practically revolutionary for our entire world-conception.
And the end is by no means in sight yet. In the first
chapter we saw that there were still deep-seated misunder-
standings of the nature of Evolution, and that a proper
appreciation of Evolution would mean a recasting not only
of biological concepts but also, and above all, of our concept
of matter. Let us now turn to the cell as the other and
no doubt the real governing factor of the situation of life, and
see what light it throws on the nature and concept of life.

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 63

A few introductory words in regard to the history of our
knowledge of the cell may not be out of place here. It will
be seen that accurate information even of what little we do
know about the cell is of very recent date, and that we are
only at the beginning of what may yet prove a great story.

In the second half of the seventeenth century Robert
Hooke observed with the crude microscope then in use that
cork and other vegetable substances had a vesicular appear-
ance, and he called the apparent cavities " cells/ 1 A few
years later Grew and Malpighi independently observed in
plant tissues these same cavities filled with fluid and sur-
rounded with firm walls, as well as what appeared to them to
be tubes likewise with walls and filled with fluid. Towards
the end of the eighteenth century Treviranus showed that
these tubes were cells placed in a row and elongated in the
direction of the row and with the partitions between them
lost. Then followed in 1831 Robert Brown's great discovery
of the nucleus in the cell in plants, and in 1838 Schleiden's
elucidation of the great part which the cell with its nucleus
plays in the structure of plants, and shortly afterwards the
application by Schwann of the new knowledge of the cell to
the structure of animals also. Both Schleiden and Schwann
attached great importance to the cell wall and looked upon*
the cells as having crystallised out of some mother substance.
The contents of the cells Schleiden called vaguely " vegetable
slime " ; and it was not till about the middle of the nine-
teenth century that the great German biologist von Mohl
correctly explained the contents of both vegetable and
animal cells as nucleated masses of what he called " proto-
plasm," which was not a chemical crystallisation from other
substances, but always came into being as the offspring or
daughter cells from other pre-existing cells. Hence arose the
formula : omnis cellula e cellula. This paved the way to the
correct understanding of sexual fertilisation as the union of
two cells, the discovery of cell divisions, and the part played
by the nucleus with its chromosomes in these divisions, and of
the origin of embryos through repeated cell-divisions. And
finally a concentrated effort was made by many investigators

64 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

in many countries to discover in cell-divisions and fusions,
and especially in the part played by the nucleus, the physical
mechanism of heredity. During this century the re-discovery
of Mendelism by De Vries and others, and the rise of the new
science of Genetics, have led to redoubled efforts to find the
explanation of the many peculiar phenomena of heredity in
an analysis of the parts played by the nucleus and the other
elements in the protoplasm of the cell, and at present
experimental Cytology is being vigorously prosecuted with
numerous improved methods and appliances.

Let us now consider the structure of the cell and the part
it plays in organisms. I shall only summarise its most
general and outstanding features, with a view to illustrating
the considerations and speculations which will be advanced
later. I am trying to find concepts for vital phenomena,
which will be coherent not only with those phenomena but
also with wider aspects of knowledge and reality, and a
reference to the scientific facts and results is therefore
necessary. The time is past when a philosophy of life could
be evolved without a knowledge of or reference to the
scientific facts and view-points.

All plants and animals consist of cells, these cells being
again usually composed of various chemical substances, some
of which have a very complex constitution. The number of
cells in an organism varies according to its size and com-
plexity, some of the lowest, most primitive organisms being
unicellular or composed of comparatively few cells, while at
the other end the higher plants and animals may contain
untold millions of cells. The human brain alone is estimated
to have about 9000 million cells ! These cells again are of
a most diverse character, the cells which build up the various
parts and organs of the body being different from each other.
Thus the cells of the nerves and the bones and the muscles
and indeed of all parts of the animal organism differ markedly
from each other, and the number of the different kinds of
cells that go to the making up of a body may be indefinitely
large. All these almost innumerable cells of all kinds and
degrees of differentiation and complexity are arranged in a

v THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 65

.table, orderly structure in the plant or animal body; and
his structure is not stationary but like its constituent cells
n continual movement and development. The structural
>rder which we have seen characterising the inorganic
dement or compound is even more characteristic of the
vastly more complex organic body with its continuous
nobility and transformations.

A plant or an animal can be considered from the point of
riew of its structure or its functions, that is to say, the
ictivities performed by the structure as a whole or the parts
>f which it is composed. Viewing it merely as a structure
ve see the same orderly combination and arrangement of
Darts as in the inorganic body, only the constituent parts
md the structural arrangements are far more complex than
n the inorganic body. In water, for instance, or any other
:hemical compound, all molecules are more or less the same,
md the body consists simply of a repetition of the funda-
nental molecule, and the structures in which the molecules
ire arranged are likewise of a repetitive character ; while in
in organic body there may be an indefinite number and
/ariety of cells, and the varieties of arrangements and
structures according to which these cells are combined in the
several parts and organs of the body may also be indefinite
n number.

But the difference between inorganic and organic bodies
ies not only in their structures, but even more in their
functions, especially the functions of the organic cells, to
>vhich there is apparently nothing corresponding in the
norganic world. About these cells we at present know
:omparatively little, except that their functions and activities
ire the basis of the functions and activities of the organisms
>vhich they compose, all being co-ordinated into a single
system of a new type called " life." In the march of Evolu-
:ion from the inorganic to the organic the cell is the real
nnovation, to which nothing corresponding in the inorganic
las yet been discovered. To use a metaphor, the cell is the
point where matter or energy aroused itself from its slumbers
md became active from within, with activities and functions
F

66 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

which reveal its inner character and nature, so to say.
It is a new structure in which energy develops or acquires
a new form of activity, becomes functional, becomes in
some inexplicable way endowed with special characters of
selectiveness and reproduction, of self-help and self-control,
which constitute a unique departure in the universe.

Let us summarise briefly some of the points that are known
of the structure and the functions of the cell; and as the
plant cell is simpler than the animal cell let us take that as the
type. It consists of chemically very complex substances
called in the aggregate protoplasm, which is the physico-
chemical basis of all forms of life. Comparatively little is
known of its composition or chemical structure. In the plant
cell (less so in the animal cell) it secretes a containing wall
or membrane for itself from which the cell derives its name.
Inside the wall the protoplasm appears as a jelly-like fluid
and consists principally of a small nucleus, which contains
certain chromatin bodies of a rich protein character, and of a
larger body of cytoplasm surrounding the nucleus and
reticular in structure, that is to say, consisting of a network
of spaces which contain various cell-saps and solutions and
even minute particles of crystals and other inorganic bodies.
The whole constitutes a colloidal system, as we saw in the
last chapter. The cell walls are semi-permeable, admitting
of the osmosis through it of certain substances and not of
others, so that suitable food and other substances can be
passed through the cell walls from one cell to another. There
is a constant circulation and agitation of the cell fluid, which
gives it the appearance of a stream, and is much more than
the usual promiscuous Brownian movement in inorganic
colloidal mixtures. The movement of protoplasm, whether
it is Brownian or something different, has much more of the
character of definite specific direction ; and this is probably
only an expression of that selectiveness and directiveness
which are inherent and universal characteristics of all life-
forms. Although little is definitely known of the details of
cell-structure, the functions it performs are so many-sided,
delicate and complex that one may safely say that the cell

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 67

must have an immensely complex organisation, and that the
details of its constitution may never be fully known or even
adequately pictured by the human mind. It represents, at
the one end of the scale of existence, a minute detailed com-
plexity which is in some sense comparable to the wonders
of the astronomical universe at the other end. And all this
intricate and complex little system is maintained in a state
of active, moving equilibrium; it is dynamic through and
through and incessantly active in all its details, and its
almost innumerable activities are finely adjusted to each
other and co-ordinated into a harmonious process, which not
only maintains its balanced functioning for its individual
life, but increases and improves it in the duration of innumer-
able generations. Looking at this baffling mystery of active,
continually changing and developing organisation, with its
continuous delicate adjustments of innumerable moving
parts into one co-ordinated forward movement, we find that
ordinary physical categories of description fail us. We feel
ourselves in the presence of an entirely new phenomenon,
which we call life, and we may even feel tempted to go further
and to say that the cell has not only life but also mind. To do
so would, however, be going too far, as I shall explain later.

To appreciate the position more fully let us look at some
of the functions of the cell. It is very difficult to realise it,
and yet it is the fact, that the little microscopic or ultra-
microscopic cell probably does all or most that the plant or
animal is known to do. It literally breathes or respires;
it takes in, manipulates, digests and assimilates its food ; it
reproduces its kind; it grows, decays and dies; it heals
itself when sick and restores itself when a breakage takes
place. It develops special means and mechanisms to assist
it in carrying out these operations, and it co-ordinates and
regulates all its manifold activities in a way which implies
some wonderful central control of all these functions. Let
us look at these operations with a little more detail.

Unlike any other substance in nature, the protoplasm of
the cell is vitally active and is in an incessant process of real
creative change ; parts are continually being destroyed and

68 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

replaced by new protoplasm which is continually being
formed. No other substance has this power of making its
own material, so to say. A crystal, for instance, builds itself
up from its own material already existing in solution without
any change being made in its constitution. The crystal
serves merely as an attractive centre round which its
material, already present in dissolved form, may be
deposited in solid form. With protoplasm the process of
growth or renewal is quite different. The material taken
in is entirely altered and recombined into the substance of
which the protoplasm is composed, and this material, so
altered and transformed, is then by some yet unknown
process taken up and assimilated into the protoplasm or
living substance of the cell. This complete transformation
and this mysterious assimilation of its material is one of
the most unique functions of the cell, and its far-reaching
significance will later on be more particularly stressed.

The technical name for this complete transformation which
the cell effects in the material it takes in is metabolism, and
it may therefore be said that metabolism is the process which
above everything distinguishes living from non-living matter.
The cell is not a static or stationary organism ; it is for ever
being built up by new material which it transforms into its
substances, and it is for ever being broken down through
the new cell substances which it forms and gives off in order
to build up the various parts of the complete plant or to
supply the energy necessary for its functioning. And the
activity by which the material is taken in in one form, then
transformed and assimilated into the substance of the cell,
and then again given off as different cell substances for the
building up of the various parts of the plant or the
energy supply this activity, while apparently a series
of chemical and physical processes, implies a co-ordinated
system which is unlike anything seen in the purely
physical or chemical domain. The physical and chemical
procedure seems to be merely the mechanisms or instru-
mentalities used by a deeper organic process, which
means and does much more than the physical or chemical

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 69

details which we can identify. Not only is there control and
organisation of these details, but the physico-chemical
agencies themselves are of a new type. For instance,
oxygen and carbon dioxide appear to be taken in through the
stomata of the leaves, but this is not merely a case of ordinary
osmosis. Again, liquid materials in the form of dissolved
salts or other inorganic substances are taken in through the
roots, but this also is not a case of ordinary physical osmosis.
Again, these liquids rise in the plant cells as if it were
merely a case of surface tension or capillary action. But as a
matter of fact these are all cases of metabolism in which
subtle changes take place in the protoplasm, changes whose
details are no doubt apparently all of a physico-chemical
character, but whose distinctive character lies not in these
details so much as in the new system of control in which they
are organised and regulated. The theory which has been
developed to account for the physico-chemical reactions
which take place in all organic change and functioning is
based on the assumption of very complex substances of the
nature of ferments or enzymes being formed and acting in
the protoplasm. It is, for instance, through the agency of
the enzymes in the protoplasm that all the secretions are
formed which build up the different parts of the plant.
Thus also the transformation of the carbon dioxide in the
green cells of the leaves into starch is not a chemical change
of the ordinary type, but is effected in the presence of
colloidal catalysts like chlorophyll and other enzymes, at
whose surfaces sunlight can transform the carbon dioxide
so as to form successively formaldehyde, dextrose, maltose,
and finally soluble and insoluble starch. Mere physical
and chemical reactions have been identified. But it is quite
possible that there is much more, and that the organic
process behind them is much more complicated and
characteristic. Again, both respiration and metabolism
are processes effected through enzyme action at colloid
surfaces instead of being of the ordinary mechanical
character. The enzymes are thus conceived as being
catalytic agents existing in colloidal form in the cells and

yo HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP,

as having at their surfaces or in their " fields " the power
of transforming other substances in the presence of the
energy of sunlight or electricity. They do this according
to the well-known chemical and physical laws, without
themselves being thereby used up or transformed. The
cell has the power to build up or secrete these complex
enzyme compounds ; with the help of these, again, it manu-
factures other complex substances necessary for the plant or
animal life. It carries on many other functions in addition to
these manufacturing processes. Throughout it seems to
follow simple physical and chemical rules but on a new plan.
All this will serve to emphasise how vastly complicated
cell structures and activities must be. A large number of
the most complicated processes are carried on, scarcely one
of which the best-equipped laboratory in the world can
perform, and all are carried on by a little cell which is
microscopic or smaller in size !

During recent years resolute attempts have been made to
repeat under artificial laboratory conditions what takes place
in the living plants, and certain very interesting results
have been obtained. Thus an attempt has been made by
Professor Baly and others to imitate photo-synthesis in the
laboratory. Light of a short wave-length from a mercury
vapour lamp was made to act on water and carbon dioxide,
and as a result formaldehyde was obtained and, as in the
green leaf, oxygen was set free : CO 2 + H 2 O = CH 2 + O 2 .
Light with a somewhat longer wave-length was made to
turn this formaldehyde into simple sugars. 1 However inter-
esting and valuable these and similar results are, it is probable
if not certain that they have only a distant resemblance to
what takes place in the organic process, where the physical
factors of sunlight and electrical change acting in the field
of colloid chlorophyll are quite different, and the chemical
results are brought about by mainly different processes.
From a scientific point of view, however, the laboratory work
is of undoubted interest and importance, for the further it is

1 It is claimed that sunlight has quite recently been successfully
substituted for artificial light in these experiments.

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 71

prosecuted and the greater the success in the synthetic
formation of organic substances, the easier it will become
to differentiate clearly and unmistakably between the
organic and the mechanical laboratory processes.

The origin of the cell is the origin of life, and we know
nothing definite about it. But the question arises whether
sufficient is not known about the cell and organic develop-
ment to justify us in trying to form some general idea as to
its possible origin. And here we find one set of phenomena
which throws a special light on the nature and development
of organisms and perhaps also on their origins. The
phenomena of reproduction seem to hold the very secret of
life and, moreover, bring us close to the secret of matter.
And this secret common to both, jealously guarded and
preserved throughout the whole range of terrestrial evolution,
shows a continuity unique in science, which brings together
some of the apparently most diverse facts which confront us
in the world of life. How well the secret has been guarded
and kept and shielded from all outside influences is
evidenced by the extraordinary fact that though plant and
animal life must have diverged near the beginning of things,
and must through many millions of years have been
moving further apart in the history of this globe, yet the
methods of reproduction in plants and animals are still very
much alike. The romance of the reproduction of a flowering
plant, which is one of the most wonderful in the world, is
practically the same, down to many details, as that of the
reproduction of one of the higher animals. Going very far
back, we find that it is very much the same in the simplest,
most primitive alga as in the other members of the rising
plant series the ferns, the cycads, the conifers and the
flowering plants. When we go still further back into the
past and come to the case of unicellular organisms, which
reproduce themselves not by cell-fusions but by cell-division,
we come to the situation, or something very close to the
situation, which must have arisen when matter first organ-
ised itself into life. For what do we see ? The cell when it
proceeds to divide into two assumes the appearance of an

72 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

electrical and polar system; its nuclear material arranges
itself in parallel bodies or chromosomes like an electrical
or electro-magnetic field ; its centrosome (if any) splits up,
as if under some unbearable electrical strain, just as is
the case in Radioactivity, and two polar bodies are formed
from it at opposite sides of the nucleus, from which lines of
force proceed throughout the now disintegrating nucleus and
cell ; the nuclear bodies of the breaking-up cell divide them-
selves equally between the two polar bodies, and aggregate
and concentrate towards them until finally the separation
between the two systems is complete and the material of
the nucleus and cell has split into two. The division of the
cell into two cells is complete. It is apparent from this
summary statement how the cell in division approximates
to the character of the atom of matter described in the last
chapter. Were they not in the beginning both electrical
systems with their nuclei, their fields and their cataclysmic
behaviour ? In the cell the original hypothetical electrical
character of the division has become overlaid with and
obscured by other factors so that the electrical character is no
longer recognisable, except in the general appearance and
scheme of division. But originally it possibly was electrical,
as it still is in appearance. Arguing back from the analogy
of cell-division to the probable original rise of the cell
from inorganic matter, we may imagine the building up
of very complex organic or hydrocarbon compounds
under favourable external conditions, in which the influence
of sunlight and other forms of electrical energy played
an important part, just as sunlight in the presence of
chlorophyll still plays a foremost part in the production
of new cells and organic substances in plant-life. We know
that millions of years ago, when life arose, the sun was
much hotter than it is to-day, and sunlight contained
much more of the chemically active rays which facilitate
organic changes. The peculiar electrical energy of the
sun may therefore have played a decisive part in the
origin of life. In other words, the part which electrical
changes appear to play in the process of cell-division may be

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 73

somewhat analogous to the part they probably played in the
original rise of the cell. The basic electrical structure of
matter would thus be paralleled by the more complex
electrical origin of the cell. Reproduction of the most
primitive forms takes place in a fluid medium, and all
protoplasm still has a fluid jelly-like consistency. It is
therefore probable that the most primitive forms of proto-
plasm might have arisen under favourable conditions of
sunlight and warmth when the warm water still contained
much of the crust in solution or dispersed in small particles
in colloidal form, and thus presented conditions favourable
for the selective formation of complex substances, such as
the predecessors of the present forms of protoplasm. Recent
advances in bio-chemistry have led to the isolation and
discovery in the animal body of very complex substances
(such as glutathione) whose external surfaces absorb free
Oxygen and whose interior undergoes the opposite change
of setting free this Oxygen and building up higher
organic structures. Thus a continual chemical process
is set going which is at the same time an electrical
current from without inwards, transmitting the electrical
energy of sunlight contained in the Oxygen of the air to
the interior cell substances, where the Oxygen is deprived
of its energy and set free, and where with this energy
complex compounds are built up which again store the
energy required for the nutrition and other functions of the
living organism. The chemical electrical system which
forms the fundamental mechanism of life in the last resort
simply uses the energy of sunlight, stored in the free Oxygen
of the air, for building from it the body of life ; and there is
thus the closest connection between sunlight and life-
structures. In that connection, without a doubt, the origin
of life must be sought. The cell structure having once been
evolved from pre-cell structure, probably by way of prolonged
trial and error or " natural selection " extending over long
periods of time, its multiplication or reproduction would
take place through the part that electrical tension would
play. Thus the complex unstable electrical structure or

74 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

organic substance, whose internal equilibrium would pass
through various crises and changes in its " development/'
would finally tend to break up and under certain conditions
proceed to divide. This original haphazard division would
gradually become stabilised and standardised, so to speak,
until cell-division becomes the regular basis not only of all
growth but also of all reproductive processes in both plant
and animal.

At first there could have been no essential difference
between growth and reproduction of cells. By division
one cell was formed from another, and might either remain
in association with the old cell, as is the case in all multi-
cellular organisms (growth), or it might separate from the old
cell and develop on its own as an independent organism
(reproduction) . This simple division still remains the process
of growth in all organisms without distinction, and it remains
the process of reproduction in all unicellular and the lowest
forms of multicellular organisms. In less primitive, more
developed multicellular organisms the process of repro-
duction has, however, become more complex, and has altered
to the union or fusion of two specialised cells or gametes to
form a new cell ; and in such cases another scheme, involving
a double set of divisions, has taken the place of the simple
division. While one of these simply halves the total
contents of the old cell as between the two new cells, the
other or reduction division separates out the individual
chromosome elements in the contents so that each of the two
new cells has half of these elements. This halving is
necessary to prevent the continual and cumulative doubling
of cell elements in the repeated reproduction of the same type
of organism, and to keep the chromosome contents of cells of
similar organisms constant. The two cells or gametes, thus
reduced in all respects to half the original cells, then unite
to form the new cell, which has once more the full com-
plement of chromosome elements. This reduction division
in reproduction is common to both plants and animals above
the most undeveloped types, and we therefore seem to have
some justification for the most remarkable conclusion that

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 75

this phase of reproduction must have developed before the
separation of plant and animal forms took place. It forms
also the basis for that alternation of generations which is
one of the most remarkable of all the phenomena of life.
Thus all organisms which are reproduced through cell fusion
have a generation in which the cells have the single or haploid
contents (after the reduction division) and another in which
the cells have the double or diploid contents (before the re-
duction division). In the higher forms of plants and animals
the generation of the single-content cell, or the gametophyte
generation as it is called, is reduced to a very subordinate role
and a short life, as it covers the short period of the gametes or
conjugating cells (the ripe sperm-cells and ova) in flowering
plants and in the more developed animals. The generation of
the double-contents cell, or the sporophyte generation as it is
called, has become dominant and appears as the developed
plant or animal which we see in nature to-day. But in some
divisions of plants the gametophyte generation is still of
some prominence. Thus the moss plant is the gametophyte
generation, the sporophyte generation appearing as a sub-
ordinate parasitic form. And in the ferns, where the sporo-
phyte is the dominant form, the gametophyte appears as a
distinct plant which is in some cases a perennial. And its
relation to the fern was unknown until about the middle
of the nineteenth century.

This generation of the single-content or haploid cell,
or the gametophyte in the developed plants and animals
of to-day, is interesting because it is probably only
another illustration of the well-known principle that
ontogeny repeats phylogeny, that is to say, that the
history of the individual organism recapitulates in its
earlier or embryonic stages of development the various
phases of development through which its types of ancestors
have evolved in the past. Thus the gametophyte generation
is a reminder of that earlier, simpler, more primitive phase in
plant evolution when the more complex sporophyte genera-
tion, which is dominant to-day, had not yet been evolved
through cell fusion in reproduction. Another interesting

76 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

deduction has also been made. The gametophyte repro-
duces in a liquid medium, and in this and in other ways
carries us back to the time when life on this globe was still
more or less aquatic, and the later land forms of the sporo-
phyte had not yet arisen. And it is even possible that the
form of the present gametophyte may throw light on the
particular descent of plant forms. Thus the gametophyte
of the fern is a flat thallus-like plant which both in form
and character reminds one of an alga. And it is quite
possible that this form of the fern may give the clue of its
origin from some alga-like progenitor in the far-distant past.
May we not say that the prothallus of the fern appears to
connect the alga and the fern, and thus to bridge widely
separated epochs of the past in the evolution of plant forms ?
I suggest the idea merely for further investigation.

From speculations as to the origin of the cell we pass on
to consider the differentiations which have taken place
among cells generally, and the particular differentiation of
cells which has led to the divergence between plant and
animal forms. It is commonly thought that the animal
forms are a later development and advance on the earlier
plant forms. This idea is largely due to the fact that in the
animal there has been the special development of the new
factor of mind which, rapidly rising through the higher
animals, has reached its highest level in the human
race. But although animal forms may have developed
farther and come to attain to much higher levels than the
plant forms, the question of origins stands on a different
footing. And the evidence points rather to a common
origin and to the earliest cells of life having been common
to both plants and animals. Thus the lowest forms of cell
life are even now practically indistinguishable into plant
and animal. And it is probable that this common phase,
prior to differentiation into plant and animal forms, must
have lasted a very long time and have been marked by
considerable advances in the development of the common
cells, especially in view of the probable fact, already noted,
that sexual reproduction of a fairly advanced type had

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 77

perhaps been reached before the bifurcation took place
and plants and animals were launched on their separate
careers. What advance in cell development had been
reached before this bifurcation it is impossible to say, as
only the very lowest unicellular organisms of a common
character still survive, and the geological record has no
evidence to give. Differentiation in cells must have com-
menced as soon as the daughter cells began to adhere to
the parent cell and multicellular organisms were formed.
In the unicellular Pleurococcus, which is about the simplest
plant form known, noticed as the green slime on the damp
bark of trees or wooden posts, we see the beginnings of
this process of cell aggregation, as daughter cells adhere to
the parent cell until several divisions have taken place and
only then separate into individual cells. The Pleurococcus
cell is globular, but during this attachment the cells are
flattened at the surfaces of contact. In the multicellular
organisms a layer of cuticle covers the outer cell walls in
contact with the air and retards the loss of water. Step by
step other differentiations appear, and the plant body
becomes more complex as we advance from alga to fern,
and from fern to the higher seed-bearing plants. The
differentiations into various organs, such as the root, stem,
leaf and reproductive organs, are simply means towards the
division of physiological labour. Thus in cells away from
the light photo-synthesis is impossible, and they become
dependent on the outer green cells ; similarly the roots under-
ground become dependent for starch on the green cells and
in return absorb dissolved salts for supply to the rest of the
plant. The water requirements render necessary the fibro-
vascular cell system, while the reproductive functions become
confined to special organs. All this differentiation means
more organisation and a more elaborate structure of the
plant. In addition to this division of labour the struggle
for existence tests the structure in other directions, and
means more modification in response to the stress of the
struggle and the stimulus of the environment generally.
As a result the plant structure comes to be elaborated and

78 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

adapted to the inner and external demands upon it, and to
assume the forms which are known to us.

Besides this general differentiation and organisation,
there are special causes which have brought about the
divergence of plant and animal forms. A consideration of
these matters falls outside the scope of our task. Generally
it may be said that plant-life has been determined and
stereotyped through the two processes of photo-synthesis
and osmosis, the second of which has enabled it to get water
and mineral salts direct from the soil, and the first of which
has enabled it by the help of chlorophyll to utilise the energy
of sunlight for making sugars, starch and cellulose from the
carbon dioxide of the air. The plant, being thus dependent
for its food solely on the soil and the air, could afford to
remain stationary and mostly fixed in the soil ; while animal
forms, which are dependent on organic foods, have had to be
mobile in order to look for and find the necessary plant or
animal substances on which to live. The struggle for food
has been a much harder one for animals, which have in
consequence not only had to be mobile and develop a complex
motor system, but also to evolve in the nervous system a
special co-ordinating mechanism with which to work the
motor system. This mechanism, again, has led to unique
developments in the direction of sensitiveness and con-
sciousness, which in the case of man have come to over-
shadow all that has gone before. But mind is a later
development, the discussion of which should not be raised in
connection with the cell. The primitive cell of life is
on the way to Mind, but Mind in any proper sense of
the term is at this stage still far off, and those who
ascribe Mind or even potential Mind to the cell open the
door to the most serious confusions. The cell undoubtedly
presents a great mystery. And there is a strong temptation
to ascribe its surprising activities to an inner mentality or
organic psychism. But even the most highly evolved human
intelligence finds it difficult to understand all that goes on in
the cell. If psychism is the key, we should have to ascribe
to the cell so large a measure of mentality as to reduce the

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 79

whole supposition of psychism to absurdity. The cell has
not yet mind. Mind as we know it, or anything at all
resembling it, is a much later development in the process of
organic Evolution, as will be shown in Chapter IX.

Enough has been said about the structure and the functions
of the cell to give a rough general idea of what the cell is.
Let us now pass on to consider the inter-relations of elements
in the cell, and among cells in the same organism, and
especially the aspect of co-ordination in and among cells.
In the first place I ask : Is the cell and are cells in an organ-
ism a co-operative system, in which the parts and their
functions are so ordered and arranged that they co-operate
for common purposes, and do not merely subserve the
separate ends of the individual parts?

There could be no doubt as to the answer. The whole
meaning and significance of Metabolism is that the activities
of the cell are not self-centred or self-regarding. The cell
functions for other cells and for the plant as a whole. One
element in the cell functions for other elements and for the
whole cell organism. The secretions formed in one cell are
intended to build up other cells or to serve the plant as a
whole. The fibro- vascular cells carry liquid food from one
part of the plant to the other parts. The carbohydrates
formed in the green cells are transmitted and stored as food
for all the other cells ; the woody substances secreted from
them are meant to strengthen other cells and the plant as
a whole against the forces of the environment ; the aroma
and bloom which are secreted from them are meant to
render attractive and adorn other parts of the plant with a
view to the preservation of the plant species as a whole.
Indeed, all the processes of Metabolism go to prove that
the plant is one vast co-operative system, in which the
individual cells in their continuous functions and labours
make their contribution to the common cause, and work
so that other cells or the plant itself or the species to which
it belongs may live. The cell is a delicate problem not only
of structure but also of inter-related functions, so co-adapted
that a real whole is thereby constituted. The cell in its

80 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

normal structure and functions is the very type of co-
operative action.

So far I believe we are still on firm ground in our description
of cell activities, and the co-operative character of organic
functioning will be generally admitted. Can we go further
and characterise this co-operation more closely? What is
the nature of this cell or organic co-operation ? Is it spon-
taneous or controlled? And if controlled, is it controlled
internally or externally? Let me repeat the question in
another form. Are the cells and the organs which they form
in the same plant or animal free and independent, so that the
co-operation which we observe in their functioning is a mere
accidental result of their individual uncontrolled reactions
and behaviour ? Or is there some co-ordinating factor which
influences the cells and their organs in some specific direction,
and thus co-ordinates and unifies their functions and pro-
duces the co-operation we observe ? And if the cells are not
independent agents in the make-up of the organism but are
under some form of unifying influence or control, is their
apparent co-operation due to an external factor, like Natural
Selection as commonly understood? Or is there some
internal element of co-ordination, the influence of which is
felt by the different cells, and in response to which they
react, so that their functions proceed generally on the lines
of a plan or pattern given by the nature of the particular
organism? In either case there would be co-operation on
the basis of co-ordination, but in the one case there would
be an external, and in the other an internal, factor at work
in this co-ordination. It will be seen that the issue here
raised as between the cells inside the organism is analogous
to that which Darwinism has raised as between separate
organisms in their struggle for existence. The answer, so
far as the struggle among organisms is concerned, will be
discussed in Chapter VIII. And the results there reached
will probably apply also to the case of the cell or the cells
in an organism which is here raised. The subject is not
free from controversy, and in this chapter I wish to avoid
controversy and simply to describe the facts in the ordinary

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 81

language of metaphor which I trust will not prove mis-
leading. And looking at the facts in an unprejudiced
way, and without a bias in favour of any particular
theory, one cannot help being struck by the way in
which the cells in an organism not only co-operate, but
co-operate in a specific direction towards the fulfilment
and maintenance of the type of the particular organism
which they constitute. At this stage we have to steer clear
of all ideas of plan, purpose or teleology in the organic
procedure. But, even so, the impression is irresistible that
cell activities are co-operative, that they are inherently or
through selective development co-ordinated in a specific
direction, and that the impress of the whole which forms the
organism is clearly stamped on all the details. The case
is utterly unlike that of physical forces, which are alike,
which are repetitions of each other, and which can be added or
subtracted or otherwise expressed arithmetically. The cells
are different, they are differentiated in definite respects,
and the totality of differentiations fit into a plan or scheme,
the fulfilment of which constitutes the complete organism.
There are no repetitions, there is uniqueness everywhere,
and the various unique entities and their functions fit into
each other more or less so as to produce an organic whole,
unlike any other organism. And in some indefinable way this
whole is not an artificial result of its parts ; it is itself an active
factor like its parts, and it appears to be in definite relation
with them, influenced by them and again influencing them,
and through this continuous interaction of parts and whole
maintaining the moving equilibrium of structure and
functions which is the organism.

Look, for instance, at the way in which organisms behave
when some cells or organs, necessary for their maintenance,
are removed or injured. It is well known that many plants
and animals have the power of restitution in case of damage
or mutilation. The newt forms a new leg in the place of the
severed limb. The plant supplies the place of the severed
branch with another. The regeneration may be effected
from different organs and by different organs. Thus if the

82 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

crystalline lens is removed from the eye of a Triton, the iris
will regenerate a new lens, although the lens and the iris
in this case have been evolved from quite different parts.
Numerous similar curious facts of restoration could be
mentioned. The broken whole in organic nature restores
itself or is restored by the undamaged parts. The cells of
the remaining parts set themselves the novel task of restoring
the missing parts. The power to do this varies with various
plants or animals, and varies also with the different parts in
the same plant or animal. Generally one may say that the
more highly differentiated and specialised an organism or a
cell is, the smaller is its plasticity, or the power of the remain-
ing cells to restore the whole in case of injury or mutilation.
But the fact that the power exists in numerous cases is a
proof that not only can the cells through reproduction build
up the original organism according to its specific type, but
also that when this type is damaged, the remaining cells or
some of them can restore it, and recomplete the whole. The
normal power of the cells to build up an organism in repro-
duction or cmbryological development according to type is
one thing, and it is marvellous enough even though one looks
upon it as merely a case of inherited routine. But the
abnormal power to do this in the very unusual case, so
far removed from all idea of routine, where the type is
accidentally broken down is something different, and shows
how effective is the power of the organism as a whole, and how
strong is the tendency towards the whole even in the in-
dividual cells. In some subtle way the damage creates a
need, and the need stimulates the remaining parts to perform
the functions of the damaged parts or to restore them in whole
or in part. The very nature of the cells is to function as parts
of a whole, and when the whole is broken down an unusual
extra task automatically arises for them to restore the breach,
and their dormant powers are aroused to action. And this
happens, so far as we can see, simply as a matter of interior
economy and domestic regulation in the organism itself and
without previous education for the new role. The inter-
action between the organism and its cells is indeed most

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 83

subtle and intimate ; both seem to be active factors in the
maintenance of the whole and in the restoration of any parts
that may be missing and necessary for the whole. So inti-
mate is their interaction that it is almost impossible to say
where the influence of the one ends and the other begins.

The aspect of co-ordination or subordination of parts to
the whole is also most significantly illustrated by the
phenomena of reproduction which I have already referred to
in another connection. Reproduction not only carries us
back to the past and its riddles, but also forward to the
future, and it is the reproductive system of organisms that
we must scan most closely if we wish to understand this
aspect of organic activities. For in reproduction the cell or
the organism clearly appears to go beyond itself, its functions
become transcendent, as far as it is itself concerned; its
blind strivings and energies embrace objects and situa-
tions beyond itself. In fact, in reproduction the cell or
the organism bears clear testimony to the fact that it is not
itself alone, and that it is part of a larger whole of life
towards the fulfilment of which its most fundamental
functions are directed. As an illustration of the co-
ordinated inter-relations of parts and whole in organism,
nothing can therefore be more significant and important
than the facts of organic reproduction. Here more than
anywhere else the importance of the whole as an operative
factor appears, not merely the immediate whole or individual
organism, but also the transcendent whole or the type
which has to be reproduced and maintained at all costs.
Throughout the entire range of organic nature one is
impressed with the essential selflessness, the disregard of self,
and the transcendence of self in the reproductive process,
which harnesses the individual to the needs of the race,
exhausts its reserves of strength, and often costs it its life.
On that process is stamped, as on the very heart of Nature,
the principle of sacrifice, of the subordination of the part to
the whole, of the individual to the race or type.

The preceding analysis will have enabled us to realise that
the plant or the animal is a whole consisting of millions

84 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of parts in the form of cells of all kinds, while the cells again
are smaller wholes of indefinite complexity and marvellous
activities. All these parts are co-ordinated and arranged
down to the most minute details, and function with the
most complete collaboration in support of each other and
the whole organism. The organism is indeed a little living
world in which law and order reign, and in which every
part collaborates with every other part, and subserves the
common purposes of the whole, as a rule with the most perfect
regularity. It is this perfect community of functions and
unity of action in a system consisting of innumerable parts
and the most complex structural arrangements that makes
the organism such a striking type of a whole. We have
seen structural order as the characteristic of inorganic matter ;
we now see active co-operation and unity of action super-
added as the characteristic of the organism. We admire the
order and co-operation of a beehive or a community of ants ;
in the organism we see a more perfect order and a more
wonderful co-operation in a situation which is perhaps not
much less complex than either. And just as the individual
bee or ant lives its own life and is not lost in the joint venture
of the hive or nest, so the individual cell lives its own life and
specialises and perfects itself for its role in the organism
which it helps to form and to serve without loss or sacrifice
of its own identity. The organism embraces innumerable
smaller organic units whose identity is not swallowed up
in it, is expressed and not suppressed by it. The large
organism does not only mean the union and co-operative
harmony of its smaller units, but also as a rule the more
perfect individuation and specialised development of these
units in the harmony of the whole. The plant or animal
body is a social community, but a community which allows
a substantial development to its individual members. And
its nature and structure are such that it can only perfect itself
through the differentiation and development of the members
which compose it. But while this is so, while (as we shall see
more clearly in the sequel) individuation is fundamental
in Nature, we have to recognise that intensive co-operation

iv THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 85

plays a no less important and fundamental part. An
organism is fundamentally a society in which innumerable
members co-operate in mutual help in a spirit of the most
effective disinterested service and loyalty to each other.
Co-operation and mutual help are written large on the face
of Nature. Nay, more, if cell structure and function can
teach us anything, they are imprinted deep on the nature
of the universe, they are the very meaning and soul of
Nature. We may travel far through the realms of Evolution,
but nowhere shall we find a more perfect co-operation or a
more beautiful illustration of mutual help of one part for
another, and of all parts for the whole, as well as of the
whole for all its parts, than in the little insignificant cell,
which seems to hold the very secret of the universe.
Anticipating the language of later developments, we may
say that in the cell there is implicit an ideal of harmonious
co-operation, of unselfish mutual service, of loyalty and
duty of each to all, such as in our later more highly evolved
human associations we can only aspire to and strive for.
When there was achieved the marvellous and mysterious
stable constellation of electrical units in the atom, a
miracle was wrought which saved the world of matter from
utter chaos and chance. But a far greater miracle was
wrought when from the atomic and the molecular order there
was evolved a still deeper and subtler order in the inner co-
operative harmony of the cell. These two fundamental
structures are the great abiding achievements in the course
of Evolution, before the advent of Mind, and though many
other experiments were probably made before and in between
these successes, they proved unstable and were discarded
and abandoned, and are now searched for in vain. We
have to scrutinise these abiding peaks of achievement
if we wish to understand the real nature of the Evolutionary
process, and if we wish to form an idea of the nature
of the ground in between these permanent structures
which has been washed away in the endless lapse of time.
And when we find the two to be not utterly different but
expressions of a somewhat similar inner progressive tendency

86 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP, iv

of Nature, and when we find later, on the mental and spiritual
levels of development, still clearer expressions of a similar
tendency, we shall be justified in concluding that we are face
to face with something real and causal in the form of a
natural operative factor of a fundamental and universal
character. The impression becomes so strong that it
is not so much a matter of speculation as a recognition of
clear simple facts before us. The permanent structures
in Nature have been and are still being patiently investi-
gated for us by Science. As I said in the last chapter, they
present more than a faint family resemblance and enable
us to recognise the unity which underlies them all and to
draw certain conclusions as to the origin of this unity. In
their constitution, functions and development they point
strongly in the direction of some inner natural factor in
Evolution of which they are the expression. The evidence
in favour of such a natural factor of a synthetic ordering
character has been accumulating in this and the two pre-
ceding chapters; it requires isolation, identification and
exact formulation, if that were possible. And in the
next chapter a preliminary attempt at such an identification
and formulation will be made.

CHAPTER V

GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM

Summary. The close approach to each other of the concepts of
matter, life and mind, and their partial overflow of each other's
domain, raises the further question whether back of them there is
not a fundamental principle of which they are the progressive
outcome. That is the central problem of this work.

Two conceptions of genesis or development have prevailed. The
one regards all reality as given in form and substance at the beginning,
either actually or implicitly, and the subsequent history as merely
the unfolding, explication, evolutio, of this implicit content. This
view puts creation in the past and makes it predetermine the whole
future ; all fresh initiative, novelty or creativeness is consequently
banned from a universe so created or evolved. The other view
posits a minimum of the given at the beginning, and makes the
process of Evolution creative of reality. Evolution on this view is
really creative and not merely explicative of what was given before ;
it involves the creative rise not only of new forms or groupings, but
even of new materials in the process of Evolution. This is the view
of Evolution to-day commonly held, and it marks a revolution in
thought. It releases the present and the future from the bondage of
the past, and makes freedom an inherent character of the universe.

Creative Evolution involves both general principles or tendencies
and particular forms or structures ; philosophy studies the former,
while science has more exclusively concentrated on the latter. Yet
both are necessary to reality ; and any universal formula of Evolu-
tion must include both the general activity or tendency and the
particular structures, as one cannot be deduced from the other.
Bergsonmade an attempt to deduce Evolution with all its multi-
tudinous forms from homogeneous, pure, undifferentiated Duration.
This was, however, not possible, and he had to call in the practical
spatialising Intellect to infect and fertilise Duration in order to make
hei productive ; he thus made the Intellect play a one-sided and, at the
same time, excessive role in the shaping of the forms of the universe.
It would be a better procedure to take some natural unit or sample
section of Nature for our starting-point, and thus to keep as close
to her and her concreteness as possible. The last two chapters give
us a clue where to look for a beginning. Both matter and life consist

88 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of unit structures whose ordered grouping produces natural wholes
which we call bodies or organisms. This character of " wholeness "
meets us everywhere and points to something fundamental in the
universe. Holism (from ti\os = whole) is the term here coined for
this fundamental factor operative towards the creation of wholes in
the universe. Its character is both general and specific or con-
crete, and it satisfies our double requirement for a natural
evolutionary starting-point.

Wholes are not mere artificial constructions of thought; they
actually exist; they point to something real in the universe, and
Holism is a real operative factor, a vera causa. There is behind
Evolution no mere vague creative impulse or Elan vital, but some-
thing quite definite and specific in its operation, and thus pro-
ductive of the real concrete character of cosmic Evolution.

The idea of wholes and wholeness should therefore not be confined
to the biological domain ; it covers both inorganic substances and
mental structures as well as the highest manifestations of the human
spirit. Taking a plant or an animal as a type of a whole, we notice
the fundamental holistic characters as a unity of parts which is so close
and intense as to be more than the sum of its parts ; which not only
gives a particular conformation or structure to the parts, but so
relates and determines them in their synthesis that their functions
are altered ; the synthesis affects and determines the parts, so that
they function towards the " whole " ; and the whole and the parts,
therefore reciprocally influence and determine each other, and appear
more or less to merge their individual characters : the whole is in
the parts and the parts are in the whole, and this synthesis of whole
and parts is reflected in the holistic character of the functions of the
parts as well as of the whole.

There is a progressive grading of this holistic synthesis in Nature,
so that we pass from (a) mere physical mixtures, where the structure
is almost negligible, and the parts largely preserve their separate
characters and activities or functions, to (b) chemical compounds,
where the structure is more synthetic and the activities and functions
are strongly influenced by the new structure and can only with
difficulty be traced to the individual parts; and, again, to
(c) organisms, where a still more intense synthesis of elements has been
effected, which impresses the parts or organs far more intimately with
a unified character, and a system of regulation and co-ordination, and
finally of central control of all the parts and organs arises ; and from
organism, again, on to (d) Minds or psychical organs, where the Central
Control acquires consciousness and freedom and a creative power
of the most far-reaching character; and finally to (e) Personality,
which is the highest, most evolved whole among the structures of the
universe, and becomes a new orientative, originative centre of reality.
All through this progressive series the character of wholeness

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 89

deepens ; Holism is not only creative but self-creative, and its final
structures are far more holistic than its initial structures. Natural
wholes are always composed of parts ; in fact the whole is not some-
thing additional to the parts, but is just the parts in their synthesis,
which may be physico-chemical or organic or psychical or personal.
As Holism is a process of creative synthesis, the resulting wholes are
not static but dynamic, evolutionary, creative. Hence Evolution
has an ever-deepening inward spiritual holistic character; and the
wholes of Evolution and the evolutionary process itself can only be
understood in reference to this fundamental character of wholeness.
This is a universe of whole-making. The explanation of Nature can
therefore not be purely mechanical ; and the mechanistic concept of
Nature has its place and justification only in the wider setting of
Holism. In its organic application, in particular, the " whole " will
be found a much more useful term in science than " life/' and will
render the prevailing mechanistic interpretation largely unnecessary.
A natural whole has its " field," and the concept of fields will be
found most important in this connection also. Just as a " thing " is
really a synthesised ' ' event ' ' in the system of Relativity, so an organism
is really a unified, synthesised section of history, which includes not
only its present but much of its past and even some of its future. An
organism can only be explained by reference to its past and its future
as well as its present; the central structure is not sufficient and
literally has not enough in it to go round in the way of explanation ;
the conception of the field therefore becomes necessary and will be
found fruitful in biology and psychology no less than in physics.

IN this chapter we approach the central problem of our
inquiry. In the preceding chapters we have seen the con-
cept of matter coming closer to the concept of life ; we have
seen the concept of life, in the cell, and in organism, and in
Evolution generally, tending towards the concept of mind.
We have seen these three fundamental concepts, at first
apparently so utterly unlike and so far apart, approaching
each other and overflowing each other in the real structures
and evolution of the universe. The question now arises
whether there is not something still more fundamental in the
universe, something of which they are but the developing
forms and phases, something out of which they crystallise
at the various onward stages of its progress. And if there is
this more fundamental principle, can it be formulated into
a definite concept, and will it account for the specific concrete

90 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

character of our universe? That is our problem, in the
consideration of which a commencement will be made in this
chapter.

Throughout the history of human thought there have been
two ultimate points of departure in the explanation of the
universe, two contrasted mental attitudes or view-points
from which the universe has been envisaged and accounted
for. According to the one view everything is, in one
way or another, given at the beginning; according to
the other a minimum is assumed at the beginning, and
the universe is a progressive creation or evolution from this
minimum s tar ting-point. On the first view it makes no
difference whether the original creation was complete in all
details or whether merely its logical or metaphysical scheme
was complete, while the contents were only implicitly
given. In either case there can be nothing new in the
course of the subsequent history of the world. If the
original creation was complete and absolute, all subsequent
events and changes can only be rearrangements, reshufflings
of the original groupings : both the material elements and
their principles or forms of arrangement are there as original
data, and determine all subsequent events and arrangements.
If, again, the metaphysical scheme or structure of the
universe must be taken as given, the evolution of the universe
is merely a logical development in compliance with this
scheme ; or in other words, the logical development of the
scheme will give us the material universe as a result. The
development of Hegel's Idea is just such an attempt at a
logical unfolding of the universe. In both cases the explana-
tion of the universe is in the past, at the beginning : that
beginning governs all and predetermines all. The past is the
efficient cause of the future, and no new creation, nothing
essentially new, can arise in the future. The full volume of
reality was there at the beginning and continues to roll on,
changing its forms and appearances by the way, but making
no fresh addition to the original current. All real novelty
and initiative, all real freedom of choice and development
disappear from the universe. The process of the world

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 91

becomes at most an explication, an unfolding of what was
implicitly given, and not a creative evolution of new forms.
This view-point has been dominant in Western science and
philosophy from its early beginnings in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries until quite recently. In physical
science it fits in naturally with the orthodox laws of
conservation, which preclude either the creation or the
destruction of energy, mass or momentum. And in proportion
as mechanistic ideas have prevailed in science and philosophy,
all change has come to mean merely mechanical rearrange-
ments without any substantial addition to or subtraction
from the sum total of reality. Those thinkers, again, who
(like Leibniz) did not subscribe to the mechanistic formula
were led by their theological standpoints and their pre-
formation ideas to look upon reality as completed in
the past, and to leave to the future the merely sub-
ordinate role of unfolding, evolving, explicating what was
virtually contained in that past. This, therefore, is the very
limited sense in which the terms development or evolution as
used by them must be understood. Where they believed in a
dynamic progressive universe, they meant merely a universe
which was progressively unfolding what was implicitly
contained in the past. The view-point of Evolution as
creative, of a real progressive creation still going forward
in the universe instead of having been completed in the past,
of the sum of reality not as constant but as progressively
increasing in the course of evolution, is a new departure
of our own time, and it is perhaps one of the most
significant departures in the whole range of human thought.
Not only has the old static view of reality with its fixed
elements and species disappeared, the new dynamic view of
Evolution does not merely negate the old static view, it has
gone much further. Evolution is not merely a process of
change, of regrouping of the old into new forms; it is
creative, its new forms are not merely fashioned out of the old
materials; it creates both new materials and new forms
from the synthesis of the new with the old materials. The
creativeness of matter is, as we saw, confined to the aspect

92 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of structure and to the refashioning of new structures out of
the pre-existing material units : in that sense matter has
only a limited though real creativeness. When we come to
organisms we find a very much larger measure of creative-
ness in Evolution. For, as will be shown in Chapter VIII, the
new qualities or characters which give rise to new varieties or
species are really new in the sense that they have not been
there before and are not mere reshufflings of characters which
were there before. New characters are created, and on the
basis of them new varietal or specific forms of a stable kind
arise. A still larger measure of creativeness applies to mind
both in its intellectual and ethical aspects ; thought is creative
in all its activities from the simplest sensation up to the most
complex judgment; and the ethical or practical reason is
creative of values, moral, spiritual and religious values, in
the fullest sense. Hence arises the view of Evolution as
creative of the new, as an epigenesis instead of an explication,
as displaying novelty and initiative, as opening up new paths
and rendering possible new choices in the forward march,
as creating freedom for the future and in a very real sense
breaking the bondage of the past and its fixed pre-
determinations.

The view-point of creative Evolution is to-day embraced
by scientists and philosophers generally, and this consensus
between them in a matter of cardinal importance con-
stitutes a most promising situation for the future, and may
lead to far more fruitful co-operation between science and
philosophy than we have known for some hundreds of years.
Let me point to one important direction in which this
co-operation is called for.

In their actual procedure philosophers have occupied
themselves with general principles, while scientists, except
in the domain of Mathematics pure and applied, mostly
occupy themselves with the investigation of particular
things, bodies, organisms and the like. Scientists have
more and more buried themselves in details, exploring
facts to their minutest details, and looking to ever greater
specialisation to give the clues to the unsolved problems.

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 93

More than ever before they are occupying themselves with
the problems of structure, the structure of matter and the
physical universe, the structure of cells and organisms as
explaining the systems of life, the structure of the nervous
system and the brain with a view to understanding the
movement of Evolution in its higher reaches. While science
is thus preoccupied with the details of structure, philosophy
continues very much on the old lines of exploring general
points of view, general principles and tendencies and con-
cepts. Philosophy, in endeavouring to demarcate a province
of her own and distinct from the special regions ruled by
science, is more and more confining herself to the critical con-
sideration of ultimate concepts and principles, and thus
runs the risk of getting further away from science instead of
drawing closer to it. The result of this divorce is lamentable
in the extreme. For science, divorced from the view-
points and principles which philosophy embraces, structure
becomes merely mechanism. For philosophy, divorced from
the actual structural facts which science studies, the
general principles remain in the air, and never generate
this specific concrete sensible world which is there to
explain and understand. But the real world is neither a
mere principle nor a mere structure, neither a dis-
embodied soul nor a soulless mechanism. The creative
Evolution which both scientist and philosopher embrace
works as a general principle or tendency in and through
particular concrete specific forms. Evolution is thus
structure plus principle, interpenetrating each other,
reacting on and vitalising each other. Individuation and
universality are equally characteristic of Evolution. The
universal realises itself, not in idle self -contemplation, not in
isolation from the actual, but in and through individual
bodies, in particular things and facts. The temple of the
Spirit is the structure of matter ; the universal dwells in the
concrete particular; neither is real nor true apart from
the other. All this sounds like truisms and platitudes.
But yet it is most important, for it means this, that
the pursuit of the separate paths of science and philosophy

94 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

will not bring us to our goal. Their paths must be made
to converge. Concepts must be developed which will
include the material and the view-points of both science
and philosophy. The pathway of the real is neither abstract
general principles nor the wilderness of details ; and if we
wish to understand Evolution, we must develop concepts
adequate to its actual process, concepts which will be repre-
sentative of its real characters of concreteness and uni-
versality. In other words, we must form a conceptual
model which will as accurately as possible reproduce what
actually goes on in the process of cosmic Evolution, our
main concern being to make our explanation of Nature's
process as true to actual observed facts as possible. Abstract
principles alone cannot carry us to the understanding of the
concrete procedure of Evolution. Structures by themselves,
again, cannot generalise themselves into a universal process
such as Evolution. Mere structure is not enough, because
it misses the generic, the universal in reality. General
principles or tendencies are not enough, because they are not
concrete such as natural reality is. The two must be
blended in a new concept. And it may be found that the
new concept is actually not a blend of them, but the original
unity from which they have been dissociated, and that the
synthesis produces more than a mere concept, reveals in
fact an operative causal principle of fundamental significance,
To illustrate how philosophers operate with general
principles or tendencies which refuse to produce particularity ,
and therefore fail to explain the concrete character of reality,
let us glance for a moment at Bergson's system. Any othei
would have served perhaps equally well, but Bergson has the
great merit of being the most influential and brillianl
exponent of the philosophy of Evolution in our time, and a
reference to his work will therefore keep us close to our own
subject matter. Bergson singles out the principle oi
Duration as both ultimate and all-embracing and as thus
capable of both generating and explaining reality. He
reaches the concept of Duration by going back into the
depths of subjective experience until he comes to the poinl

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 95

where we feel ourselves most intimately within our own life.
He divests this experience of all elements of change or
differentiated features ; all subjective and objective items of
experience are eliminated ; and there remains the bare flow
or passage of the inner life. This is Duration ; this homo-
geneous flow or passage is for him the creative principle in the
universe. It underlies and generates our idea of time. But
time is not pure Duration, it has become infected with the
Intellect, and instead of being a continuous enduring process
it has become a summation of units, or points, or small unit
lengths of happening. In other words, time has become
spatialised, analytical and arithmetical in character in
proportion as it has become divorced from its original pure
form as uniform flow or process or Duration. This creative
Duration is not only the tap-root of time, but also of Evolu-
tion, and is the source of all the multiplicity of forms and
activities which we see in the universe. Bergson's Creative
Evolution is an attempt to show how this fundamental
principle, beginning as nothing but bare flow or passage,
builds up the concrete universe within us and around us.
To him belongs the signal merit of having elucidated the
concept of Time more clearly than has been done before
in philosophy. The theory of Evolution has made the
aspect of time in the universe more important than ever
before, and Bergson has rescued the concept of time from
the confusions in which it had become entangled, not only
in our empirical experience, but even in our scientific and
philosophic ideas. But while freely conceding this great
merit to Bergson I must confess that I fail to see how from
pure Duration he has produced concrete reality. It simply
cannot be done. From bare, undifferentiated, homogeneous
unity you cannot reach out to multiplicity. You may call
pure Duration creative, but it will create nothing until it is
mixed with something very different from itself. And
indeed Bergson has had to summon to his rescue another
principle, which he has invested with all the characters of
which he had so carefully deprived Duration. This is the
Intellect. The Intellect is practical, differential, analytical,

96 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

selective, purposive; it is at once the principle and the
instrument of action ; it can analyse the material before it
and choose what is useful for its purpose. It is spatial, it
converts pure Duration into impure Time. Nor is Time its
only offspring. From its marriage with pure Duration the
Intellect has produced all the sensible forms in the universe.
Bodies and things are simply our lines of action on matter.
The practical Intellect selects what it wants for action and
ignores or simply does not notice the rest. The sensible
qualities it distinguishes are those which attract its attention
by their practical usefulness or serviceableness for its pur-
poses. The forms of bodies and things are therefore merely
the result of this selective action on matter. 1 Structure
is thus the creature of Intellect ; in fact in its forms the
sensible universe is an intellect-made universe. He admits
that the result is a hopelessly lop-sided affair, and he has to
call in the assistance of Instinct and Intuition another
twin of this marriage who partake more of the pure and
gentle character of the maternal Duration to correct this
lop-sidedness and to prevent reality and truth in the universe
from being distorted beyond recognition. Intuition and
instinct do indeed help to soften and tone down the hard
lines drawn by the selective intellect. But even they do
not avail to reproduce the continuous curve of Duration,
but only an approximation to it. Such is a very summary
statement of what seems to me the essential point in
Bergsonism. For my present purpose I have only two
criticisms to make. In the first place, as already indicated,
the principle of pure Duration fails either to generate or
to explain impure concrete reality. In the second place,
there is far more in structure than the mere creation of the
Intellect. Admitting the practical instrumental selective
character of the Intellect, it would yet be a profound mistake
to make it the sole cause of the forms and structures of
sensible bodies or things. The Intellect is not creative in
that fundamental sense. To make of Intellect what Kant
made of Space and Time the framework or the forms

1 Creative Evolution, p. 102.

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 97

imposed ab extra on sensible reality by the activity of the mind
would be a travesty of psychology and nature alike. In-
tellect selects and orders, but not arbitrarily; it is itself merely
an element in a greater, more universal order. Structure
is the creature of experience, and experience is an interaction
of the subjective and objective factors so intimate and un-
analysable that it is impossible to say how much of the result
is due to one factor and how much to the other. Structure
is as much objective as subjective in its psychological origin.
To put the forms, the structures, the order of Nature to the
sole account of the Intellect or subjective factor in experience
is most seriously misleading and is subjective Idealism in
its most dangerous form. As we have seen in the pre-
ceding chapters, structure or something in the nature of
structure is inherent in the objective order of Nature, just
as it is inherent in the orders of life and mind.

Where Bergson seems to me to have gone wrong was in his
impoverishment of the creative principle by reducing it to
the bare empty form of Duration. In order after that false
step to set his Creation going it was inevitable that another
mistake should be made, and that a relatively subordinate
factor,like the Intellect,shouldbeoverloaded with importance,
Thus the Intellect, which is a sort of Machiavelli or Mephisto-
pheles in the Bergsonian system, has a role assigned to it
which is accentuated both unduly and in a one-sided manner.
In order to understand Nature we have to proceed more
modestly and in closer touch with our ordinary observation
of her ways.

Let me try to make my point clear by stating it in another
way. I wish to get as near as possible to what one might
call Nature's point of view in our explanation of her. To
understand Nature we must take one of her own units, and
not an abstract one of our own making. We must as it were
take a small sample section of Nature which will include as
one and indivisible both the element of activity or principle
and the element of structure or concreteness in her. Our con-
cept must correspond to such a section as our starting-point,
and we must then proceed to apply it as a sort of standard
H

98 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

with which to measure up the whole range of Evolution,
In this way we shall try to explain Nature by reference to
herself and her own standards, so to say, instead of by
reference to intellectual abstractions of our own devising.

It may be objected that in taking such a small section or
unit of Nature as our starting-point I am implicitly assuming
all that follows; that I am taking a small section of the
evolved in order to explain Evolution ; l that I am therefore
begging the question ; and that I shall be only finding here-*
after what I have posited at the beginning. This, however,
is not so. The criticism would have force if Evolution
was merely explicative and not creative, and if my natural
unit would by mere unfolding produce all the rest in the
course of time. We have, however, seen that Evolution is
creative. The assumption of an evolving unit is therefore
by no means an assumption of the evolved results which
follow. This is so because the evolution of an assumed unit
would by no means unfold the implicit contents of that unit,
but would proceed creatively, and would thus in the end
far transcend the elementary unit which was the starting-
point. Let us therefore proceed in the way I propose and try
to reach a concept of Nature and her progress which will
not be imposed on her from without, but which will keep as
close as possible to her own natural evolving units, structures
or standards, so far as we have experience of them.

At this stage we return to the difficult question which was
asked at the beginning of this chapter. We are trying to
dig down to the very roots of reality and to raise an issue the
solving of which will be no light task. The issue has indeed
become inevitable as the result of the preceding chapters.

In Chapters II and III we found the physical properties
of matter were geometrically, that is in a sense mentally,
determinable. We found also that matter, instead of the
inertness, fixity and conservatism traditionally associated
with it, was in reality plastic, mobile and transmutable in
its types, and in a sense creative of its forms and values.

1 Bergson's criticism of Herbert Spencer; see Creative Evolution,
p. xiv.

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 99

How have we to understand this? Is life or mind
implicit in matter, and are the characters just referred to an
appeal of the human mind to immanent mind imprisoned in
matter? Has Science gone so far in her long search for
truth that at last mind greets mind in the inner nature of
things ? Have the rescuers reached the imprisoned in the
long dark tunnel of Nature ?

Again, in Chapter IV we found in the organism and even
in the cell a perfectly adjusted system of co-operation so
closely approaching the social in character, a complicated
system of controls so closely approaching the mental in
character as once more to raise the question of mind on a
really extensive scale implicit in Nature. As we find life
on the one hand encroaching on the domain of matter, so
again we find mind encroaching far beyond its own proper
domain on that usually assigned to life. Is life implicit
mind, mind asleep and almost waking ? Is life latent in
matter, and is mind latent in life ?

What is the answer to these questions, and how have we
to conceive matter, life and mind to explain this overflow
into each other's domain ? Is it possible to have a concept
which will embrace all these facts as phases of its own
creative development ? Is it possible to develop the concept
of a principle which is successively physical, biological and
mental in its evolving phases, in other words, of which
matter, life and mind are the growing manifestations ? Is it
possible to have a fundamental concept of Evolution, of
which matter, life and mind would be the successive stages ?

This is the sort of question which naturally arises as a
result of the point which we have reached in our discussion.
And the answer which one ventures to bring forward must
not only have reference to fundamental principles, but also
to that requisite of concrete character which we have just
now seen to be essential in any solution which professes to
be true to nature.

The last two chapters have not only raised the question
but prepared the way for the answer which will be given in
the sequel. We there saw that reality is not diffuse and

ioo HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

dispersive; on the contrary, it is aggregative, ordered,
structural. Both matter and life consist, in the atom and the
cell, of unit structures whose ordered grouping produces the
natural wholes which we call bodies or organisms. This
character or feature of " wholeness " which we found in the
case of matter and life has a far more general application
and points to something fundamental in the universe, funda-
mental in the sense that it is practically universal, that it
is a real operative factor, and that its shaping influence is
felt ever more deeply and widely with the advance of
Evolution. Holism is the term here coined (from 6'Xo<? =
whole) to designate this whole-ward tendency in Nature,
this fundamental factor operative towards the making or
creation of wholes in the universe. Let us first try to get
some general idea of what Holism is and what " wholes "
are ; thereafter I shall try to define these terms more closely,
We are all familiar in the domain of life with what is here
called wholes. Every organism, every plant or animal, is a
whole, with a certain internal organisation and a measure
of self -direction, and an individual specific character of its
own. This is true of the lowest micro-organism no less than
of the most highly developed and complex human per-
sonality. What is not generally recognised is that the
conception of wholes covers a much wider field than that of
life, that its beginnings are traceable already in the inorganic
order of Nature, and that beyond the ordinary domain
of biology it applies in a sense to human associations
like the State, and to the creations of the human spirit in
all its greatest and most significant activities. Not only are
plants and animals wholes, but in a certain limited sense the
natural collocations of matter in the universe are wholes;
atoms, molecules and chemical compounds are limited
wholes; while in another closely related sense human
characters, works of art and the great ideals of the higher
life are or partake of the character of wholes. In popular
use the word " whole " is often made to cover some of these
higher creations. A poem or a picture, for instance, is
praised because it is a " whole," because it is not a mere

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 101

artificial construction, but an organic whole, in which all the
parts appear in a subtle indefinable way to subserve and con-
tribute to and carry out the main purpose or idea. Artistic
creations are, in fact, mainly judged and appraised by the
extent to which they realise the character of wholes. But
there is much more in the term " whole " than is covered
by its popular use. In the view here presented " wholes "
are basic to the character of the universe, and Holism, as
the operative factor in the evolution of wholes, is the
ultimate principle of the universe.

The creation of wholes, and ever more highly organised
wholes, and of wholeness generally as characteristic of
existence, is an inherent character of the universe.
There is not a mere vague indefinite creative energy
or tendency at work in the world. This energy or
tendency has specific characters, the most fundamental
of which is whole-making. And the progressive develop-
ment of the resulting wholes at all stages from the most
inchoate, imperfect, inorganic wholes to the most highly
developed and organised is what we call Evolution. The
whole-making, holistic tendency, or Holism, operating in and
through particular wholes, is seen at all stages of existence,
and is by no means confined to the biological domain to
which science has hitherto restricted the concept of wholes.
With its roots in the inorganic, this universal tendency
attains clear expression in the organic biological world, and
reaches its highest expressions and results on the mental and
spiritual planes of existence. Wholes of various grades
are the real units of Nature. Wholeness is the most
characteristic expression of the nature of the universe in
its forward movement in time. It marks the line of evolu-
tionary progress. And Holism is the inner driving force
behind that progress.

It is evident that if this view is correct, very important
results must follow for our conceptions of knowledge and life.
Wholes are not mere artificial constructions of thought,
they point to something real in the universe; and Holism
as the creative principle in them is a real vera causa.

102 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

It is the motive force behind Evolution. We thus have
behind Evolution not a mere vague and indefinable creative
impulse or ilan vital, the bare idea of passage or duration
without any quality or character other than that of uniform
flow, and to which no value or character could be attached,
but something quite definite. Holism is a specific tendency,
with a definite character, and creative of all characters in
the universe, and thus fruitful of results and explanations
in regard to the entire course of cosmic development.

It is possible that some may think I have pressed the claims

of Holism and the whole too far; that they are not real

operative factors, but only useful methodological concepts

or categories of research and explanation. There is no

doubt that the whole is a useful and powerful concept under

which to range the phenomena of life especially. But to

my mind there is clearly something more in the idea. The

whole as a real character is writ large on the face of Nature.

It is dominant in biology; it is everywhere noticeable in

the higher mental and spiritual developments ; and science,

if it had not been so largely analytical and mechanical, .

would long ago have seen and read it in inorganic

nature also. The whole as an operative factor requires

careful exploration. That there are wholes in Nature

seems to me incontestable. That they cover a very

much wider field than is generally thought and are of

fundamental significance is the view here presented. But the

idea of the whole is one of the neglected matters of science

and to a large extent of philosophy also. It is curious that,

while the general view-point of philosophy is necessarily

largely holistic, it has never made real use of the idea of the

whole. The idea runs indeed as a thread all through

philosophy, but mostly in a vague intangible way. The

only definite application of the idea has been made by the

Absolutists, who have applied the expression of " the whole "

to the all of existence, to the cosmic whole, to the tout

ensemble of the universe, considered as a unity or a being.

This particular use of the idea does not interest us at

this stage of our inquiry. The great whole may be the

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 103

ultimate terminus, but it is not the line which we are follow-
ing. It is the small natural centres of wholeness which we
are going to study, and the principle of which they are the
expression. And I should have thought that the matter
would be of profound interest to philosophers and scientists
alike. But no real use has been made of this great concept
even by philosophers, while by scientists it has been steadily
neglected or ignored under the iron rule of the mechanistic
regime. And yet the stone rejected by the builders may
become the corner-stone of the building.

Let us now proceed to consider the idea of a whole more
closely ; and let us once more begin with natural biological
wholes, such as plants or animals. An organism, like a
plant or animal, is a natural whole. It is self-acting and
self-moving. Its principle of movement or action is not
external to itself but internal. It is not actuated or moved
by some external principle or force, like a machine or an
artificial construction. The source of its activity is internal
and of a piece with itself, is indeed itself. It consists of
parts, but its parts are not merely put together. Their
togetherness is not mechanical, but rests on a different basis.
The organism consists of parts, but it is more than the sum
of its parts, and if these parts are taken to pieces the organism
is destroyed and cannot be reconstituted by again putting
together the severed parts. These parts are in active
relations to each other, which vary with the parts and the
organisms ; but in no case is there anything inactive or inert
about the relations of these parts to each other or to the whole
organism. The organism further has the power of main-
taining itself by taking in other parts, such as food, but
again, as we saw in the last chapter, it does so not by mere
mechanical addition, but by a complete transformation,
assimilation and appropriation into its own peculiar system of
the material so taken in. Moreover, the organism is creative
in that it is capable, under certain conditions, of renewing
itself and of reproducing itself in closely similar wholes.

This rough summary is sufficient to indicate the main
general characters of biological wholes. When we reach

104 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the more advanced levels of development in the higher
animals and man, we are confronted with additional
characters of a psychological nature, such as intelligence,
will, consciousness, central control and direction of a more
or less voluntary and deliberate kind. For our present
purpose of a preliminary survey in this chapter we need not
consider these characters more closely. But it is necessary
that we should form a clearer conception of the differences
which distinguish a whole in the above sense from something
which is not a whole.

In the first place, I wish to emphasise that a whole accord-
ing to the view here presented is not simple, but composite
and consists of parts. Natural wholes such as organisms
are not simple but complex or composite, consisting of many
parts in active relation and interaction of one kind or
another, and the parts may be themselves lesser wholes,
such as cells in an organism. Wholes are composites
and not simples. The idea of a whole as a simple unique
individual entity is a metaphysical view which we have
to guard against. Philosophy has elaborated the concept
of a unique whole which is really an absolute, indestruc-
tible and unchangeable. Plato in the Phcedo, for instance,
presented the human soul as such a whole, and from its
indivisibility derived an argument in favour of its im-
mortality. What is simple, indivisible and ultimate must
necessarily also be indestructible. Natural wholes accord-
ing to my view, however, are not such simple indivisible
entities, which are really philosophic abstractions.

Then, again, the philosophic conception leaves no room
for change, movement or development of a whole. The
whole or absolute of philosophy is necessarily static. The
simple unique ultimate whole cannot change or develop.
It is what it is unchangeably. It negatives the idea of
Evolution which is essential to the conception of wholes as
here presented. The view of the universe as a whole or an
absolute in the philosophic sense leaves no room for progress
or development, and is in conflict with all the teachings of ex-
perience and all the most significant results of science. The

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 105

parts indeed (if any) may move and change, their relations
inter se may show a flux to which the name of development
may be given. But it will not be real creative development.
The absolute whole of philosophy is immutable, withdrawn
in itself, and unlike anything of which we have experience
in this world. The idea of Evolution as creative is the very
antithesis of this static absoluteness. And this idea must be
decisive for us. Anything which militates against the idea
of the universe as progressive and creative must be dis-
carded by us. The creative whole or Holism must not be
confused with the philosophic whole or absolute.

Having warned against a philosophical misconception,
let me proceed to guard against a still more dangerous
scientific misconception. The mechanical view of the
universe which has been, and to a large extent still is,
dominant in science is in one degree or another at variance
with the conception here brought forward.

The whole is not a mere mechanical system, that is,
a system of parts externally related to each other. It
consists indeed of parts, but it is more than the sum
of its parts, which a purely mechanical system necessarily
is. The essence of a mechanical system is pure external-
ity or the absence of all inwardness, of all inner tendencies
and relations and activities of the system or its parts.
All action in a mechanical system is external, being
either the external action of the mechanical body on
some other body, or the external action of the latter on
the former. And similarly when the parts of the body
or system are considered, the only action of which they are
capable is their external action on each other or on the body
generally. There is no inwardness of action or function
either on the part of the body or its parts. Such is a
mechanical body, and only such bodies have been assumed
to exist on the mechanistic hypothesis. A whole, which is
more than the sum of its parts, has something internal,
some inwardness of structure and function, some specific
inner relations, some internality of character or nature,
which constitutes that more. And it is for us in this

io6 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

inquiry to try to elucidate what that more is. The point to
grasp at this stage is that, while the mechanical theory
assumes only external action as alone capable of measure-
ment and mathematical treatment, and banishes all inner
action, relation or function, the theory of the whole, on the
contrary, is based on the assumption that in addition to
external action between bodies, there is also an additional
interior element or action of bodies which are wholes, and
that this element or action is of a specific ascertainable
character.

Wholes are therefore composites which have an internal
structure, function or character which clearly differentiates
them from mere mechanical additions or aggregates or
constructions, such as science assumes on the mechanical
hypothesis. And this internal element which transforms a
mere mechanical addition or sum of parts into a whole
shows a progressive development in Nature. Wholes are
dynamic, organic, evolutionary, creative. The character
of creativeness should (if true) be enough to negative the
purely mechanical conception of the universe.

It is very important to recognise that the whole is not
something additional to the parts : it is the parts in a definite
structural arrangement and with mutual activities that
constitute the whole. 1 The structure and the activities
differ in character according to the stage of development of
the whole; but the whole is just this specific structure of
parts with their appropriate activities and functions. Thus
water as a chemical compound is, as we have seen, a whole
in a limited sense, an incipient whole, differing qualitatively
from its uncompounded elements Hydrogen and Oxygen
in a mere state of mixture; it is a new specific structure
with new physical and chemical properties. The whole as a
biological organism is an immensely more complex structure

1 A friendly critic, Mgr. F. C. Kolbe, in a valuable review of this
work in the Southern Cross, has pointed out the striking similarity
between this doctrine of Holism and the Aristotelianism of St.
Thomas Aquinas, from whom he quotes the following sentence :
" Forma substantial totius non superadditur partibus, sed est
totum complectans materiam et formam cum prsecisione aliorum."

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 107

with vastly more complex activities and functions than a
mere chemical compound. But it must not be conceived
as something over and above its parts in their structural
synthesis, including the unique activities and functions
which accompany this synthesis. It is the very essence of
the concept of the whole that the parts are together in a
unique specific combination, in a specific internal related-
ness, in a creative synthesis which differentiates it from
all other forms of combination or togetherness. The
combination of the elements into this structure is in a
sense creative, that is to say, creative of new structure
and new properties and functions. These properties and
functions have themselves a creative or holistic char-
acter, as we shall see in the sequel. At the start the
fact of structure is all-important in wholes, but as we ascend
the scale of wholes, we see structure becoming secondary to
function, we see function becoming the dominant feature of
wholes, we see it as a correlation of all the activities of
the structure and effecting new syntheses which are more
and more of a creative character. The parts in a whole are
also affected by the structure and are different and behave
differently from what they would have done apart from
such a whole. It is the very essence of a whole that while it
is formed of its parts it in turn influences the parts and affects
their relations and functions. This reciprocal influence
constitutes the internality or interior character of a whole.

There is a creative activity, progress and development of
wholes, and the successive phases of this creative Evolution
are marked by the rise of ever more complex and significant
wholes. Thus there arises a progressive scale of wholes,
extending from the material bodies of inorganic nature
through the plant and animal kingdoms to man and the great
ideal and artistic creations of the spiritual world. However
much the wholes may increase in complexity and fruitful
significance as we go upward, the fundamental activity
which produces these results retains its specific holistic
character all through. At first, according to our present
knowledge, it appears only as a definite material structure of

io8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

energy units, as a specific synthesis or arrangement of
material parts, for instance, in a chemical compound or a
crystal or a colloid. We have already seen how this structure
approaches in several respects the more holistic characters
of life, and it may well be that the future progress of science
will add greatly to our evidence on this point. But even as
it is now known, the specific structure and character of the
chemical compound make it a sort of whole, quite distinct
from mere physical or mechanical mixtures. As we proceed
in the rise of Nature we see in plants how this specific struc-
ture, this synthesis and arrangement of parts and characters,
assumes a new co-operative character the character of
groups of related activities which are all co-ordinated into
intimate relations and functions so as to preserve the plant
and maintain its activities as a whole. As we proceed to
animals we find not only this intimate structural synthesis
of parts and characters on a co-operative basis and with
co-ordinated functions, but in the emergence of the central
nervous system and brain we see a new element of control
and direction, which transforms the entire system, makes
its co-operation more complex and efficient and gives it an
entirely new range of meaning and activity. When we come
to the human stage we find the highest flowering of this
central control in the human personality. We find a range
of values and activities undreamt of at the earlier stages.
And we find these values and activities themselves tending
to become wholes in the higher ranges of spiritual and artistic
production. The wholeness which was only structural,
inchoate, partial at the beginning of the scale of Nature,
here becomes to a large extent dominant and all-pervasive.
Holism, which on the lower levels was working against
almost insuperable obstructions and difficulties, here
emerges in a sense victorious. It is as yet only a very
partial victory. Even the most complete human person-
ality and the most perfect artistic creation are still full of
imperfections, and are only an approximation to the ideal
wholeness. Holism has still a long way to go. From the
high human level it points the way to the future, and

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 109

shows that in wholeness, in the creation of ever more perfect
and significant wholes, lies the inner meaning and trend of
the universe. It is as if the Great Creative Spirit hath said :
" Behold, I make all things whole."

The ascending order of wholes or the stages in which
Holism expresses itself in the progressive phases of reality
may therefore be roughly and provisionally summarised as
follows :

1. Definite material structure or synthesis of parts in
natural bodies but with no more internal activity
known at present than that of mere physical or chemical
forces or energies : e.g. in a chemical compound.

2. Functional structure in living bodies, where the
parts in this specific synthesis become actively co-
operative and function jointly for the maintenance of
the body : e.g. in a plant.

3. This specific co-operative activity becomes co-
ordinated or regulated by some marked central control
which is still mostly implicit and unconscious : e.g.
in an animal.

4. The central control becomes conscious and cul-
minates in Personality; at the same time it emerges
in more composite holistic groups in Society.

5. In human associations this central control be-
comes super-individual in the State and similar group
organisations.

6. Finally, there emerge the ideal wholes, or holistic
Ideals, or absolute Values, disengaged and set free from
human personality, and operating as creative factors on
their own account in the upbuilding of a spiritual world.
Such are the Ideals of Truth, Beauty and Goodness,
which lay the foundations of a new order in the universe.

Through all these stages we see the ever-deepening nature
of the Whole as a specific structural synthesis of parts with
inner activities of its own which co-operate and function in
harmony, either naturally or instinctively or consciously.

i io HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

The parts so co-operate and co-function towards a definite
inherent inner end or purpose that together they constitute
and form a whole more or less of a distinctive character,
with an identity and an ever-increasing measure of individu-
ality of its own. The functioning of the parts is influenced
by their place in the milieu of the other parts, and whole
and parts thus reciprocally constitute and determine each
other. And the whole thus formed is creative of new
development at all stages, even at the first, although this is
only an inchoate, immature stage. We thus arrive at the
conception of a universe which is not a collection of accidents
externally put together like an artificial patchwork, but
which is synthetic, structural, active, vital and creative in
increasing measure all through, the progressive development
of which is shaped by one unique holistic activity operative
from the humblest inorganic beginnings to the most exalted
creations and ideals of the human and of the universal Spirit.

We find thus a great unifying creative tendency of a
specific holistic character in the universe, operating through
and sustaining the forces and activities of Nature and life and
mind, and giving ever more of a distinctive holistic character
to the universe. This creative tendency or principle we call
Holism. Holism in all its endless forms is the principle
which works up the raw material or unorganised energy
units of the world, utilises, assimilates and organises them,
endows them with specific structure and character and
individuality, and finally with personality, and creates
beauty and truth and value from them. And it does all
this through a definite method of whole-making, which it
pursues with ever-increasing intensity from the beginning
to the end, through things and plants and beasts and men.
Thus it is that a scale of wholes forms the ladder of Evolu-
tion. It is through a continuous and universal process of
whole-making that reality rises step by step, until from the
poor, empty, worthless stuff of its humble beginnings it
builds the spiritual world beyond our greatest dreams.

The concept of the whole as a means of tracing the evolu-
tion of reality has several advantages. In the first place,

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM in

as the whole is at once both structural and expressive of an
inner general principle or tendency, its concept is as it were
a working model of the natural wholes we find in the universe,
and is as near as we could get to that concrete character of
reality to which we should have the closest regard. The
concept of Holism and the whole is as nearly as possible a
replica of Nature's observed process, and its application
will prevent us from appearing to run the stuff of reality
into a mould alien to Nature. It will, therefore, enable us
to explain Nature from herself, so to say, and by her own
standards. In this way justice can be done to the concrete
character of natural phenomena.

In the second place, the fundamental concept of Holism
will bring us nearer to that unitary or monistic conception
of the universe which is the immanent ideal of all scientific
and philosophic explanation. At the same time it will
enable us to bridge the chasms and to resolve the anti-
nomies which divide the concepts of matter, life and mind
inter se. Their absolute separateness as concepts is overcome,
and their actual overlapping (in the way we have seen) is
explained, by viewing them as phases of the development of
a more fundamental activity in the universe. The concept
of Holism, so to say, dissolves the heterogeneous concepts
of matter, life and mind, and then recrystallises them out as
polymorphous forms of itself. The monism which results
is not static or barren, as monism necessarily is in the
philosophy of Absolutism, but progressive, creative and
pluralistic in accordance with the demands of scientific
theory and practical common sense. We shall thus be
prepared to find more of life in matter, and more of mind in
life, because the hard-and-fast demarcations between them
have fallen away. While accepting these terms (matter, life
and mind) as generally and roughly marking off the main
divisions of reality, we shall not be tempted to force their
application too far, and we shall be prepared for such limits
to their extensions as science may show to be necessary.

In the third place, a very real advantage will accrue from
the substitution of a more definite concept for the vague and

ii2 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

unsatisfactory popular idea of life. The vagueness and in-
definiteness of the idea of life have proved a serious stumbling-
block and have largely influenced biologists to look for the
way out in the direction of mechanism. The concept of
life has no definite content which makes it of any scientific
value. Its value is roughly to demarcate an area from
other areas; it is a name for a class of phenomena which
differ generally from other classes. As such it will remain
useful in Science, in addition to its popular use, which of
course no amount of criticism will ever affect. The term
" matter " will remain in popular use in spite of the fact
that Science may completely change its meaning; its
connotation may be revolutionised while it remains in use
to denote a class of sensible phenomena for which there is
no other equally convenient name. Similarly with the use
of the term " life." It will remain useful to denote a class
of phenomena, without it remaining or being useful in
describing them, which will have to be done through more
rigorous concepts. The concept of life is too vague to be
definable and pinned down to a definite content; at the
same time, and perhaps for that very reason, it is liable to
be hypostatised into a substance or a force apart from the
organism which it denotes. It is this abuse, in addition to
its indefiniteness, which has led to its abandonment by the
great majority of biologists, who have preferred to see in life
nothing but a specific type of mechanism. I suggest that
the substitution, for scientific and philosophic purposes, of
the concept of the whole for life would give far more precision
to the underlying idea. Thus a definite concept, whose
properties could be investigated and defined, would take
the place of a vague expression, already ruined by popular
use and abuse. A living organism is not an organism plus
life, as if life were something different and additional to it ;
it is just the organism in its unique character as a whole,
which can be closely defined. The sense in which it differs
from a chemical compound considered as a whole is also
capable of accurate definition ; and thus it is quite unneces-
sary to resort to the dubious concept of mechanism in order

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 113

to describe the living organism or, as I prefer to call it, the
holistic organism. The concept of the whole enables us to
use a technical scientific terminology, which is not vitiated
by popular usage, and which is capable of accurate definition
and description.

The substitution of the concept or the category of the
whole for that of life will probably be found a solvent for
many of the most perplexing problems in biology as well as
the philosophy of life. The whole connects not only with
the physical on the one side and the psychical on the other,
thus maintaining the contacts of Nature ; it brings to bear a
perfectly definite and intelligible concept on the phenomena
of " life," for which hitherto no other definite category has
been found except the other misleading and misplaced one
of mechanism.

In the foregoing I have tried to give some preliminary
and introductory sketch of the concept of the whole, which
will be further developed and filled in as this inquiry proceeds.
For the sake of simplicity I have omitted reference to an
important feature in that concept which I must now proceed
to mention and explain. I have stated that by the whole I
mean, not the All- Whole of Absolutist philosophy, but the
whole as exemplified and operative in small natural centres
or empirical wholes such as we observe in Nature. I must
now add that by the whole I mean this whole plus its field,
its field not as something different and additional to it, but
as the continuation of it beyond the sensible contours of
experience. I have before drawn attention to the vital
importance of this concept, and I now proceed to explain
and emphasise this point more fully.

Perhaps the most important contribution which the Theory
of Relativity has made to our understanding of reality is the
integration of time with our spatial conceptions of the
sensible world. We are too prone to look at things merely
in their spatial relations, to consider them merely as objects
in space. They are just as much events in time, coming
from the past, enduring through the present, and reaching
out into the future. As we have seen, they are not static
i

ii4 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

but dynamic in their inmost structure, they are moving and
active in Space-Time; and indeed their active energy is
their very essence, much more than the mere static spatial
appearance which they present to the observer. As merely
extended, spatial and external, objects are barren abstract
concepts and not the sections of concrete reality which we
know them to be. It is the time-factor that makes the
difference ; Time integrated with Space is active and creative,
and productive of reality. The sensible objects and things
of which we are aware in Nature are active energy systems
in Space-Time; they are events even more than objects
and things ; they are concentrated centres of happening in
the physical sense just as, at a higher stage of evolution, we
find minds as active concentrated centres of experience.
To understand Nature properly it is essential that we should
habituate ourselves to look upon material bodies or things
literally as events, as centres of happening, and upon the
time element in them as being no less important than the
sensible space element. The limitation of objects or things
to their space relations or aspects obscures and distorts their
real character for us and has to be got rid of at all costs.

The effect of another serious limiting factor in our sensible
experience has to be recognised and eliminated. I have
already referred to Bergson's description of the intelligence
as a selective, discriminative, eliminative, limiting factor
in our experience of the world. But the trouble really goes
deeper than that. Not only our intellect but our senses
also show the same tendency and defects. All our senses are
definitely limited and reveal to us directly only a limited
narrow range of the properties of things. It is one of the
main tasks of Science to construct instruments which will
supplement the limitations of our senses. An object just
visible to the naked eye presents a very different appearance
when seen through a powerful microscope. The microscope,
the telescope, the spectroscope, photomicrography, the
X-ray spectrum with its revelation of the constitution of
the atom all these and many more are devices to extend
our senses beyond their limited natural range. The

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 115

combined effect of our limited sensibility and the practical
selective character of our intelligence accounts in part for
the fact that things appear to us limited in size and form,
with definite contours and margins and surfaces beyond
which they do not go and come to a dead stop. This dead
stop is an illusion largely due to the defects of our natural
apparatus of observation. The activities which constitute
the thing go beyond the sensible contours. The material
part which we popularly call the thing is merely the con-
centrated sensible focus which discloses itself to our limited
sensibility and selective intelligence; beyond that it is the
dark " field " which is formed by the activities and properties
of the thing beyond its sensible focal centre. We have seen
in Chapter III how the inner structure of matter results in
certain physical and chemical properties which constitute
its field. The field is as much an integral part of matter as
the sensible part which it surrounds. Anything coming
within that field will be affected by it ; the field shows the
same properties as the thing. The field may either be viewed
as activities or as structure as elements of force or as curves.
Indeed from many points of view structure and function,
curve and force are convertible terms for the purpose of
describing physical effects. The essential point is that the
physical field is an extension of the active energy system of
the thing beyond its sensible outlines, an extension which
shows the same properties and has the same effects on other
things within that field as the thing itself, though with ever-
diminishing force or strength as the field recedes from the
thing. I have already explained how this concept of the
field renders intelligible the phenomena of physical action
at a distance as well as of physical causation. So far as a
body acts or is acted upon by external bodies this process
takes place in its field and nowhere else. In their fields
bodies interpenetrate each other and thus secure that
continuity between them which supplies the bridge for the
passage of change between them.

So much for purely physical fields. In the consideration
of organisms as wholes the question of the field becomes

ii6 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

much more important than in the case of physical bodies.
What is the field of an organism ? Many will be tempted
to reply offhand that it is its environment. That answer
will, however, be too wide and may be seriously misleading.
The environment is a confused complex concept, and there
is much more in it than belongs to the field of a particular
organism. The field of an organism is its extension beyond
its sensible limits, it is the more there is in the organism
beyond these limits. To get to the field of an organism
we Jiave to answer this question : In order fully to under-
stand the nature, functions and activities of an organism,
what more is necessary to its concept beyond its sensible
data ? An organism appears a mystery because the sensible
data are insufficient to account for its character and proper-
ties. Biologists dissect and ransack its sensible structure
to find there the physical basis and explanation of its
activities; but in doing so they put a weight upon that
structure which is often more than it can bear. For the
fact is that the sensible structure is not the whole structure,
and is too narrow a base for the superstructure of organic
activities which seem to grow from out of the sensible
structure. For the full explanation of these activities we
have to search another part of the structure which is not
sensible and has on that account been ignored hitherto; I
refer to the field. Biologists have tried to find in the
organic structure physical elements or mechanisms to account
for all the properties and functions of the organism. But
there are literally not sufficient sensible elements to go
round ; the infinity of variations which take place in organic
life vastly transcend the apparent physiological elements.
A minute speck of protoplasm is supposed to carry in its
structure, on a sort of point to point correspondence, the
hereditary experience of the race for untold millions of years,
and this structure is in addition required to account for much
more besides in the individual life. The industry and
ingenuity which have been displayed in this search
for the inner mechanisms are above praise, but beyond
a certain point the search is certain to be vain; results

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 117

become mere guess-work, and the very existence of the
structures and mechanisms sought for is more than
problematic. The concept of the field overcomes this
difficulty. According to this view the sensible structure
is a narrow concentrated sensible focus beyond which is
indefinitely extended an insensible structural field as the
carrier of organic properties. And the question arises how
we have to conceive this field and what there is in it. What
has been said of the Time factor in the physical field applies
with tenfold more force here. The organism much more
than the physical body is an historic event, a focus of happen-
ing, a gateway through which the infinite stream of change
flows ceaselessly. The sensible organism is only a point, a
sort of transit station which stands for an infinite past of
development, for the history and experience of untold
millions of ancestors, and in a vague indefinite way for
the future which will include an indefinite number of
descendants. The past, the present, the future all meet in
that little structural centre, that little wayside station on
the infinite trail of life. But they only meet there,
without its being able to contain them all. From that
centre radiates off a field of ever-decreasing intensity
of structure or force, which represents what has endured
of that past, and what is vaguely anticipated of the
future. The organism and its field is one continuous
structure which, beginning with an articulated sensible
central area, gradually shades off into indefiniteness. In
this continuum is contained all of the past which has been
conserved and still operates to influence the present and the
future of the organism ; in it also is contained all that the
organism is and does in the present; and finally, in it is
contained all that the organism vaguely points to in its own
future development and that of its offspring. In other
words, the organism and its field, or the organism as a
" whole " the holistic organism contains its past and much
of its future in its present. These elements are in it as active
factors, the future and the past interacting with the present.
The whole is there, carrying all its time with it, but clear

ii8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

and definite only for a small central area, and beyond that
more and more fading away in respect of the dim past and
the dimmer future. And this time is not the abstract time
of mechanics, but real creative passage or duration in the
Bergsonian sense. The biological whole is fully explained not
merely in the light of its past and its present but also of
its future. The force which it exerts in its field is the ex-
pression of its total time factor. It is impossible to over-
estimate the importance of this time factor in the develop-
ment and consequently in the explanation of organism. An
organism is a continuous autogenesis : behind it is its
phylogeny, which it partially repeats in its individual his-
tory, and which in any case is a powerful factor in its
individual development; before it, again, is the future to
which it points, not only as general orientation of coming
development, but more specially as the realisation of the
potentialities which it holds as the seeds of the future.
The pull of the future is almost as much upon it as the
push of the past, and both are essential to the character,
functions and activities which it displays in the present.
But without the concept and the imagery of the field,
which contains both the future and the past in the whole,
it would be difficult to render the presence and the operation
of the future as a factor in organic activity and development
intelligible. The current view of structure restricts it entirely
to the past and explains it as a product of the past, and
therefore fails to give a complete view of it.

A word of explanation may here be said about the nature
of an organic field. The functioning of individual structures
in an organism is not the isolated business of these structures
alone, but takes place in the milieu of other structures and
their functions and is influenced and modified by them.
This functioning, so influenced and modified, again becomes
in due course incorporated into structure. Thus structure
and function react on each other and develop in the general
dynamic make-up of the organism with its field. All
functioning takes place in a field, that is to say, in a milieu
of other functionings. Every organic happening takes place,

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 119

not in isolation, but in a general modifying atmosphere of
happenings. This subtle interdependence of functionings
in an organic field forms an essential part in the inner
laboratory of change and advance. The analysis of living
forms merely into elements with their functions misses the
real mark. In the cell and the organism everything functions
as influenced and modified internally by everything else;
and the result is not so much due to this or that element,
this or that factor or gene by itself, as to the inter-relations
between the factors in the general structure and field. The
whole is as operative a factor as the parts and should always
be kept in view by the researcher. Besides this internal
organic field constituted by the reciprocal inter-relations of
the parts in the cell or the organism, there is the external
field which connects the organism with the environment.
In this field there is a continual interchange of external
stimulus and inner response. The close adaptation of
organisms to their environment is a proof of the close con-
nection between this external and the internal field of the
organism. The structural and functional evolution of
organisms takes place largely in response to this external
environmental influence. The external field forms the
extension of the internal field, and together they form the
total milieu for all happening and change in connection with
organisms. And whatever takes place in this total field
does so holistically, that is to say, not in isolation but in
reciprocal and mutual association with all other functioning
within that field. The past, the future, the internal elements
in the organic structure as well as its external environment,
all form integral features in the total field of an organism,
influencing its functioning and its evolution.

It is unnecessary at this stage to explore further into the
field of organism, as we shall have to recur to the concept
of the field when we come to consider the principles of
organic Evolution in Chapter VIII. Enough has been said
to show that in biology, perhaps even more than in physics,
the concept may prove helpful in the elucidation of
phenomena which it is almost impossible to explain on

120 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the narrow and confined basis of the existing organic
concepts.

In explaining the important topics with which this chapter
deals I do not know in how far I have succeeded in making
my meaning clear. Nor do I feel sure that the ideas here
developed have been presented in their best or final form.
It is quite possible that in more expert hands they may
prove capable of better statement and more skilful develop-
ment. I trust, however, that what seems unclear and
doubtful at this stage will become both intelligible and
acceptable in the following chapters, where the concepts of
this chapter will be further developed and applied in the
explanation of organic and psychic Evolution.

Let me conclude with a word on nomenclature, intended
to prevent ambiguity and misconception in the sequel.
According to the view expounded in this chapter the whole
in each individual case is the centre and creative source
of reality. It is the real factor from which the rest in each
case follows. But there is an infinity of such wholes com-
prising all the grades of existence in the universe; and it
becomes necessary to have a general term which will include
and cover all wholes as such under one concept. For this
the term Holism has been coined; Holism thus comprises
all wholes in the universe. It is thus both a concept and a
factor : a concept as standing for all wholes, a factor
because the wholes it denotes are the real factors in the uni-
verse. We speak of matter as including all particles of
matter in the universe : in the same way we shall speak of
Holism as including all wholes which are the ultimate
creative centres of reality in the world.

Difficulty may arise because Holism will sometimes
also be used in another sense, to denote a theory of the
universe. Thus while matter and spirit are taken as real
or substantive factors, and material-ism and spiritual-ism
or ideal-ism as concepts or theories in reference to them
respectively, it would by analogy not be improper to use
the term Hoi-ism to express the view that the ultimate
reality of the universe is neither matter nor spirit but

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 121

wholes as defined in this book. And sometimes Holism
will be used in that wider sense as a theory of reality. But
its primary and proper use is to denote the totality of wholes
which operate as real factors and give to reality its dynamic
evolutionary creative character. No confusion need arise
if these two distinct applications of the term are borne in
mind.

NOTE

WHITEHEAD'S DOCTRINE OF ORGANIC MECHANISM

So far as I am aware, the principle of Holism as here formulated
is of all philosophers approached most closely by Professor A. N.
Whitehead in his Science and the Modern World. In an earlier note
(at the end of Chapter I) it was explained that in the fallacy of Mis-
placed Concreteness due to simple location he wrestles with the same
problem of concealed abstraction which I have sought to overcome
by the concept of the " field." We envisage the same problem
though arriving at alternative solutions. In regard to what is here
called Holism we again envisage the same situation and reach results
which are very close to each other. Our procedures are different.
In arriving at the concept of Holism I follow the lead of Science along
a route suggested naturally by the accepted facts of physical and
biological science. Professor Whitehead, on the other hand, is
guided more particularly by psychological and philosophical analysis,
He thinks that the current scientific scheme is at fault in that " it
provides none of the elements which compose the immediate psycho-
logical experiences of mankind. Nor does it provide any elementary
trace of the organic unity of a whole, from which the organic unities
of electrons, protons, molecules, and living bodies can emerge '
(p. 108).

Professor Whitehead therefore assumes on the analogy of
Spinoza's ultimate Substance that there is in the universe " one
underlying activity of realisation, individualising itself in an inter-
locked plurality of modes " (p. 108). We must here understand that
Whitehead's modes (unlike Spinoza's) are " simple locations " taken
in their separateness. Now, as was explained in the note at the end
of Chapter I, the mistake of simple location is, according to White-
head, overcome if we conceive a thing or event as embracing in its
apparent spatial limits, not only its own intrinsic characters, but
also the perspectives, from it, of all other things or events. The
concrete thing or event is thus a synthesised unity which transcends
its simple spatial appearance and includes a little unified world, so

122 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

to say. These are the concrete events. The actual world is a com-
plex of such concrete finite entities or events. " Space and Time
exhibit the general scheme of their interlocked relations. You
cannot tear any one of them out of its context. Yet each one of
them within the context has all the reality which attaches to the
whole complex. Conversely, the totality has the same reality as
each event, for each event unifies the modalities to be ascribed, from
its standpoint, to every part of the whole. A prehension (event)
is a process of unifying. Accordingly, nature is a process of expansive
development, a structure of evolving processes. The reality is
the process " (pp. 107-8).

Thus Whitehead arrives at the result that there is a fundamental
process in the world which realises and actualises individual syntheses
or unities, which are for him the real concrete events of the world.
The things, entities or objects of physical science are for him abstrac-
tions, deprived of their essential relations, connections, and per-
spectives with the rest of the world.

Whitehead then proceeds to point out (p. 115) that these abstract
entities of science underlie the whole concept of scientific materialism,
and that for these entities has to be substituted the concept of
organisms, which emerges from his analysis. His doctrine of
organisms he then proceeds to formulate as follows : " The concrete
enduring entities are organisms, so that the plan of the whole influences
the very characters of the various subordinate organisms which enter
into it. In the case of an animal, the mental states enter into the
plan of the total organism and thus modify the plans of the successive
subordinate organisms until the smallest organisms, such as elec-
trons, are reached. Thus an electron within a living body is different
from an electron outside it, by reason of the plan of the body. The
electron blindly runs either within or without the body, but it runs
within the body in accordance with the general plan of the body, and
this plan includes the mental state. But the principle of modification
is perfectly general throughout nature, and represents no property
peculiar to living bodies. This doctrine involves the abandonment
of the traditional scientific materialism, and the substitution of an
alternative doctrine of organism. I would term the doctrine the
theory of organic mechanism. In this theory, the molecules may
blindly occur in accordance with general laws, but the molecules
differ in their intrinsic characters according to the general organic
plans of the situations in which they find themselves " (pp. 115-16).
Again : " An individual entity, whose own life-history is a part
within the life-history of some larger, deeper, more complete pattern,
is liable to have aspects of that larger pattern dominating its own
being, and to experience modifications of that larger pattern reflected
in itself as modifications of its own being. This is the theory of

v GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 123

organic mechanism. . . ." " The general state of the universe, as
it now is, partly determines the very essences of the entities whose
modes of functioning the laws of nature express. The general
principle is that in a new environment there is an evolution of the
old entities into new forms " (p. 156). Again : " The whole point
of the doctrine is the evolution of the complex organisms from
antecedent states of less complex organisms. The doctrine thus
cries aloud for a conception of organism as fundamental for nature.
It also requires an underlying activity substantial activity
expressing itself in individual embodiments, and evolving in achieve-
ments of organisms. The organism is a unit of emergent value, a
real fusion of the characters of external objects, emerging for its own
sake " (p. 157).

It will be seen from the above quotations how close the theory of
Organic Mechanism is to that of Holism. In both there is the
fundamental natural activity, which is of a real substantial character
and no mere general descriptive formula of the evolutionary process.
In both there is an evolution of forms, structures, patterns and their
functions in accordance with the law of the whole. The nature of
the whole prescribes the modus operandi of evolution, that is to say,
the complex structure or pattern, and its parts reciprocally influence
and modify and constitute each other. My treatment brings out
more clearly the holistic character of the process and its results, and
emphasises the character of wholeness more than does Whitehead's
exposition. I also extend the application of the whole as a formative
principle to the entire range of reality, including personality and the
ideal spiritual sphere, whereas Whitehead discusses the new idea
merely in its application to the domain of the physical and the
biological. In spite, however, of these minor differences of treat-
ment, our underlying ideas seem to come very closely together, if not
to coincide. This is indeed a most remarkable circumstance, in view
not only of the difference of the methods we have followed, but also
and especially of the fact that our ideas have been worked out quite
independently, and indeed mine had been formed and formulated as
far back as 1910. I venture to hope that this convergence of views
points to something really significant in the new theory or theories.
They certainly touch the most important issues in our outlook on
science and philosophy.

I have great admiration for Professor Whitehead's penetrating
analysis, to which he brings an equipment rare since the " century of
genius." But in one respect I submit that my treatment has
perhaps an advantage over his. My wider application of the main
idea has compelled me to look upon the concept of " organism " as
itself subordinate and sectional and to call the underlying process by
a different, more significant name. Holism as the principle of the

124 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP, v

whole can be so defined in its progressive applications that it fits
inorganic as well as organic situations, and mental, personal, and
spiritual situations no less well. I am afraid " organism " will not
do in its application to the inorganic, and still less when used in
reference to the phenomena of Personality and the ideal spiritual
values. A theory of organism or organic mechanism which raises
the inorganic to the same level as organisms may in the end prove
almost as faulty or misleading as the opposite scientific view which
depresses organisms to the level of the inorganic and purely physical.
To call an atom an organism, as Professor Whitehead does, seems
to me to open the door to serious confusions, to break down scientific
distinctions which are really valuable, and to render the ordinary
reader liable to the pitfalls of metaphors in matters calling for
accurate description. Professor Whitehead's chapter on the Quantum
is to me a proof that the new terminology proposed by him will
largely tend to obscurity, to forced expressions and possibly to
misunderstanding. The atom has a different structure or pattern
different in kind from that of the organism, and it is not really
helpful to use the same descriptive, or worse, explanatory term for
both. Nor could the soul or a personality, or the Supreme Good be
rightly or usefully called an organism. I would put in a strong plea
for the term Holism, which, uncouth though it has been called, has
no confusing associations, and is wide and significant enough to cover
all the groups of emergent synthetic entities and values in the
universe, and throughout points to the basic character constituting
all of them.

CHAPTER VI

SOME FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES OF HOLISM

Summary. Avoiding as far as possible philosophical categories and
confining ourselves to scientific view-points, we shall now try to
consider more closely the concept of the whole and the results
flowing from it. We have already seen that the concept of the
whole means not a general tendency but a type of structure, a schema
or framework, which, however, can only be filled with concrete
details by actual experience. A whole is then a synthesis or struc :
ture of parts in which the synthesis becomes ever closer so as
materially to affect the character of the functions or activities
which become correspondingly more unified (or holistic). It is,
however, important to realise that the whole is not some tertium
quid over and above the parts which compose it; it is the parts
in their intimate union, and the new reactions which result from
that union. But in that union the parts themselves are more or
less affected and altered towards the type represented by the union,
so that the whole is evidenced in a change of parts as well as a
change of resulting functions.

The whole thus appears as a marked power of regulation and
co-ordination in respect of both the structure and the functioning
of the parts. This is probably the most striking feature of organ-
isms that they involve a balanced correlation of organs and
functions. All the various activities of the several parts and organs
seem directed to central ends ; there is thus co-operation and unified
action of the organism as a whole instead of the separate mechanical
activities of the parts. The whole thus becomes synonymous with
unified (or holistic) action.

This intense synthesis and unification in the action of a whole
involve a corresponding transformation of concepts and categories.
Thus while in a mechanical aggregate each part acts as a separate
cause, and the resultant activity is a sum of the component activities,
in organic activity or the activity of the whole this separate action
or causation disappears in a real synthesis or unity which makes
the components unrecognisable in the unified result. Yet even
here we must realise that the whole does not act as a separate cause,
distinct from its parts, no more than it is itself something additional
over and above its parts. Holism is of the parts and acts through

125

126 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the parts, but the parts in their new relation of intimate synthesis
which gives them their unified action.

The whole, therefore, completely transforms the concept of
Causality. When an external cause acts on a whole, the resultant
effect is not merely traceable to the cause, but has become trans-
formed in the process. The whole seems to absorb and metabolise
the external stimulus and to assimilate it into its own activity ; and
the resultant response is no longer the passive effect of the stimulus
or cause, but appears as the activity of the whole. This holistic
transformation of causality takes place in all organic stimuli and
responses. The cause or stimulus applied does not issue in its
own passive effect, but in an active response which seems more
clearly traceable to the organism or whole itself. In fact the
physical category of " cause " undergoes a far-reaching change in
its application to organisms or wholes generally. The whole
appears as the real cause of the response, and not the external
stimulus, which seems to play the quite minor r61e of a mere
excitant or condition.

The most important result of the idea of the whole is, however,
the appearance of the concept of Creativeness. It is the synthesis
involved in the concept of the whole which is the source of creative-
ness in Nature. Nature is creative, Evolution is creative, just in
proportion as it consists of wholes which bring about new structural
groupings and syntheses. The whole evolves these new structural
groupings out of the old materials; and thus arises the " creative-
ness " of Evolution, as well as the novelty and initiative which
we see in organic Nature. The concept of creativeness which
flows from that of the whole has the most far-reaching effects in
its application to Nature. Once we grasp firmly the fact that
Nature and Evolution are really creative, we are out of the bonds
of the old crude mechanical ideas, and we enter an altogether new
zone of ideas and categories. But the important point for our purpose
is that " creativeness " is simply a deduction from the concept of
the whole and is characteristic of the order of wholes in the universe.
It is wholes and wholes only that are creative. The formula omne
vivum e vivo could therefore be generalised and applied to wholes
generally. This creativeness issues not only in the origin of new
organic species, but also in the great Values which are the creations
of the whole on the spiritual level.

From this it is clear how also the concept of Freedom is rooted
in that of the whole, organic or other. For the external causation
is absorbed and transformed by the subtle metabolism of the whole
into something of itself; otherness becomes selfness; the pressure
of the external is transformed into the action of itself. Necessity
or external determination is transformed into self-determination
or Freedom. And as the series of wholes progresses the element

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 127

of Freedom increases in the universe, until finally at the human stage
Freedom takes conscious control of the process and begins to create
the free ethical world of the spirit. Holism thus becomes basic to
the entire universe of organic progress and free creative advance,
to the Values and Ideals which ultimately give life all of worth it
has, and to the Freedom which is the condition of all spiritual as
well as organic progress.

But Holism is seen not only in the advance, in the changes and
variations for ever going forward. It is seen just as much in the
stability of the great Types. The new always arrives in the bosom
of the pre-existing structure, and at its prompting and largely in
harmony with it. Its novelty is small compared to its essential
conservatism. Variation is infinitesimal compared to Heredity.
It is this fundamental unity or unitariness and wholeness in organ-
isms and organic Evolution generally which seems to explain their
essential stability as well as the regulation and co-ordination of
the whole process, its conservative self-control if one may use a
metaphor.

Individuality and purposiveness, as holistic categories, are referred
to more especially in Chapter IX.

The chapter concludes with a summary of the functions which
Holism exercises in the shaping of Evolution.

IN the last chapter the ideas of the whole and Holism
were sketched in a general and preliminary way. Before
we proceed to test the working value of the new ideas it
will be necessary to explore somewhat more deeply into
them. It is the vagueness of the concept of Life which
makes it unsatisfactory for scientific purposes, and we
should make certain that the concept of the whole, which
is intended to make it definite for scientific purposes, be
made as clear as possible.

Let me here say a word about the method we are pur-
suing. Hitherto we have as closely as possible followed
the results of science; we have studied the fundamental
structures of physical and biological science in the atom
and the cell, and endeavoured to frame a concept of the
whole on the basis of those structures. I propose to con-
tinue to pursue this course, and to explore and build up
the concept of the whole from the results of the analysis
of Nature. We shall try to understand what is involved

ia8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

and implied in the processes of the small centres of unity
in Nature, and derive as much aid and illumination from
them as possible; in that way we shall try to proceed as
a matter of method from the apparently simple to the
complex. We are trying to build up a natural concept
of the whole, and for that as well as other reasons we
are avoiding a recourse to philosophical considerations.
The temptation is very strong for investigators when
they approach the domains of life and mind, so different
apparently from that of physical science, to abandon the
scientific categories of research for philosophical categories,
and to seek for an explanation of the phenomena of life
in concepts which sound strange and alien to science.
No wonder that most biologists, frightened by this procedure
and by this appeal to ideas and methods of which they
are traditionally suspicious, react in the opposite direction,
and seek refuge in purely mechanical ideas and explanations
of the phenomena of life. At first sight the concept of
the whole may appear to wear a metaphysical garb ; but
whatever its occasional use in other connections, the
intention here is to eschew metaphysics and to hammer
out a concept which will supply a real and deeply felt
want in the explanation of organic processes, and which
will at the same time give expression to the natural
affiliations of the phenomena of life with those of matter
on the one hand and of mind on the other. We shall
follow the scientific clues as far as is in any way possible
in the carrying out of this intention. Above all it is neces-
sary to make the concept of the whole as simple, clear and
definite as possible.

I wish to guard against the impression that philosophy has
no contribution to make to the consideration of the whole
and Holism generally. On the contrary, here as elsewhere
the last word will probably be with philosophy. There is a
Metaphysic or Logic of Holism still to be written, which will
lay bare the ultimate ideas involved and their relations
and validity. That task is not attempted here. Avoiding
the metaphysical implications, I am in this book merely

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 129

endeavouring to elucidate as clearly and simply as possible
the idea of the whole with its most obvious general
consequences, and to state the broad effect which its clear
realisation must have on our methods of thought and research.

Let me repeat what was said in the last chapter; the
whole is not a general principle or tendency; it is a
structure or schema. A natural body or organism can be
analysed into two factors; the form, structure or schema,
and the concrete characters or qualities which fill up
that form or structure. For these concrete characters
or qualities we have in every case to rely on experience;
the colour, feel or smell of a thing or the characters
of an animal can only be learnt from observation or
experience in any particular case. But the form or
structure involves features which can be most conveniently
generalised into concepts, and if these concepts are clear
and definite, results can again be deduced from them
which make them most useful as counters of thought and
explanation. The generalised concepts of space and time
as developed, not so much by the philosophers as by
the mathematicians, have these qualities of clearness and
definiteness which make them specially fruitful for in-
vestigating the structure of the physical world, as we
have seen in the discussion of the Theory of Relativity.
And similarly the concept of the whole, if clearly appre-
hended and firmly held, may become a powerful means
of exploring the intricate phenomena of life and mind.
The concept of the whole is a generalised structure
or schema, a framework to be filled in in any particular
case; and it is this structural or schematic character
which brings it close to that concrete character which
distinguishes all natural objects in the world of experience.
For the sake of clearness let us proceed to analyse the
fundamental characters of a whole as we see it exemplified
in, say, a simple organism.

A whole is a synthesis or unity of parts, so close that
it affects the activities and interactions of those parts,
impresses on them a special character, and makes them

K

130 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP,

different from what they would have been in a combination
devoid of such unity or synthesis. That is the fundamental
element in the concept of the whole. It is a complex of
parts, but so close and intimate, so unified, that the char-
acters and relations and activities of the parts are affected
and changed by the synthesis. The analogy of a physical
mixture and a chemical compound is very useful and
instructive in this connection, and we have already seen
that in a real though limited sense a chemical compound
is a whole. A whole is not some tertium quid over and
above the parts which compose it; it is these parts in
their intimate union and the new reactions and functions
which result from that union. It is a new structure of
those parts, with the altered activities and functions which
flow from this structure. The parts are not lost or destroyed
in the new structure into which they enter; the atoms or
molecules persist in the new compound, just as the cells
persist in the organism. But their independent functions
and activities are, just as themselves, grouped, related,
correlated and unified in the structural whole. A new
bent is impressed on these functions. They follow a new
modus operandi in the new pattern of the whole. To the
structural unity of the parts in the whole corresponds an
equally and perhaps even more significant functional unity
or correlation of activities. Just as in dynamics a body
subject to pulls in various directions moves with one result-
ant velocity in one definite direction, so the functions and
the activities of the parts in the whole are all co-ordinated
and unified into one complex character which belongs or
appears to belong to the whole as such. With this differ-
ence, again (just as in the difference between a physical
mixture and a chemical compound), that the resultant
function is not a mere addition and composition of the
unaltered composing functional elements, but the change
involves both these elements and their final result. Thus
taking x to represent a mixture and x l to represent a whole,
we cannot say that a + b + c + d x (mixture) in the
one case and = x l (whole) in the other ; but in the synthesis

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 131

which results in x l the functions of the parts themselves
are changed into a v b v c v d v so that corresponding to
the formula of mixture a + b+c+d = x we have the
holistic formula a x + b + q + d v = x v It is most im-
portant to realise this point ; both the individual functions
of the parts (cells, organs, etc.) and their composition or
correlation in the complex are affected and altered by the
synthesis which is the whole. Not only does the synthesis
of the parts influence and indeed constitute the whole ;
the whole in its turn impresses its character on each indi-
vidual part, which feels its influence in the most real and
intimate manner. The whole-ward tendency and activity
of the parts are most deeply characteristic of the nature of
the whole. This, then, is the primary and most important
element in the concept of the whole : the synthetic unity
of structure and its functions which affects the parts and
their functions or activities without their loss or destruction.
The unity, although so close and intimate and so deeply
affecting the parts and their functions, is not such as to
merge the parts completely, but to leave them a latitude
which varies with individual wholes at the same state of
development, and still more at different stages of develop-*
ment.

From this fundamental unification of the parts which con-
stitute the whole, and the intimate reciprocal influence which
parts and whole exert on each other, follow certain results
of great importance for our general concept of the whole.

In the first place, unity of action, which is characteristic
of the whole, shows itself in the marked power of regulation
and correlation which the whole appears to possess in
respect of its parts. This is perhaps the most striking
feature of organic wholes; however complex they are, a
certain balanced correlation of functions is maintained.
If there is any disturbance among the parts which upsets
the routine of the whole, then either this disturbance is
eliminated by the co-operative effort of many or all the
parts, or the functions of the other parts are so readjusted
that a new balance and routine is established. The synthetic

132 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

unity of the whole produces synthetic or holistic action
throughout the whole; the activities and functions of the
parts also become holistic, so that in addition to their
ordinary routine they have a whole-ward aspect or tendency
which becomes active whenever the balance of the whole
is disturbed. It is this holistic character distinguishing
the activity and functions not only of the whole but also
of its parts which underlies the remarkable phenomena of
co-operation among cells to which attention was drawn in
the fourth chapter. The co-operation is not so much the
interaction of independent units as in truth and really the
pressure of the whole on the parts. Indeed the entire
function or system of the organism is holistic ; the synthetic
unity of the whole is so deeply stamped on the parts and
reflected in the activities of the parts, that they all appear
to " play up " to each other, and to co-operate in maintaining
or, in case of disturbance, restoring the balance of equilibrium
of activities which is characteristic of the particular whole.
From the synthetic unity of the whole follows the holistic
action of all its parts, as well as the characteristic power of
correlating and regulating which the whole seems to exert
in respect of the parts. All these properties really flow from
the idea and nature of the whole ; once this idea is clearly
realised, the true principle of organic explanation is found,
and the application of the ideas and methods of mechanism
or vitalism becomes superfluous, as we shall see later.

In order to assist us in rendering clear our ideas of the
whole and holistic action, as distinguished from those of a
mechanical aggregate and mechanical action, let us consider
a material system in dynamic equilibrium, which has many
analogies to the ideas we are exploring. The character
of such a system is that within certain limits it will maintain
its equilibrium against disturbance and interference. If it
meets with any disturbance, such as an external impact
or any interference with its internal movements, its equi-
librium will for a moment be disturbed; but immediately
readjustments will take place, the effects of the disturbance
will become distributed throughout the system, new positions

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 133

of the parts and new movements of these parts will result,
with the effect that a fresh equilibrium is established, and
the system, with a somewhat altered arrangement of parts
and movements, will once more be in dynamic equilibrium.
When we pass from this physical system to an organic
whole a transformation of ideas takes place : the system
becomes a synthesis qualitatively different from the system,
a synthesis so intense that a new unity arises and a different
order of ideas becomes necessary for its explanation. To
the mechanical readjustment of the parts correspond the
regulation and correlation which the organic whole exercises
in respect of its parts; with this difference, again, that,
while the new mechanical equilibrium is the exact mathe-
matical resultant of the component forces, in the organic
whole, parts and whole reciprocally influence and alter
each other instead of merely the parts making up the whole,
and in the end it is practically impossible to say where the
whole ends and the parts begin, so intimate is their inter-
action and so profound their mutual influence. In fact so
intense is the union that the differentiation into parts and
whole becomes in practice impossible, and the whole seems
to be in each part, just as the parts are in the whole. There*
is an intensification of synthesis or unity, as we rise from
the mechanical composition to the chemical compound,
and from this again to the organic whole ; an intensification
which is already qualitatively different as between the first
two, but which becomes entirely sui generis in the last. To
mistake the unity of the whole for the mere mechanical
system of dynamics, and the holistic action which shows
itself in organic regulation, correlation and co-operative
interaction for the readjustment of forces and self-mainten-
ance of equilibrium in the dynamic system, is to confound
two quite different orders of ideas and facts. The whole
differs essentially from the mechanical system; holistic
action or function differs even more essentially from the
" action " or " reaction " of dynamics, and from the mean-
ing of those terms as used in Newton's Laws of Motion
and still current in the physical science of to-day.

134 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Watch the activities of an animal. See how innumerable
movements are blended in one definite action. The unity
and specificity of the action are not reducible to mechanical
terms ; it is not the dynamical equivalent of its components,
it follows a quite different pattern or plan. Its unity is
indeed unique and only explicable by resort to new categories.
In other words, organic action is holistic and not merely
mechanical.

In other directions too the nature of the whole brings
about this intensive transformation of concepts. Let us
take the idea of cause and see how it is affected by the
concept of the whole. The causal idea is quite an interest-
ing test to apply to the whole, and it will help to elucidate
the point we are dealing with, as well as some other points
that concern the nature of the whole. The question, for
instance, whether the whole is something different from
and additional to its parts is paralleled by the question
whether the whole acts as a cause as distinct from its parts ;
in other words, is the causality of the whole exhausted by
the causal operation of its parts, or is there something over
and above the influence of the parts which must be attributed
to the whole as such? I have already explained that the
whole is nothing but the specific synthesis of the parts and
not something additional to them. Similarly the causality
of the whole is not an additional factor, but simply the
causality of the parts in their intimate synthesis in the
whole. In mechanical composites each element in opera-
tion or action has its own effect and is a separate cause;
and the final result is the resultant blending of all these
separate effects. In the whole, as we have seen, there is
not this individual separate action of the parts; there is
a synthesis which makes the elements or parts act as one
or holistically ; and the action or function is an inseparable
holistic unity just in proportion as the synthesis is a
whole or realises the character of wholeness. It is in
this sense, and in this sense only, that the whole is a cause ;
it is a cause not apart from its parts, but solely through
their synthesis in action. The whole fuses the action of

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 135

its elements into a real synthesis, into a unity which makes
the result quite different from what it would have been as
the separate activities of the parts. The structural synthesis
of the whole results in a similar synthesis of activity or
function. Just as the whole as a structural unity, and
only as such, is something different, something new com-
pared with its parts in their separateness or isolation, so
too its action is radically different from the blending of
their separate actions.

Thus the causality of the whole is explained, and from
this explanation one can appreciate how immensely com-
plicated the action or functioning of an organism must be.
When a stimulus is applied to an organism a whole is
set in motion, and the response which results is not merely
an affair of the original stimulus, but of the entire whole
in all its unique complication of parts and functions which
has been set in motion. The comparatively simple, isolable
phenomenon of causation as observed in the interaction of
material bodies undergoes a complete and radical trans-
formation when observed in the case of an organism ; and
the difference is not a mystery, but is deducible from the
nature of the whole as exemplified by an organism. I shall
return to this matter immediately, and pass on to another
important result of the nature of a whole.

In the preceding chapters I have more than once
used the word " creative/' I have called the whole
" creative " ; I have called Evolution " creative " ; I have
even applied the term to matter in its structural char-
acterisation. It is important to see in what sense wholes,
or Evolution generally, or even matter is called " creative/ 1
and the foregoing discussion will have prepared us for
the explanation which follows. There is a sense in
which the word " creation " falls outside the scope of
an intelligible science or philosophy. I refer to abso-
lute creation creation, that is to say, out of nothing.
Absolute creation just as absolute annihilation cannot be
comprehended by the human mind. E nihilo nihil fit is a
fundamental principle of thought as well as of Nature.

136 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

But there is another form of creation which is not only
intelligible but follows directly from the explanation of
holistic action which I have already given. Holistic action
is creative, and is the only form of creation or creativeness
which is intelligible to us. Here again the distinction
between mere physical mixtures and chemical compounds
illustrates the difference between what is and what is not
creative. A mere mechanical aggregate is nothing new,
and is no more than the sum of the mixed ingredients, while
the chemical compound is new in the sense that out of the
constituent materials another qualitatively different sub-
stance has been made. A new structure has been formed
in the chemical compound. In the same way a new struc-
ture and substance is made in the atom out of the quali-
tatively different electrons and protons. It was on this
account and in this sense that we called matter creative;
creative, that is to say, of structures and substances different
from their constituent elements or parts.

It is, however, when we come to consider organisms that
we see the whole creative in a full and proper sense. In
thought we distinguish between the deductive and the
inductive between the deduction of the particular from
the general, the drawing out, unfolding, or explicating what
is given, and the reverse inductive process, the integration
or synthesis of the given parts or elements into a new,
more complex content. The action of organisms proceeds
on the analogy of induction. We have seen how the char-
acteristic feature of organic process is metabolism, the
transformation of the given materials into something
different, of the inorganic into the organic, of the organic
material of one kind into that of another kind. Creative
synthesis is characteristic of all organic actions and functions.

But it is not in metabolism only that this creative trans-
formation is exemplified ; perhaps the phenomena of growth
and development afford even more characteristic and
significant examples of the creative synthesis which is
the clearest expression of the nature of Holism. Creation
is stamped on the face of organic nature; the differences

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 137

which separate individuals into species, genera, orders and
so forth are real differences which were either originally
created in one great creative Act at the beginning, or were
creatively evolved in the gradual process of organic descent,
so that the Process is creative. Everywhere we meet the
new, which is irreducible to the old elements from whicli
it seems to have sprung; the qualities and characters on
which new stable varieties or species are founded cannot
be explained on the basis of known pre-existing qualities
or characters. And even where it is possible to recognise
certain of the old elements in the new, the new is some-
thing different and contains something more than the old
elements. We may say that the creative synthesis consists
in the making of a new arrangement of old elements, that
the old elements have been fixed in a new structure which
has different qualities from the old pre-existing structure ;
in this case it would only be the synthesis which is really
new. But to my mind if we take big stretches of organic
descent and compare the main great Types which distinguish
the Vegetable and Animal kingdoms, we must inevitably
come to the conclusion that there is more than this in the
creative process of evolution. Compare a protozoon with
a vertebrate animal, or one of the higher animals with
man, and it surely becomes foolish to say that the elementary
units are the same in both cases, and only their arrange-
ment or synthesis into structures is different. Mere re-
arrangement of supposed unalterable pre-existing elements,
mere reshufflings of the old cards, will give us a sort of
chemistry of Evolution, but not the vast range of real
effective advance which we know. The process of creative
Evolution is not a mechanical rearrangement of old
material; it involves the qualitatively new at every stage,
from the most minute elements to the most complex struc-
ture. It is not merely the structure which is new and
different from what has gone before, some of the materials
are also new ; the details of the new structure also involve
new smaller structures along with the old inherited
structures ; and in the final analysis (if that were possible)

138 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

we would find among the elementary units also new ones
in addition to the old ones carried forward in the process
of descent. There is the creation of the new variety or
species (the new structure) ; there is the creation of new
unit characters (parts of the structure) which justify the
new species or variety ; and there is behind the new unit
characters not mere re-arrangements of elements of old
character units, but an integration of new materials or
quality elements with the old elements in the formation
of the new unit characters. The process is creative of
the new at every step and at every stage, and in the
smallest quality elements no less than in the large or
total structures. Starting from imaginary elements a, 6, c,
d, we find in organic advance in no case a mere struc-
tural regrouping of these elements only, but everywhere
an element of qualitative newness, x, incorporated along
with the old elements into the new structure. In every
advance we would find not merely a new structure but also
an % in one form or another. I have used the concept of
units or elements for the purpose of illustration ; but really
the creative process of Evolution is holistic, and in the last
resort unanalysable into definite units; the blending of
inherited with new structures and characters is so close
that no dissociation is possible, and it is impossible to say
where the old elements end and the new begin. But beyond
any manner of doubt in the advance the new is there along
with the old in such a way that we can only understand the
process, both in its entirety and in its minutest detail, as a
real creative one.

It may be argued that my view of organic creativeness as
meaning, not merely new grouping or structures but also
new character units and quality elements, brings us back
to that conception of absolute creation which I have already
declared to be incomprehensible. Is it not better then, it
may be asked, to fall back on the idea of potentiality rather
than creativeness, and to conceive the organic advance as
the rendering actual what was implicit and potential in the
organism in the beginning? In this way new characters

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 139

which emerge in the course of organic descent would not
be taken as absolutely new, but as the appearance or emerg-
ence of potential characters which were there all along in the
ancestors of the new organism. My answer would be that the
concept of potentiality is quite useful but not applicable
here ; the expression of the implicit new is usually a very
long process which may occupy an indefinite number of
generations before its actual emergence in a new sensible
character or species. During this process of subsensible
growth or incubation the character may be fairly described
as potential in the ancestors of the new species. But to
go further back and to say that the new is there in potential
form from the very beginning is to fall back into the pre-
formation view of Evolution which we have already in the
last chapter discarded as making a farce of all real organic
advance. Potentiality presupposes that the real creative
work is already done, and that the slow finishing touches of
expression alone remain to be put on. We have simply to
face the facts of Nature frankly as we find them ; and to my
mind there is no doubt, however hard it is to picture to our-
selves the underlying idea of creation, that the emergence of
the really new, in other words, the creativeness of the
evolutionary process, is the only view which is in harmony
with our scientific knowledge. Real creativeness is a
fundamental characteristic of holistic structure and action.
It necessarily means such integration of structures and
activities as results in new characters not there before and
which cannot be reduced to pre-existing elements. Holistic
action, therefore, necessarily issues in real progress and
creative Evolution.

There is no doubt that the concept of creativeness raises
a fundamental issue in respect both of reality and know-
ledge. If there is this evolution or making not only of
new wholes or structures, but also of new quality elements
therein, the whole fabric of Mechanism as ordinarily under-
stood is shaken to its foundations. The iron rule of the
past is broken; the future is not a mere rehearsal of the
past; in many cases the new effect is more than its

i 4 o HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

pre-existing cause. The universe ceases to be a hide-bound,
cast-iron, completely closed system from which real progress
and freedom are excluded. It is open in one direction,
the direction in which time is moving; the future faces an
open gateway, and the universe is the highway of the
creative movement, of that great march in which all the unit
wholes and formations of Reality take their part and advance
towards a fuller measure of wholeness. The freedom is
limited, the movement is slow, the character of the universe
is essentially conservative. But at any rate conservatism
is not the last word to be said about it. It does not
go like a clock, completely manufactured, and once for all
wound up at the beginning to mark a time fixed and pre-
determined for it. It is slowly making itself, it is slowly
winding itself up, it is slowly making its own time. It is
a slow, tentative, perhaps in details a somewhat blundering
process ; but it is real and creative ; the new successful
effort is for ever issuing out of the old mistakes, and a
slow advance is being laboriously recorded and continuously
maintained. This figurative language, although perhaps
somewhat highly coloured, is really no exaggeration.
" Creativeness " is the key- word, and it is also the key
position in the great battle which is now being fought out
between the nineteenth-century and the twentieth-century
conceptions of the nature and trend of the universe, between
Mechanism as ordinarily understood and what is here called
Holism. Those who wish to defend the old position of
Mechanism (and they are still the great majority in the
army of Science) will have to concentrate their forces at
this point. If the concept of creativeness, of the emergent
new in the Evolution of the universe, really wins through,
Mechanism as a scientific and philosophical category will
be reduced to very modest proportions.

The creativeness of Evolution at all stages has indeed the
most profound effect on our views of Nature and her order
and on all our methods of explaining her processes. To
illustrate this let us revert once more to the oft-quoted
difference between a mere physical mixture and a chemical

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 141

compound. The mixture is, like the compound, a structure,
much looser, of course, than the compound, but still a
structure of sorts. But the compound differs from it in
being a radically different structure, a new structure has
emerged in the compound, a creative moment has entered
into the process which was not there before. And the result
is a complete difference in all the pertinent phenomena of
the two. Even our very categories of description have to
undergo a corresponding transformation. If we tried
to describe the properties and actions of a chemical com-
pound on the same principles as those of a mechanical
mixture, we would go grievously wrong, and the real facts
would be hopelessly distorted. The creative moment which
has entered into the chemical compound in its passage from
a mere physical mixture, the new structure which has
resulted from the change, requires new concepts and principles
of description. And this is freely admitted by chemists
and physicists alike. The case for new categories of descrip-
tion becomes far stronger at the next creative advance,
where chemical structure is transformed into organic struc-
ture. In both cases new wholes are produced, and we
may therefore say that Holism is at work ; in the organic
structure the creative advance is admittedly far greater
than in the chemical compound. The concentration
and intensification of structure which we call the whole
in the organism are comparatively far greater and higher
than the similar phenomena in the chemical compound
as compared to the mere mixture. Something indisputably
new has been produced; there has been creation; a
new structure has arisen which has its own categories
of description; and to apply mere chemical and physical
concepts of action and description to this new structure
is to ignore the creative advance which has taken
place and to confound two entirely different, however
closely related, structures and stages of Evolution. The
physico-chemical view and explanation of organism there-
fore rest on a fundamental misconception and on a denial
or disregard of the creative advance in natural Evolution.

i 4 2 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

There is the physical description of the mixture; there is
the chemical description of the compound; and there is
what I call the holistic description of the organism, which
recognises the qualitative newness and sui generis nature
of the structure which bears the characters of what we call
life. The apparent materials may even be the same in all
three cases ; but the character and intensity of their union
in each case varies in such a way that entirely different
structures with entirely different characters result. There is
a rising element of wholeness in all three structures, and the
holistic character is by no means confined to the third or
organic structure. But its wholeness is much more marked
and pronounced than that of the other two; it is, in fact,
the very type and exemplar of a whole; and a purely
physico-chemical explanation of its nature and functions
cannot possibly do justice to this unique holistic character.
This is but another way of affirming the creative character
of the advance from the mere physical mixture to the
chemical structure, and still more in the advance from the
chemical to the organic structure in Nature. The creative
advance is the fact, to which our conceptual theories of
explanation have to conform. The creativeness consists
in the progressive advance in respect of the character of
wholeness which distinguishes the three stages of structure ;
and the advance is in a geometrical rather than an arith-
metical progression, that is to say, the ratio of wholeness
increases with the advance. The physical and chemical
categories still apply, but they are not sufficient, and have to
be supplemented by the holistic categories which correspond
to and express the greater and qualitatively more intense
wholeness which characterises the organism as distinguished
from the mixture or the compound.

Let me here point out that it is not all causation which
is creative ; much of the causation in the universe is purely
mechanical and produces nothing new. Only wholes are
creative ; only the causality of wholes produces effects which
are really new. Structure in fact and in Nature arises from
pre-existing structures whether in the organic or inorganic

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 143

domain. Omne vivum e vivo is a formula which applies to
all wholes and not merely to organic wholes. Only wholes
produce wholes, and only in wholes does the new emerge ;
wholes form the pathway of creative reality; only the
causality of wholes is creative of the new.

This is so because of what I have already pointed out
above when discussing how a whole transforms a " cause "
or stimulus applied to it into something quite different from
what it was before. If an external " cause " is applied to
an organism or a living body it will become internalised and
transformed, and will be experienced as a stimulus, which
in its turn will be followed by a response. The response is
not the mere mechanical effect of the cause, and this is due
to the complete transformation which the latter has under-
gone. In the moment which elapses between stimulus and
response a miracle is performed; a vast series of organic
changes is set going of which comparatively little is known
as yet. The inorganic becomes organic, the alien stuff of
the environment is recreated into the stuff of the living
organism. The organic changes which take place are
assumed to have their physical and chemical equivalents ; but
even though that is so, they are much more than the mere
physico-chemical tale they tell. The stimulus has been
transformed and absorbed and become a series of states
of the organism; the organism has made the stimulus
its own, as it were. And as a result the response is not
the mere passive effect of the stimulus, but is the free and
spontaneous movement of the organism itself under the
influence of the appropriate stimulus. The passive external
stimulus has been recreated into an active, free response
of the organism. Anything passing through the organic
whole thereby becomes completely changed. Any action
issuing from it has the stamp of the whole upon it. The
procedure is transformative, synthetic, recreative, holistic,
and the result is " new " in one degree or another.

From this it will be seen that if the concept of causation
is to be retained in connection with organic or psychical
activities, it will have to be substantially recast. The

144 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

resultant activity of an organism under a stimulus is never
the effect of that stimulus, as it would be in the case of
mechanical action, but always of the stimulus as trans-
formed by the organism; the organism appears as the
dominant element in the causal concept, and the stimulus
appears in a minor role. The more active the state of the
organism, and the more thorough its reaction to the stimulus,
the less is the influence of the stimulus on the response,
which appears as the free and almost original action of the
organism. The organic response is often so great com-
pared to the stimulus, it is so out of all proportion to it and
so transcends it in every way, that the organism appears
clearly as the real cause, and the stimulus merely as a
minor condition or excitation.

It is thus seen that the organism is a new system, with its
own activities and laws and categories of action and descrip-
tion. It is a new centre, with a large measure of inde-
pendence of the environment. This does not mean that
the environment does not influence it, but it means that
the environment influences it only indirectly and after a
more or less complete transformation and metabolism of
such influence. Vis-d-vis the environment the organism is
something apart and unique, something sui generis, which
does not passively accept and reproduce the influence of the
environment, but utilises and appropriates it for its own
purposes and in its own ways, as if it were some superior
arbiter and disposer of the whole situation. The concepts of
dominion, of mastery, of creation which the orthodox view
places at the beginning of things are now distributed and
assigned to all organisms, whose inmost nature it is only
possible to express through these concepts. In other words,
organism is not so much an effect of external causes ; nor
are its states and characters merely effects of external causes ;
it is in a large measure its own cause causa sui and the
cause of its own states and functions. External environ-
mental influences are merely the rough material with which
it works and builds up its own system. And in the act of
building the material is itself more or less completely

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 145

changed into the character of the structure built. I say
" more or less," because this character of creative mastery
and transformation which organism displays in respect of
external influences and materials is itself of a progressive
character. In the lower organisms there is much more of
passive acceptance and response than in the higher; and
the whole process of Evolution is largely a continuous growth
towards organic independence and self -regulation ; in other
words, towards wholeness. The concept of wholeness
contains and explains all the distinguishing organic attributes
in their various grades throughout the wide range of organic
Evolution.

Thus it is that the creative element in Evolution, the
emergent new, is associated with the nature and action of
wholes, and is confined to them. Not only is the activity
of wholes holistic and creative, as yet it is the only creative
activity of which we have knowledge.

From this discussion it is clear how the concept of Free-
dom is rooted in that of the organic whole. The whole is
free, the parts are bound : such would be a formula of
metaphysics. For beyond the whole there is nothing ex-
ternal to determine it, and it is therefore free ; while the parts
are necessarily bound by their relation to the whole and
to each other in the whole. But we are not concerned with
metaphysical wholes, but with those of reality, such as
organisms. And we have seen how the functioning of an
organic whole releases it from the domination, the causation
of the external, and conduces to its freedom. The external
causation, the stimulus which operates on it ab extra, is
transformed by its subtle metabolism into something of
itself; otherness becomes self ness; the pressure of the
external or the other is transformed into the action of itself.
The organism is largely detached from its surroundings and
centres in itself. Necessity is transformed into freedom.
The causal chain of physics becomes the new badge of
freedom. The whole, therefore, even in its most humble
organic forms, lays the foundations of the new world of
freedom. We can arrive at the same result by another
L

146 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

process of reasoning, based on the creative activity of
Holism. Under the physical system the effect equals the
cause, and is therefore completely determined by the cause.
Causa = effectum. But we have seen how this formula
disappears before creative Holism ; how the effect comes to
contain the new and therefore to transcend its cause. The
element of newness, of novelty in the holistic order of the
world, means a release from the complete bondage of matter
and its causality and necessity. It means a certain latitude
for expansion and growth. It widens the range of possi-
bilities; the straight and narrow path of physics becomes
the prospect which ultimately widens into the great horizons
of life and mind. Freedom broadens out into a world of
opportunities. The animal finds that it is no longer im-
prisoned in its cell like the plant ; it begins to move about.
Gradually it learns the great lessons of direction and self-
direction. The great Experiment of life assumes ever-
widening degrees of freedom, until finally at the human
stage freedom takes conscious control and begins to
create the free ethical world of the Spirit. With that
development we shall deal at a later stage of this work.
Here it must suffice to have pointed out the humble begin-
nings of Freedom. And even at this stage it is important
to bear in mind that the domain of life is largely distinguished
from that of matter and energy by its greater degrees of
freedom. Scientists speak of the degrees of freedom even
in an inorganic situation. And by this they mean the
element of contingency which seems inseparable even from
the purely physical order. The causal chain of Nature,
the necessity which characterises the procession of physical
events, does not exclude elements of chance or contingency.
An event may happen in this way or that way; there are
alternatives between which only the actual fact can decide.
To these possibilities or alternatives the phrase " degrees
of freedom " is applied. But in the domain of life it acquires
an added meaning, or rather, let me say, a real meaning.
Life is not entirely bound, even in its most primitive forms.
Hence its trials and experiments, its variations, its novelties

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 147

and its creativeness, which become ever more accentuated
in its progress. Evolution traces the grand line of escape
from the prison of matter to the full freedom of the Spirit.
It is clear that the beginnings of freedom are laid far back
in the early dawn of life itself, if not earlier.

The above discussion of unified organic functioning, or
unity of action, causation, creation, and freedom will suffice to
indicate how the whole as factor and concept involves a trans-
formation of physical actions and categories. They have
been selected as samples of holistic functions and categories
and are not intended to be in any sense an exhaustive
enumeration of such functions and categories. A full
list would, for instance, include " individuality " and " pur-
posiveness " as essential features, functions, and categories
of wholes. They are, however, referred to in Chapter IX
in connection with Mind as an organ of Holism. At this
stage it is only necessary to make the briefest reference to
them. Thus with regard to the character and category of
individuality it is only necessary to point out here that
individuality is distinctive of wholes. Wholes are not
arbitrarily divisible and the divided parts are not arbitrarily
interchangeable. Every whole has a real character, a
unique identity, and an irreversible orientation which
distinguishes it from everything else and is the very essence
of individuality. And this character of individuality rises
with the rise of wholes in the scale of Evolution, and acquires
decisive importance at the ultimate level of human Per-
sonality. Purposiveness, again, is a special form of that
unified organic action which has already been discussed.
It means a correlation and unification of actions towards
an end, whether this is consciously conceived or apprehended
or not. On the animal plane and especially on the psychical
level of Evolution it is quite distinctive of wholes. In an
exhaustive treatment of holistic characters and categories
individuality and purposiveness would have no less impor-
tant a place than those above discussed.

Let us now pass on to consider organism as a centre of
internal regulation, adjustment and co-ordination of its

148 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

own functions and activities. The phenomena that meet
us here are indeed most wonderful. No cunningly devised
machine of human contrivance can rival or even approach
in delicacy of co-ordination or fineness as well as complexity
of adjustment the organic wholes we see in Nature. Pro-
fessor Haldane has described the wonderful combination of
processes which go to make up the physiology of breathing l
a combination which is marvellous enough under normal
conditions, but which becomes far more so when we see how
curiously breathing adjusts itself to abnormal conditions, to
situations artificially brought about, which it has probably
never had to face in all time. No " experience " or here-
ditary " memory " can guide it here; and yet it rises to
the occasion every time, within a wonderfully wide range of
adaptability and plasticity. Practically every major physio-
logical function shows the same power of co-ordination of
various organs and activities, and the same delicacy and
ingenuity of adjustment to novel situations. Any one of
the functional features involved would be a wonder in
itself; but when the co-ordinated combination of all is
studied, when, moreover, the great variety of adjustments
of this combination to unusual situations is considered, the
marvel becomes baffling to our human intelligence. The
most delicate processes, involving vast numbers of co-
operating factors, happen not clumsily or slowly, but most
finely and as it were in less than the twinkling of an eye.

What guides and controls such a complex physiological
process? Intelligence such as we know it is clearly not
equal to the task; nor have we any reason to ascribe
intelligence to organic processes. The assumption of a
vital force explains nothing, as our problem concerns some-
thing far more subtle and directive than force. Again,
to look upon it as a marvellous self-working mechanism
does not meet the real situation, which is more than
one of mechanism, however marvellous. The theory of
Evolution presupposes an original start from simple
beginnings, which have multiplied, evolved and become

1 Organism and Environment, 1917.

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 149

complex in the course of Evolution. The pure chance
presupposed by Mechanists has never ruled the world.
There has never been a blind sorting out of possibilities
according to the laws of probability; and if there had
been, the chances against the present organic situation
in the world would have been infinite. Not thus has the
new arisen and gone forward. The new has always arisen
in the bosom of the old, and under its aegis and influence.
Not blind chance or contingency but the existing state of
affairs has always shaped the course and direction of Evolu-
tion. The new arises from the old and largely at its prompt-
ing, and thus in harmony with it. Its novelty is very small
compared to its essential conservatism. Variation is infini-
tesimal compared to Heredity. It is this fundamental
character of unity, unitariness and wholeness as distinct
from mechanical aggregation of parts which seems to me
to explain the phenomena of organic regulation and co-
ordination. Organisms, of course, contain a great deal of
mechanism; the detailed processes and functions are
largely carried out by what one might call organic mechan-
isms, structures with particular functions assigned to them.
But the unification of the entire system and its self-regulating
character; its plasticity of co-ordination and adjustment
under all the situations of the environment which it has to
face and to which it has to adapt itself ; its creative move-
ment in time, so different from what one would expect on
the second law of thermodynamics; the unique facts of
growth, restitution and reproduction, which not even a
strained application of the mechanistic scheme would fit
these are facts and features distinctive of wholes which
Holism alone can properly justify and explain.

It may be convenient if, before concluding this chapter,
I give a summary of the various functions which are here
assigned to Holism in the shaping of reality.

(A) i. In the first place, Holism is a creative factor,
and as such shows itself in the upbuilding and differentia-
tion of organic structures and their functions. These may
be modifications or variations or mutations. They may

150 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

be ordinary specific differences such as explain the origin of
different species. These differences may include new organs
and structures, or merely the general complexifying of
existing structures which makes organisms as a whole more
complex. All these aspects of Holism are discussed in
Chapter VIII.

2. This creative Holism is, of course, responsible for
the whole course of Evolution, inorganic as well as organic.
All the great main types of existence are therefore due to
it, such as the atom, molecule, cell, organism, the great
groups of plant types, the great groups of animal types,
and finally the human type. Creative Holism is thus
responsible for all the great divisions of Science. The
cursory discussion of these aspects of Holism is spread over
various chapters.

(B) i. In the second place, apart from the detailed
structural and functional differentiations above referred
to, Holism is a general organising, co-ordinating or regulating
factor in organisms over which it exercises a measure of
guidance, direction and control. The nature of this regu-
lative or controlling activity is discussed in this chapter,
and the difficulties it gives rise to in its relation to the
body or the energy system generally are discussed in Chapters
VII and X.

2. This regulation and control is exercised over the
structures and functions of organisms generally, but some-
times special holistic organs are evolved, which seem
specially destined to assist in the exercise of this regulation
and control. Such special holistic organs are the ductless
glands which pour regulative secretions into the general
system, the nervous system, and especially the brain with
its correlate mind. These and other holistic organs are
special aids to Holism in its regulative activity. Various
aspects of these holistic organs are discussed in different
chapters.

(C) In the third place, in order to express and explain
these activities of Holism at the different grades of Evolu-
tion and at the various levels of differentiation of types

vi FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 151

and structures, categories of the Whole or holistic categories
are necessary, some of which have been discussed in this
chapter and others are dealt with in other chapters. Thus
arise the physical, chemical, organic, psychical, and personal
categories, which are all expressive of holistic activity at
its various levels and reducible to terms of Holism.

Holism thus appears in this scheme as the fundamental
activity of the universe from which all others are derived;
and the concept of Holism is the ultimate category of
description and explanation from which likewise all other
categories are derived. Holism therefore constitutes the
ultimate view-point from which to orientate our survey of
all the various forms and departments of reality.

(D) There is one more aspect of creative Holism which
I must for the sake of completeness mention, although its
exposition falls outside the plan of this work. We have
seen that Holism is creative of all structures, inorganic as
well as organic. Thus all the types of structure in the
worlds of matter and life are its work. But more; as we
proceed upward in the course of Evolution we find Holism
the source of all values. Love, Beauty, Goodness, Truth :
they are all of the whole; the whole is their source, and
in the whole alone they find their last satisfying explanation.
Holism not only prescribes the law in the world of struc-
tures, forms and organisms; it is the very ground and
principle of the ideal world of the spirit. It is in the
sphere of spiritual values that Holism finds its clearest
embodiment in fact, and its most decisive vindication as
an ultimate category of explanation. Its creativeness will
nowhere be found more fruitful than in that last and
highest reach of its evolution. Here it would be premature
to do more than merely refer to this aspect of creative
Holism. The exposition of its creative activity in shaping
the great Ideals of the Whole is, however, too large a task
to be undertaken in this introductory work.

CHAPTER VII

MECHANISM AND HOLISM

Summary. The discussion in the last two chapters has disclosed
a grading-up of such structures as can in any way be called holistic ;
beginning with the physico-chemical structures, into which physical
and chemical relations enter; passing on to bio-chemical structures
or organisms, into which those relations plus something new, usually
called life, enter; and culminating in psycho-physical structures, in
which all three relations enter, together with the new elements of mind
and personality. In this grading-up the earlier structures are not
destroyed but become the basis of later, more evolved synthetic
holistic structures; the character of wholeness increases with the
series and the elements of newness, variation and creativeness
become more marked.

Mechanism is a type of structure where the working parts maintain
their identity and produce their effects individually, so that the
activity of the structure is, at least theoretically, the mathematical
result of the individual activities of the parts. With the two
concepts of Mechanism and Holism before us we can see how the
natural wholes of the universe fall under both concepts. There is
a measure of Mechanism everywhere, and there is a measure of
Holism everywhere ; but the Holism gains on the Mechanism in the
course of Evolution, it becomes more and more as Mechanism becomes
less and less with the advance. Holism is the more fundamental
activity, and we may therefore say that Mechanism is an earlier,
cruder form of Holism; the more Holism there is in structure, the
less there is of the mechanistic character, until finally in Mind and
Personality the mechanistic concept ceases to be of any practical use.

What is the relation between the earlier (mechanistic) and the
later (holistic) elements in composite structures, such as bio-chemical
and psycho -physical wholes ? How can the material and the im-
material influence or act on each other? This is still one of the
great unsolved problems of philosophy, and science finds it no less
embarrassing. The tendency for science has as a rule been to look
upon the earlier physico-chemical structures as dominant, and upon
the later holistic elements of life and mind as essentially unreal or
as having only an apparent reality. Science looks upon the physical
realm as a closed system dependent only on physical laws, which

152

CHAP, vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 153

leave no opening anywhere for the active intervention of non-
material entities like life and mind. On this view the activity and
causality of life and mind are therefore at bottom essentially illusory.
On the other hand, if we have to be guided by our clear and unequi-
vocal experience and consciousness, nothing can be more certain
than that our human volition issues in active movements and external
actions. Besides, if life and mind were merely ineffective illusions,
how could they have arisen and grown in the struggle of existence ?
While science denies reality to life and mind, the other side retort
by erecting them into vital and mental forces with a substantiality
of their own. Thus arises the counter-hypothesis of Vitalism.
Both views as a matter of fact are one-sided and misleading; the
mechanistic view by ignoring the essentially holistic element in organic
or psychical wholes; the vitalistic view by misconceiving the vital
or psychic element in such wholes. The fundamental mistake is
the severance of essential elements in a whole and their hypostasis
into independent interacting entities or substances. Thus body and
mind wrongly come to be considered as two separate interacting
substances.

In reply to mechanistic Science it can be shown that the holistic
factors of life and mind do not interfere with the closed physical
system, and that a proper understanding of the laws of Thermo-
dynamics permits of the immanent activity of a factor of Selective-
ness and Self-direction, such as life or mind, without any derogation
from those laws.

Again, in reply to the Vitalists, who invent Entelechy or some
other substantive entity for the system, of life and mind, it can be
shown that no such deus ex machina is necessary; that the funda-
mental concept of Holism suffices to explain the creative, directive,
controlling activity of organic and psychic wholes ; and that the
attributes of life and mind are inherent in the advanced concept of
wholes, and in organisms and humans as wholes. We thus get rid of
the notion of separate interacting entities and view organisms and
humans as wholes, which involve both the earlier mechanistic and
the later holistic phases of Holism. As we have seen Mechanism to
be but an earlier, cruder phase of Holism, the problem essentially
disappears. A thorough grasp of the concept of wholes and its
consistent application to organisms and humans are thus a solvent
for the perennial Body-and-Mind problem. We thus envisage the
physico-chemical structures of Nature as the beginnings or earlier
phases of Holism, and " life " as a more developed phase of the same
inner activity. Life is not a new agent, with the mission of interfering
with the structures of matter ; it involves no disturbance of the prior
structures on which it is based. Holism has only advanced one step
further; there is a deeper structure, more selectiveness, more
direction, more control, But the new is a creative continuation of

154 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the old and not a denial of or going back on it. Holism as an
active creative process means the movement of the universe
towards ever more and deeper wholeness. This is the essential
process, and all organic and psychic activities and relations
have to be understood as elements and forms of this process. No
explanation is possible which ignores this active creative inner whole
at the heart of all organic or psychic structures ; in the light of this
whole all apparent contradictions tend to disappear. This point is
further considered in Chapter X.

The fact of Evolution shows that Holism determines the course
and the character of the advance. Thus Holism is pulling all the
evolving structures faintly but perceptibly in the direction of greater
creative synthetic fullness of characters and meanings, in other
words, towards more wholeness. The inner trend of the universe,
registered in its very constitution, is directed away from the merely
mechanical towards the holistic type as its immanent ideal.

How Holism operates in organic Evolution will appear from the
next chapter.

AT various points in the preceding chapters I have
appeared to contrast Holism with Mechanism and to treat
them as opposed processes and concepts. We shall now
have to consider their relations more closely, as a proper
understanding of these relations will be found to underlie
some of the greatest problems both of science and of
thought. We shall see that Mechanism and Holism are
not necessarily opposed ; that both ideas have their proper
scope and sphere of usefulness, but that Holism is the more
fundamental concept and in its most far-reaching reactions
transforms, transcends and absorbs the concept of Mechan-
ism. A proper view of their interactions and inter-relations
and of the leading and more fundamental role of Holism
in comparison with Mechanism is in my opinion important
for science no less than for philosophy.

Let me, even at the risk of reiteration, return to what
has repeatedly been said before. For me the great problem
of knowledge, indeed the great mystery of reality, is just
this : How do elements or factors a and b come together,
combine and coalesce to form a new unity or entity x different
from both of them? To my mind this simple formula of
synthesis sums up all the fundamental problems of matter

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 155

and life and mind. The answer to this question will in
some measure supply the key to all or most of our great
problems. My answer has already been given ; it is in one
word Holism. But it is necessary to show how the answer
works in detail, and what its relations are to the current
and popular view-points which still dominate our science
and philosophy. Science and philosophy alike are vast
structures, laboriously built up on the basis of certain
fundamental concepts. The attempt I am making is to
introduce into these elaborate systems a new basic concept,
perhaps more fundamental than any of them. And it will
be clear that such an attempt must be a most difficult and
hazardous one; it involves far-reaching readjustments of
settled points of view, the reopening of questions long looked
upon as answered and done with, the envisaging of many
old problems from a new and novel point of view. To insert
the spear-point of the new concept into these vast closed
settled systems may at first sight appear a revolutionary, an
iconoclastic procedure. But I hope I shall be able to show
that this is not really so, that at any rate to begin with the
concept of Holism will fit constructively into the work of
the past, whatever its ultimate effects may be in the reshaping
of these systems on the new basis; that in relation to the
old concepts it appears in the field not as an enemy but as a
friend and ally in the great battle of knowledge, and that
it will help materially in the solution of problems which are
practically insoluble on the lines of the old concepts. The
concept of Holism is brought forward as a reinforcement at
a critical point in the battle, in the hope that it will help to
bring victory. But I do not conceal the further hope that
in its ulterior effects it will lead to a recasting of much of the
situation of knowledge as at present envisaged, and will
render obsolete and replace much that is at present con-
sidered valuable if not fundamental both in science and
philosophy.

How then does the concept of Holism fit into that of
Mechanism without directly negativing it, but with the ulti-
mate effect of transforming and transcending it? Let us

156 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

return to consider our formula once more from this point
of view. We have to consider how elements or entities
a and b produce the new unity or entity % different from
both; and how this involves the concepts of Holism and
Mechanism. For the sake of simplicity I take as an illustra-
tion for discussion the case where only two elements enter
into the new entity, although usually the number of com-
ponent elements is much larger; the illustration will cover
all cases irrespective of the actual number of such elements.
I also assume that the concept of Holism has been suffi-
ciently defined and explained in the two preceding chapters
to make its relation to the concept of Mechanism clear
without further definition. I need only repeat that the
concept of Mechanism involves a system or combination of
parts in relation to each other, of such a character that
these parts do not lose their identity or substantial independ-
ence in the combined role they play in the system. The
system consists of the parts maintained in their identity,
and its action is the resultant of the independent activities
of all these parts. The parts remain, and the activity of the
system is the mathematical summation of their activities.
That is in essence the idea of Mechanism a system or
combination whose action can be mathematically calculated
from those of its component parts.

Now let us test the application of the concepts of Holism
and Mechanism to possible combinations or systems into
which the elements or parts a and b enter as components.
What are these systems in Nature of which we have know-
ledge, and how do they exemplify our two concepts? We
find the following possible situations :

(i) Elements a and b are material elements in the loosest
possible mixture without any active relation to each other ;
this is the case of a mere mechanical mixture, in which there
is no combination of any sort whatever and nothing new
arises, and to which neither of our two concepts can be
usefully applied. The mixture is arbitrary or mechanical
in the vaguest sense, but is not and cannot be called a
mechanism, and it is the negation of the idea of a whole.

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 157

Mere juxtaposition in space and time is the only description
which could be applied to such a situation, which must
necessarily be a rare one in Nature.

(2) Elements a and b are material elements in active
physical relation to each other in the combination or system,
and this relation affects the characters of the combination.
The relation may be one of gravity or electricity or magnetism
or any other of the forces by which matter acts on matter.
In such a case the resultant system is physical, and may be
properly called a mechanism. There is combination of
parts, which do not lose their identity, and whose individual
actions are summed up and expressed in the action of the
system. The ordinary physical categories apply to such a
system.

(3) Elements a and b are material elements which enter
into chemical relation to each other, and without losing
their identity form a system which is in substance new and
different from the component elements. This is a chemical
combination of a substantially different character from the
physical combination mentioned under (2), which calls for
other categories of explanation besides the purely physical
ones. As the parts still retain their identity and individual
action, the concept of Mechanism applies to their combina-
tion; but it is evidently a different kind of mechanism in
which a higher degree and intensity of union of the parts
are displayed which affect the character and nature of the
resultant entity x. It is, of course, true that the New
Physics is rapidly assimilating chemical categories of
explanation to physical categories, but a real difference in
the results remains; in character a chemical mechanism is
substantially different from a mere physical mechanism,
although ultimately the underlying forces of union may be
proved to be the same in both cases. Material substances
in Nature arise from the combination of both forms of union
or synthesis; hence all material substances are properly
called physico-chemical mechanisms.

(4) Elements a and b enter into a combination which
transforms one or both of them so completely that its or

158 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

their identity is lost and irrecoverable ; the resultant entity %
cannot be explained as the result of their separate and
individual influences and activities; and the merger of
elements is far more complete than in the preceding case (3) .
If this were a complete statement of the facts the concept
of Mechanism would not apply here, and it would be a case
of Holism pure and simple. But as a matter of fact the
energy contents of the elements appear to be at any rate
quantitatively reproduced in the new entity x ; and besides,
x, in so far as it is a material system, still seems to conform to
a mechanistic type and arrangement of parts. In both
these respects, therefore, the concept of Mechanism may
still be partly applied to x. But A: is a mechanism of an
entirely new type, quite unlike the preceding case (3). It is
called a bio-chemical mechanism. But it is a mechanism
only in certain respects, and to a limited extent, and of a novel
character which necessitates new categories of action and
explanation. Beyond that it ceases to be a mechanism and
appears to conform to the idea of Holism in all other respects.
This is the case where cell a takes in food b, which it trans-
forms into its own system according to a metabolism which
differs in material respects from the ordinary mechanical
phenomena of physics and chemistry. 1 This is also the case
where cell a unites with cell b to form a new entity, in which
both a and b disappear finally and irrecoverably, and whose
character and behaviour cannot be traced mathematically or
mechanically to those of a and b. The cases falling under
(4) therefore display a mixture of Mechanism and Holism,
the relations of which it remains for us to study in this
chapter. They form the province of life, and at one end of
the vast ladder of life they are much more mechanistic and
at the other much more holistic in character. They are the
bio-chemical wholes which we shall discuss just now.

(5) The new entity x arising under (4) as a mixed
mechanistic-holistic type enters into combination with a new
factor of an immaterial psychic character, called Mind ; and
this, the human type, effects a complete merger of the

1 See p. 68.

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 159

biological and psychic elements, with an interaction so close
and intimate that the psychic element can only be properly
looked upon as an outgrowth or development of the bio-
logical characters. In other words, the holistic element
which entered into % at stage (4) now becomes inextricably
blended with another even more pronouncedly holistic
element; and the result is a still further approximation to
the full holistic type. In fact man is only mechanistic in
respect of his physical bodily organism ; the true personality
which arises from the blending of the biological and psychic
elements into one unique whole is the highest and fullest
expression of Holism which Nature has yet realised. If we
apply mechanical characters to man's mental or spiritual
world, that is only by way of analogy from lower forms of
experience, and not because his spiritual structure is in any
way of a mechanistic type. Man is based on both worlds ;
while he has one foot planted on the mechanistic plane, his
other is firmly planted on the holistic plane, with a distinct
lean-over towards the latter. Essentially he is a spiritual
and holistic being, not a mechanistic type, with sui generis
categories of the mental and ethical orders. But his physio-
logical basis gives him partly a mechanistic character. He
is thus what is called a psycho-physical whole. This will be
more fully elaborated in its proper connection later on in
this work. 1

This rough summary of the main phases and stages of
synthetic development through which inorganic and organic
Evolution has passed there are, of course, innumerable
subordinate phases which we need not consider here will
suffice to make clear two points which I wish to emphasise :

In the first place, Mechanism as applied to types of evolu-
tion is an elastic concept, capable of much refinement in
its application to ever higher forms and types. The mechan-
ism envisaged from the point of view of chemistry is different
from that of physics, while again the mechanism of the cell
and of simple organisms is a vastly different affair from that
of chemistry, and even so is stretched to a limit beyond

1 See Chapter X.

160 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

which it ceases in many respects legitimately to apply.
We have different levels of Mechanism, with their appro-
priate concepts and categories of structure and function.
When we reach the human stage in its full development in
personality, we pass beyond the limits of all possible
mechanistic concepts and categories and we find ourselves in
the domain of Holism. Mechanism is thus a matter of degree.

In the second place, Holism is also a matter of degree. It
begins, as we have seen, as structure ; and in its earlier phases
as structure it is scarcely different from Mechanism. Indeed
we may look upon Mechanism as incipient Holism, as a crude
early phase of Holism. In proportion as Holism realises
its inwardness more fully and clearly in the development of
any structure; in proportion as its inward unity and
synthesis replace the separateness and externality of the
parts, Mechanism makes way for Holism in the fuller sense.
But its realisation is a matter of degree, and there will
probably always remain some residuary feature of Mechanism,
which will to some small extent justify the resort to mechan-
istic concepts and categories, even where the most developed
and refined Holism is concerned.

It follows from the above that science is not at fault when
for heuristic purposes it applies mechanistic methods and
concepts to either the inorganic or the biological sciences.
Up to a certain point the resort to such methods and con-
cepts is fully justified, and their clearness and narrowing of
issues are especially useful for purposes of analysis and
research. It is only when the larger holistic considerations
behind the mechanisms are ignored, or when mechanistic
concepts are pressed too far in their application to essentially
holistic structures and functions, that the process becomes
harmful and misleading.

It will be noticed that in the synthetic grading-up of the
Mechanistic-Holistic process of Evolution the lower unit
always becomes the basis of the next higher unit, becomes as
it were the stepping-stone to the next stage. Thus the earlier
simpler structure of the atom becomes the unit for the mole-
cule ; the molecule for the crystal ; the complex of molecules

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 161

for the colloid and the cell ; the complex of cells for the higher
organism; while the still more complex groups of cells
become the units for the higher psychic or personal structures.
Thus stated, the process seems to be merely a regular
mechanical, additive series based on the mixture of previous
elements. But such a conclusion would be most misleading.
The process is not mechanical or additive but essentially
creative; at each stage something new arises from the
mixture, interaction and fusion of the component elements.
But while this newness, this creative novelty arises every-
where, it is at two stages in particular that something sui
generis and wholly different in kind and nature arises from the
union of the pre-existing elements ; those are the stages where
so-called life and mind appear ; the stages where bio-chemical
and psycho-physical wholes make their appearance. These
are the two great saltus or mutations in Evolution ; and it is
in connection with them that the great problems of life and
mind arise. They are the structures in Nature which do not
exemplify pure Mechanism on the one hand or pure Holism
on the other ; they are double structures apparently exempli-
fying both at the same time and, what is worse, in a some-
what disharmonious manner. The attempt to harmonise
them, to smooth away their discrepancies and to reconcile
the contradictory results to which they lead, has taxed
the resources of our science and philosophy to the utmost ;
nor can it be said that the results hitherto attained are in
any sense satisfactory. But that should never discourage
us from renewing the search for solutions which is given by
the very nature of the human spirit.

Now it seems to me that it can be shown that the problems,
difficulties and contradictions which arise in connection
with these bio-chemical and psycho-physical wholes are due
to fundamental misconceptions, and that the application of
the category of Holism to living bodies and human per-
sonalities will transform the situation and help towards a
solution of the apparent contradictions. Let me broadly
state the problem as it presents itself from the point of view
of physical science and of human sciences respectively.
M

162 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Now natural science looks upon the physico-chemical order,
upon physical nature, as it is commonly understood, as a
closed system, complete in itself. The chain of physical
causation is complete, and there is no need or place for any-
thing of a non-physical character. There is a complete
system of equations as between the past and the future.
Effect equals cause ; and there is no necessity or place for any
tertium quid. Necessity and determination characterise the
order of Nature, the laws of thermodynamics supply a test of
its working character. Where then do life and mind come in ?
What are their function and their relation to this physical
order? What difference can they make to this complete,
closed, self-sufficing system ? If they have any effect, it can
only be by interfering with the inevitable chain of physical
causation and thus breaking the laws of energy. If life or
will or mind has any practical effect, that would mean an
interference with physical causes, with the fixed and deter-
mined energy equations. But no such interference can be
detected in any direction ; the causal physical chain remains
unbroken; the laws of energy are unalterable. We are
therefore forced to the conclusion that life and mind have
no real effect and are of no avail in the world. If they were,
the fundamental laws of Nature would be upset. Such is
the view-point of physical science.

But, on the other hand, we are just as firmly persuaded
by the most clear and unequivocal deliverances of our
consciousness that we can choose, that we can direct our
attention and action to definite purposes; that our willing
is effective ; that we can will to perform an act, and perform
it accordingly ; that our bodily organs respond to the act of
will in spite of all the energy equations ; that within limits
we can do what we will to do. Unless our consciousness
and our senses quite deceive us, this seems to be as plain and
self-evident as anything in our experience. And thus we
are landed in self-contradictions. On the one hand, the
unbreakable chain of natural causation and the laws of
energy ; on the other, our indubitable consciousness of the
effectiveness of our power of free self-directed action. How

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 163

is the contradiction to be overcome ? We are not concerned
with the hoary old philosophical conundrum of free-will,
but the issue is the very live and real one of the fundamental
veracity of our clear conscious experience. If in the last
resort we cannot believe our consciousness and senses, we
had better give up the problem of knowledge altogether.

In this dilemma it seems to me that only one course
remains open for us, and that is to accept the direct deliver-
ance of our senses at its face value. If we cannot trust our
consciousness when it produces clear, direct and immediate
testimony to our power of self-direction and action, how
can we rely on it when it proceeds by way of inference to
build up a vast construction such as the universal causality
or closed system of Nature? If we cannot trust our
experience where it is perfectly clear and unequivocal, it
is useless to attempt to proceed any further in our search
for truth. But then the question at once arises, how our
minds can act on Nature without breaking the causal chain
of Nature. How is the link of Mind inserted into that
closed chain? It is unnecessary to discuss at length the
answers which philosophers and scientists have attempted
in reply to these questions. Science on the whole tends to
accept the physical view of natural necessity and to look
upon mind as ineffective, as an epiphenomenon which does
not avail to alter the course of Nature. It is forced to this
view in spite of the difficulty which thereby arises of explain-
ing how this useless and ineffective organ of mind could
have arisen in the grim struggle for existence ; what biological
function it performs and what survival or other value it
possesses. But that question need not detain us here.
Nor need we consider the theories of psycho-physical
parallelism and pre-established harmony and such like, to
which philosophers have been driven in their distress in
order to explain the apparent miracle of the adjusted
co-working of body and mind. There is no doubt that
none of these views can be looked upon as satisfactory. 1
And the necessity remains for further exploration. Instead

1 They are summarily reviewed in Chapter X.

164 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of rummaging in the scrap-heap of philosophy, let us rather
explore some new way out amid these historic problems
and difficulties of thought. Perhaps our basic categories
have been faulty or inadequate; perhaps the facts are all
right, and it is only our way of envisaging them, our view-
points and fundamental concepts, that play us false. The
difficulties may be of our own making, and should therefore
be of our own un-making and solving. Anybody who has
carefully followed our account of Holism in the two pre-
ceding chapters will at once appreciate the line of thought
which it naturally suggests as the way out of these diffi-
culties. The radical mistake made by both science and
popular opinion is the severance of an indivisible whole
into two interacting entities or substances, the view of life
and mind as separate entities from the body. Life and
mind are not new entities which interact with the physico-
chemical entities or structures. It is the assumption of
these entities and of their interaction with physico-chemical
entities of a different order which produces the contradic-
tions for thought and the problems for experience. The
assumption of these entities is based on a false view of
reality; it leads again to an assumed interaction which
does not exist in fact. Between them these two assump-
tions distort our whole perspective in experience and conjure
up for thought a number of contradictions which experience
shows not to exist in fact. Thought fails to understand
how mind and body interact in a human person; and yet
we see the phenomenon before our eyes all the time.
Thought fails to understand how the immaterial entity or
factor of life can influence a physico-chemical structure which
obeys simply and solely the laws of energy. And yet we
see the phenomenon in a living organism all the time before
our eyes. It seems inevitable that our experience must be
right and our categories of thought must be wrong or
inadequate, and that the insoluble puzzles which arise
must be due to a misreading of the facts. But, I shall
be answered, if life and mind are not real substances
and do not exist in fact, we are back again in the old

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 165

crude, crass materialism, and the Evolution of which life
and mind are the main products and organs becomes a
mere hallucination. No, I reply, it is not the reality of
life and mind that is denied, but their construction as
independent entities of a character and kind to interact with
other entities. It is the false constructions of life and
mind and their erection into independent entities which are
the source of the trouble and ought to be demolished. A
true view of the facts will not only do justice to life and
mind, but will remove the problem which a false view has
artificially created. And Holism is brought forward as a
concept, a category, and an activity which reproduces
reality and renders the facts intelligible without distortion
or contradiction. Current views of life and mind are wrong;
and it is partly to correct these errors that the wide concept
of Holism, which includes, underlies and transcends them
both, is introduced. Our views of immaterial things have
been in process of evolution for thousands of years, and
the process is far from complete yet. Remember the view
of the soul, held by the Homeric Greeks, as a pale copy of
the body ; and indeed the present popular notion of ghosts
scarcely yet differs from this view. Remember the con-
troversy among the early Christians, of which there is an
echo in St. Paul's great chapter in the Epistle to the
Corinthians (i Cor. xv. 35-50) whether it is the corporeal
body or a spiritual body corresponding to it which would
be raised to immortality. We still construe life, mind and
the soul as quasi-material substances according to physical
analogies or material categories. Let anybody sit down
and try to form for himself an idea of the soul's dis-
embodied existence, and he will convince himself how
difficult it is to get away from physical analogies, from the
pale copies of earthly existences, not very much different
from the shades which wander through the cold Homeric
Hades. We conceive spiritual things very much on the
lines of material things ; though conceived as on different
planes they are not placed too far apart, nor are they too
different from each other to be able to act on each other

1 66 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP

and influence each other. It is these conceptions of life
and mind as semi-physical entities, reminiscent and redolent
of the past, which at bottom underlie many of the great
problems of thought. We have really outgrown them;
and in a sense they survive as anachronisms and disturbing
factors in a world which in most other respects has made
the most revolutionary advances in knowledge. They
should be reformed and brought into line with the advanced
front which is at present held on the battle-field of science.

This vague, popular, ghost-like concept of life is stereo-
typed and rendered definite by the scientific concept of
Vitalism; for our purpose we may take the two as
equivalent. Now what is Vitalism ? It is nothing but a
pale copy of physical force. According to the Vitalists or
the Vitalistic hypothesis, a living body is conceived as a
material system in which the physico-chemical forces are
supplemented by a new force, not of the same character
as they, but still sufficiently like them to act on them and
to be acted on by them. The Vitalistic hypothesis is right
in so far as it considers physico-chemical agencies, con-
siderations and categories as insufficient to explain the
phenomena of living bodies. But it is wrong when it
proceeds to assume the existence and the interaction with
them of a new so-called vital force, which may or may not
affect their quantitative relations, which may or may not
quantitatively add to or subtract from them, but which
somehow has the power to supplement them and to inter-
act with them on their own level, so to say. This
assumption is a misreading of the facts. A living organism
appears to have the power to direct its energies to some
definite end, and it will make all sorts of experiments, of
trial-and-error co-ordinations of its bodily movements, until
it successfully achieves that end. The specific power of
directing its energies to certain definite ends or objects or
with a certain measure of purpose seems to be characteristic
of all living things from the lowest to the highest. This
capacity of direction may be conscious or unconscious; it
may be reflex or instinctive or deliberate and intentional;

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 167

but as a phenomenon and a fact of universal observation
it is beyond dispute. It is the explanation of the pheno-
menon and fact which is in dispute as well as its relation
to the physical-energy system which it seems to influence
or direct. And Vitalism is a theory which attributes this
power of inner direction or control to a new sort of force
which distinguishes living from non-living bodies. It is,
of course, true that with many of the older biologists Vitalism
was more a standpoint than a theory; more an attitude of
protest against the supposed adequacy and sufficiency of
mechanistic or physico-chemical explanation of living
bodies than a definite assumption of a new vital force.
They realised that there was something more in the living
organism than what could be accounted for on the action
of purely physical and chemical forces. In this standpoint
they were no doubt right; and in this vague negative
sense there is not only no harm, but positive value in the
Vitalistic standpoint. But with some of the more recent
biologists the Vitalistic standpoint has crystallised into a
definite hypothesis which assumes a specific life-force. And
it is against this hypothesis that our argument will be
directed.

It follows from what has already been said that the very
conception of such a " force " is an anachronism, an assimi-
lation of the concept of life to ideas and view-points which
are or should be obsolete. It is a question whether the
concept of force has any validity at all in physics ; whether
the dynamical notion of force is more than a mere mathe-
matical notation or terminology with nothing in physical
reality behind it. There is a tendency among physicists to
discard the idea of force as unnecessary and misleading and
to restrict themselves to the concept of energy. Whether
they are right or not, it is at any rate clear that the idea
of force can only have an application, if it has any at all,
in the material physico-chemical order. When it is extended
to the province of life, it becomes illegitimate and only
serves to materialise what is in its essence non-material
and spiritual. The concept of life is already deeply tainted

i68 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

in this and other ways ; and that is one of the reasons why
I have proposed for purposes of scientific thought and
reasoning to discard this vague and abused term, and to
substitute instead the notion of Holism, which can at any
rate be made clear and definite, and is not vitiated by
popular associations and accretions. The Vitalistic hypo-
thesis moves in the opposite direction ; by constituting a life-
force somewhat on the analogy of physico-chemical forces, it
tends to materialise life, to hypostatise it into a definite
entity, and in this form to set it over against the material
body in which it has its seat. Not only is life constituted into
an entity interacting with other material entities, but its
non-material, spiritual character is reduced to the level of
a force among other forces, different from them indeed, but
not so different as not to influence them or to be influenced
by them. Life as Vitalism or vital force is considered a
real entity, and its relations with the rest of the living
organism become the source of serious difficulties and
contradictions.

I have above briefly stated the naturalistic scheme of
science and its sharp opposition to and contradictions of the
claims of life and mind as ordinarily understood. That
opposition and those contradictions arise from fundamental
misconceptions which have their origins in the past in the
naive dualism of our ordinary views of life and mind. Body-
and-soul is the model or scheme on which both thought and
science are based. There is an anima dwelling in a corpus,
one entity living in close symbiosis with another, and the two
profoundly influencing each other. As Descartes formulated
it, there is the res cogitans and the res extensa ; there are two
distinct separate res or entities, and the difficulties and
contradictions arise from their mutual assumed interaction.
The theory of Vitalism or the vital force seems simply to
repeat and to stereotype this dualism. But if we wish
to overcome these difficulties and contradictions we have
to probe more deeply below these popular views and to
resolve the apparent dualism by showing the underlying
unity and harmony.

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 169

I shall put the case from the Holistic point of view as
follows : I am going to show that selection and direction,
which are inherent in life and mind, are pervasive holistic
characters which appear in matter already, evolve from it,
and grow to maturity in life and mind. These characters
show no opposition or antagonism to the system of matter,
but co-exist with and interpenetrate it as higher phases of
itself, so to speak. They tolerate the laws of matter and
discharge their functions without interfering with these laws.
In other words, the action of life and mind is consistent with
the principles of energy. Now for my argument.

" Selectiveness," as was pointed out in Chapter III,
seems an inherent and fundamental property of matter.
Electro-magnetism is a striking instance of that pheno-
menon ; so is the very constitution of matter, whose ultimate
forms of structure depend on inherent affinities and selec-
tivities of still smaller structures or units. So is the
behaviour of matter in the colloidal state. In the selective-
ness of matter we seem to meet with an ultimate property
for which no accounting on further more ultimate grounds
is possible.

Now selectiveness is likewise the fundamental property
of all organism; it is indeed the most primitive property
of life. Perhaps it is the very point where the organic and
inorganic were still one and began to diverge. A cell shows
selective power or selectivity in all its processes, such as
the assimilation of its food and the rejection of what is
not suitable for its nourishment. An organism shows this
selective power in all its movements as well as in its nutri-
tion. There is a selection of ends and an adjustment of
its movements to the attainment of those ends. If the
adjustment is wrong, if mistaken or abortive movements
are made, the experiment is repeated until the object is
attained the food is reached, the danger is avoided, or
the enemy is routed. This primitive power of selection or
selectivity is not yet choice or will as seen in the higher
phases of organic development, but it is the tap-root
of choice or will. One form of this selective power is

HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

self-direction, which is equally characteristic of organisms.
Life has a power of self-direction, of selecting to go in one
direction rather than in another, of taking the path which
leads to the attainment of its unconscious or consciously
realised object. This power of self-direction is clearly only
a particular form or species of the more general power of
selectivity.

It is not difficult to see that this selectivity is an
inherently holistic attribute or quality. A natural whole
as a small limited centre of unity has a definite structure
which necessarily limits its functioning to certain ways or
modes and no others. All possibilities are not open to it;
it has only more or less limited degrees of freedom for its
activities; it has to confine itself to these and implicitly
to reject all others. Anticipating later stages of develop-
ment, one may say that its choice is limited; in other
words, selective action is essential for it. What is perfectly
clear at later, more mature phases of Evolution already
exists in undeveloped immature form in the most primitive
organisms. There is a primitive stage of organic function-
ing when concepts like will, choice or purpose are clearly
not yet applicable, but their root already exists in a sort
of organic selectivity or power of self-direction and self-
orientation. This primitive organic power of selection is
probably not far removed from the inorganic property
which I have called by the same name.

Let us next consider the most universal generalisations
or laws of matter and energy and especially how they
are affected by the selective and directive power of
life and mind. I refer to the two laws of Thermo-
dynamics, the first of which affirms the universal principle
of conservation or constancy of the amount of energy
in a closed physical system; while the second affirms
the universal principle of the dissipation or degradation of
energy. It is these two supreme generalisations which
seem to come into irreconcilable conflict with the principles
and properties of life and mind, and therefore call for a
careful analysis. Now when bodies and souls (including

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 171

life and mind) are taken as separate entities in interaction
with each other, the simplest way of expressing the observed
facts is to say that life or mind has a directive power over
the body. It was Descartes who first suggested that mind
might have the power (to use the language of later scientific
developments) of directing the forces or energies in a body
without affecting their amount, and therefore without a
breach of the first law of Thermodynamics. According to
this view life or mind in an organism would direct the
energies of the body without either creating or destroying
any of these energies. We have already seen that this
power of self-direction is characteristic of life; and the
suggestion was that the exercise of this power, while not
interfering with the laws of matter, would explain the
influence of life or mind over the body. Leibniz, however,
pointed out in answer to Descartes that force (as energy
was then called) is not only quantitative but also directional
in character. And the second law of motion according to
Newton made this perfectly clear. The direction in which
a force is acting can only be altered by another force, and
this change of direction would therefore involve an expendi-
ture of force or energy. If, therefore, the mind has a
directive influence over the body, it can exercise this only
by way of adding to or subtracting from the energy of the
body considered as a closed system, and would therefore be
in conflict with the first law of Thermodynamics. Now
in the body as a closed system experiment or observation
has never yet shown any such addition or subtraction of
energy. The energy put into a living body by way of food,
heat or otherwise is always, within the limits of error,
equalled by the energy of the work done, the heat pro-
duced, and the waste products thrown off. As an energy
system the living body is unaffected by life or mind or any
other factor of a non-physical character. There can, there-
fore, be no such direction of the energy of a living organism
by life or mind as is assumed ; and if there were, the effect
would at once be detected in an alteration of the amount
of energy in the body. The first law of Thermodynamics,

172 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

therefore, seems to negative this assumed power of direction
of life or mind over the body, and seems to be fatal to any
view of directive interaction between the two. Either the
first law must be given up, or life and mind are nullities :
such are the fatal horns of the dilemma on which we are
impaled. But the surrender of the first law is not to be
thought of. Although not exactly proved in a rigorous
mathematical sense, it is a norm of science which works
successfully in practice and which has never been known
to be contradicted by any actual observations. It may be
that in view of the recent discoveries of the New Physics,
which associates the concepts of energy and mass very
closely, the law may have to be expanded so as to
include both the energy and mass of any closed system.
But the surrender of the law would bring the whole
structure of science toppling down. Nor, on the other
hand, is the nullity of life or mind for a moment to be
conceded. As I have already pointed out, the sense of
effective choice, willing and self-direction is the clearest,
most indubitable deliverance of consciousness we have, and
its denial must necessarily destroy the very foundations on
which experience and knowledge are built. Besides, if Life
and Mind are nullities, then the Evolution which produced
them must be a farce; but this is totally inadmissible. A
way out of this dilemma must therefore be found. But let
us first look at the second law of Thermodynamics.

The second law affirms the principle of the universal
dissipation or degradation of energy. It likens energy to
water; as water constantly tends to run down from a
higher to a lower level, so the potential of energy constantly
tends to run down, and the energy tends to lose its efficiency
and availability. While the energy of a closed system
therefore remains constant in amount, it changes in char-
acter, it becomes dissipated or degraded and less efficient
and useful. And this principle is apparently of universal
application in the physical world. When any phenomenon
seems to contradict it, that phenomenon will in the end be
found to be based on faulty observation.

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 173

But living bodies seem to contradict it. In a living body
the potentials of energy and efficiency are rising instead of
falling. In living bodies complex substances are for ever
being built up with a high energy efficiency ; and the break-
ing down of these substances in the processes of life supplies
the energy which the living body requires for its proper
functioning. These complex chemical compounds with high
energy efficiency have been called the high explosives which
are necessary for the battle of life. And it is the essential
function of living bodies through their subtle metabolism
to manufacture these high explosives whose breaking down
liberates the energy which life needs for its functions and
processes. The process of organic Evolution marks a con-
tinuous rise in the complexity of the organic substances
produced and the level of the energy potentials reached.
Living bodies and Evolution generally, therefore, seem to
run counter to the stream of natural tendency as expressed
in the second law of Thermodynamics. The systems of
life and mind seem to be in contradiction to both the great
principles of physical science. Is a reconciliation possible ?

Clerk-Maxwell, one of the heroic figures of nineteenth-
century physics, was the first to suggest an idea which may
open up a possible clue to the solution of the problem.
He pointed out that the laws of energy were statistical in
character ; they regarded bodies, systems and their energies
en masse, and their principles apply to these energies
taken statistically and on an average. When, therefore, the
energy of a physical system is spoken of, the average of
its particular energies considered together and as a whole
is referred to. In this sense, for instance, the principle of
the degradation of energy held true, but in no other sense.
And he illustrated his meaning by taking as an instance
a volume of gas with a certain ascertainable total kinetic
energy. In this volume the molecules of the gas would
have different energies according to their rates of motion.
In accordance with the formula E = \mv*, the energy of
a particle is proportional to the square of its velocity. Now
some molecules would be pushed forward by the impact of

174 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

other molecules in their line of motion and would therefore
have their motion accelerated; others, again, would suffer
impacts contrary to their line of motion and would be
slowed down. And, as a fact, the molecules constituting
the volume of gas would have all sorts and rates of motion
and consequent differences of energy. Now if, without
introducing any additional energy into such a system,
some sifting and sorting out and grading of the different
molecules according to their velocities could take place, we
could have an assortment of molecules with a higher energy
than the average of the gas, while the balance would have
an energy below the average. In other words, by sorting
out instead of merely averaging we could have bodies with
a higher energy potential or efficiency than the average of
the mass from which they have been separated or segre-
gated. And this higher energy potential would not be due
to the imparting of any additional energy from the outside.
Clerk-Maxwell imagined some demon manipulating an
aperture inside the volume of gas to effect this sorting and
grading, and thus producing a result in apparent conflict
with the principle of the second law, which affirms the
constant degradation of energy. His point was to make
clear that the second law referred merely to a statistical
average and was correct only in that limited sense.

But it is obvious that his limitation of the law has a
far-reaching significance, and his illustration points the way
to the reconciliation of the systems of life and mind with
that of physical energy. What if life and mind were con-
ceived as demons of the Maxwell type ? We have already
seen that their most essential function is selection and
self -direction. The sifting, sorting out and grading which
Clerk-Maxwell ascribes to his hypothetical demon is the
very function of life and mind. Through this selective
activity all collision with the second law is avoided, which
is true of statistical averages only. Life or organic structure
can build and does build itself up and increase its energy
reserves and potentials in spite of the second law. And
similarly selection and direction may be and are exercised

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 175

in spite of the first law and without derogating from it. In
other words, the self-direction which is inherent in life
and mind involves no fresh creation of force or energy in its
application to matter, as Leibniz held, and constitutes no
infringement of the first law, as is commonly assumed.
The same argument which holds for selection (of molecules
with a particular speed) in reference to the second law holds
also for direction of molecules in reference to the first law.
The supposed demon, dealing with our volume of gas, would
select molecules, not of a certain velocity, but moving in a
certain direction, molecules with a certain orientation, in
preference to others, and could thus obtain a body moving
in a certain direction without the expenditure of any
additional energy in bringing about this change of direction.
Change of direction need not, therefore, involve any change
in the energy situation, as Leibniz held and as is commonly
assumed. It is only when bodies are considered as a whole
and as averages, and without reference to their detailed
structures and arrangements, that the difficulties arise and
the physical system seems to come into conflict with the
systems of life and mind.

If my reasoning is correct the result is most important.
It suggests and indicates the way in which, in bio-chemical
and psycho-physical wholes, Life the selector and Mind the
director may exercise their essential functions in bodies
without coming into conflict with the laws of energy as
ordinarily understood. The detailed method and mechanism
of interaction are not yet explained, but at least the possibility
of conflict is eliminated ; we see that these two systems may
function in harmony and without violation of fundamental
physical principles on the one hand or the stultification
and nullification of life and mind on the other. The possi-
bility of harmonious functioning is established ; the actuality
of the process and its details remain for further discussion.

Let me once more state the issue raised by physical
science in connection with life and mind and see how
the result we have now reached meets that issue. Taking
for granted that the statistical laws of energy apply

176 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

fully to all purely physical systems, the following questions
arise :

1. Do they also apply to systems, such as living organisms
or conscious personalities, which are not purely physical
systems ?

2. Further, in such mixed systems, is the effect of the
non-physical factor, life or mind, on the physical part of
the system such that the laws of energy do no longer fully
apply to this part? In other words, do life and mind
disturb, deflect and alter the application of the principles
of energy to the physical part in such mixed systems as
living bodies or conscious personalities ?

The answer to the first question is in the affirmative and
to the second question in the negative. The laws of energy
hold for the physical mechanisms of organisms and persons
no less than for purely physical systems ; and the influences
of life and mind, whatever they may be in other directions,
do not invalidate the application of these laws to bodies or
persons, in so far as they are physical systems or mechanisms.
The laws of life and mind are not in conflict with the laws
of energy. An organism is more than a physical structure ;
but in so far as it is a physical structure it obeys the laws
of energy just as if it were nothing but a physical structure.

The result is important, because it does justice to both
the physical and the non-physical aspects of bio-chemical
and psycho-physical wholes. Ordinarily in the grand tug-
of-war between the two aspects in these mixed systems,
the palm of victory is awarded to one or the other, accord-
ing to the naturalistic or spiritualistic leanings of the
judges. According to those who adopt the standpoint of
physical science, the laws of energy apply to the mixed
systems, even to the extent of reducing life and mind to
the role of impotent semblances or mere empty simulacra
on the scene of existence. Again, according to the spiritualist
view, the factors of life and mind are real and operative,
not only on their own proper level and in their own domain,
but to the extent of qualifying and modifying l even the

1 Hobhouse : Development and Purpose, pp. 326, 329.

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 177

mechanical relations of the bodily or physical structure,
and thus affecting the application of the laws of energy to
it. The first conclusion (Naturalism) is contradicted by
our direct consciousness, the second (Spiritualism) by the
experimental results of observations on living bodies. The
reasoning we have followed so far, on the suggestion of one
of the great masters of physical science, has indicated
to us how life and mind may discharge their essential
functions without impinging on the universal laws of
energy, which are the very foundation of the whole system
of science. The higher structures of life and mind do not
mean the annihilation of the lower structures of energy.
Here again, as we have seen before in the general process of
creative Evolution, the lower becomes the unit for the next
higher ; there is a grading of the advance without a destruc-
tion of the steps or grades constituting the advance. The
higher structure is based on the lower structure without
the absorption and disappearance of the latter in the pro-
cess. Thus mind structures presuppose life structures, and
life structures presuppose energy structures, which are
themselves graded according to the various forms of physical
and chemical grouping.

The via media, the way of reconciliation between the
mistaken extremes, which we have followed, is often missed
by others because they are misled by hypostatising body
and mind as two distinct entities or substances or res, as
Descartes called them. These two entities or substances
are then brought to interact by way of external relations,
which are naturally of a mechanical character, as all external
relations are. This interaction by way of externality
reduces mind to the level of body and thus ends by a
practical denial of mind. This mistake is then corrected by
the opposite mistake of an attack on the body or the physical
order. Thus the Naturalistic and Spiritualistic fallacies
arise. Here these mistakes have been avoided by our
refusal to look at the two physical and non-physical systems
as distinct entities coming into external relations. Clerk-
Maxwell's suggestion has taken us right into the inner

N

178 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

structure of the gas, and has shown us an inner selective
process at work which is by no means merely mechanical,
and which has resulted in the segregation of a new structure
from the old in a way which constitutes an apparent, but
merely an apparent, and no real breach of the universal
laws of energy. The fable of the selective demon contains
a real truth, and points to the nature of the activity of life
and mind in bodily structure. But at best the fable is
but a crude and rough version of a matter which requires
much more careful exploration. And we therefore pro-
ceed now to consider in closer detail the nature of
the bio-chemical and psycho-physical unities or wholes,
and the relations between the two mixed systems which
they include in their wholeness or unity. The best vindi-
cation of Holism as a category of explanation would be
the light it could throw on the mode of union of the
two systems, on the way in which body and life, life and
mind constitute unities or wholes such as we know in
experience.

Life the selector, and Mind the director, how do they
operate, what is the mechanism which interlocks them and
makes them one with the physical? What fundamental
conception can we form of the physical, the vital, the
psychical which will represent in thought the unities which
they are and form in fact? Life starts from the simplest
almost purely mechanical forms in the vegetable kingdom
and passes upward until it flowers into the marvels of
organisation of structure and function, of beauty of form
and activity, which we see in the plant and animal kingdoms.
And it probably had an immensely long history of develop-
ment before it attained even the lowest forms now known
to us. But all through, the fundamental function of selec-
tion, of selective taking and leaving, has distinguished it.
Mind again, by selecting the selected, has initiated the
power of direction which has gradually evolved into the
new world of the free spirit. How can we envisage the
physical, the vital, the psychical as together forming
unities and wholes as they do in fact ?

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 179

Naturalism answers this question, as we have seen, by
making life and mind the mere unreal accompaniments,
the reflexes or shadows, of the real mechanistic physico-
chemical system. A solution which in effect rules out half
of the world of reality as revealed in our experience cannot
be accepted as satisfactory and need not detain us here.
Vitalism again puts forward a theory of its own which we
may examine for a moment. We shall take it in the form
presented by Professor Hans Driesch, who has elaborated
a special form of the Vitalist theory with an imposing
apparatus of proofs. This is the theory of Entelechy.
Driesch supposes a non-mechanical agent at work in psycho-
physical systems which has the power of suspending their
action in particular respects, thus enabling them to store
up and retain their energies, and which again relaxes its
suspensory power and thereby allows their energies to be set
free and their action to proceed when the situation of life
requires it. Where this controlling action on the part of
the mysterious Entelechy comes from, Driesch does not
profess to know. It evidently corresponds somewhat to
Maxwell's mythical demon. But its power is more closely
defined as checking action, when action would mean mere
dissipation of energy, and releasing the check when necessary,
and thus setting free the stored-up energy of the system
to produce the effects, such as we see in the organic world.
This relaxing action of Entelechy is non-energetic; it is
not the removal of some mechanical obstacle, as such
removal would involve some expenditure of energy, however
small. The releasing action of Entelechy is entirely an
action sui generis, just as the suspending action is. Driesch
considers that this assumed action of Entelechy is the only
possible way in which the causal relation between the
mechanical and the non-mechanical world can be made
intelligible without sacrificing the fact that organic life
is limited by matter. 1 Entelechy is obviously little more
than another name for life; life being conceived as a real
agent, a real operative factor inside the physico-chemical

1 Problem of Individuality, pp. 38-40.

i8o HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

system which we call the body, and with a real power of
action upon it. But as Entelechy is expressly a non-
mechanical, non-energetic agent, the mystery of the action
of this non-mechanical agent on the mechanical physical
body remains entirely unexplained. I fail to see how the
concept of Entelechy takes us much further than the fable
of Maxwell's demon does. Something like selection, the
suspension of action and its relaxation, may probably take
place. But the difficulty remains of conceiving how this
is brought about and operates. The introduction of the
concept of Entelechy does not really help us. We have
still to see whether there is anything in the physico-chemical
situation which throws any light on the mystery, and
whether it is possible to avoid the appearance on the scene
of a dcus ex machina, such as Entelechy undoubtedly is.
I shall therefore proceed to inquire what light the concept
of Holism, as it has been expounded in previous chapters,
throws on this problem of the nature of " life," and of its
action on the physico-chemical system which constitutes its
body in any living organism. It is unnecessary to point
out that we are in a region of speculation, where no theories
can be brought to the test of decisive experiment or
proof. All that we can hope to achieve is to render
intelligible what is in itself a great mystery to thought;
to supply some possible explanation even if we are not
sure that it is the real one; to suggest a scheme of a
possible modus operandi which the imagination can visualise
to itself. More than a possible explanation I do not pretend
to give.

Science has made clear, as we have seen in previous
chapters, that the physico-chemical system is a structure,
a structure composed of elements in more or less of equili-
brium. Such is the atom of matter, such the molecule and
all chemical compounds which form the substance of living
bodies. The equilibrium of the structure is also only
approximate; were it complete, little room would be left
for change; the physical world would be a stereotyped
system of fixed stable forms, and little or no room would

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 181

be left for those changes and developments which make
Nature a great system of events, a great history moving
onward through Space-Time. The fundamental structures
of Nature are thus in somewhat unstable equilibrium.
A change in equilibrium does not mean an alteration
in the position and activity of one element of the structure
only ; there is a redistribution which affects all the elements.
It is the very nature of the structure in changing its equili-
brium to distribute the change over all its component
elements. No demon is at work among these elements to
transpose them, to rearrange them, and to vary their
functions slightly so as to produce the new balance or
equilibrium of the whole. It is an inherent character of
the physico-chemical structure as such, and is explicable
on purely physical and chemical principles which do not
call for the intervention of an extraordinary agent. Another
peculiar feature about the change in equilibrium in a
physico-chemical structure is that it is never such as to
produce a perfect new equilibrium; the new is merely
approximate just as the old equilibrium was. We may
say that the change is from too little to too much. A
structure remains unchanged in spite of a small change
in its inner equilibrium; hence the inner instability must
pass certain limits before the readjustment in equilibrium
takes place. The instance of a supersaturated solution is
a case in point, where the solidification or crystallisation
lags behind the conditions which bring it about. When
the change does come, it again proceeds too far; it swings
beyond the necessities of the case; it passes the limits of
perfect equilibrium on to the other side, so to say. From
too little adjustment it passes to too much adjustment, and
again there is a condition of instability which has to be
righted by a swing back in due course. Thence arises the
rhythmic character of natural change, which links it on to
the rhythm of the life-processes, and shows that they spring
from the same source in the inner nature of things. Hence
probably arise also the definite quantitative increments
of change which the New Physics reveals.

i8a HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

This mysterious tendency to equilibrium or inner stability
shows the inner holistic character even of physico-chemical
structures. There is an internal balance which preserves
the type, a push-on when the structure is endangered from
one quarter, a pull-up when it is endangered from another.
These inner pushes and pulls are not the work of extraneous
demons, but represent the inner holistic nature even of
natural physical things in their total make-up. And the
pushes and pulls are adjusted into a great rhythmic process
which becomes the law of life in the next higher grade
of structures. We may call the structure a mechanism
and its action mechanical. But both ideas are but a super-
ficial view of the real facts, which are so remarkable as to
be almost as mysterious as the similar though more
complicated phenomena which meet us in the structures of
life. Not laissez-faire, not utter Chance and Hazard, but
control or governance meets us in the inner courts even
of physical nature.

I envisage the physico-chemical structures of Nature as
the beginnings and earlier phases of Holism, and " life "
as a more developed phase of the same inner activity.
Life is not a new agent, with the mission of interfering
with the structure of matter; the control which it appears
to establish is not a disturbance and upsetting of the
natural order. It is itself a structure, based on the lower
structures of the physico-chemical order; and the control
it introduces is nothing but an extension and develop-
ment of the natural physical control which, as we
have just seen, is already in operation in the lower
structures for the maintenance of the inner stability. Life
is a new structure of the physico-chemical structures
of Nature. It is not there to cancel them, to upset or
destroy them, but to introduce a still deeper, more
fundamental element of structure into Nature. And the
structures of the lower order are necessary to it. With-
out matter no life, without the physico-chemical structures
no structure of life. The one is a stepping-stone to the
other; nay, more, is an essential element in the other;

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 183

the physico-chemical structures become the elements in the
new complex structure of life. No cancellation, no annihila-
tion, no repudiation of the past; but only more intensive
organisation of the pre-existing factors into the new creative
structure of life.

The new structure of life differs from the physico-chemical
structures which are its material, its constituent elements ;
the difference is most important and far-reaching, but
does not amount to antagonism. A deeper harmony is
introduced; the earlier, cruder notes of the physico-
chemical order become a new music of being. There
is an element of newness, of structural and functional
synthesis, introduced, but the new does not conceal
or annul the old. The structural march of Holism
has only proceeded one step, one great step forward; but
the system and character of its advance remain funda-
mentally the same. The new is a greater complication, a
deeper intensification; there is more selectiveness, more
direction, more control; there is more of the whole, of
the character of wholeness, in the new structure than in the
old. But there is no switching off from the old to the
new ; the one is a continuation of the other, a continuation
indeed of a novel and creative character, but not a denial
of and a going back on the other.

Thus life is a structure like matter; and a structure in
a similar state of unstable equilibrium. The change of
equilibrium has the same rhythmic character; only this
character is far more noticeable and pervasive than the
similar phenomenon in matter. The rhythmic oscillation
becomes the distinguishing mark of the functions of the
life-structures. The pulsations, the rhythmic flow of the
functions of cells form the law of life, and incidentally
become the basis of the new element of music in life;
they give to music that primordial fundamental character
which takes us back to the very beginnings of life on
this globe, and makes music the deep appeal of all the
long ages to emotions the most primitive as well as the
most highly evolved. The rhythm of equilibrium shows

184 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the close linkage between the physical structures and the
life-structures. And its music links all life together through
all the ages.

The equilibrium of the life-structure also gives us the
origin of the idea of life as the selector, the suspensor and
relaxor of the activities of the new structures. In any
change in the equilibrium of the physico-chemical structure
already there is, as we have seen, the distribution of
the change over all the component elements; there are
the new arrangement and alignment of elements and their
activities which conduce most effectively to the balance
of the whole. This is exactly what happens, though on
a much larger scale, in the rhythmic change of the life-
equilibrium. In the movements of that change, elements
are rearranged, functions are readjusted with a view to the
conservation and activity of the whole. Selection and
direction and control are inherent activities. No extraneous
factor does this ; no mysterious stranger needs to be intro-
duced from some alien world to work the mechanisms.
It is the very nature of the equilibrium of the new structure
thus to direct and regulate thus to transpose and distribute
the factors of equilibrium among its component elements,
thus to rearrange and readjust and interchange elements
of structure and function so as to constitute its new balance
of structure and function, and to preserve it as a whole.
The selective regulative nature, character and activity of
life arise from the very nature and process of the equili-
brium in the new structures which we associate with life.
The conception of Entelechy is therefore not necessary.
The regulative equilibrium of the new structures which we
call organisms is sufficient. This equilibrium oscillates
between certain limits, and within these limits the structure
maintains its balance of parts and activities inside the
physical system of Nature. Beyond those limits it is, of
course, destroyed, and the structure of life is therefore
most closely and intimately associated with the conditions
and properties of its material medium. It is not an inde-
pendent entity, self-created and free from the trammels

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 185

of matter. It is a complex structure of the simpler struc-
tures of matter, and therefore dependent on those structures
and their laws. But within certain limits it creates internally
its own adjustments as a structure and is to that extent
free from matter. It is more of a whole, it has a measure
of freedom, and in its self -maintenance and dynamic stability
it shows a power of internal regulation and co-ordination
which is quite beyond the range of the lower physical
structures. Take, for instance, the manner in which the
bodily temperature is maintained under all sorts of con-
ditions through a most minute and delicate co-operation
of a vast number of physiological factors and mechanisms.
Professor Haldane has very ably dealt with this aspect of
the matter and has shown with great force that Physiology
demands imperatively new categories of explanation, and
can no longer rest content with the crude conceptions of
mechanism which have so far been prevalent. But, on the
other hand, his argument must not blind us to the funda-
mental similarities between inorganic and organic structures.
Organic structures do but repeat on a higher plane of
organisation and with an added element of newness, inherent
in Holism, that process of self -adjusted, self-regulated
equilibrium and of inner self-control which likewise, though
in a less degree, characterises inorganic structures.

I have to make one more assumption in regard to the
character of the new structures of life and their change of
equilibrium. Evolution is a fact of observation and experi-
ence; and it shows a persistent trend. From matter to
life, from life to more life and to higher life ; from higher
life to mind, from mind to more and higher mind, and to
spirit in its highest creative manifestations. There is a
process with a persistent trend, which cannot possibly be
the mere result of accident. If it were all a matter of
chance and contingency, the odds would be infinitely more
in favour of chaos than of this persistent trend of intensi-
fying structure and order. In fact the idea of chance arises
from too limited and abstract a view of the facts. The more
limited our survey of the facts, the more unintelligible their

186 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

relations and coherences become, and hence the more
fortuitous appears to be the course of events. On the other
hand, the wider, more concrete our survey of the facts, the
more coherent become their relations, the more clearly their
place in the general scheme is discerned, and the less of
chance there is. Chance, like so many of the other fallacies
of thought already dealt with in previous chapters, is a child
of abstraction. The view of the whole and of happening as
holistic largely eliminates this source of error.

The creative process of Holism consists in the intensifica-
tion of structures, in small elements of newness appearing
in existing structures until the basis is thereby laid for a new
departure in structure; but still on the basis of the pre-
existing structures, and so to say in line with the pre-existing
structures. Matter and energy were probably such depar-
tures in structure from pre-existing structures which have
now passed away and are unknown to us. Similarly life is a
new departure in structure, but still in harmony and more
or less in line with matter, whose laws are only in appearance
and not in reality opposed to the processes of life. Life,
again, represents a rising scale of structure until the founda-
tions have been prepared for a new departure in structure
in the form of Psychism or mind ; and mind is on the whole
in harmony with life and in line with it. There is thus a
persistent trend in the evolution of structures and of the
forms and types of existence : how is this to be accounted
for on our theory ?

I can only say, in keeping with the spirit of our whole
subject, that all structures are under the fundamental
influence of Holism, which is faintly but perceptibly pulling
them in its direction. The trend of slight overbalance is thus
towards Holism, towards a structural character which will
ever more approximate towards wholeness. In other words,
the inner trend of the universe, registered in its very con-
stitution, is directed away from the merely mechanical
towards the holistic character and towards the realisation
of Holism as its immanent ideal. The nature of the universe
points to something deeper, to something beyond itself.

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 187

The persistent direction on the whole shows that it is not
self-sufficing. It has a trend; it has a list. It has an
immanent Telos. It belongs to or is making for some
greater whole. And the pull of this greater whole is
enregistered in its inmost structures. I return to this
subject in the final chapter.

At the conclusion of my argument I shall be asked how
the result bears on the problem of Mechanism and Holism
with which I began this chapter. Life has been shown to
be a structure, or structure-like, or best represented by the
imagery of a structure, just as matter is. Life has appeared
as a continuation on a higher plane of the sort of structure
which matter is on a lower plane a higher structure of
the same material, and therefore at bottom not something
utterly alien to and different from it. And I shall be asked,
"Is Mechanism then final? Is life only a more refined
mechanism, a mechanism of a higher type, but still a
mechanism ? And is Mind a still more refined mechanism ?
If not, then where in the progress of my argument
does the Mechanism come to an end and the Holism
begin ? Where is the great break, the great rift between
the material and the non-material which experience
reveals? Or is experience at fault in accentuating this
great break or rift? " In answering these questions I
shall not go back to the preceding argument, but I
shall briefly state my general impression, my standpoint
in this matter, which is both the source and the outcome
of the preceding argument. Mechanism is not final. It is
not all Mechanism at the beginning, nor is it all Holism in
the long run. If the two have to be distinguished we may
say that they vary in inverse proportions with the forward
march of Evolution. But the deeper view does not dis-
tinguish them, and discloses the fundamental unity.
Mechanism, as I have said, is a phase, an earlier immature
phase of Holism ; just as life is an intermediate phase, and
mind is a later phase; while other phases are probably in
store for the experience of the higher race which will
succeed the human in the future. Holism is a mediating

i88 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

concept; it is the reality which underlies all the phases.
And in the self -fulfilment of Holism, one phase passes
into another. And the past phases endure, though in
ever diminishing degree, and in compressed diminished scope,
in the newer phases. Hence I have adopted the imagery of
the structures, ever more complex structures embracing the
same material as the earlier structures, together with these
earlier structures which are the units of the later structures.
I have adopted this structural imagery because thought is
relational or structural, and therefore more easily grasps
elements of structure than principles or tendencies; and
because in its interpretation of the physical world thought
has already adopted the imagery of structures. I have
therefore represented Holism as structural at all its known
phases, and have distinguished the phases as differences of,
and advances in, structure. But structure does not mean
Mechanism. Mechanism is but one form of structure.
The structure of mind is not mechanistic, nor is that of life.
The fact is that there is an insensible passage of change
from the earlier to the later, but that the change is never
complete and that something of the earlier mechanistic
phases survives in the later spiritual phases, which are
essentially non-mechanistic. The passage is a creative one
at all stages, elements of the new are continually appearing,
but on the whole so minute as to escape notice. It is only
at certain stages that the new appears to be not only
sensible but striking. And here our experience seems to
have magnified the change by hypostatising the new into
a distinct substance or entity, and placing it in opposition
to the old according to a fundamental polar tendency or
polarity in all thought and experience. In measuring and
reading-off reality we must make allowance for the small
eccentricities of our instrument of thought, and we
need not on that account discredit the instrument
itself. If we make the small allowances necessary within
the margin of essential error, we find the breaks and gaps
and hypostatised distinctions are smoothed out and
accounted for, and there remains one great fundamental

vii MECHANISM AND HOLISM 189

Process creatively flowing forward and giving to all the
manifold and diversified forms of existence the unity
which is theirs by inalienable birthright. That Process
is not a mere ideal; it is already, in some measure,
a fact, accounting for all the particular facts and things
of the actual universe. It is Holism, and its pathway is the
concrete universe, in which all the differences and gaps and
apparent antagonisms are but the steps in the progress,
the moments in the great line of advance. Unity thus
underlies all the differences and is the final ground for
their reconciliation.

CHAPTER VIII

DARWINISM AND HOLISM

Summary. Darwin's conception of Organic Descent and his
formulation of its laws were the beginning of one of the most far-
reaching revolutions in human thought. Holism gives a new view
of one of the Darwinian factors, and extends the scope of Evolution
beyond the purely organic domain.

Darwin traced Organic Descent to the interwoven effects of two
factors ; an inner creative factor, Variation, operating spontaneously
and somewhat mysteriously inside organisms and modifying their
hereditary structures and functions in very slight degrees; and an
external factor, Natural Selection, which operates selectively on
these slight variations, weeding out those organisms whose variations
were less suitable to their environment, and leaving the organisms
with suitable variations to multiply and develop. By continuous
summation of small useful variations through many generations
definite specific characters would in time be achieved and new
species arise.

Darwin laid most stress on the factor of Natural Selection; on
Variation he was vague and hesitating, but there is little doubt
that he included not only inborn variations but individually acquired
modifications among the elements which ultimately become specific
characters. Thus all the multitudinous forms of life would in the
end be moulded by both factors into very close conformity and
adaptation to their conditions of life.

The great Darwinian conception has been somewhat blurred by
later developments, in which attention has been concentrated on
the factor of Variation rather than on Natural Selection. First
Weismann denied the transmissibility of acquired characters, and
thus made it difficult to understand how organisms through their
experience and habits of life become gradually fitted and adapted to
their environment. Then De Vries eliminated all small variations
from the account and attributed all specific advance to large well-
marked " mutations " occurring very occasionally. This made it
still more difficult to understand slow age-long adaptation, for
instance, to habitats and ecological conditions. Finally, the
Mendelians or Geneticists have developed the conception that in
organisms there are well-marked stable unit-characters whose

IQO

CHAP, viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 191

combinations in crossing follow a certain definite law; and the
experimental Evolution and Cytology of to-day consist mostly in
tracing these unit-characters and their manipulations in breeding
and in the laboratory. The idea of more or less mechanical com-
binations thus takes the place of the idea of creative variations,
which underlay the Darwinian conception, and it becomes most
difficult to understand how the new variation arises, and how it is
that Evolution is really progressive and creative, and not a more or
less stationary regime of casual character combinations.

These later developments take too narrow a view of Evolution
as a whole and therefore tend to become one-sided and to over-
emphasise certain aspects of the whole process. They are, however,
right in their emphasis on the inner creative factor which is the
real positive motive force of Evolution. The real secret is in the
cell, in the germ-cell or fertilised ovum rather than in the external
situation, important as that is. That is the inner seat of Holism,
which is the real source of all variation and Evolution.

There is, however, no doubt that variation is influenced directly
by external ecological conditions, which show themselves in the
general characters of plant formations and societies, for instance.
And there can likewise be little doubt that acquired characters in the
long run reach down to the hereditary germ-cell and become trans-
missible variations. While these variations are still small and
without survival value the acquired characters and animal routine
shield and nurse them until they are strong and developed enough
to confer survival value on their organisms. Modifications thus are
the rough material of variations ; and to that extent Weismann was
wrong, and Darwin and further back, even Lamarck right.

There is, however, a further complication which cannot be dealt
with on purely Darwinian principles. Modifications and variations
do not come singly but in complexes, involving many minor and
consequential modifications and variations. Are they all individually
" selected/' even before they have any survival value or strength?
These difficulties force us to look deeper, to abandon the idea of the
individual selection of variations, and to look upon the advance as
not being that of a single variation or variations but of the organism
as a whole. It is the organism that advances on a certain more
or less limited front; the " variation " is only the most conspicuous
point of advance, but there is a whole curve of advance involving
many other minor points. In other words, the advance is holistic
and the variation is only the most striking item of a whole series.
And the progress and survival of the variation are an equally holistic
affair. The organism is simply maintaining its own advance in the
variation; the variation issues from it and is in conformity with
its whole trend and movement; the variation is not single and
unsupported, but behind it is the whole force of the organism, of

192 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

whose inner movement the variation is but the most tangible expres-
sion. It is thus the organism as a whole which in the first instance
" selects " the winning variation or series, and confers on it support
and survival value. " Holistic Selection " is therefore in operation
at the birth and through the early nursing stage of the variation,
and it is only at its maturity that Natural Selection takes over, and
the variation begins to fend for itself, so to say.

Holism must likewise be called in to explain organic co-ordination.
It is, for instance, impossible without it satisfactorily to explain all
the innumerable co-ordinations and co-adaptations in structure and
functions which constitute the action of a living organism. No merely
mechanical explanation of co-ordinated animal movements or action
has even been given. The animal acts as a whole, with a unity and
effectiveness of action which is no mere mechanical composition of
its movements. Holism not merely as a concept, but as a real
factor, is necessary to account for this unique unity of organic or
psychic action.

Holism is not merely creative of variations, but just as much
repressive of variations. It is as often inhibitive as creative; it
holds in check certain features while it releases and pushes forward
others. Thus the balanced whole of the Type is achieved. This
repressive aspect of progress is neglected by Darwinism, but it is
just as real as the active variation. Both together underlie the
types and structures of life. This repressive tendency, already fully
at work on the organic level, becomes much more conspicuous on
the psychical level, where it operates as ethical restraint, so essential
in the formation of the Personality as a moral whole.

From the holistic point of view it can be shown that the inner
and outer factors in Evolution lie much closer together than is com-
monly thought, and the grandeur of the Darwinian vision, instead
of being dimmed, stands out in even greater fullness.

Finally, Beauty in Nature is holistic, is of the whole, comes from
Holism, and is explicable on no other principle. Holism thus
accounts not only for the origin of forms and types, but also for
their Values, which far transcend the survival values necessary
merely for the utilitarian purposes of Nature.

NEWTON'S Law of Gravitation is perhaps the most striking
instance in the whole history of science of one simple
generalisation bringing within its sweep the widest array
of physical facts. The new heliocentric point of view had
already become generally accepted when this law was
formulated, but vast masses of facts remained which could
not be co-ordinated, and required explanation from the

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 193

new point of view. The law of the Inverse Square, as laid
down by Newton, was completely effective. The phenomena
of falling bodies on this earth, the motions of all terrestrial
bodies, the movements of the solar system and of the
starry universe as a whole, many of the phenomena of
physics as known and understood at that time all seemed
to find their correct place and explanation under this
all-embracing formula.

Newton did not pretend to understand or explain gravi-
tation itself, and his lifelong meditations on this profound
problem afforded him no clue as to the nature of gravitation.
But the law of its action, the phenomena which happen on
its assumption, he formulated with a simplicity and effective-
ness which made it another instance of Columbus' egg.
In the way of all human matters the law itself came to be
looked upon as more than a law, as an explanation, indeed
as an operative factor explaining all the phenomena which
it covers. And it is only in our own day that gravitation
in this sense has been shattered, and its law as formulated
by Newton has come to have a restricted application.
Relativity has dethroned gravitation, and for the moment
Einstein's Ten Equations rule the universe, where before
the equation of the inverse square was the only and
unquestioned code.

Immanuel Kant, himself one of the great kings and
legislators of thought, looked upon the Newtonian system
as final ; he raised the vision of some future Newton who
would discover and formulate the laws of life, as Newton
had laid down the laws of motion and of matter. Beyond
all doubt Darwin fulfilled that vision, not perhaps in the
sense intended by Kant, yet in a way which has made him
perhaps an even more epoch-making figure than Newton.
Newton proved epoch-making for science, while Darwin
has become epoch-making in a far more fundamental
sense. He has changed our whole human orientation
of knowledge and belief, he has given a new direction to
our outlook, our efforts and aspirations, and has probably
meant a greater difference for human thought and action
o

194 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

than any other single thinker. But even he is not final.
He even less than Newton is final. He has pointed the
great way, and on that way we are already travelling beyond
his great vision.

Let me first state Darwin's law, which was just as simple
as Newton's, and much more easily intelligible. Among
living beings there is a tendency to vary and over-multiply ;
in consequence, a struggle for survival becomes inevitable,
and in this struggle for existence the fittest survive. This
explains the origin of species and all organic differences in
the world. The tendency to variations is a fact patent to
everyone ; so is the over-multiplication of individuals under
favourable conditions and in the absence of external
restraints; the resulting struggle which Darwin calls
Natural Selection is well known to everyone who has the
least knowledge of animate Nature. These are the simple
bricks of fact with which the Darwinian theory is con-
structed. Surely as striking a case of Columbus' egg as
was ever presented. The genius of the Master was shown
by the vastness of the structure he produced from these
simple materials of common-sense and common experience.
From these simple commonplace facts he explained the
infinite variety of the forms of life which occupy the earth,
their geographical distribution both in the past and in the
present over the face of the globe, and the marvellous close-
ness of their adaptation to the physical and other conditions
among which they live adaptation to land and sea, to
fresh and to salt water, to conditions of soil and climate
embracing the extremes of heat and cold, to the widest
range of wet, arid and desert conditions, and to all the
innumerable facts and situations which lead to the inter-
weaving of the mysterious web of life.

The whole Darwinian theory is summarised in the last
sentences of the Origin of Species with a simplicity and
beauty of statement worthy of the simple but profound
genius of the Master, and they raise before us in a few
touches the great Darwinian vision. They have often been
quoted, but will bear re-quotation here, and for all time :

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 195

"It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank,
clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds
singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting
about, and with worms crawling through the damp
earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed
forms, so different from each other, and dependent
upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been
produced by laws acting around us. These laws,
taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Repro-
duction; Inheritance which is almost implied by
reproduction ; Variability from the indirect and direct
action of the conditions of life, and from use and
disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a
struggle for life, and as a consequence to Natural
Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the
extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the
war of Nature, from famine and death, the most exalted
object which we are capable of conceiving, namely,
the production of the higher animals, directly follows.
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several
powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator
into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this
planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law
of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are
being evolved."

I am free to confess that there are few passages in the
great literature of the world which affect me more deeply
than these concluding words of Darwin's great book. They
have a force and a beauty out of all proportion to their simple
unadorned phrasing. They are the expression of a great
selfless soul, who sought truth utterly and fearlessly, and was
in the end vouchsafed a vision of the unity of life which
perhaps has never been surpassed in its fullness and grandeur.

Darwin assumed two operative factors in the organic
world : (i) Variation in the reproduction and inheritance
of living beings, and (2) Natural Selection, or the survival

i 9 6 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of the fittest, as Herbert Spencer called it. Darwin's name
is principally associated with the second factor, with which
his works mostly deal, and which he elaborated with an
unrivalled wealth of detail. He devoted much less attention
to Variation, and indeed used it chiefly as a peg on which
to hang his theory of the origin of species through Natural
Selection. Variation was to him a mysterious fact for
Natural Selection to work on. But its spontaneous uncon-
trolled character puzzled him. He found no helpful
imagery to explain the puzzle. He suggested the theory
of Pangenesis, which showed great insight, but it has not
been adopted by his successors. The germ-cell theory,
which supplied a mechanism for heredity and variation
alike, was a later discovery. The science of Genetics has
mainly arisen since his day. Not only were his views on
variation meagre and vague, but such views as he had have
not been adopted by later Darwinians. Thus in the passage
just quoted he attributes variation to the " direct and
indirect action of the conditions of life, and to use and
disuse/' Most Darwinians to-day hold very pronounced
views in the opposite direction, and deny that these are the
sources of Variation. At present there seem to be indications
of a reaction, of a return to Darwin and even to Lamarck,
and a tendency to look more favourably upon the views of
Darwin on this important point. But the fact is that
Darwin is on the whole vague on the subject of Variation,
and concentrated all his strength on the other principle of
Natural Selection and its effects in shaping the organic
world.

However this may be, there is no doubt that both Varia-
tion and Natural Selection are essential elements in the
Darwinian theory. Darwinism, in fact, implies two factors :
an internal factor, operating mysteriously in the inmost
nature and constitution of living organisms, and an external
factor working along independent lines on the results achieved
by the internal factor. The inner factor, Variation, is
positive and creative, producing all the variations which
are the raw material for progress. The external factor,

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 197

Natural Selection, is essentially negative and destructive,
eliminating the harmful or less fit or useful variations, and
leaving the more fit or useful variations free play to con-
tinue and multiply, and in this process fitting and adapting
the individual to the character of its environment. As De
Vries has phrased it, the inner factor explains the arrival,
and the external factor the survival, of the fit or useful
variation or organism.

Darwin's over-emphasis of the second or external factor
had one very unfortunate result : it directly and powerfully
reinforced and exaggerated the mechanistic conception of
the universe. The vera causa of organic change and progress
appeared to be Natural Selection, an external factor operating
on organisms ab extra, in the same way as physical or
dynamical forces are impressed on bodies or their parts
from the outside. Mechanical analogies began to be applied,
and Evolution came to be looked upon as the mechanics of
organic development Entwicklungsmechanik, as it has
been called by Wilhelm Roux. The whole tendency of
Darwinism has therefore been vastly to add to the dominance
of the mechanistic hypothesis, which has through it come
to extend its sway from the kingdom of matter to that of
life. What is more, the simplicity of the Darwinian theory
has helped to make, not only Evolution, but the mechanical
view of Evolution, common property. The mystery of
progress seemed to become quite simple and intelligible on
this theory. It all depended on the survival of the fittest,
and the survival of the fittest was so simple and clear an
idea, and one too so deeply rooted in our ordinary empirical
experience, that it seemed all a matter of course which had
only to be pointed out by Darwin to be accepted by every-
body. The difficult part of the theory, the aspect of it
which even to Darwin had remained a mystery, the inner
creative factor of Variation, was ignored while Darwinism
was in the course of being generally accepted, and accepted
in the mechanical sense.

This was the first phase of Darwinism, the phase during
which Natural Selection was chiefly stressed and was the

198 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

dominant note in the theory. Then came the second phase,
when attention began to be given to the other factor of
Variation. With this Neo-Darwinian phase the name of
Weismann is for ever honourably associated. Many great
labourers there have been in this field, but the name of
Weismann will ever stand out pre-eminent as the biologist
who, whatever his mistakes in detail, initiated and developed
the exploration of the germ-cell as the source of Variation
in Evolution. Weismann turned the gaze of Evolutionists
from the outside to the inside of the process, from the
apparent mechanism of external interaction and clash to
the mystery of the inner process. And what he taught was
not only most surprising, but remains one of the most
significant and important truths in the whole range of
biology. I shall deal with this matter just now. But
before doing so I wish to point out that Weismann and his
fellow-workers were handicapped in their labours by the
mechanical view of Evolution which had already become a
fixed dogma in the earlier stage of Darwinism. If any-
where, the mechanistic conception should have received its
quietus in the domain of Variation, in the exploration of
the inner process or factor of Evolution. Unfortunately
Weismann and several of the most prominent biologists who
developed this second phase of Darwinism arrived at their
task not only as convinced Darwinians, but as mechanistic
Darwinians.

The great battle in which Darwinism had won was tacitly
considered a victory for the mechanical view of it. And thus
the whole problem of Variation, as viewed by these leading
Neo-Darwinians, came to be one of investigating or finding
the mechanism of Variation. Their services have been
great, and the route they have opened up will in the years
to come lead to even greater results. But there is no doubt
that the mechanistic conception has been a grave handicap
to them, and that many of their errors are directly traceable
to its disturbing and distorting influence. In the first
chapter I tried to show how erroneous the conception of
Natural Selection as a purely mechanical factor in Evolution

vin DARWINISM AND HOLISM 199

was. In this chapter I shall endeavour to show that the
purely mechanistic conception of Variation is just as arbitrary
and misleading.

The root of Weismann's difficulties lies in his mechanistic
conception of the germ-cell. The cell, as we saw in Chapter
IV, in its metabolism already shows many of the functions
and activities which we associate with the complete indi-
vidual organism. It is itself a holistic individual, with the
most marvellous selective and regulative powers, reminding
us (on a much lower plane) of what at a later stage of
Evolution appears as the psychical factor. This applies to
the germ-cell even more than to the ordinary body-cells.
The germ-cell has its " field," and the field of the germ-cell
is much more important than is ordinarily thought. Experi-
mental Evolutionists seek more in the physical elements of
the germ-cell than is there. There is much more in the
inheritance of the germ-cell than can be identified by an
analysis of its elements. And this more is in its field, which
represents that part of the germ-cell which has not yet been
crystallised and hardened into sensible structure. The
organic field, as explained in a previous chapter, is the milieu
of interwoven influences, of internal and external stimuli and
responses, in and around the cell or the organism. The
functioning of the cell or organism as a whole depends on
this milieu much more than on individual elements in the
structure. Much of its past and its future is in its field;
in its field the creative adjustments are begun which are
ultimately translated and incorporated into its structure.
Here as elsewhere the field is the area of becoming, of
creativeness, the growing surface of the structure. To con-
fine our view of the germ-cell to its apparent elements of
structure is simply to atomise our conceptions on chemical
analogies, and to narrow them unduly to the neglect of very
important features in the functions and activities of the
germ-cell, and to compel us in the end to adopt that mechani-
cal view which is the negation of its inmost nature as a living
holistic individual unity. In this chapter I shall endeavour
to show how the concept of Holism acts as a solvent for the

200 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

difficulties created by the mechanistic conception of
Variation.

The alterations in the Darwinian scheme introduced by
Darwin's successors have had a profound effect on that
scheme as a whole ; so much so that it is to-day difficult to
say how much of Darwin's great vision still survives. In
order to realise this, it would be advisable to compare
Darwin's general ideas of the facts of Variation with the
modifications introduced by his successors.

In Darwin's view, it was not only the operation of Natural
Selection that was moulding living things in conformity
with their environment, by eliminating those that were
less suited to the conditions of the environment. Varia-
tion was also bearing its share in this process of
assimilating and adapting them to the environment. The
close fitting of species to their habitats and environmental
conditions which is so distinctive of animate Nature was,
according to him, the combined effect both of Natural
Selection and Variation.

In order to ensure clearness in what follows we have to
distinguish between various forms of so-called " variation "
in living things. In the first place, we have modifications,
which are due to the functional activities and experiences
of the individual in its own life, and not to inheritance from
parents or ancestors. The effects on the bodily organism
or on particular organs of their use or disuse in any definite
way would be such modifications. An animal changes its
mode of life and in consequence ceases to use certain organs,
or begins to use them in a new way or for a new purpose.
Such disuse tends to the atrophy of these organs, just as
such new or increased use would develop them. Such
atrophy or development respectively in the bodily organism
is a modification. All changes or characteristics acquired
during the individual life are modifications.

In the second place we have variations, which are small
changes passing by inheritance, and not due to the develop-
ments or acquisitions of the individual life. A small
alteration from the type which an animal has inherited

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 201

from its parents is a variation, in contradistinction to a
modification which has been brought about in its own
lifetime. In the third place, a large very marked inherited
change is called a mutation. Any inherited change large
and marked enough to constitute a new variety or species
is a mutation.

Now I think it is beyond question that according to
Darwin's view all three forms of change modifications,
variations and mutations were useful and operative in
the ultimate production of new species. Modifications due
to individual use or disuse he certainly pressed into the
service of his scheme of Evolution ; and although it is not
quite clear how far other modifications were similarly treated
by him, it follows from the above quotation as well as from
other passages in his works that variations due " to the
indirect or direct action of the conditions of life/' in other
words, alterations affecting the individual life, could, to an
extent never clearly defined by him, avail for the production
of new species. As regards mutations, while he gave reasons
for disbelieving in great and sudden changes as the ordinary
rule of evolution, it can certainly not be said that he excluded
them. His view was that the slow and gradual summation
of small modifications and variations continuously conserved
or kept going by Natural Selection would, and in fact did,
in the course of many generations amount to a sufficiently
large and marked change to constitute a new type or species.
The continuous summation of the effects of use and disuse
and the other conditions of life, as well as the accidental
inherited variations which were of a more mysterious origin,
would necessarily co-operate with Natural Selection in
bringing about the close adaptation of the species to its
environment. The result was the vast and intricate system
of adaptations and co-adaptations, of harmonious adjustment
between Nature and organic life, ramifying through the
infinite details of the web of life which we see in Nature.
Thus Evolution was explained, thus all the fine adjustments
and adaptations in Nature were explained. Only a very
long time was required for the infinitesimal calculus of

202 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Natural Selection to produce the various results, and that
requirement was conceded by the astronomers and geologists.
Darwin's view seemed very well to fit in with the fossil
record as well as with the facts of geographical distribution,
which he looked upon as the keystone to the laws of life.
No wonder that the appeal of Darwin's theory proved
irresistible and its effect crushing on all the older points of
view. The triumph of Darwin's splendid vision of Evolution
seemed complete.

Then the second phase of Darwinism began, with the
detailed search for the methods and mechanism of Variation
and with the venue shifted from the ample range of Nature
to the research laboratory of Genetics. First Weismann
negatived the inheritance of acquired characters, and of
modifications due to use or disuse or other environmental
conditions operating on the individual life. Only the
accidental germinal variations, and none of the moulding
effects of the environment on the individual, could avail in
the building up of new species. Then De Vries came
forward and largely eliminated small ordinary variations
from the account, and thus practically confined progress to
mutations. Finally, the experimental Mendelians or Gene-
ticists appeared, and through their researches and experi-
ments appeared to confine Evolution to the interchange,
the combinations and permutations of definite existing
unit characters. The combined effect of these three
advances on the Darwinian theory might appear largely
destructive of Darwinism itself. If, following the Men-
delians, we hold that the interchange of definite pre-
existing unit characters is all there is in the process of
Evolution, advance becomes impossible and creative Evo-
lution disappears. If, according to De Vries, accidental
mutation is in a large measure all there is for Natural
Selection to work on, the advance becomes indeed a most
precarious affair, instead of that steady, continuous, delicate
process which has been going on through the geological ages.
If, according to Weismann, modifications from use and
disuse and similar causes have no survival value and are

vni DARWINISM AND HOLISM 203

inoperative in the formations of new species, it becomes most
difficult to understand the universal close-fitting adaptations
of species to their conditions of life. For there is nothing
in common between the accidental variations and Natural
Selection, and there is no clear reason why or how this clash
should not produce chaos and disaster, rather than the
harmonies and adjustments which actually characterise the
relations of animate and inanimate Nature. Darwin's
theory, even if it were wrong in its details, certainly served
to explain and render intelligible the broad facts of the
order, adjustment and progress observable in animate
Nature. His successors 1 theories, even where they are
correct in detail, fail to explain these facts, and make of
the world of life as a whole an unintelligible and in some
respects an incredible affair.

It would, however, be a serious mistake to look upon the
more recent developments in the nascent science of Genetics
as covering the whole wide field of the Darwinian theory.
So far as I know, they have no such scope, nor are they so
intended or understood by those who are responsible for
the very important researches in Genetics now being success-
fully carried on in biological laboratories. These researches
are intended to follow up a special line which was first
opened up by the experiments of the Abbot Mendel of
Briinn in the time of Darwin. They occupy a very restricted
area of the whole field of organic Evolution, and are really
concerned only with the .elucidation of the special set of
problems arising from the crossing or hybridising of races,
varieties or definitely distinct variations. Those problems
centre around the important question how biological
characters already in existence, whether patent or masked,
behave when brought into contact with each other. Mendel
found that certain existing characters behaved as firm and
stable units, very much as atoms or molecules do in chemical
combination, and he also discovered the law of the propor-
tions in which these unit characters are reproduced in the
offspring. Thus if individuals of dominant character a are
crossed with individuals having recessive character 6, then

204 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

in the second filial generation the members of individuals
respectively with a characters, and b characters, and mixed
a and b characters are given by the algebraic formula
(a + b) 2 = a 2 + 2a6 + b 2 . In other words, 25 per cent,
of the second generation will be pure a's and pure 6\s
respectively, and 50 per cent, will represent individuals
with mixed qualities, which on being again crossed with
each other will again produce pure a's and 6's and mixed
ab's in the same algebraic proportions ; and so on apparently
ad infinitum. His researches have been amply confirmed
by later inquiries, and they have also established that not
only do these unit characters behave as fixed and stable
entities, but, very much in the manner of radicle groups in
Chemistry, groups of such unit characters also sometimes
behave as stable combinations, and enter into combination
with other unit characters as persistent unities. This is all
very remarkable and interesting, and has important bearings
on the practical improvement of breeds and races of animals,
and on the beginnings of the new science of Eugenics. But
for our present purpose it is merely necessary for me to
point out that Mendelism or Genetics deals with the mani-
pulation of existing characters, and not with their origin,
genesis or creation. The main question before organic
Evolution, how specific characters are produced which have
not existed before, is not directly touched by Mendelism.
The problem of the creativeness of Evolution in the origin of
species, and in organic progress generally, lies beyond the
province of Mendelism. Mendelism deals with results
already achieved by Evolution, and not with the creative
process by which they are achieved. No doubt it may and
in due course will incidentally throw important sidelights
on the mysterious creative process; but it will probably
be no more than sidelights. In other words, Mendelism is
not the real method or path of organic Evolution, but at
best only an important side-track. This is not intended
as a reflection on the science of Genetics, but only to place
it in a proper perspective in the whole field of organic
Evolution.

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 205

Having ruled out Mendelism, can we accept De Vries'
Mutation as the ordinary method of Creative Evolution?
Mutation takes place when specific or varietal characters
appear, not as the result of a slow age-long summation of
small variations, but at one bound, with a great leap of one
generation to the next. An individual of species X produces
offspring which constitute a stable variety or a new species Y .
De Vries saw this happening in the case of cultivated
(Enothera lamarckiana growing wild in a potato-field at
Hilversum in Holland. Other instances have been observed
by other investigators. It is objected that De Vries'
(Enothera was perhaps a cultivated artificial hybrid, with
mixed qualities, like the ab's of the Mendelians, and that
all he observed was the emergence of pure qualities from
this mixture; in other words, not the emergence of new
characters but the setting free and unmasking of concealed
or latent characters already existing. Other criticisms also
have been levelled at the Mutation theory which it is not
necessary for our purpose to consider here. In spite of
these criticisms it is practically certain that mutations do
take place in the course of Evolution. But while they almost
certainly happen on special occasions, they are not common,
and do not constitute the ordinary method of organic Evo-
lution. On rare occasions there is a saltus, a creative leap
forward from one generation to another. A species having
long balanced itself precariously on the edge of a great
change suddenly makes the jump, secures a foothold on the
edge of the other side, and marks the beginning of a new
variety or species. But it can at best only be an exceptional
if not a rare effort on the part of Nature. These sudden long
jumps can only be very occasional, and not the normal
course or procedure in the origin of species. Otherwise we
w r ould certainly see more of them, and they would not be
the subject of doubt or dispute. The rarity of their observa-
tion points to the rarity of their occurrence. And they
must be largely confined to cultivated artificial species or
varieties which are more unstable and violently variable
than natural species or varieties. Mutation in wild nature

206 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

is an occasional and exceptional occurrence, and is not the
ordinary procedure of Evolution. 1

Having thus ruled out both Mendelism and De Vries'
Mutation as the usual method of creative Evolution, we
now come back to the earlier Germ-cell theory of Weismann,
who initiated it and through it the second phase of Dar-
winism, and thus became, and still remains, the second most
important figure in the history of Darwinism. His great
and essential service consisted in this, that he found the
real source of Evolution in the inner factor of Variation,
and that he traced this factor to its seat in the germ-cells
of the organism. Not the outward mechanical struggle and
clash of organisms, but the penetralia of their deeply hidden
and sheltered germ-cells were the mysterious, spontaneous,
independent and original source of all organic development
and of the origin of species. Of course this theory became
possible only by reason of the rapid advance in the know-
ledge of the cells, and especially of the part they play in
reproduction. But on the basis of that new knowledge the
theory became quite simple and indeed inevitable. The
body-cells of advanced organisms have no part or lot
in reproduction, and the seat of all organic variations
must therefore be looked for in the reproductive cells
of the parents. All organic progress was thus traced
back to the inmost nature of the organism itself, and
not to the environment or any mere external factor.
This is the essential truth in the hypothesis of Weismann,
and this constitutes his real and lasting contribution to the
theory of Evolution. The mysterious Variation which
forms the inner factor of Evolution has its seat and source
in the fructified ovum or germ-cell from which the new life
begins. There and nowhere else take place the great play

1 Professor J. P. Lotsy, who bases Evolution on hybridisation
between varieties and species, and has made a survey of the flora of
several countries from this point of view, has come to the conclusion
that hybrids are by no means uncommon in Nature, and that a fair
percentage of natural species, usually classed as such, are really
hybrids. Both Mendelian and experimental species such as those
which T. H. Morgan has bred in the fruit-fly Drosophila are held by
Lotsy to be nothing but hybrids.

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 207

and inter-play of forces, tendencies and influences which
shape the destinies of life in organic development. This is
not the whole story, but it is important; it is indeed
fundamental.

Weismann drew a sharp distinction between the individual
and the race, between the body-cells which constitute the
one and the germ-cells which are the carriers of the other.
According to him the race or species is continued unbroken
in the substance of the germ-cells, which flow on as a con-
tinuous stream from one generation to the next. From these
racial germ-cells are differentiated the body-cells in the
individual life, both in its ante-natal and post-natal stages.
After the differentiation has taken place in the fructified
ovum, there is, according to him, practically no connection
between the germ-cells and the resulting body-cells which
build up the individual, except in so far as the former
are nourished through the latter. The individual becomes
separated from the race factor, and becomes an inde-
pendent growth from it, becomes, so to say, an excrescence
or epiphyte on the race, which continues in the germ-
cells uninfluenced by the fate or the development of
the individual. This complete severance and indepen-,
dence of the individual from the germinal constitution
from which it has sprung is a distinctive tenet of
Weismannism. It embodies a profound truth, which we
recognise in the freedom and independence of individuality.
But at the same time it makes the severance of the racial
and individual elements in the whole too great, and it ignores
important reciprocal influences between them which main-
tain a certain balance between individual and racial develop-
ment. To these points we shall have occasion to return.
Here it is instructive to note that for Weismann the sharp
distinction between the individual and the germ-cells, from
which it sprang and which it carries forward for the race,
was based on his view of the nature and constitution of
these germ-cells. These cells contained the hereditary
constitution of the race or species, and in so far registered
the past, and made the past an operative factor in the

208 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

present. They also embodied the mechanism of variation
and thus linked the future with the past in the continuity
of the race. In a way, therefore, the germ-cells, unin-
fluenced by the ephemeral and accidental influences of the
individual life, contained in their wonderful constitution
not only the present but also the past and in a measure the
future of the race. They were eternal, self-contained units,
carrying their future and their past in themselves, unin-
fluenced by the accidents of their environment. The
individual was a mere bit of bread cast on the waters of
destiny, to be lost utterly, or to be found after many days.
But the past and the future of the race dwelt sublime and
secure in the eternal sanctuary of the germ-cell.

Such was the great Weismann conception, which in effect
largely withdrew creative Evolution from the arena of exter-
nal conflict and the mechanical struggle for existence, and
located its origins in the secluded depths of the inner world
of the germ-cell. And this great conception was based on
Weismann's view of the mechanism of the germ-cell, on
which a great deal of light has since been thrown by experi-
mental research and observation.

Without going into details we may just note that the
chromosomes of the dividing nucleus have been identified
as on the whole the carriers of the hereditary characters of
organisms; these characters have to some extent been
correlated with distinct chromosomes, and the number,
shape, size and other differences of chromosomes in
the nucleus of the germ-cell are therefore taken to be the
physical basis of the characters which distinguish the
species. It has been found necessary to go further and tOi
assume in the chromosomes themselves active elements or
factors or genes which are productive of organic characters.
These researches and speculations are still in their initial
stages, but they are important and have this advantage,
that the results of intercrossing and hybridising in producing
a change of characters can be studied in conjunction with
the simultaneous change in number and form of chromosomes.
In the prosecution of experimental Evolution the parallelism

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 209

of cell structure and of variation in organic characters thus
supplies a double weapon of attack.

While the germ-cell as the mechanism of heredity is easily
understood, the question still remains how it operates as
the sole and independent cause of Variation. The inter-
mixture of chromosomes from two separate individuals in
sexual reproduction, and the changes in the chromosome
contents of the reproductive cells in their previous meiotic
division, undoubtedly provide the occasion for a great
intermixture of parental elements and are thus potent sources
of Variation. But Variation operates even apart from and
in the absence of sexual reproduction and the related meiotic
divisions of the germ-cells. And the question remains
whether the individual life is, in fact, so isolated from the
germ-cell that it has no influence on the latter and the
resulting offspring. On this isolation Weismann was par-
ticularly insistent, and in the popular mind his teaching is
identified with the doctrine that acquired characters are
not transmissible. The principle of the non-transmissibility
of organic modifications (as above defined) rests on empirical
experience, as no clear and indisputable case of the passing
of such individual modifications to the offspring has been
recorded or observed. Weismann's germ-cell theory was
intended to supply the scientific basis for this negative result;
but in the end he so completely isolated the germ-cell from
the rest of the individual organism that he came to consider
it practically impossible that modifications could become
hereditary, or that somatic cells could in any way, except
through nourishment, influence the germ-cells.

There can be little doubt that in adopting this extreme
standpoint Weismann went too far. He not only cut clean
away from the Darwinian tradition, but also, in fact, made
it impossible to understand the double fact of progress and
adaptation ; in other words, to understand how the experi-
ence of the race, which after all is only accumulated individual
experience, helps to promote development, and to mould it
in congruity with the environment. Unless the " trial and
error " experiments of individuals produce some racial
p

210 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

result ; if, in other words, every individual throughout the
ages has to begin to learn once more at the beginning, organic
progress becomes unintelligible, if not impossible. The
extreme isolation and independence which Weismann
attributed to the germ-cell therefore led to a further hypo-
thesis intended to give the individual some sort of indirect
influence in shaping racial evolution. He assumed that a
struggle for existence took place among the elements or
genes inside the nucleus of the germ-cell for the food that
came from the body-cells, that Natural Selection was thus
already at work inside the germ-cell, and that it was the
vigorous, well-fed surviving genes that shaped the course
of the resulting variation in the direction to which the
individual had thus contributed. In this way the body-
cells and the individual modifications of the parent might
have some vague and indirect influence on the germ-cells
and their offspring. This arbitrary and unsatisfactory
hypothesis has found no favour and probably amounts to
no more than a confession of failure on the part of Weis-
mann to maintain his doctrine in its extreme form. To
transfer the venue of the struggle of existence from an arena
where we can watch and observe it among organisms to the
inner arcana of the germ-cells, where it is beyond observation
and where its operation, if any, is pure guesswork, is not a
helpful hypothesis, and can only be a last desperate resort
of a theory in distress. Weismann no doubt felt the difficulty
keenly, but he saw no way out of it, and his hypothesis of
Germinal Selection was no way out.

The dilemma is indeed a most formidable one, not only
for Weismann but also for all current views of Darwinism.
On the one hand, there is the negative evidence, the absence
of any clear and incontrovertible case where mere individual
modifications have been transmitted to offspring. On the
other hand, there are the very numerous cases where the
disappearance of certain characters can only be satisfactorily
explained on the assumption that modifications due to
disuse of an organ have become hereditary. Again, there
are the still more numerous cases where parts of the body

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 211

have been constantly used in certain ways and have finally
become specialised organs with which animals are now born
ready-made. There is also the class of cases mentioned
by Herbert Spencer in his controversy with Weismann and
never satisfactorily answered, where, for instance, the
sensitiveness of the finger or tongue (now hereditary) is
compared with the much smaller sensitiveness of the back
or other parts of the body, which have never been used as
an organ of touch or taste. Above all, there is the difficulty,
one might almost say the impossibility, of understanding
organic Evolution, if its advance depends upon mere for-
tuitous variations in reproduction, and remains uninfluenced
by the work, the experience, the learning through trial and
error and the consequent modifications of the individuals
which compose a race or species. While it is admitted
and intelligible that mere artificial and singular modifica-
tions, such as cutting off the tails of dogs or sheep continu-
ously for thousands of years, will have no germinal and no
hereditary effect, the case may apparently be quite different
with modifications which are due to the frequent or constant
activity of the animal, and which register the routine of
its life. Such modifications are far more intimate to the
animal organism, and may in the course of time produce
such a deep impression on the body-cells as to penetrate to
and reach even the germ-cells, and register a change there
which leads thereafter to hereditary and apparently
spontaneous variation.

Apart from Weismann's extreme doctrine of germinal
isolation, which even he by implication appears to have
found untenable, there is nothing in principle directly
negativing such an assumption, and it does render intelligible
the progressive evolution and specialisation of bodily organs
which on any other assumption it is most difficult to under-
stand. The absence of direct experimental evidence in
support of this view is not a fatal objection. The laboratory
of Nature is very different from that of experimental research.
Life has not been made in the latter but was made in the
former. The slow intimate operations extending over

212 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

thousands and even millions of years, such as brought about
most of the organic species of which we know, are not
on a par with our latter-day researches in experimental
evolution. With all our chemical knowledge we can yet
never hope to rival in our laboratories the results which
Nature has through the countless ages achieved, say, in
the crucible of the geological record. Still less can we
hope to achieve through biological experiments in the
laboratory what her silent processes have amounted to
through millions of years. 1

If we set aside this negative and really irrelevant evidence,
and also reject Weismann's extreme doctrine of germinal
isolation, we find nothing in theory or fact to preclude us
from viewing modifications as having an influence through
more or less long biological periods on the germ-cells. On
the hypothesis of the " field " which we have found useful
before, we may consider these somatic modifications as in
the first instance influencing the field of the germ-cells,
and only later and in the course of time becoming incor-
porated from the field into the hereditary structure of the
germ-cell.

We come thus in effect to look upon modifications as partly
the material from which variations have been formed.

1 Even so, however, some experimental evidence seems to be
forthcoming. In this connection the recent work of Harrison and
others on Melanism in moths is very important. It was found that
among English native moths species after species with pale ground
colour gave rise to forms so heavily pigmented that they appeared
in some cases to be dark grey and in others perfectly black. This
melanism has been found in the coal areas of England, Germany and
even at Pittsburgh in the United States. The foliage of trees in the
English area was found to contain relatively large quantities of salts
of manganese, iron and other metals. Moths reared on food charged
with a percentage of these compounds also developed melanism,
which was transmitted to their offspring in the Mendelian ratios.

So far as these significant experiments have gone, they tend to
show that chemical changes in the environment of organisms may
more readily lead to hereditary variations in them. In other words,
migrations and other changes in habitat which lead to new sources
and kinds of food may have an important bearing on the evolution
of new characters and species. This chemical clue appears un-
doubtedly to be an important one and deserving of being more
widely followed up.

(See Harrison's note in Nature, pp. 127-9, of 22nd January, 1927.)

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 213

Modifications due to constant use or disuse, or to per-
manent changes in the conditions of physical environment,
influence in the first instance the field of the germ-cell,
and are thus the earlier phase of the later hereditary
structural variations. In fact we may say that modi-
fications are to variations what variations are to specific
characters. Throughout organic Nature we find this
grand calculus at work, adding up and conserving what-
ever in the experience and development of the individual
is of survival value to the race, and carrying on this
organic summation with a fineness and delicacy sur-
passing that of any mere mechanical calculus. What is
not incorporated into the hereditary structure remains
conserved in the invisible " field " until it is finally accen-
tuated enough to become so incorporated. Nothing of
value is lost traces and residua of organic reactions,
reflexes and tropisms, instincts and intelligence, all are
conserved or registered in the field until in the lapse of
time they are ready to become part of the physical structure.
There is no reason, except our ignorance of the facts, why
modifications should not thus to a large extent be the con-
ditions precedent of variations. Only in this way can we
explain why the trend of Variation is on the whole in
harmony with the experience and the past of animate Nature,
why Evolution makes steps in advance on the road on which
it is already moving, instead of making incalculable twists
and turns, as it might do if its course was merely dependent
on purely accidental, arbitrary and unmotivated variations.
That modifications of a certain intimate bodily character,
and continued through many generations, may in the end
influence the germ-cells and even modify their hereditary
structure is easier for us to appreciate than it was for Weis-
mann. It is only recently that we have learnt to understand
the important functions which the hormones given off by
the ductless glands perform in the regulation and balance
of our whole animal economy. We now know that the
germ-cells, so far from being independent of the developed
system of body-cells, have even apart from their reproductive

2i 4 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

functions a most intimate regulative effect in co-ordinating
the functioning of the bodily system as a whole. If there
is this open door between them, there is no reason why
there may not be the reverse influence of the body-cells on
the germ-cells. 1

This question of the way in which non-hereditary
modifications are conserved brings us to another difficulty
which Evolutionists have found it very hard to explain on
the accepted Darwinian principles. I refer to the natural,
selection of small variations. How can small variations
be selected and conserved in the struggle for existence until
they are marked enough to become specific ? To begin with,
they are so small that it is difficult to understand that they
have any survival value at all. Take an organ which is being
differentiated from the rest of the body-cells. At the be-
ginning any variation must be utterly insignificant and practi-
cally valueless in the struggle for life, and Natural Selection
has really nothing to work on. How then could an animal
with such a minute variation be selected as being more
adapted to its environment ? It is this awkward question
which has led to the hypothesis that very marked varieties
or mutations alone are selected. Various more or less
ingenious attempts have been made to answer this question,

1 The recent experiments of Professor Pavlov on the associative
memory of white mice are also interesting, and though the correct-
ness of their results has been doubted they indicate important clues
to be followed up by further research.

An electric bell was rung while the mice were feeding. It was
found that a firm association was built up after this process had
been repeated 300 times ; that is to say, after that the mice looked
for their food whenever the bell was rung. For the first generation
offspring of these mice a less arduous lesson was necessary : after
150 rings the association was established. For the second genera-
tion offspring only 30 rings were necessary ; while for the third filial
generation only five rings were necessary to establish the association.
In other words, the acquired experience of the parents made the
acquisition of similar experience progressively easier for their off-
spring. An attempt to repeat these experiments is said to have
failed. No conclusions can therefore be based on them for the
present. Of course, should corroboration be forthcoming, these
experiments would be most important as throwing light on Evolu-
tion as progressive facilitation of experience ; in other words, on the
inheritance of educability or psychic experience.

vin DARWINISM AND HOLISM 215

but to my mind they are all more or less unsatisfactory.
The result is that we cannot understand how the Darwinian
machinery of Natural Selection is set in motion in any
particular case. Once individuals with marked specific or
varietal differences exist in superabundance, we can under-
stand why the struggle for existence between them will
take place and Natural Selection become operative. But
on Darwinian principles as ordinarily understood these
marked differences between individuals can only arise from
a prior selection as between variations so minute that there
is apparently nothing sufficiently substantive for Natural
Selection to work on. In other words, Natural Selection
will move all right when once set in motion, but Darwinism
fails to set it in motion.

In my view the difficulty can only be satisfactorily removed
by the principle of Holism, as I shall just now proceed to
explain. In the meantime, however, I wish to point out
how my suggestion that the modifications influence the
field of germ-cells and prepare the way for variations can
prove helpful to Darwinism in its plight. According to that
suggestion the small initial variation does not stand by itself,
and on its own merits, so to speak. It appears powerfully
supported in the struggle for existence. Individual use and
practice for very many generations are on its side. It does
not appear as a stray, helpless infant in a hostile world. It
appears in a friendly, one might say, in a prepared universe.
It has a stalwart nurse in the use and routine of the indi-
vidual in whom it appears. It is protected, shielded and
in its struggle reinforced, by this constant use and routine.
A small variation in the direction of a nascent organ, for
instance, finds itself in line with the traditional use of
generations of individuals which powerfully support it in
the struggle with contrary variations. Under the shelter
of this use it develops and beats its competitors, until in
the end it can fend for itself and engage in the struggle on
its own account.

This explanation applies not only to variations in develop-
ing organs which are supported by use and practice on the

2i6 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP

part of a long line of individuals. It applies also to cases
where permanent changes in the physical conditions impress
themselves continuously on the organism. The growth-
forms of plants, for instance, under particular ecological
conditions are such as almost to render necessary the view
that ecological modifications, due to the direct, silent, long-
continued pressure of the environment, finally become varia-
tions. The sameness or close resemblance of the growth-forms
under the same physical conditions, as seen, for instance, in
the general characters of formations and associations in
the vegetable kingdom, is probably in a measure due
to the age-long operation of ecological factors which have
impressed themselves on plant development and have
produced modifications which finally have become variations. 1
The resulting general features of formations and associations
are no doubt in part due to Natural Selection, but in part
the physical environment has probably exercised a direct pres-
sure all its own and produced an effect which has powerfully
reinforced the results of Natural Selection. The hereditary
variation ultimately appears, but it does so not accidentally
or from the blue, but from the long-continued stimulus

1 While this book was going through the press I was much
interested to see this view corroborated by certain observations of
Professor F. O. Bower in Evolution in the Light of Modern Know-
ledge (p. 206). After discussing the evolutionary structures of
ferns he continues : "It would seem a natural interpretation of
the facts that the characters (under discussion), acquired by a
direct impress upon a succession of individual lives, should have
been imposed hereditarily upon each race. Naturally the reply
may be made that probably mutations favourable to the perpetuation
of the imposed character may have made that character permanent.
If we grant that, do we not thereby simply admit that the distinction
between fluctuating variations and mutations is not absolute ?
In other words, that fluctuating variations repeatedly imposed upon
successive generations are liable to become mutations ? It is
difficult to see any other rational explanation of the wide-reaching
facts of homoplastic adaptation, such as are shown with exceptional
profusion in the ancient class of the ferns, and are evident in plants
at large." (In this quotation fluctuating variations correspond to
what have above been called modifications, while mutations corre-
spond to what have been called variations.) The experiments of
Kammerer and Durkhen on animals and plants would seem to
tend in the same direction. But they require further corroboration,
and have indeed been called seriously in question.

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 217

of environmental conditions which have influenced and
affected the field of the germ-cell.

While some variations thus have their roots in the
traditional use and practice of individuals or in the
conditions of the physical environment, and can survive
under the protection thus afforded them, many varia-
tions cannot be thus accounted for, and probably
originate in what appears to us as a spontaneous, indepen-
dent, more or less sudden and accidental manner. The
mode of their selection and survival has still to be accounted
for. Before doing so it is advisable to mention a third set
of difficulties which Darwinism encounters in its explanation
of organic Evolution. I refer to the phenomena of co-ordina-
tion and co-adaptation of organs and characters which it
is almost impossible to account for satisfactorily on orthodox
Darwinian lines.

I have hitherto spoken of variations as if they came
singly in the evolution of organisms. But they do appear
but rarely as single units. Generally they appear in
associated groups. A small variation is generally found to
be accompanied by a number of still smaller associated
variations. If an organ varies, the associated muscles,
nerves and other body-cells undergo a corresponding varia-
tion. The evolution of the horns of a wild beast, for
instance, means minor and consequential adjustments to
its head, its neck, its muscular system, the development of
the forepart of the body, and its relation to the back parts,
as well as to many other parts and details of its body.
And when we come to consider the question, already so
difficult, of the selection of a small variation in respect of
such a horn, we are confronted with the still more hopeless
difficulty of having at the same time to account for many
other minor correlated variations, each of which has to be
selected. Besides this, there is their joint and associated
use or functioning which has also to be accounted for as a
factor in their selection. We are obviously throwing a
weight on the principle of Natural Selection which is more
than it can bear. It is being arbitrarily and artificially

2i8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

applied far beyond the area of its natural and proper
application. And here it is where Natural Selection breaks
down completely. The whole body is a system of co-ordin-
ated structures and functions, and its origin and development
can only be represented as a complex movement forward in
time of a mass of associated variations which have resulted
in the most marvellous co-adaptation of structures and
co-ordinated functions. Before the problem of this complex
yet orderly evolution, Natural Selection stands baffled.
It can deal with individuals and markedly formed and
developed characters, but not with their delicately adjusted
and associated infinitesimals.

The fault, however, lies not so much with Natural Selec-
tion, as with our fundamental organic conceptions. Our crude
uncritical mechanistic conceptions are the real source of the
difficulty, and Holism appears to me to be the way out. The
root of the error lies in our disregard of the individual organ-
ism as a living whole, and in our attempt to isolate characters
from this whole and study them separately, as if they
were mere mechanical components of this whole. The
fatal mistake involved in this procedure has already been
fully exposed in previous chapters. The whole is not a
mechanical aggregate indifferent to and without influence
on its parts. It is itself an active factor in controlling and
shaping the functions of its parts. The parts bear the
impress of its directive influence, without and apart from
which it is vain to speculate on their characters and their
activities. Whereas mechanical action is isolable and
additive, so that the total activities of a system are repre-
sented by the sum of all the individual activities, the situation
is entirely different in the case of a living whole. Here all
action, as we have seen, is holistic, not only that of the whole
itself, but also that of the parts. The stamp of Holism is
impressed on the activities of the parts no less than on the
individual whole itself. The individual and its parts are
reciprocally means and end to one another ; neither is merely
self-regarding, but each supports the other in the moving
dynamic equilibrium which is called life. And so it happens

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 219

that the central control of the whole also maintains and
assists the parts, and the functions of the parts are ever
directed towards the conservation and fulfilment of the
whole. With this conception of living unity and holistic
action in an organism before us, let us try once more to read
the riddle of Variation and Natural Selection as the twin
factors in Evolution.

In the first place we realise that each individual organism
is a unitary system whose inmost nature is its own balanced
self-maintenance and self-development as a whole. Here-
dity is but the expression of this self-conservative character.
The organism both as structure and field, while carrying
with it the past which is its expressed self, also carries with
it the still unrealised future which flows organically from
that past, and it maintains a living, moving harmony
between the two ; its presently existing self is the more or less
harmonious realisation of the organic unity of its past and its
future in its present. Variations arise as the tentacles it
throws out under environmental stimulation towards the
future, a stretching of hands dimly and unconsciously
towards future adjustment, welfare and betterment.
These variations, while apparently accidental and uncon-
trolled, arise from the stimulus of the environment and
are under the central control of the organism as a whole.

Let us for a moment consider the appearance of a small
variation. It is really neither spontaneous nor accidental.
It is the expression of the moving, developing organism as
a whole in a particular direction. It is normally conditioned
by what has gone before in the history of the organism and
is really of a piece with the organism as a whole. Nor does
it as a rule appear alone. The organism as a whole is on
the march, and while the variation may be the first and
most significant indication of the inner movement, the
advance is not confined to a single point, but is represented
by a curve of progress on which other minor advances are
registered at the same time. Thus variation A when
closely scanned will be seen to be really more like A + b +
c + d 9 where 6, c and d represent minor variations which

220 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

adjust A in various respects to the organism. The appar-
ently isolated variation is seen to be what it really is, an
advance of the organism as a whole in a particular direction,
a holistic as distinguished from a singular and mechanical
variation or change. Mechanical analogies may assist us
to understand to some extent what happens. A mechanical
system of a given number of elements in equilibrium is
given a push or blow with a certain force in a certain direc-
tion. When it has recovered from the push or blow and
is in equilibrium once more, it will be found that the change
is not merely in the direction in which the force was applied,
but that all the other elements have also been affected and
have undergone adjustments in order to achieve the new
equilibrium. The same happens, only much more intensely
and intimately and organically, in the case of a change in a
living whole. Variation A necessarily involves a number of
collateral adjustments which are dependent on A, and are
not independently originated or conserved. In other words,
holistic variation or variation of a whole in any particular
respect is the cause and carrier of minor variations which
are not independently selected or conserved, and for which
Natural Selection need not, therefore, be called into action.
It is really the whole which does the " selection " in the
exercise of its central control. We may call it a case of
Holistic Selection as distinguished from external Natural
Selection. Variation A of the whole, which is the expression
of an inner urge of the whole and is therefore supported by
the whole, carries with it the minor and consequential
adjustments involved in variations b, c and d.

This explains one of the main difficulties which we encoun-
tered above the question, that is to say, of the selective
co-ordination of subsidiary adjustments. But the main
difficulty remains how variation A itself is selected after
its appearance. How is the main small variation, perhaps
too insignificant for Natural Selection to get a grip on,
selected and conserved in the holistic system? If it were
a mere accidental appearance, with nothing more behind it,
it might be a toss up whether it is saved or lost, and generally

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 221

it is lost. With the prodigality of life itself, organic changes
are scattered broadcast like seeds, and most of them, with
nothing particular in the urge of the organism behind them
to give them continuous momentum, perish as soon as they
are born. But some are in a different position; they are
in the main direction of development, they are on the road,
so to say, on which the organism is travelling; they have
the whole weight of the organism behind them; they are
nursed and cared for, figuratively speaking ; and in the end
they survive. Once more a case of Holistic Selection as
distinct from Natural Selection. And sometimes in these
cases, as we have seen, the organism has long before the
appearance of the variation begun to move in its direction.
The functioning of the organism has anticipated its future
structure. It has for many generations devoted a part of itself
to a particular use ; the part has in consequence undergone
modification; from an undifferentiated system of cells it
has been modified in certain respects so as to anticipate an
organ. When finally in the course of time this modification
is superseded by and merged into an organic variation, it is
in direct harmony with the needs and the practice of the
organism as a whole; the practice continues along with
the variation and becomes accentuated, the pressure of the
needs of the organism is behind the variation and probably
increases; and the variation, covered by the habitual
practice of the organism, and urged forward by the organic
needs, makes headway and has a fair chance of survival.
It has a distinct advantage ; the dice are loaded in its favour
by the nature, pressure and practice of the organism as a
whole. These forces behind it are probably strong enough
to keep it going, though only at the very slow pace at which all
biological Evolution moves. Eventually, when it has developed
enough to add a sensible measure of strength to the parent
organism, it will reward its parent for its secular support,
it will join forces with it, and fight a victorious battle against
its competitors. At this stage the belated force of Natural
Selection has arrived on the scene. But not earlier, the earlier
phases having depended on what I call Holistic Selection.

222 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

The Holistic Selection which acts within each organism
in respect of its parts inter se is essentially different from
the Natural Selection which operates between different
organisms, which is more appropriately called the struggle
for existence. Holistic Selection is much more subtle in
its operation, and is much more social and friendly in its
activity ; it puts the inner resources of the organism behind
the promising variation, however weak and feeble it may
be in comparison with other characters, and makes it win
through powerful backing rather than through the ruthless
scrapping of the less desirable variations. In the organism
the battle is not always to the strong, nor is the struggle an
unregulated scrimmage in which the most virile survive.
The whole is all the time on the scene as an active friendly
arbiter and regulator, and its favours go to those variations
which are along the road of its own development, efficiency
and perfection.

The continuous Holistic Selection of small variations may
be compared to the survival of obsolete organs in an organism.
Both are carried forward by the organism as a whole,
perhaps for millions of years, without being in either case
directly useful to the organism. The whole, to speak meta-
phorically, takes long views, both into the future and into
the past ; and mere considerations of present utility do not
weigh very heavily with it. It carries its infant variation
with it in the same way that it carries the aged and dying
members or atrophying organs. Both are borne along,
covered and shielded by the main characters of the
organism. From the point of view of survival value,
as from so many other points of view, the whole is more
important than any of its parts. And so it comes that
the organism is a most complicated system, a present
living unity embodying its far-away past no less than
its dim distant future. The whole controls, guides and
conserves all. The fate of any particular part, con-
sidered by itself and on its own merits, would be an inexplic-
able mystery, and might be expected to be the very opposite
of what happens in practice. When, however, it is viewed

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 223

from its position and function in the whole, the mystery is
explained; we see how different the laws of life are from
the laws of mechanics, and how wrong it is to apply mechan-
istic and atomistic conceptions in a region where Holism
prevails.

To understand how a small variation is favoured, we may
represent an organism as a moving developing equilibrium,
which is never perfectly adjusted because it has a persistent
slight overbalance in the direction of development. Com-
plete equilibrium is never attained, and would be fatal if it
were attained, as it would mean stagnation, atrophy and
death. And so the overbalance in a certain direction or
with a definite orientation continues indefinitely, and all
small developments and adjustments and " variations "
which have that specific orientation have the momentum of
the whole behind them and tend to survive and grow while
others in other directions are dropped and discarded. One
may accordingly say that in each case " the whole " is a
co-worker with its small variations which will eventually be
useful ; that as an active factor its influence is on the side
of such small variations, and that with this inner nurture
and support these small variations are in their infant stages
practically independent of external support for their survival
and steady evolution.

The activity of the whole is seen not only in the main-
tenance and evolution of the small variation and all the
subordinate adjustments that go with it, but also and
especially in all the innumerable co-ordinations and co-adap-
tations in structure and function which constitute a living
organism. I believe it is generally admitted that this
phenomenon of organic co-ordination is one which cannot
be satisfactorily explained on mechanical principles. The
functioning of an animal as a whole has something unique
about it, and the term " whole " in this connection is no
mere phrase but a fact of vital significance. We have
already considered the matter fully in Chapter VI. Here
we shall only add that to suppose that Natural Selection has
not only brought about the separate organs of animals and

224 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

their functions, but also accounts satisfactorily for their
adjustments to each other and their co-ordinated activities
in the animal behaviour, is to suppose what certainly has
never been and cannot be explained in detail, and what
probably is in conflict with the facts of development. Intel-
ligent and purposive action of a human or other animal
cannot be explained on mechanical principles; nor can
instinctive action, not even reflex or organic activities and
functions below the level of instinct or intelligence. An
animal even of the lowest type makes an unconscious
effort to catch food or beat an enemy, and in the process
performs a large number of acts which are all effectively
co-ordinated towards the attainment of its object. No
mechanical explanation of this process of co-ordinated move-
ments has ever been given. The animal acts as a whole,
with a unity and effectiveness of action which is no mere
mechanical composition of its movements. The concept
of the whole is the only category that will explain such unity,
and we have seen good reason in previous chapters to go
further and to infer that Holism is not merely a category
or concept, but a fact and a factor of far-reaching signifi-
cance. Co-ordination and co-adaptation in organic structure
and behaviour cannot be explained on any other ground.

So far we have considered Holism as creative of variations ;
and as regulating and co-ordinating groups of actualised
variations and organic characters generally. But this by
no means exhausts the function of Holism in organic develop-
ment. It is not only productive of variation, it is just as
much repressive of variation. Holism is as often inhibitive
as creative; it keeps back certain elements at the same
time that it pushes forward others, and in this way secures
a balanced movement and progress of the organic whole.
When, for instance, the form and characteristics of a gorilla
are compared with the human type it becomes clear that in
the human evolution certain tendencies have been held
definitely in check, and the utter caricature in appearance,
which would have resulted from unrestrained development,
has thus been prevented. Nobody who ignores this negative

vin DARWINISM AND HOLISM 225

aspect of Evolution can possibly understand the present
forms of animals, compared with their living or fossil affilia-
tions. Tendencies to variation, which were realised in the
case of Neanderthal man, have been more or less severely
repressed in the present human races. If there had been,
unrestrained evolution of all potential variations, the results
would have been truly dreadful in their grotesqueness. In
fact we find at work in organic Evolution an influence not
unlike that which at a much later stage we recognise as the
ethical control of feelings, impulses and instinctive move-
ments of an undesirable character. The whole in personality,
the whole in its ethical flowering in the human, means not
only expression of certain moral qualities, but also and
equally repression of others. Elements and tendencies
which we find strongly operative in our instinctive or organic
nature we have to keep in check, to hold down severely, and
to prevent from emergence in our characters as a whole.
This is the very essence of Holism in its mature ethical
development. There is something very similar and equally
fundamental in the activity of Holism in the earlier purely
organic phases of Evolution. In any individual organism
the whole is in control, pushing forward some tendencies
and keeping back others, expressing some variations and
repressing others, and through all maintaining a mobile
equilibrium of all the elements, positive and negative, that
are uniquely blended in the individual. Thus it is that if
we wish to understand the details of organic Evolution in
any particular case we should look for the repressions no
less than for the variations; it is the combination of the
two which constitutes Evolution.

I shall no doubt be asked what experimental verification
there is for the holistic view of Evolution here set forth.
My answer is to repeat what I have already said : that
natural Evolution as distinguished from experimental
Evolution is a process, not of the hour or the day, but of
geological time, and that the results, matured and con-
solidated through immemorial periods, cannot be repeated
or rehearsed by short-dated laboratory experiments,

226 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

conducted too under conditions very different from those of
Nature. These experiments, however valuable and instruc-
tive in affording subsidiary clues and hints of the natural
process, do not by any means exhaust or even seriously
affect the real problem of creative Evolution ; and a correct
view of Evolution must have regard to this difference and
be based on an intelligent appreciation of the natural
processes rather than on the very limited data yielded by
our laboratory experiments. There is no doubt that experi-
mental Evolution has, through its unavoidable limitations,
greatly blurred the great Darwinian vision of organic Evolu-
tion, and instead of making us more fully realise its truth
and effectiveness and grandeur as a whole, has tended to
deflect our attention to particular problems which are
special and limited enough to be capable of laboratory
treatment. The special and exceptional cases of Mutation
and Hybridisation come to be looked upon as covering the
entire process of organic Evolution. My endeavour in this
chapter has been, through a re-examination of the position
thus created, to explore and reconnoitre a way back to the
broader and wider view of Evolution. And in doing so I
have sought the assistance of a concept which we have
found at work, not only in organic Evolution, but in all
organic structures and processes and even, to a limited
extent, in inorganic Nature itself. I shall now briefly
summarise the results we have reached in this chapter in
order thus to see how they bear on the wide Darwinian
conception from which we started.

The relative importance of the internal and external
factors in Evolution has materially altered since Darwin's
time. Variation has become much more important than
Natural Selection, not only in biological studies and experi-
mental researches, but also in our view of it as an operative
factor in organic Evolution. While remaining a substantial
and important factor Natural Selection has yielded pride
of place to Variation. The factor of intense struggle and
competition in Nature on which Darwin, following the
Malthusian clue, laid so much stress is now seen not

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 227

only to have less importance relatively, but also to bear
a somewhat different character from what it had in
Darwin's view. The struggle for existence is, like Muta-
tion, an exceptional and not the usual procedure of
organic Nature. This world is at bottom a friendly universe,
in which organised tolerant co-existence is the rule and
destructive warfare the exception, resorted to only when the
balance of Nature is seriously disturbed. Normally Natural
Selection takes the form of comradeship, of social co-
operation and mutual help. Normally also the organic
struggle is very much in abeyance, and the silent, effortless,
constant pressure of the physical and organic environment
exercises a very powerful influence. The young science of
Ecology has been built up since Darwin's time and is based
on the recognition of this fact, that, in addition to the
operation of Natural Selection, the environment has a silent,
assimilative, transformative influence of a very profound
and enduring character on all organic life. In the subtle
ways of Nature, sun and earth, night and day, and all the
things of earth and air and sea mingle silently with life,
sink into it and become part of its structure. And in
response to this profound stimulus life grows and evolves,
the lesser whole in harmony with the greater whole of
Nature.

The interaction between the inner and the outer factors
in Evolution is far more close and subtle than one would
infer from Darwinism, either in its earlier or its later (Weis-
mann) form. It is not merely a case of one factor creating
variations, and another eliminating some of these creations
and leaving free the rest, which are then said to be selected
for perpetuation. The inner creative factor in a measure
acts directly under the stimulus of the external factor, and
the variations which emerge are the result of this intimate
interaction. The isolation of the inner from the outer factor,
which was so much emphasised by Weismann, is, in spite
of its apparent agreement with observation, really a mis-
taken assumption, based on the neglect of the factor of
time in Evolution. Environment is a great stimulus of

228 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

variation, and even more so is the somatic organism itself,
which is closer to the germ-cell than the environment.

We can only understand the process of organic Evolution if
we assume that, deeply as the germ-cell carriers of Variation
are hid from external contacts, they are not completely or for
ever isolated therefrom ; that changes due to habitual be-
haviour or to environmental or chemical or ecological pressure
affect the " field " of the germ-cells, and if sufficiently long-
continued and intense, sooner or later penetrate the structures
of these germ-cells, and stimulate and set in motion the in-
ternal factor of Variation. The response comes back in a crisis
of variation or mutation which permanently alters the internal
hereditary structure. In these cases the inner and outer
factors of Evolution do not operate independently and by
opposed and contrasted methods; they collaborate in the
closest manner as the stimulus and response which we find
distinctive of all organic action. From this external factor,
which operates as a stimulus of organic variation, we have
to distinguish Darwin's Natural Selection, which is another
external factor operative not in connection with the stimula-
tion of variations, but in connection with their subsequent
elimination or destruction, and acting like a sieve through
which all life has to pass on pain of destruction. The
external factors in Evolution are therefore according to this
view twofold ; the environmental or ecological factor which
to some extent influences or induces variation, and the
factor of organic struggle which sets in motion the warfare
among organisms for the limited goods of life, which Darwin
called Natural Selection.

But it is only in certain classes of cases that the " use "
factor or the external or ecological stimulus of variation
comes into action ; in others the stimulus of variation is
entirely internal, and must be found in the fresh mix-
ture and readjustment of the chromatin elements of the
germ-cell nucleus at certain critical stages in the evolutionary
process, such as in the sexual reproduction of some organ-
isms, or the endomixis and rejuvenescence which occur at
certain stages in others.

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 229

This internal factor in Variation and Evolution was
stressed, and rightly stressed, by Weismann, and has
supplied a suggestive clue for the researches in Genetics
which have been conducted since his day. But the view of
this factor as purely mechanical must lead to great diffi-
culties in detail, and make it impossible to understand the
process of organic Evolution as a whole. I have therefore
endeavoured to stress the contrary view of this inner factor,
and to show that it is holistic in character and operation,
that it thus solves the difficulties which the mechanistic
hypothesis has created for itself, and that it leads to a
reconciliation of the two factors operative in Evolution.
Holism has thus once more, though in a way different from
that envisaged by Darwin, brought us back to the great
Darwinian vision of universal adaptation. 1

But Holism has done more; it has enabled us to realise
the pervasive creative unity which makes all the diverse
elements of existence the co-operative members and
inhabitants of an essentially friendly universe. Operating
as the inner creative factor at the heart of things, it has led
to the evolution of a universe in which all the factors and
products, organic and inorganic alike, are not alien to and
destructive of each other, but are capable of mutual adapta-
tion and adjustment, just because they own a common
origin and have an indisputable, though often scarcely
recognisable, family relationship. This is not to assume a
Pre-established Harmony, which would be as great a mistake
in one direction as the contrary and more usual mechan-
istic assumption that universal adaptation and organic

1 I am afraid that the current " gene " theory, especially as it is
being worked out and applied by Professor T. H. Morgan and others
in their important researches, is far too deeply tainted with mechan-
istic elements. They search for organic change in individual genes
rather than in the intra-organic field or milieu of interacting and
mutually modifying functionings. There may soon be more of the
hypothetical " genes " than the nucleus or the chromosomes can
bear. Here too the concept of the whole as the centre and source
of modifications in a network of connected influences and functions
may appear as the way out of the difficulty. The organic or holistic
concept should be faithfully applied in all its subtle implication and
should not be translated into a sort of chemistry of genes.

230 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

co-ordination are in effect the accidental results of utterly
unconnected factors would be in the other direction. The
true conception not only for philosophy but also for science
is that of parts in a whole. It is the high task of science to
explore the mechanisms of adaptation and variation in all
their details, and to pursue at all costs the chemistry and
physics of the cell, of which we still know so little. But
in doing so it must also explore the unifying, regulating,
co-ordinating activity of the holistic factor, which even
from a purely scientific point of view is just as important
as the study of the special mechanisms. Above all, biological
science must ever keep before itself the standpoint of the
whole, without and apart from which all the details so
far from being recognised as being organic to each other
are mere loose meaningless items, like the sands of the sea-
shore, utterly useless for the understanding of that unique
unity which constitutes an organic individual. The whole
is the ultimate category not only of organic explanation,
but also of organic adaptation and evolution. And it is
more than a category; as the creative factor of inner
structural and functional control operative in all existence,
it is the ultimate real in the universe and the creative source
of all reality, whether organic or inorganic. Nay, more :
Holism is also creative of all values. Take the case of
organic Beauty. It is undeniable that Beauty rests on a
holistic basis. Beauty is essentially a product of Holism
and is inexplicable apart from it. Beauty is of the whole;
Beauty is a relation of parts in a whole, a blending of
elements of form and colour, of foreground and background,
of expression and suggestion, of structure and function, of
structure and field, which is perceived and appreciated as
harmonious and satisfying, according to laws which it is
for ^Esthetics to determine.

It may be a question how far the phenomena of repression
in conjunction with expression in organic Evolution, of
regulated development as a whole, of beauty and of similar
phenomena can be properly subsumed under the Darwinian
factors. Perhaps it is better to recognise that there is

viii DARWINISM AND HOLISM 231

something wider and deeper at work in Evolution than the
factors as found by Darwin and his successors, something of
which those factors are themselves but an expression.
The whole is itself an active factor, and its activity as such
explains phenomena which it is difficult if not impossible
to account for in any other way without very forced inter-
pretations. The inner sources of wealth and beauty in
Nature are inexhaustible, and they are poured forth with
a lavish hand in the creative process of Evolution. Not
merely survival values on Darwinian lines count; on the
foundation of variations with survival value is raised a
superstructure of development which far transcends that
narrow basis. Mind in its marvellous human efflorescence
rests no doubt on a basis of survival value ; but how much
more it is than that ! The glories of art and literature, the
peace of the mystic religious experience, the creative Ideals
which lift this life beyond the limitations of its lowly origin
all these experiences and developments have built a new
spiritual world on the humble foundations of survival values.
In the kingdom of life is visibly arising its capital, the City
of God. Apart from the great human development, beauty
in Nature tells the same tale. The song of birds, with its
primary appeal to sex, but with so infinitely much more in
it than the mere sex-appeal ; the glorious forms and colouring
of birds and beasts and insects, which no doubt rise in and
from the struggle for existence, but finally rise above it,
and rob it of all its sordidness and drabness ; above all, the
wonder of plants and flowers, which were meant for the
eye of birds and insects, but which contain so infinitely
much more than the eye of bird or insect ever beheld or
ever can behold it is everywhere in Nature the same.
Everywhere we see the great overplus of the whole. So
little is asked; so much more is given. The female only
asks for a sign to recognise the male, and to help her to
select him and stick to him in preference to others. And
for answer she gets an overpowering revelation of beauty
out of all proportion to her modest request. The peahen
has no discriminating understanding of the wondrous

232 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.VIII

colouring of the peacock, which far transcends even our
human powers; but in some inscrutable way something of
an emotional nature in her takes it all in and is satisfied.
It is deep calling unto deep ; it is the whole appealing to the
whole. There is evidently more in all this than the Dar-
winian factors can satisfactorily explain, and it would be
both foolish and unscientific not to recognise this frankly.
To me the conclusion of the matter is that the inexhaustible
whole is itself at work, that Holism is an active factor
influencing and interacting with the particular Darwinian
factors, that not only its tendency but also its output far
exceed the immediate present utilities and needs of organic
Evolution, and that its bow is bent for the distant horizons,
far beyond all human power of vision and understanding.

CHAPTER IX

MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES

Summary. Mind is, after the atom and the cell, the third great
fundamental structure of Holism. It is not itself a real whole,
but a holistic structure, a holistic organ, especially of Personality
which is a real whole.

Psychology treats mind in man and the higher animals as a factor
or phenomenon by itself, and analyses it into various modes of
activity, such as consciousness, attention, conception, feeling,
emotion, will, etc. In this work Mind is viewed from a different
angle ; it is a form of Holism and it is studied as a holistic structure,
with a definite relation to other earlier holistic structures. It has,
therefore, a much wider setting and performs more fundamental
functions in the order of the universe than appears from Psychology.

Mind springs from two roots. In the first place, it is a con-
tinuation, on a much higher plane, of the system of organic regula-
tion and co-ordination which characterises Holism in organisms.

Mind is thus the direct descendant of organic regulation and
carries forward the same task. This is the universalising side of
Mind, and appears in the conceptual-rational or reasoning activity,
which co-ordinates and regulates all experience. Its physical basis
is the brain and neural system, which is the central system of
regulation and co-ordination in the body. It is thus the crowning
phase of the regulative, co-ordinative process of Holism.

In the second place, Mind is a development of an " individual "
aspect of Holism which already plays a subordinate part in organ-
isms. In man it pushes to the front as conscious individuality or
the Self of the Personality, and becomes as conspicuous a feature
of developed Holism as regulative co-ordination, if not more so.
This intense element of individuality is the principal novelty in
the development of Mind, the real revolutionary departure from
the prior system of regulative routine, and in Personality it cul-
minates in a new order of wholes for the universe. Mind in its
individual aspect is thus the chief means whereby organic Holism
has developed into human Personality.

Mind is in some respects as old as life, but life outran it in the
race of Evolution. Besides, Mind needed life as a nurse, and its
full development has therefore had to wait for that of life. The

233

234 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

extraordinary self -regulation of organisms must, therefore, not be
put to the credit of Mind, which was essentially a later development
of Holism.

Mind is traceable ultimately to inorganic affinities and organic
selectivities. The " tension " of a body in disequilibrium gradually
became covered with a vague " feeling " of discomfort, which had
survival value ; instead of remaining a passive state it became
active as ad-tension or attention, and ultimately consciousness.
Interest became appreciable. Simultaneously the individual side of
Mind developed as conation, seeking, experiment; and from this
double basis Mind grew with phenomenal rapidity in the earlier
species of the genus Homo.

The individual self-conscious conative Mind is rightly stressed
by psychology as the Subject of experience or the Self. In the
universal system of order this individual appears as a disturbing
influence, as a rebel against that order. But the rebel fights his
way to victory, achieves plasticity and freedom, and is released from
the previous regular routine of Holism. Mind thus through its
power of experience and knowledge comes to master its own conditions
of life, to secure freedom and to control the regulative system into
which it has been born. Freedom, plasticity, creativeness become
the keynotes of the new order of Mind.

This is, however, only one side of mental evolution. Pari passu
with this individual development the universalising conceptual-
rational side of Mind also develops rapidly; its regulative Reason
makes Mind a part of the universal order, and the individual and
universal aspects of Mind mutually enrich and fructify each other,
and on the level of human Personality result in the creation of a
new ideal world of spiritual freedom. This union of the " indi-
vidual " subjective Mind with the universal or rational Mind is
possible because the individual Mind has itself arisen in the holistic
regulative bosom, j Pure individualism is a misleading abstraction ;
the individual becomes conscious of himself only in society and
from knowing others like himself; his very capacity for conceptual
experience results mostly from the use of the social instrument of
language. The individual springs from universal Holism, and all
his experience and knowledge ultimately tend towards the char-
acter of regulative order and universality. Thus knowledge assumes
in the first instance the form of an empirical order, as a system of
common sense. /Gradually the discrepancies of this system are
eliminated and knowledge approximates to science, to a scientific
conceptual order, in which concepts and principles beyond empirical
experience are assumed to underlie the world of experience. 1 The
scientific world-conception marks the triumph of the universal
element in Mind, but only on the basis of the freedom and control
which the individual mind has mainly achieved. Mind as an organ

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 235

of the whole, while taking its place in the universal order, has emanci-
pated itself from the earlier routine of regulation and has assumed crea-
tive control of its own conditions of life and development. Thus it
creates its own environment in society, language, tradition, writing,
literature, etc., instead of being dependent on an alien environment
as on the organic level. Again, Mind frees itself from the intoler-
able burden of organic inheritance by inheriting merely the widest,
most plastic capacity to learn, and letting the social environment
and tradition carry on the onerous duty of recording the past.
While the animal is hidebound with its own hereditary characters,
the human Personality is free to acquire a vast experience in his
individual life.

/Mind has its conscious illuminated area and its subconscious
" field." In this field the forgotten experience of the individual
life as well as the physiological and racial inheritance exercises a
powerful influence. It is this influence that proves decisive for
our fundamental bias, our temperament, our point of view, and
our individual outlook on persons and things. It is of an intensely
holistic unanalysable character; it is even possible that our neura]
endowment carries with it more in the way of sensation and intui-
tion than appears from the special senses; that the sensitive basis
from which they have been diiferentiated has continued to develop
pari passu with them and to-day forms a subtle holistic sense, a
capacity of psychical sensing or intellectual intuition which explains
our holistic sense of reality as well as other obscure phenomena,
such as telepathy. So much for the influence of the past. The
future also becomes a potent influence on Mind. Through its dual
activity of conception and conation Mind forms " purposes " which
envisage future situations in experience and make the future an
operative factor in the present. Purpose marks the liberation of
Mind from the domination of circumstances and indicates its free
creative activity, away from the trammels of the present and the
past. Through purpose Mind finally escapes from the house of
bondage into the free realm of its own sovereignty. All through
its great adventure its procedure is fundamentally holistic, and this
can be shown by reference to the various activities of Mind as
analysed by psychology. Free creative synthesis appears every-
where in mental functioning, and not least in the region of Meta-
physics, Ethics, Art and Religion, which, however, fall outside
the scope of this work. .

IN previous chapters Mind has often been mentioned
as a factor in Evolution. In all the references only the
well-known meanings and activities of Mind have been
assumed, and my procedure in making use of the factor of

236 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Mind in anticipation of its full discussion is therefore not
so objectionable as it might appear from a purely theoretical
point of view. The successive phases of the whole so tele-
scope into each other that it is impossible to treat each
phase in a water-tight compartment, and any attempt to
do so would only result in a distorted view of the subject
as a whole. In dealing with matter we had to anticipate
the coming development of life ; in dealing with life we had
to anticipate the beginnings of the future development of
Mind. So far from there being a disadvantage in this
overflow of these concepts into each other's domain, a truer
picture of reality results from such a treatment, which
softens the contours of the somewhat too hard and artificial
distinctions popularly drawn between them and helps to
disclose the underlying unity which pervades them all.
It is, however, advisable now to look at the factor of Mind
more closely, to define its characters, and to study its
functions as an organ and expression of Holism.

It will be readily recognised that the problem of Mind
is not for us the same as it is for the psychologist. Psycho-
logy treats of the mind in man and the higher animals as
a distinct phenomenon by itself, which it analyses and
explores in its various elements, and which it studies as a
separate department or rather compartment in the total
domain of science. For the psychologist the question of
boundaries is, therefore, essential; he must demarcate his
area of Mind from other areas in the total world of know-
ledge. He must at all costs vindicate the claims of psycho-
logy as a separate science, distinct from the rest. And
having with more or less success differentiated the scope of
his science from those of other sciences, he then proceeds
to explore the details of his science in the manner which
is well known to us from the methods and procedure of the
great masters of psychology. It is just here in the settle-
ment of boundaries, in the demarcation of the domain of
psychology from other domains in science, that the funda-
mental difficulty for psychology arises. For Mind is much
more elusive and penetrative than life and still more

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 237

so than matter. Its " field " covers and penetrates the
" fields " of matter and life in a way which makes the
tracing of hard-and-fast boundaries very difficult, if not
practically impossible. It seems to impinge in all directions
on areas already apparently securely held by the other
departments of natural and biological science; its claims
are contested in many directions; and serious doubts arise
in how far it really has a territory of its own distinct from
other territories in science. The nature of Mind makes
this difficulty inherent and irremediable, and psychology as
a separate science will always have to remain content with
an intensive cultivation of its central area only, and a
sharing of the outer marches and outlying territories with
the natural and biological sciences. To me it seems that
such a condominium of the debatable area, however
awkward for psychology, is by no means an unmixed evil
for science in general, and that the intimate contact of the
different view-points and methods of psychology and the
other sciences over this area may prove fruitful and pro-
ductive of great advances in future. This is, however,
remarked by the way. My real point is the difference in the
treatment of mind from the standpoints of psychology and of
Holism respectively. For psychology Mind is a distinct
phenomenon to be studied by itself. For the theory of
Holism Mind is but a phase, though a culminating phase, of
its universal process. The question of boundaries, so funda-
mental for the psychologist, does not exist for us. From
our point of view that is a mere parochial question ; for us
Mind is not merely a phenomenon of human and animal
psychology. We have to trace the connections of Mind
with the earlier phases of matter and life; we have, so to
say, to lay bare the foundations of Mind in the order of the
universe. Mind as an expression of Holism, Mind as an
organ of Holism : that is our problem.

We have already seen that the atom and the cell were
the two great departures in the upbuilding of the universe,
the two great abiding peaks of achievement in the march
of creative Holism, which have in turn become the basis

238 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP,

and fundamental units of all existence. We now come to
the third, which in the order of the universe is perhaps as
great a departure, and from our human point of view even
more significant than the other two. In Mind we reach
the most significant factor in the universe, the supreme
organ which controls all the other structures and mechan-
isms. Mind is not yet the master, but it is the key in the
hands of the master, Personality. It unlocks the door
and releases the new-born spirit from the bonds and shackles
and dungeons of natural necessity. It is the supreme
system of control, and it holds the secret of freedom.
Through the opened door, and the mists which still dim
the eyes of the emergent spirit, it points to the great vistas
of knowledge. Mind is the eye with which the universe
beholds itself and knows itself divine. In Mind Nature at
last emerges from the deep sleep of its far-off beginnings,
becomes awake, aware and conscious, begins to know
herself, and consciously, instead of blindly and unconsciously,
to reach out towards freedom, towards welfare, and towards
the goal of the ultimate Good. Mind is thus the organ of
control, of knowledge and of values. No wonder that to
the young Socrates it came as a great spiritual revelation
when first he learned from Anaxagoras that not matter but
mind was the ultimate principle of the universe. It is at
any rate worthy to be set by the side of the atom
and the cell as among the fundamental advances in creative
Holism.

It would be an interesting speculation at this stage to
pause and ask, from our knowledge of the previous lines of
advance in the atom and the cell, what the next step was
to be, or rather in what direction it might be looked for. In
what way precisely does Mind fit into the scheme of the
earlier structures and mark another step forward in the great
line of holistic advance? An answer to this larger, more
speculative question may give us some general clue to the
nature of Mind as the next great factor or phase in the
evolution of the universe, and may form a fitting in-
troduction to the narrower, more practical question of

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 239

the functions and activities of Mind in the higher animals
and man.

Mind is an advance on what has gone before in two
directions. And it is the peculiar interaction between the
double lines of advance, the intersection of the two curves
of advance, so to say, that produces the uniqueness of Mind
as a natural phenomenon. In order to appreciate this we
have to grasp the point which has been reached in the
preceding sketch of the evolution of Holism.

We have seen that both matter and life are structures,
and that the advance of Evolution consists in the emergence
of ever more complex and intensive structures, ever more
complexly and highly organised wholes. In the structures
of matter the number of co-operative elements are fewer
and their interactions are simpler, so that it is still possible
to some extent to trace elementary effects to their separate
causes and sources in the structure itself. Structure is
dominant and its functions are calculable as elements of
structure. As, however, we proceed from physical to
chemical structures the fusion and unification of elements
and functions become more marked, and the structures
become at the same time more complex. When we come
to the structures of life we find not only the structural
elements far more numerous and the structures far more
complex, but also the organisation much more intensive
and unified and the functions much more single and unified,
individual and unanalysable. In a tree or an animal, for
instance, we find an infinity of cells and cell-structures of
all degrees of specialisation mutually adapted to and co-
operating with each other for the maintenance of a single
individual whole in a most wonderful way. We do not
ascribe this co-operation and unity of action to some pre-
siding intelligence in the tree or animal. In organism as
such there is no psychic control ; and yet there is a control
so simple, so automatic, so effective as to baffle our powers
of understanding. The inner co-ordination and self-regula-
tion in organisms which is the organic phase of Holism is
indeed something marvellous, almost something miraculous.

240 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

And in its way and on its own plane nothing more wonderful
or perfect has been reached in the evolution of the universe.
Conscious Mind with its uncertainties, its aberrations, its
failures, seems a mere bungling experiment compared with
this massive certainty and regularity. The irregularities and
eccentricities of Mind in man compare very unfavourably
with the unerring precision and regularity of organic activity
and functioning in all highly developed plants and animals.
Think of the well-ordered society which constitutes a big
animal or tree ! Compare the love-making and union and
reproduction in plants and organisms with the love-making
and union of hearts of humans ! Compare the social organ-
isation of insects with our social disorganisation and anarchy,
our painful and uncertain social experiments and expedients
even in the most highly developed human societies ! No,
organism has nothing to learn from highly developed Mind
in the way of regulation, co-ordination or inner control of
structures and functions. The self-balance of processes
and activities in organism surpasses anything our ingenuity
can understand or encompass. It is by reflections such as
these that the impression is borne in upon us that conscious
Mind is no mere continuation and development of the organic
process, but largely a fresh experiment in the universe, an
experiment still in the making, and by no means in every
respect a successful one. Mind, in fact, is a new structure
still in process of making, and not a direct continuation or
expansion of what has gone before. It is a superstructure
on the basis of the pre-existing physical and physiological
structures, and it carries on the task of Evolution on some-
what new lines of its own, and initiated by itself. It has
not appeared suddenly and from the blue at any particular
point, though its advance may have partaken of the char-
acter of a mutation, or a series of mutations. Its primordial
roots probably lay in the beginnings of life itself, and in
the favouring bosom of life its embryonic structure developed
until in time it could appear as an independent factor, with
a steadily growing power over life itself. But during all
that immense formative period it was but a nursling of

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 241

life and in no intelligible sense was it responsible for the
delicate, complicated, internal self-ordering of the life-
structures which must be attributed to another prior factor,
or rather to a prior development of the same underlying
holistic process of which Mind is a later development.

Let me now turn to the consideration of the double lines
of advance along which Mind emerges arid pushes forward
in its evolution. In the discussion of cell-structures in
Chapter IV we noted a double process in Holism, one of
which is the regulative universalising process of structural
order to which so much attention has been paid in this
study, and the second of which I called individuation.
Let me here say a few words about the latter aspect of
the holistic advance, which remained of a somewhat sub-
ordinate character and comparatively minor importance
until the appearance of Mind. Holism, as its very idea
implies, is a tendency towards unity, a blending and order-
ing of multiple elements into new unities. From the more or
less homogeneous to the heterogeneous ; from heterogeneous
multiplicity again to greater, more advanced harmony, to
a harmonious co-operative ordered structural unity ; such a
formula may serve as a rough-and-ready description of the
holistic process. Thus, for instance, in the process of
Evolution we see the advance from material systems to
individual organisms. One organism is not merely a dupli-
cate of another, as one molecule of water is a duplicate of
another. It is single and individual, with a character of
its own. And the element of separate individuality increases
as the differentiation and variation increase with the
advance of Evolution. Such individual differences tend to
increase, and at the same time their blending in the indi-
vidual tends to become ever more unique. This tendency
towards individuation is inherent in the holistic process
and receives an immense impetus when the human level
of development is reached. Here for the first time indi-
viduality acquires its true and full meaning. Everyone
knows what is meant by individuality as applied to humans.
Not only are no two human beings alike; their separate
R

242 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

characteristic individualities are what is most distinctive
of them and what they are known by and what principally
determines their relations in life. There is in each human
being not only a peculiar blending of characters but also a
sense of the uniqueness of this blending, a sense of separate
and specific selfhood which constitutes his or her very
essence. Humans are not mere units (as material bodies),
they are also individuals; they are not merely individuals
(like organisms), but also unique selves. Thus is the
fundamental principle of individuation finally consummated
in the human. The human being is a conscious self, and
this selfhood becomes in turn the basis of his Personality,
which is the supreme structure yet reached in Evolution
and with which we shall deal in the next chapter. It is a
striking fact that in the holistic advance as I have sketched
it in previous chapters the dominant note and feature of
progress is order, with an ever-increasing measure of regula-
tion and co-ordination and control so as to make that order
effective ; while the feature of individuation is comparatively
insignificant. As old as structural order itself in the
evolution of the universe, and an inseparable accompaniment
of it at all stages, individuation as an evolutionary variation
remains in the background, so to say, until the emergence
of conscious Mind leads to a rapid and indeed phenomenal
outgrowth of this hitherto minor feature. The appearance
of Mind, therefore, especially at the human level where it
is most marked, seems to constitute a break in the even
and regular advance of Evolution, and to mark a new
departure of a very far-reaching character. The fact is
that in and with Mind a significant change takes place in
the relative importance of the two fundamental aspects
in Holism. While the aspect of order and regulation
continues to develop and grow, the other aspect of indi-
viduation pushes relatively much more to the front, and in
the latest human phase of evolution not only assumes a
dominant importance in itself, but also begins to exert a
far-reaching influence on the other feature of order and
regulation. That it will and indeed must have such an

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 243

influence is at once intelligible from the fact that at bottom
individuation and regulation are, as we have seen, dual
aspects of the same inner process or activity, and any
accentuation of the " individuation " factor must at once
react on the other " regulation " factor. Thus it is that
while in Nature order is of a mechanical character and in
the world of life is of an automatic character, certain, regular
and unfailing; in man, where the mental factor has come
into its own, it is neither mechanical nor automatic, but of a
new plastic variable type which we call conscious and volun-
tary. In fact the whole system of regulation and control is
fundamentally transformed ; new mental agencies seem to be
at work and new categories of description and explanation
become necessary. The appearance of conscious Mind has
meant, not only an epoch-making development of the feature
of individuality, but also and in consequence a new system
of regulation and control, not so regular and automatic and
effective as the older inorganic and organic systems, and
still comparatively vacillating, irregular and uncertain in
its action, but vastly more comprehensive and with a power
which promises ultimately to give a complete command
over the conditions of matter and life. There is a mastery
in the new system of control such as was not dreamt of at
earlier stages of Evolution. Organic regulation, however
vast, elaborate and effective, has nothing of the sheer
mastery and domination and free creative power which
characterise the new control. Conscious planning on the
mental level entirely revolutionises the situation and sub-
stitutes freedom and action for the fixed automatic behaviour
and routine of the biological order.

These general remarks will serve to place Mind in the
history of Evolution, and to show the nature of its relations
to what has gone before and what is to follow. It marks
a new departure not only in the feature of holistic regulation
and control, to which so much attention has been paid in
the foregoing chapters, but also and far more specially in
the feature of individuation, which up to now has been of
an insignificant character, but which from now on begins

244 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

to assume a dominant position, and to give a new direction
and character to the pre-existing system of organic regula-
tion. Mind is not so much a direct continuation of the
holistic advance on the previous lines of life as a fresh
start, with a new factor pushed to the fore in the process,
and a new orientation given to the whole movement. It
marks the new stage of intensive individuation which
becomes Personality; and at the same time it marks the
new system of control which culminates in conscious rational
Purpose as a function of Personality. Mind underlies and
supports both these great closely related departures in the
process of Evolution. Having thus indicated the general
function and activity of Mind in the history of Evolution,
let us now proceed to look more closely at its nature and
character.

Mind has its earliest beginnings in the inorganic structures
of Nature already. Disturbance of the equilibrium of
physical structures leads, as we have seen, to a state of
tension, and a tendency to compensation; and one phase
of this tension and compensating movement is seen in the
selective action which matter already exercises, and which,
as explained in Chapter VII, becomes far more accentuated
in the subsequent structures of life. This tension with its
selective compensation is without a doubt the original
stimulus and source of Mind as well as of life, but the
evolution of life proceeded far more rapidly and completely
outstripped Mind in the race which followed. Mind as a
matter of fact needed the support of life for its full fruition,
and was therefore dependent on the prior development of
life. In the course of the subsequent developments this
tension underwent two radical changes which had far-
reaching effects, as they led directly to the evolution of
Mind. In the first place, the tension in the life-structures
or living bodies developed (in some unknown manner) an
additional intensity which took the entirely new form of
a vague sense of irritation or discomfort which began
to accompany it. In other words, the tension or strain
in the living bodies led to the epoch-making development

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 245

of this vague sense of uneasiness or discomfort, which
had the effect of strongly reinforcing and stimulating
the efforts made for the removal of the strain. The
successful effort, again, was accompanied by a sense of
ease or comfort which must have been a real helpful
stimulus and have had considerable survival value for
the organisms that developed it. We see thus that the
tension or strain came to be accompanied by vague feelings
which radically transformed it and gave a different meaning
and value to it. The feeling became a potent force working
behind and inside the organic system for the removal
of the tension or strain. This feeling or sense of comfort
or discomfort must originally have been of the vaguest
possible character, but at any rate it was a beginning,
and indeed a revolutionary beginning, and it performed a
useful function in reinforcing the effort or rather tendency
for the removal of the strain or uneasiness. It marked an
enormous step in advance, and is probably still exemplified
in the " tropisms " which characterise the movements of
the most primitive animal organisms.

In the second place, the tension became intensified in
another direction. Instead of remaining merely a passive
result of the state of disequilibrium, it became an active
state or relation between the structure or body affected
and the cause of the affection or discomfort. The passive
tension became an active ad-tension or attention, and in
this transformation we reach the most primitive, most
characteristic function of Mind. The living organism no
longer suffers passively, blindly and in darkness, so to speak.
The worm turns upon the source of its torture. The
organism begins to attend to the source of its discomfort;
and this attention, at first vague and diffused, gradually
develops, until it becomes an awareness or low form of
awareness of its object, and consciousness in its most
elementary form thus appears. In its most primitive
form it showed itself at quite an early stage in animal
development, probably not long after sensori-motor
mechanisms had been evolved.

246 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

These are the principal steps in the beginnings of Mind ;
and whatever immemorial periods this evolution may have
taken, and whatever other intermediate phases it may have
passed through, in the result the basis of Mind was well
and truly laid in the rise of the power of attention, accom-
panied and stimulated by feelings of comfort or discomfort,
and by a certain awareness or consciousness of the object
to which attention was directed. As we saw in Chapter VI,
it is one of the special effects of Holism to transform
passivity into activity, and nowhere has that transforma-
tion had a more far-reaching character than in regard to
the origin of attention as an active response on the part
of organism from the passive state of tension which had
preceded it. In this transformation we see not only what
is perhaps the origin of mental activity but also a new
departure in the system of power, of freedom and of
control over its surroundings with which Mind is specially
associated.

The actual steps in the evolution of Mind, in so far as
they can be traced from available evidence, need not be
discussed here in detail. No doubt we have to start with
sporadic and uncertain variations in mere organic structural
functioning ; as these become regular and stereotyped they
assume the form, first of tropisms in plants and animals,
and then of reflexes in the activity of special organs or cells.
Then in the case of animals trains of reflexes are gradually
co-ordinated into regular modes of activity of the organism
as a whole, as instincts. Sensori-motor co-ordinations
are effected, by which the passive influences and effects
coming from the outside world are transformed into definite
modes of active response by the organism. This active
power of response enables the organism to strive more
effectively for the satisfaction of its needs, endows it with
a definite conative power, so to say. It begins to strive,
to seek, to experiment and explore. The original reaction
of inorganic, and then of organic, selectiveness has become
a real function and capacity of conation. The originally
vague and diffused feeling increases in volume and intensity

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 247

and propels this striving or conation all the more effectively.
The awareness or consciousness of objects becomes clearer ;
consciousness becomes a real illumination of outside objects
which before were dark and unknown. It becomes the
torch with which the organism explores its way in a dark
and somewhat alien world. Consciousness thus increases
the influence of the environment on the organism ; and its
correlative attention pari passu increases the power of
response and the return influence which the organism can
exercise over the environment. This mental activity con-
tinues to grow in its double inner and outer aspects, its
inner capacity of attention and active reaction, and its
outward-facing capacity of assimilating external materials
in the form of awareness or consciousness of objects. A
metabolism of a higher order than that seen on the biological
plane sets in; a new psychological structure has been
evolved ; and Mind starts on its active and creative career.
No elaboration of the steps sketched here can be attempted,
and the details must be studied in works dealing with
Biology and with animal and human Psychology. We are
concerned with the underlying processes and the general
character of their results. Details must be left to the
special sciences.

I have traced Mind to its dual source, and wish now to
draw attention to the consequent duality of Mind itself.
Holism on the advanced psychic plane discloses two distinct
though interdependent tendencies the one individual, the
other universal and Mind shows both these contrasted
characters, and faces in both apparently opposed directions.
Psychologically the duality of Mind is best expressed in the
Subject-Object relation which is fundamental for Mind.
Consciousness as it develops splits up the indefinite mass of
experience into two definite aspects : the self or Subject,
which is conscious or attending, the Object, which it attends
to or fe conscious of. " The Subject conscious of an
Object " is thus a general formula for all experience of a
mental character. The Subject is not before the Object,
nor the Object before the Subject, but both arise

248 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

simultaneously and pari passu in the mental activity which
we call consciousness. The world is not the creature and
result of the Mind, as idealists would have it; nor is the
Mind the resultant of external stimuli on the brain, as the
materialists would have it. Experience is one ; and experi-
ence as it becomes conscious differentiates or unfolds itself
into the Subject-Object relation. They are the double
aspects of experience at its conscious level, and reflect but
the duality of the source of Mind itself. The inmost nature
and essence of Mind is this activity which appears as conscious-
ness and the Subject and Object aspects which crystallise
out of it in experience. They are at bottom and in real
truth not independents, but dependent correlates in the
psychic medium called consciousness. A clear and firm
realisation of this fundamental fact is basic for all true
science and philosophy alike. We saw in Chapter VII
what insoluble problems arise both for science and thought
from hypostatising Mind and Body as independent reals or
substances. Here we are at the tap-root of this source of
error. Mind-and-Body is but a particular form of the
general Subject-Object situation. They are not inde-
pendents, they are interdependents ; they are poles in the
field of Mind; they are elements or rather aspects of the
same reality given in solution in experience and precipitated
from it by consciousness. Out of this fundamental unity
Mind in the larger sense has elaborated our experience of both
the inner and outer worlds, of the self and the external uni-
verse. It is the business of psychology to show how this has
been done, and to trace the progressive stages in this con-
structive process. For me it is only necessary here to
emphasise that no correct interpretation of experience is
possible unless we bear in mind that both the Subject and
Object aspects are absolutely essential to it. Subject and
Object are held together in experience as necessary elements
in the unity of Holism from which both are differentiated.
Neither element can be ignored in our reading and explora-
tion of experience. The Einstein standpoint of Relativity
is not only the soundest science, it is fundamental to

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 249

psychology. The world in experience is at bottom my
reading of the world in which / am the centre of refer-
ence, where the system of co-ordinates of measurement
is my private system ; and the space, time and experience
which go to the making of it are my space, time and
experience. Objectivity and universality are indeed
attainable, but only from a subjective and individual
starting-point and centre of reference. Individuation is
bound up with reality on the psychic plane. What has
been looked upon as a reproach to psychology, namely, the
essentially subjective standpoint which rules it, the self
which it discloses as central to all our experience of
reality, now appears to be equally necessary for all the
other sciences as well. Natural Science, which has always
prided itself on its objectivity and freedom from all sub-
jective considerations, now finds that after all psychology
has been right; that the despised subject or Self of
psychology is not only a real factor in the universe, but
is central to all true knowledge of it. Here at last natural
science and psychology can clasp hands and together in true
partnership go forward on the great adventure of knowledge
which is their common task. Their separation has been a
calamity to both ; their reunion will prove fruitful beyond
our fondest dreams. Einstein's great achievement is but
the first-fruits of that reunion.

Let us for a moment look a little more closely at this
individualistic aspect of Holism in its higher developments.
We have seen how it begins as physical and chemical affinities
and selectivities ; later on in the region of life we saw it
appearing as organic selection and appetitiveness. On the
mental level again it emerges as a certain striving, a seeking,
a conativeness, which, when attention has risen to the
level of consciousness, becomes purposive. Thereafter the
individual no longer floats forward on inorganic or organic
drifts, tendencies and appetites, but begins to direct his
course according to conscious voluntary purposes. The
individual makes his own plans and no longer automatically
follows Nature's plan. Conscious ends emerge; things the

2so HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

individual strives after as desirable and good attract him
more than the unconscious organic urge behind, the vis a
tergo, propels him; the pulls in front begin to dominate
the pushes behind. The desired things become the
Values, which intelligence illuminates and magnifies and
emotions suffuse and intensify until they become the
dominant Ideals of action. We see the rise not only of new
mental activities but of new categories such as Purpose and
Value, which were not possible or necessary on the organic
level. It is evident that these new activities, such as
attention, consciousness, intelligence, emotion and will, as
well as the new categories which accompany them, are all
in line with the individuational development of Holism, and
mark so to say a deviation from the direct line of organic
regulation and systematic co-ordination which characterised
Holism in its earlier organic development. They make
directly for the development of the individual, of the self,
of the Personality. Holism seems for the moment to depart
from its vast plan of extensive co-ordination and harmonisa-
tion in order to foster little centres of intensive Wholeness
in individuals, to place the little wholes before the great
Whole, and to abandon universality for individuality. In
fact the largely individualistic nature of Mind makes it
apparently a deviation from the universal order. Mind
appears as a rebel in the universe, whose self-centredness
and purposeful striving might and largely does make for
disharmony and disorder rather than for peace, order and
harmony. Thus the great Ethical problem arises ; thus the
conflict between individual ends and purposes on the one
hand and universal claims and rights on the other comes to
the surface on the psychic plane of Evolution. Mind the
rebel has appeared, Self the anarchist has emerged, and the
ancient order of the universe is profoundly disturbed. The
new psychic individualistic situation applies a most searching
test to the foundations of the holistic universe. The war in
heaven has broken out, the archangels have revolted. Who
will win, and what is the character of the new peace going to
be ? Such is the question which we now proceed to consider.

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 251

The first and most important point to make is that we
should not be misled by our own metaphors. Individuation
is but an aspect and no more, is but one aspect of the holistic
advance. The other, universal, aspect remains of funda-
mental importance throughout, although for the moment it
may be and probably is pushed somewhat into the back-
ground. The two aspects are complementary and inter-
dependent, and each has a vital grip on the other. The
individual is going to be universalised, the universal is
going to be individualised, and thus from both directions the
whole is going to be enriched. The individual development
is necessary for the advance. Organic regulation, however
great an advance on inorganic structural order, is not enough.
It is still too mechanical and rigid ; it is still too external in
character. It must acquire new characters of internality;
there must be more self-regulation and less external regula-
tion. There must be more inner intensive mobility, more
plasticity and less rigid regulation. Plasticity, freedom,
creativeness are necessary for the new groupings and
structures which are to arise on the psychic level. The
higher metabolism of mind demands more freedom from the
routine of organic regulation. The area and degrees of
freedom must be indefinitely enlarged, and in the Self a new
organiser of victory must be constituted. That is the one
side of the dual advance ; but the other is there all the time
and in the end just as important. Thus there must also be
a higher order, a more developed and enriched universality,
a more coherent objectivity. More wholeness not only
means a deeper, more intensive individuality in the Self,
but also a more perfect order in the structure of Reality.
And the two must interpenetrate each other and mutually
transform each other in that unity which is the whole. And
that is exactly what happens in the evolution of mind in
man and animals, and in the development of mind in the
human individual. The selfish appetite is gradually curbed
and subdued and co-ordinated with other motives; the
conative activity is not merely self -regarding but gradually
becomes linked with the interests of others, and finally

252 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

becomes an impersonal endeavour towards the Good. A
new era of adjustments and co-ordinations sets in, and the
individual on the psychic plane pursues the double task of
self-perfection and perfection of the All. And the two
mutually and reciprocally influence and modify each other
and shape an ideal of Good which incorporates elements
from both. Holism has narrowed itself into the individual
only thereby to advance to a more perfect all-embracing
order. The apparent retreat to the individual level is
merely for the purpose of a greater advance towards whole-
ness. The newer, deeper Self becomes the centre for a
fresh ordering and harmony of the universal.

The possibility for this great transformation is given in
the very nature of Mind ; for Mind is not merely conative
and purposive. It is also rational, it is the basis of the
Reason. And Reason becomes the basis of the new order
in the universe. It is not only the principle of order in the
Self, but also the link which binds the Self and the Not-self
into a whole. Reason is the organ of universality, of the
deeper, more intensive universality of the spirit. Reason
is largely creative of the new structures of Reality and
Truth. In the Reason, Mind, instead of pursuing its
individualistic, purposive activity, resumes the primeval
march of Holism towards more regulation, a higher co-
ordination and a greater order. Our will is the urge towards
self-expression, and is therefore the organ of individuality.
" Our wills are ours to make them Thine." In other words,
our will is individualistic and has to be harmonised and
through effort and struggle to be adjusted to higher ethical
and spiritual ends and ideals. But our Reason is in its very
essence more than individual; it is expressive of univer-
sality ; it is a part of that Order which regulates the universe,
and in a deep sense it is a creative factor or co-creator of
that Order. Through our Reason we partake of universality
and are members of the everlasting Order of the universal.

Mind in its rational as distinguished from its purely
conative activity is in the direct line of Evolution from
organic regulation : psychic reason is the direct descendant

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 253

of organic regulation. This would appear from the simple
fact that the central nervous system is the physiological
organ of regulation and co-ordination in the living body ;
and the brain, which is nothing but the crowning develop-
ment of the nervous system, is again the organ and physio-
logical correlate of Mind. In other words, as the brain is
merely a development of the nervous system, so the Mind is
nothing but a development of prior organic regulation.
Mind qua Reason is thus the organising principle, the
principle of central control and co-ordination, and carries on
the tradition and evolution of Holism in the direct line, so
to say.

And in the entire range of its rational activity Mind shows
the same synthetic co-ordinating character. This could
easily be proved by running through the psychological
functions, ranging from their beginnings in attention and
passing through sensation, perception, imagination, con-
ception, and on to judgment or reasoning. In every case
an ordering synthetic activity is at work producing structural
masses of experience arranged on definite ascertainable
principles of selection and grouping. These products of the
rational activity of Mind are not mere artificial aggregates,
mere assemblages of psychological items arranged according
to mechanical principles or so-called laws of association or
rules of logic. On the contrary, they are synthetic unities
of an advanced holistic character. A percept or an image
or a concept is a holistic unity, built up out of a mass of
materials, on definite principles of cohesion and co-ordination.
So too is a judgment. It is the business of psychology to
study these syntheses and their structures, and the principles
according to which they are formed and connected with each
other. Mind in its rational activity is thus synthetic and
co-ordinative through and through, and its products are
synthetic, organic and holistic in a marked degree.

Mind the organiser transforms, reorganises and reconsti-
tutes even the individualist Self. The rebel in the end has
to submit and swear fealty to the controlling power. Indeed
the purely individualist Self or mere individual is a figment

254 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of abstraction. For the Self only comes to realisation and
consciousness of itself, not alone and in individual isolation
and separateness, but in society, among other selves with
whom it interacts in social intercourse. I would never
come to know myself and be conscious of my separate
individual identity were it not that I become aware of others
like me : consciousness of other selves is necessary for
consciousness of self or self-consciousness. The individual
has therefore a social origin in experience. Nay, more, it
is through the use of the purely social instrument of language
that I rise above the mere immediacy of experience and
immersion in the current of my experience. Language
gives names to the items of my experience, and thus through
language they are first isolated and abstracted from the
continuous body of my experience. Through the naming
power of language, again, several items of experience can be
grouped together under one name, which becomes distinctive
of their general resemblances, in disregard of their minor
differences. In other words, the power of forming general
concepts becomes possible only tlnxnigh the social instrument
of language. Thus the entire developed apparatus of thought
with which I measure the universe and garner an untold
wealth of personal experience is not my individual equipment
and possession, but a socially developed instrument which I
share with the rest of my fellows. Nay, my very self, so
uniquely individual in appearance, is, as I have said, largely
a social construction, and rounded out of the social inter-
course and psychical interaction with my fellows. The
individual Self or Personality rests not on its individual
foundations but on the whole universe. Psychology con-
clusively proves that, and Holism but accentuates it by
tracing the individual to his sources in the whole. The
individual Self is not singular, springing from one root, so
to say. It combines an infinity of elements growing out
of the individual endowment and experience on the one hand
and the social tradition and experience on the other. All
these elements are fused and metabolised into a holistic
unity which becomes a unique centre in the universe and,

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 255

in a real sense, of the universe. Nowhere in the world do
we find a greater intensity of the holistic effect produced
than in the individual Self or Personality. And yet even
there it is by no means complete, for the individual Per-
sonality, as we shall see, still shows a discordance of elements
which leads to most of the great problems of thought and
conduct. The point I am trying to make, however, is that
the apparently individualist Mind is in reality deeply and
vitally influenced by the universal Mind; and that the
individual self only comes to its own through the rational
and social self which relates it organically to the rest of the
universe. It is rooted in and dependent on the greater whole,
and only to a minor extent a rebel against its controlling
influence. The immense power of Mind is shown in the way
in which, out of the simple data of the rudimentary Self and
its experiences, it has raised the noble superstructure of
the human Personality. Mind here appears as the great
creative artist. But it is more than that; for its work is
no mere picture of reality, but is reality itself. It is the
great archetype of the artist, and it has this pure creative
power because it is but a form, a phase of the supreme
creative activity in the universe.

When Mind comes to apply its conceptual system to its
experience of the world, we see the same synthetic holistic
activity at work. At first crude, naive experience is simply
taken at its face value, and from it a rough empirical order
is constructed which is sufficiently correct for all ordinary
purposes, and may fairly be called the world of common
sense. Of course even this common-sense empirical order
will vary widely at different levels of culture. But in every
case it is a first rough approximation and a grouping, order-
ing and arranging of experience according to the standards
and the needs of the common man at that level of mental
culture. It is a more or less faithful reading of ordinary
experience, and although it contains many discrepancies and
contradictions, it is on the whole a more or less connected,
coherent Weltanschauung with a fair correspondence to the
facts of direct observation.

256 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

From this common-sense world of experience is gradually
evolved a more correct and refined system of experience.
Anomalies are gradually eliminated and the logical rational
character of the system increases. And this refinement
continues until in the scientific conceptual system the
empirical common-sense order is completely overhauled
and reconstructed. In this system scientific concepts and
entities corresponding to nothing in empirical experience
become of fundamental importance, because without them
not only empirical experience but also the more refined
observations of Science become utterly unintelligible. The
matters dealt with in most of the preceding chapters belong
to the scientific conceptual system, as they base the world of
experience on real or hypothetical entities and factors
which, although they lie beyond the world of direct experi-
ence, are yet necessary for the rational order and coherence
and comprehension of the facts which do fall within the range
of ordinary and refined scientific experience. In this system
not only is the seen order made to depend on an unseen order
of ideas of extraordinary refinement, but the immense
movements and changes of the universe are referred to a very
small number of fundamental principles which appear to
govern all happening in the universe. From this esoteric
system to which Science is more and more tending have been
removed most of the anomalies, incoherences and discrep-
ancies of the empirical order. Many final difficulties still
remain, some of which may perhaps never be eliminated.
But on the whole the system of Science is rapidly becoming
a great rational body of experience and thought, closely
articulated in all its details, and held together by simple
principles of the widest sweep. The system as a whole
represents the proudest achievement of the Mind in its
rational activity as the regulative co-ordinating principle
in the universe. Mind as the principle of the rational
construction of the universe here reaches its highest
expression. Professor L. T. Hobhouse in his great work
on Development and Purpose has with a master's hand
traced the development and interpretation of experience

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 257

from its humble na'ive beginnings to its culmination in
the vast conceptual system of Science. I must here rest
content with the preceding summary statement. What
I have said will, however, I hope, suffice to show that
Mind the Rebel is only one aspect of holistic activity ; and
that Mind the Organiser, Mind the Central Control in our
experience of the world is the other equally true com-
plementary aspect. Behind both aspects is that inner
creative Holism which has flowered into the human Mind
and Personality on the one hand and into the grandeur of
form and content of the infinite universe on the other.
The theory of Holism thus carries the scientific system
of experience another step further, and tries to read in the
riddles of Science still deeper and more ultimate concepts
of reality.

Mind has been here described as a new variation or muta-
tion or series of mutations in holistic Evolution, in some
respects antithetic to and at variance with its main trend.
But its final result is immensely to enrich the main process.
Mind has made all the difference to the later and latest
stages of Evolution. Without Mind the organic and regu-
lative process of the universe, vast and magnificent in any
case, would have been at best but a tame affair. The
universe would have moved forward, as it were in a dream,
with an unearthly regularity and majesty of movement.
Its process would have become ever more complicated and
ever more frictionless, as of some sublime animated machine,
great beyond all power of conception. All elements of
discord and disharmony would have passed away from its
vast cosmic routine. But it would have gone on sublimely
unconscious of itself. It would have had no soul or souls ; it
would have harboured no passionate exaltations ; no poignant
regrets or bitter sorrows would have disturbed its profound
peace. For it neither the great lights nor the deep shadows.
Truth, Beauty and Goodness would have been there, but
unknown, unseen, unloved. They would have been cold and
passionless like the distant stars, and would never have
become the great ideals thrilling and inspiring men and

258 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

women to deathless action. Love would have been there,
but not the immortal emotion which mortals call by that
name. Into that great dream-garden of Eden, Mind the
disturber has entered, and with Mind sin and sorrow, faith
and love, the great vision of knowledge, and the conscious
effort to master all hampering conditions and to work out
the great redemption. To the music of the universe there
has thus been added a new note, as of laughter and tears,
a new undertone of the human, which transforms and
enriches all the rest. It is no longer a song of the Golden
Reign of the Elder Gods, but of the intertwining of the
Cosmos with human Destiny, of the suffering which has
become consecrated and illuminated by the great visions, of
the magic power of knowledge to work out new enchantments,
to break the dumb routine, to set the captive spirit free, and
to blaze new paths to the immortal Goal. Mind has thus
added an infinity of light and shade and colour, of inward
character and conscious content to the great process in and
from which it has emerged. Without Mind the universe
would have been an altogether dull affair, however unimagin-
ably grand in other respects. Even its aberrations have
been woven into the new harmonies ; its eye has beheld the
greater lights, and knowledge has given it the key of power
and mastery over the conditions which previously towered
like an unscalable mountain escarpment athwart its path
of progress.

Let us dwell for a moment on this new power and mastery
which Mind has brought on the scene. Knowledge is power,
and it is unnecessary for us here to trace in detail the steps
by which the present power and mastery of Science over
material conditions have been acquired. Life below the
mental level strengthens the innate capacity to react to
external influences of a harmful or beneficial nature by
various movements which lead successively to the tropisms,
reflexes and automatisms of the lower organisms. When
Mind appears as an active factor, this power of regulating
movements is greatly enlarged and intensified, until we see the
sureness and delicacy of the instinctive reactions which

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 259

characterise all Mind in its subconscious levels. It is, how-
ever, when consciousness appears that an immense accession
to this power of control is brought about. Consciousness, as
we have seen, is a power of illuminating objects in the field of
experience. The organism through this power of illumina-
tion can gradually arrive at a fair knowledge of its sur-
roundings in so far as they are harmful or beneficial to it.
Its power of selection is thus more surely guided, and it
learns to know accurately and easily what to avoid and what
to welcome. When the human level is reached a revolution
in the conditions of knowledge is effected. The human
mind can make its own combinations and correlations from
the materials with which it finds itself surrounded. It
can, therefore, in a large sense make or mould its own
environmental conditions, and thus eliminate or neutralise
hostile influences and reinforce favourable conditions. This
is already the case on the empirical level of knowledge ; it
is far more the case where the empirical stage has been passed
and the developed scientific stage has been reached. Here
the mind does not wait on events, but moulds and creates
events through its control of the appropriate conditions. In
this way the development of the several sciences has meant
continuous increase, not only of knowledge, but of real power
over the material and other conditions of life. Here again
Mind the Organiser or Correlator has shown its creative
power in shaping the conditions which surround its activity.
Instead of being the slave of these conditions it gains a more
or less complete mastery over them. It can at will bring
about those combinations and selections which will assist
or further its purposes, and it can, through selective manipula-
tion of the surrounding conditions, neutralise or cancel out
any which are unfavourable to the execution of its aims.
Knowledge thus becomes an efficient instrument of the
will; and where the will itself is nobly trained, guided
and controlled, the individual acquires and wields an
almost unlimited power for Good. Thus is freedom at last
achieved over the dominance of the conditions of life,
and Mind assumes the sovereignty to which it had been

260 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

destined from the beginning as the successor to Life and
Matter.

In the exercise of its free and unhampered right of self-
determination, Mind on the human level proceeds to create
to a large extent the appropriate conditions for its own
development. Instead of remaining dependent on the
natural environment, Mind builds up a vast social environ-
ment for itself. It builds up a far-reaching social structure
with institutions of all sorts which are intended to develop
and educate the human groups and individuals, intellectually
and morally, to facilitate intercourse and co-operation among
them, to declare and safeguard their rights, and to protect
them against the hostile influences of the animate or inani-
mate environment and of other groups of humans. Thus
language arises as well as the institutions of marriage and
the family, of religion, law and government, and all the other
numerous forms into which social beliefs and practices are
embodied. The very laws of organic Evolution seem to be
modified by this great transformation. In the organic
sphere we saw the individual adapting itself or being adapted
to the environment as the imperative condition of its survival.
Here we see the environment being more and more adapted
to the individual. The individual appears as the creator,
the environment as the creature, the house it makes for its
habitation, so to speak. In the organic sphere we saw the
individual inheritance and variations incorporated into the
individual organic structure and thus preserved for the future.
Here we see social traditions take the place of this individual
structural heredity. The human individual does not find
himself over-burdened with an impossible structure, with a
load of inheritance which would be more than he could bear.
The load is mainly shifted on to the ampler shoulders of the
social tradition. The human individual has the good luck
to find himself born into an environment which largely per-
forms the hereditary function, and all that he is called upon
to do is to assimilate this environment, and so to obtain com-
mand of its gathered resources. Language, customs, writing,
literature, history, knowledge and empirical practice are all

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 261

storehouses of traditional information at the disposal of the
human individual who learns their use. Heredity with the
human individual comes more and more to mean, not (as
in the case of animals) the predisposition or capacity to act
or react in certain definite ways, but the general capacity of
experience, the capacity to learn or acquire in the individual
life the power to act in an indefinite number of ways. In the
human inheritance general educability takes the place of
definite specific hereditary functions. Whereas an animal
is born with the ability to perform a certain limited number
of functions, the human individual is born with the general
capacity of educability or being educated to learn an indefinite
number of functions in his lifetime. The animal is still
under the domination of his physical structure, and in his
action is limited to the functions inherited with this struc-
ture, with a very limited range of learning new actions. The
human individual, on the contrary, finds himself but little
restricted in his development by his hereditary structure, and
finds himself blest with an almost unlimited adaptability and
capacity for experience and knowledge. In other words,
the inheritance of Mind supersedes the organic inheritance
more and more. With an animal definite modes of function-
ing are inherited ; with the human individual general mental
plasticity is chiefly inherited. And the definite specific modes
of functioning which an animal inherits with his physiologi-
cal structure, the human individual learns and acquires from
the social tradition into which he is born. Nothing shows
more clearly the revolution which the appearance of Mind
has wrought than this far-reaching transformation which it
has effected in the methods and procedure of organic Evo-
lution. On the animal plane structure still largely deter-
mines function, but on the human plane mental plasticity so
dominates everything else in the inheritance that the impor-
tance of structure is completely dwarfed, and it appears as
a subordinate factor in the total human situation. Even
so, however, it retains a great importance which often
comes out in dark and unexpected ways in the individual
conduct.

262 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

The advent of Mind has undoubtedly meant a large cor-
related development of structure, especially in the human
nervous system and brain, which is, of course, far larger
and more complex than that of even the highest anthropoid.
But even so the role of structure is comparatively less
prominent in man than it is at earlier phases of organic Evolu-
tion, and its functions have not only been fundamentally
transformed, as we have just seen, but have also relatively
vastly increased in significance. So much so indeed that
structure in man becomes of merely secondary importance,
while its mental functions become all-important. The super-
structure of Mind is immeasurably greater than the brain or
neural structure on which it rests, and is something of a quite
different order, which marks a revolutionary departure from
the organic order whence it originated. Under these circum-
stances the question of primacy as between the Mind and the
brain is deprived of all real importance. It is not a question
of origins but of values, to which there can be but one answer.
By whatever standard of value it is measured, Mind has
risen above its physiological source as high as, or even higher
than, life has risen above its inorganic beginnings.

From the question of structure we pass naturally on to
consider the " field " of Mind. The field of Mind differs in
character from the field of matter or of organism. It is
neither physical nor physiological, no more than Mind itself
is. Mind is a new type of structure of the immaterial or
spiritual kind, and so also is its field. In Mind there is a
central illuminated area, the area of full consciousness, which
is directly open to inspection and observation. Taking this
area as the central structure of Mind, the " field " of Mind
then comes to mean that area of its functions and activities
which falls below the " threshold " of consciousness, which
remains unilluminated and dark, which cannot, therefore, be
known by direct inspection and which, as in the cases of the
other fields, can only be ascertained by its indirect effects.
The field of Mind in this sense has been the subject of much
psychological speculation and discussion, and we may there-
fore here rest content with a very summary statement, which

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 263

will as far as possible be confined to the holistic aspects of
subconscious mental activity.

The activities of Mind below the level of consciousness are
most important for Mind as a whole. It is in this subcon-
scious area or field of its activities that Mind especially
feels the pressure of the past and to some extent the
pull of the future. The time factor is even more im-
portant for the field of Mind than it is for the other
fields previously considered. The central structure of
Mind functions in the full blaze of consciousness in the
present ; but it is surrounded by a field of the greatest
importance where the past and the future respectively hold
sway. Mind, therefore, integrates the past and the future
with the present; mental activity is a synthesis which
unifies all its time in the present moment of functioning.
And it is thus enabled to act with far more holistic effect
than either matter or life is able to do. Let us consider for
a moment the influence which the past and the future
exercise on the present in mental activity.

The contribution of the past is twofold. In the first place
there is the experience of the past in the individual life which
has fallen into the background of the Mind and is no longer
directly remembered. Yet this experience, as is well known,
has a most powerful influence on the conscious present of the
experiencing subject. Even the unremembered past experi-
ence is not dead, but alive and active below the level of con-
sciousness. In the debating chamber of the present it may
not speak, but it votes, and its silent vote is often decisive.
Mind does not work in water-tight compartments, its past
experience is integral with its present action. Its procedure
is entirely massive, integral, holistic. Memory, the great
basic bond of individuality, binding together and fusing all
the past phases and experience of the individual with the
present into one unique whole which is himself, operates
below as well as above the level of consciousness ; essen-
tially it forgets nothing and leaves behind nothing of the
past. Remembered or unremembered, the past exerts its
full force on the present experience.

264 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

The second contribution of the past comes from farther
back. It is the contribution of the hereditary structure as
modified by ancestral experience, which lies behind all
individual experience. And in many ways its contribution is
even more significant than that of past individual experience.
It gives us our fundamental bias, our points of view, our
temperament, our instinctive reactions and our particular
individual ways of looking at persons and things. There is
in each human individual a distinctive basis of Personality
composed of these elements which cannot be traced to indivi-
dual experience and which is given by his hereditary struc-
ture and ancestral past. In many ways it is the most
important part of our personal make-up. It is not conscious
or critical or rational in its activity, but it constitutes the
permanent background of the Mind and the Personality
behind all individual experience and development. Experi-
ence, reasoning, criticism usually make no impression on it.
I like or dislike somebody instinctively and at first sight,
and nothing thereafter alters my attitude to him. There is
nothing analytical about it, and its action is purely massive.
Generally the result of this massive hereditary memory could
be best described as a " feel " or sensing, an intuitive reading
or subconscious judgment of a person or thing or situation,
which cannot be further analysed to any good purpose.
Great wisdom and judgment no less than prejudices and
passions usually have their source in that distant past and
rest on no analysable evidence in the individual experience.
It will thus be seen that this contribution of the hereditary
past is also decidedly of a holistic character. The import-
ance given to it by the recent development of Psycho-
analysis need only be mentioned here.

What has been said so far will be generally admitted.
To me, however, there is something even more decidedly
holistic in the hereditary factor. To me the ordinary senses
do not exhaust the possibilities of sensuous intuition in the
human mind. These senses have been differentiated and
evolved out of a common pool ; but the pool has not in con-
sequence dried up and ceased to be the ultimate sensuous

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 265

source of Holism in the human Mind. Is it a far-fetched
idea to assume that behind the special senses and their
evolution, and pari passu with their evolution, the mother
sense from which they were evolved has also silently con-
tinued to grow and evolve as the binding, uniting, cementing
element among the deliverances of the special senses ? There
is a subtle, profound, synthetic activity at work among our
sensations and intuitions which cannot be ascribed to the
ordinary conscious activities of the Mind. All the wholes
we see in life as persons or things are composed of contribu-
tions from all or most of the special senses, so utterly fused
with each other that disentanglement becomes practically
impossible. And these uniquely unitary wholes exist for us
from the early beginnings of sensation and perception. So,
for instance, the unique whole of the mother is present to
the young baby from the early weeks of its life. Is there
not some subtle fusing, unifying sense at work pari passu
with the several differentiated senses ? Is there not a sixth
sense, the sensus communis from which the others have been
derived without exhausting it, and whose development
has kept pace with their development ? Such a sense would
not be particularly noticed, as its activity would be masked
by that of the other senses and is ordinarily and as a matter
of course apt to be ascribed to and apportioned among
the other senses. But the coherence of the deliverances of
the several senses and their fusion into unitary wholes
cannot be ascribed to some assumed attraction for each other
on their part ! It is the Mind which fuses and unites them ;
and if it is the mind, it must be a sensuous element or factor
in the mind over and above these specialised senses. To
me it seems a simple and plausible idea that there is in the
mind more power of sensation and intuition of the synthetic
type than is to be found in or between the special senses.
Otherwise I find the unities underlying both the subject and
objects of experience inexplicable. I am not sure that
our massive sense of reality, of the reality of the external
world, for instance, is not to be traced in a large measure to
the influence of this deeper sense behind the other senses.

266 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Psychologists believe in a general sensibility which shows
itself not only in the vague internal organic sensations, but
also in the other diffused states of our bodies resulting
from light or warmth or other physical conditions. They
have, however, as far as I am aware, not given sufficient
attention to the subject, which seems to me of great
importance in the synthetic make-up of Mind.

The obscure subject of Telepathy seems to me to fall
within the " field " of Mind, and possibly to involve a form
of sensuous intuition which cannot be attributed to any of
the special senses. It is possible that the form of sense
which becomes active in Telepathy is closer to thought
than the ordinary senses, that it lies between thought
and these senses, and that its subtle activity reveals
the thought where these senses cannot do so. In short,
it may be in the nature of what has been called an
" intellectual intuition." Just as all sensation involves
thought, so all thought involves obscure diffused sensation.
And it is possible that in this area of obscure sensation
at the bottom or on the fringe of thought the ex-
planation of telepathic sensation may lie. And subjects
who have this form of sensitiveness may sense the thought
itself or other conscious experience of other individuals
without communication in the ordinary ways of the senses.
This sensitiveness may be a form of the above-mentioned
universal sensus communis, the nature and functions of
which are of great importance for the mind as a whole
and are well worth exploring by psychology. Here I can
only mention the matter in passing.

So much for the contribution of the past to the present
conscious activity of Mind. It will be noticed that it is of a
highly synthetic or holistic character and that, whether it
operates as subconscious sensation or subconscious judg-
ment, it supplies much of the cement which Mind requires
for its constructions and syntheses on the conscious level.

The most significant element, however, in the " field "
of Mind concerns the future, and makes the future an
operative factor in the present mental activity. Mind does
this through purpose; purpose is the function of Mind by

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 267

which it contemplates some future desired end and makes the
idea of this end exert its full force in the present. Thus I
form a purpose to go on a hunting expedition for my next
holiday, and this purpose forms a complex synthesis and
sets going a whole series of plans and actions all intended
to give effect to the purpose. Thus in purpose the future
as an object in my mind becomes operative in the present
and sets going and controls a long train of acts leading up
to the execution of the purpose. The conscious purpose,
the end as deliberately envisaged and intended, falls, of
course, within the conscious inner area of Mind ; but numer-
ous subsidiary elements in the plan would operate sub-
consciously and thus affect only the field of Mind.

It will be noticed that purpose or purposive activity
involves much more than merely the influence of the future
on the present. Purpose is the most complete proof of the
freedom and creative power of the mind in respect of its
material and other conditions, of its power to create its own
conditions and to bring about its own situations for its own
free activities. My purposive action is action which I have
myself planned, which is not impressed on me or dictated
to me by external necessity, and for the performance of
which I take my own self -chosen measures. Through pur-
pose the mind becomes at last master in its own house, with
the power to carry out its own wishes and shape its own
course, uninfluenced by the conditions of the environment.

Again, purposive activity is peculiarly holistic. Elements
both of the actual past and of anticipated future experience
are fused with the present experience into one individual
act, which as a conscious object of the mind dominates the
entire situation within the purview of the purpose or plan.
It involves not only sensations and perceptions, but also
concepts of a complex character, feelings and desires in respect
of the end desired, and volitions in respect of the act in-
tended ; and all these elements are fused and blended into
one unique purpose, which is then put into action or execu-
tion. Purpose is thus probably the highest, most complex
manifestation of the free, creative, holistic activity of Mind.
Purpose is the door through which Mind finally escapes

268 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

from the house of bondage and enters the free realm of its
own sovereignty. The purposive teleological order is the
domain of the free creative spirit, in which the ethical,
spiritual, ideal nature of Mind has free scope for expansion
and development. The realm of Ends, as Kant has called it,
the realm of the great Values and Ideals is the destined home
of Mind. And Holism it is that has guided the faltering foot-
steps of Mind from its early organic responses and strivings
and automatisms through the most amazing adventures and
developments until at last it enters into its own.

Let me conclude with a few further remarks on the holistic
aspect of mental activity.

In Chapters VI, VII and VIII I endeavoured to show, I
trust not quite in vain, how Holism as a concept and an
active factor can be made fruitful in biology, and can give
us a method of dealing with the problems of life which
may largely facilitate the proper solutions. The problems
of Mechanism, of Body and Mind, of Evolution, and
many others, all wear a different and more tractable
form when viewed from the standpoint of Holism. I think
I may fairly claim that the concept and function of Holism
will prove even more valuable in the study of Mind, its
activities and problems. Mind as a higher, more evolved
organ of Holism will naturally exemplify the holistic stand-
point more fully than life does. And the holistic concep-
tion of mental activity appears to me to be specially helpful
and to steer clear of most of the errors and misconceptions
which have beset that difficult subject. The holistic con-
ception of mental functioning explains at once why all the
psychological activities from attention to judgment, and
not only in intelligence but also in volition, action and emotion
are synthetic in character, and result in associations,
syntheses, groups, things, events, bodies and wholes. It was
the unique service of Kant to psychology to discover the
presence of the synthetic judgment at work already in the
earliest forms of sensation and intuition ; and he signalised
his discovery by applying to the subject in experience the
truly Olympian name of the " synthetic unity of appercep-

ix MIND AS AN ORGAN OF WHOLES 269

tion." The view of Mind as Holism leads straight to the
same result, and quite simply and without the necessity to
resort to any cumbrous psychological or metaphysical
apparatus. The activity of Mind at all stages and in all
forms is holistic, structural and synthetic, and its products
show the same characters. The discriminative, selective,
ordering, synthetic character which mental activity shows
in all its higher operations is already fully present in its early
beginnings, and flows indeed from its very nature as Holism.
The various mental functions as dealt with in psychology,
therefore, are simply so many examples of holistic activity
on the mental plane. Analysis and discrimination may
appear to be unholistic, but even they are but means to an
end in the synthetic process ; the analysed and discrimin-
ated elements being but a stepping-stone to more effective
selective syntheses and groupings. It would be both interest-
ing and useful to run through the various psychological
activities and to show how they all exemplify and indeed
flow from the nature and concept of Holism. The task would
be easy, but it must be left to others. A good deal of
interesting work in this direction has already been done by
advocates of the " Gestalt " or Configuration psychology.
In this sketch of the subject of Holism I can but confine
myself to tracing the larger outlines, and leave particular
clues to be followed up by others who may feel interested
in the subject.

Equally fruitful, in my opinion, will the application of
Holism prove to the problems of metaphysics and the other
higher disciplines of Mind. There is not a problem of Meta-
physics, of Ethics, of Art and even of Religion which will not
benefit enormously from contact with the concept of Holism.
Indeed the concept and standpoint of Holism may transform
many of their fundamental concepts and render obsolete
many of the somewhat barren analytical speculations which
are still current in philosophy. In this place I must be con-
tent with this reference to the possibilities which lie along the
path of holistic argument and research. These applications of
the concept of Holism lie beyond the scope of the present work.

CHAPTER X

PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE

Summary. Personality is the latest and supreme whole which
has arisen in the holistic series of Evolution. It is a new structure
built on the prior structures of matter, life and mind. The tendency
has been to look upon it as a unique and isolated phenomenon,
without any genetic relations with the rest of the universe. Our
treatment, however, shows it to be one of a series, to be the culmin-
ating phase of the great holistic movement in the universe.

Mind is its most important and conspicuous constituent. But
the body is also very important and gives the intimate flavour of
humanity to Personality. The view which degrades the body as
unworthy of the Soul or Spirit is unnatural and owes its origin to
morbid religious sentiments. Science has come to the rescue of
the body and thereby rendered magnificent service to human
welfare. The ideal Personality only arises where Mind irradiates
Body and Body nourishes Mind, and the two are one in their mutual
transfigurement.

The difficult question of the Body-and-Mind relation, already
referred to in Chapter VII, arises once more in connection with
Personality. As there pointed out, the root of the difficulty lies
in the separation of the elements of Body and Mind and their hypo-
stasis into independent entities. They are not independent reals;
disembodied Mind and disminded Body are both impossible con-
cepts, as either has only meaning and function in relation to the
other. The popular view of their relation as one of mutual " inter-
action " is not correct, as Mind does not so much act on Body as
penetrate it, and thus act through or inside it. " Peraction " or
" intro-action " would be preferable to " interaction " as a descrip-
tion of the relation of Mind to Body. The extreme difficulty
of conceiving how two such disparate entities as Mind and Body
can influence each other has led to various theories of their inter-
relation, such as that God is the medium and agent between
them (Berkeley and Geulincx) ; that their separate action is inwardly
brought into accord by a Pre-established Harmony (Leibniz) ; that
they are but two modes of action of the one underlying Substance
(Spinoza). The fact is that all these theories have an element of
truth ; the real explanation being that Mind and Body are elements

270

CHAP, x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 271

in the whole of Personality ; and that this whole is an inner creative,
recreative and transformative activity, which accounts for all that
happens in Personality as between its component elements. No
explanation will hold water which ignores the most important
factor of all in the situation, and that is the holistic Personality
itself. Holism is the real creative agent, and not the entities
suggested by the above philosophers.

We see this same creative Holism in Personality when we come
to consider our inheritance from our parents and ancestors, which
consists of a definite animal body slightly differing from theirs,
and a mental structure somewhat resembling theirs. My Person-
ality itself, however, is indisputably mine, and is not inherited
from them. It may in some respects resemble theirs, but its very
essence is its unique individuality. The fact here too is that Person-
ality is a unique creative novelty in every human being, and that
no explanation which ignores this creative Holism can even pretend
to account for Personality.

For psychology and epistemology the individual Subject is the
centre of orientation in all experience and reality; it is the Subject
of experience to which all the rest is the Object of Experience.
The appearance of Personality, therefore, marks a new and funda-
mental departure in the evolution of the universe. These disciplines
concentrate on the Subject as the centre of reference for experience
without, however, paying sufficient attention to the nature of
Personality in other respects. Ignoring the individual unique-
ness of the Personality in each case, psychology deals with the
average or generalised individual; and then only from the purely
mental point of view, which is but one aspect of Personality. The
result is that psychology does not materially assist us in the study
of Personality. Personality is, in fact, largely an unexplored subject
and requires a discipline to itself as a real factor in the universe.
" Characterology " has been suggested as a name for the new discipline,
but there are objections to it, and Personology is suggested as a
better name. The " Person " is a concept of the Roman law, not
of Greek philosophy, and the hybrid is therefore justified.

Personology should begin by studying the biographies of human
personalities as living wholes and unities in the successive phases
of their development; in other words, synthetically, rather than
analytically in the manner of psychology. Through such scientific
studies of Personality we shall obtain the materials for formulating
the laws of personal evolution and thus lay the foundations for a
real science of Biography. We shall thus also obtain the basis of
a sound theory of Personality and a proper science of Personology,
which, as the synthetic science of human nature, will form the
crown of all the sciences and become the basis for a new Ethic and
Metaphysic and a truer spiritual outlook.

272 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

To begin with, the lives for such holistic study should be care-
fully selected, and suggestions are made on this point. The dis-
cipline of Personology may thus lead to the solution of some of
the oldest and hardest questions that have troubled the heart as
well as the head of man.

WE may begin this chapter by defining human Personality
roughly in the language which we have adopted throughout
the preceding discussion. Personality then is a new whole,
is the highest and completest of all wholes, is the most
recent conspicuous mutation in the evolution of Holism,
is a creative synthesis in which the earlier series of material,
organic and psychical wholes are incorporated with a fresh
accession or emergence of Holism, and thus a new unique
whole of a higher order than any of its predecessors arises.
In Personality we reach the latest and highest phase of Holism
and therefore the culminating problem, which all the pre-
ceding discussion has led up to. Personality is the supreme
embodiment of Holism both in its individual and its universal
tendencies. It is the final synthesis of all the operative
factors in the universe into unitary wholes, and both in its
unity and its complexity it constitutes the great riddle of
the universe. Best known of all subjects of knowledge
and experience, nearest to us in all kinships and relation-
ships, our very foundation and constitution, self of our
very selves, it is yet the great mystery, the most elusive
phantom in the whole range of knowledge. No wonder
that some go the length even of denying its existence, and
look upon it as a veritable phantasm of the mind. And
yet it is the most real of all reals, the latest and fullest
expression of the supreme reality, which gives reality to
all other reals. Its uniqueness and its incomparability
make it very difficult of approach by the usual methods of
scientific procedure, and hence it has been avoided by
science completely, and by psychology and philosophy to
a very large extent. Perhaps our way of approach to it
is a more hopeful one. At any rate our procedure will
remove the impression that it is a unique and isolated
phenomenon, something alone and by itself, a sort of

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 273

Melchisedek of the universe, without any genetic connections
or contacts with the rest of the universe. We approach it
as one of a series, as the culminating phase of a graduated
movement of which the earlier steps have been already
explored. It thus takes its proper place in the great com-
pany of the universe, and is no longer to be viewed as a
secluded and unapproachable singularity.

Let us first look at the constituents of Personality.
Human Personality takes up into itself all that has gone
before in the cosmic evolution of Holism. It is not only
mental or spiritual but also organic and material. It is a
new whole of the prior wholes; the structures of matter,
life and mind are inseparably blended in it, and it is more
than any or all of them. What that more is we shall con-
sider just now ; in the meantime let us look at its constituents
and their relations in the Personality.

The most characteristic and certainly the most important
constituent of Personality is Mind. Without conscious
mind on the human level Personality could not be. And
Personality had to await the arrival of Mind, the develop-
ment of the organ of Mind, before it could start on its
unique career. Mind has been the wing on which the
human Personality has risen into the empyrean.

The vast and almost overshadowing importance of the
mental or spiritual factor must, however, not blind us to
the significance of the other factors, which constitute the
body or the physical organism of the human person. These
physical organic factors are not only essential, but they also
contribute most important features to the human Person-
ality. The human Personality as disembodied spirit and
devoid of its physical organism would indeed be some-
thing utterly different from what it is. Flesh and blood
may not be as important as the soul in the total human
make-up, but they are essential and they bring something
into the pool which is most vital and precious. So much
so that the expression " flesh and blood " has become
almost synonymous with humanity. What the Greek poet
has called " dear flesh " is not only essential to human
T

274 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

nature but gives it a quite peculiar and intimate flavour
of humanity. Body is not alien and opaque but indeed
transparent to spirit. And the body as transfigured by
spirit in man is worthy to be the foundation of the most
noble and exalted human Personality. The contempt for the
body, the traditional degradation of the body, do not spring
from a true view of human nature. The natural and proper
tendency is to look upon the body as clean and wholesome,
to rejoice in it as something good and beautiful, to make
it twin-sister of the spirit and the embodiment of joyous-
ness and wholesome pleasure. That view of the body finds
characteristic expression in Greek literature. It may be a
pagan view, but in reality it is the human and true view.
It led to respect and reverence for the body, and the culture
of the body as a worthy companion of the spirit. This
natural and wholesome attitude towards the body was
poisoned by the morbid, diseased, religious spirit of a later
time which heaped contempt and degradation on the body.
Degraded religions from the East, born amid the filth and
squalor, the moral and social decay of the Oriental world,
invaded the Roman Empire and found a congenial soil in
the moral and religious confusion which had set in among
Roman society. The decline of the Empire, the ruin which
followed the barbaric invasions, the slow but sure decay of
Roman civilisation, and the growing spirit of dejection and
despair which was inevitable under these calamities made
men turn a ready ear to the base superstitions of the East,
which outraged the human spirit and degraded the human
body into an instrument of evil. Even the pure spirit of
Christianity succumbed to some extent to this perversion,
and instead of the body being regarded as " the Temple of
the Holy Spirit " it came to be looked upon as a fitter
tabernacle for the devil. Mediaeval civilisation succumbed to
and accentuated this horror of the flesh ; the monastic system
with its ideal of celibacy for the educated and spiritual elite
bears eloquent testimony to the great fall of the body.
The flesh became synonymous with sin. And it was not
till the revolution in the human standpoint brought about

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 275

by the Renaissance that the body came to be in part re-
habilitated and once more to be looked upon with some-
thing of the old pagan favour. The full rehabilitation is,
however, coming only now at the hands of science. Science
is building up a new world-attitude, a new attitude towards
Nature and all things natural, which is totally at variance
with this morbid and unnatural condemnation of the flesh.
The scientific attitude is impartial and objective and leads
to the view of Nature as clean, wholesome and worthy of
the respect which is due to all natural facts. Thus a new
spirit of respect and reverence for natural things and pro-
cesses is arising, and not least for the human body a spirit
which is far deeper and better founded than the old happy-
go-lucky, naive, pagan attitude of the Greek world. It is
not a nai've sentimental, but an objective scientific attitude.
It means justice and fair-play for the body, as against all
theological prejudices and theories based on erroneous views
of human nature. And it completely justifies the normal
attitude which regards the body as inseparable from the
spirit, and as the source of much that is most dear and
precious and beautiful and intimate in human existence.
Natural relations and affinities, instead of being condemned,
receive the sanction of science, and under the powerful
patronage and protection of science the simple human can
once more hold up its head and without shame or regret
give expression to the spirit of glad wholesome enjoyment
which naturally wells up from its inner depths. The
rehabilitation of the body is not the least of the magnificent
services which science has rendered to human welfare.
The body is no worse than the spirit, and can be abused
just as the spirit can be perverted. Holism is the cure
and remedy alike for the abuse and perversion. It is the
severance of body and spirit which makes the ignoble use
of either possible. Together and in that unity which
constitutes the whole they mutually support, enrich and
ennoble each other. It is the division in their ranks which
leads to their defeat in detail. And hence it is that Holism
is not only a theory but should also be a practice. What

276 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

theory points out as true becomes here an ideal for life.
When spirit irradiates body and body gives massive nourish-
ment to spirit, the ideal of the creative whole as the antithesis
of evil is realised in Personality.

The language we have just used seems to imply some form
of active inter-relation between the elements in Personality.
We seem to assume that body and mind must mutually
influence each other in the whole which constitutes Person-
ality. The most difficult and important question, therefore,
arises how such mutual influence has to be understood.
Do body and mind interact with each other, and how can
such interaction be conceived in view of the considerations
which were set out in Chapter VII ? The difficulties of
thought, serious as they are, are here no doubt largely
increased by the defects of language. As soon as the
" whole " of Personality is analysed into its constituent
elements, the elements by the defects of thought and
language alike come to be treated as different things, which
thereafter can only be brought back again into relation
with each other by way of an assumed mutual interaction.
Thus arise the division and separation of body and mind
which form the very source of the evils we are trying to counter
and combat. Thus again, on the basis of this division, the
separated elements come to be hypostatised into separate
entities or substances, which are supposed to interact with
each other. Our perfectly fair and justifiable attempt at
analysing Personality into mind and body has landed us in
an inextricable confusion, which has vexed the soul of
philosophy for hundreds of years. In Chapter VII, I pointed
out that it was this substantiation or hypos tasis, as indi-
vidual reals, of elements which have meaning and reality
only as elements in a whole, that is the source of the result-
ing conundrums. The holistic view of Personality, of
Personality as an integral whole, and not as a compound
of independently real substances, is the only solvent for
these difficulties and misunderstandings.

It may, however, be objected that this holistic view with
its implied suppression or merger of body and mind and

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 277

the disappearance of both in the Personality is not a fair
and honest way of meeting these difficulties. Surely, it
will be urged, body is a real, a substance on its own merits,
and not a mere abstract element in human Personality.
It will be pointed out that at an earlier stage I have treated
organism as a real whole, as a holistic structure ; that the
human body is nothing but an organism and that it is not
fair in its human connection to condemn organism as
having no reality of its own apart from the Person to whom
it belongs. I have stated the objection because it opens
the way to the explanation I wish to suggest. A living
independent organism is in a different position from the
human body. The human body is organic, but cannot be
considered an independent organism, living in a sort of
symbiosis with another substance called mind. Let any-
body try to form an idea of a human body divorced from
all mental attributes and activities and supporting an
independent existence of its own, merely as an organism.
It would not be the human body, whose every organ and
activity has a mind-ward aspect and implies mental function-
ing. Subtract mind, and the residue of body must shrink
and shrivel into an unimaginable scrap-heap of organic
activities. Similarly it is impossible to conceive mind as
abstracted from the body. The disembodied soul is just
as impossible a concept as the disminded body. Thus it is
that the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection has pro-
vided the risen soul with a " spiritual body/* 1 the linea-
ments of which can only, however, be discerned by the eye
of faith.

Assuming then that body and mind are not independent
reals and have meaning and reality only as elements in the
one real substantive whole of Personality, the question
arises how we have to conceive or understand their mutual
relations as elements in that whole. How does mind
influence body and vice versa in human Personality? All
language implies such influence ; all experience implies and
assumes that mind has an influence on body, and body on

1 i Cor. xv. 44.

278 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

mind. In Chapter VII I have tried to show that such
influence does not imply a violation of the laws of physical
energy on the one hand, and does not necessitate the inter-
vention of a deus ex machina like Entelechy on the other.
The situation is entirely holistic, and Holism here as else-
where gives the basis of the required explanation. Let us
first consider the alternative views which have been held
on the subject.

(a) The popular and, I believe, still the common view
among philosophers is that of " interaction "; that is to
say, that body and mind mutually and directly act on
each other. This view, if rightly understood, does not, as
I have said, come into conflict with natural laws. But it
is open to another very formidable objection. How can
direct action of the physical or material on the mental or
spiritual and vice versa be conceived ? The two supposed
interacting factors are not of the same order at all; in
what way the one can " act " on the other seems not only
unintelligible but absolutely inconceivable.

(b) In view of this very grave objection, as well as
other objections, many thinkers have simply adopted the
view that the physical and the mental are two parallel
series, which do not act on each other but run parallel
to each other, without any attempt to explain the ground
of this psycho-physical parallelism. The objection to this
is that one series does seem to influence the other, and
not merely to run parallel to it. Our consciousness in
voluntary action, for instance, does seem to reveal most
clearly that our mental state can influence external actions
in a particular direction.

(c) Others, again, while admitting the difficulty of con-
ceiving how the physical and the mental can act on each
other, have introduced a mediating concept or agency to
help the difficulty out. Thus, just as the difficulty of
conceiving action at a distance has been mediated by the
conception of the ether of space as a medium for such
action, so a supernatural medium has been assumed to
render possible the interaction of such incommensurables

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 279

as mind and body. Leibniz has assumed a pre-established
Harmony as existing between them and in other respects in
the universe; Berkeley and some of the Cartesians have
assumed that all interaction takes place in God, the divine
medium and cause of all happening in the universe.

(d) Finally, there is the view, of which Spinoza's may be
taken as the type, that the universe is but one Substance,
of which both the physical and mental series are particular
and related modes of activity; the causality which con-
nects them may therefore be supposed to reside in the
underlying Substance which unites them both. This view
is not entirely unlike the immediately preceding one; for
the God of Berkeley and others may be taken to corres-
pond to the divine Substance of Spinoza's universe.

These are the main types of views which have been held on
this, perhaps the most difficult subject in all philosophy; and
to me all of them seem to contain some elements of truth
and value. The holistic conception will not only assist us
to regard this subject from a new point of view, but it will
do justice to the efforts of those who have laboured at this
problem before.

In the first place, then, I may point out that the term
" interaction " does not seem well-chosen to describe the
relations of two such disparate entities as the physical
and the mental. Interaction seems to assume a common
platform of action, action on more or less the same level.
But we have seen that the structures of matter, life and
mind are on quite different levels of organisation and
inwardness. The one acts inside the other and through
the other. To use a metaphor, the mesh of the one is
much finer than that of the other ; the lower is transparent
to the higher structure, which therefore penetrates it and
represents an inner activity which was not there before.
Action through or inside, " peraction " or " intro-action,"
would therefore be nearer the mark than " interaction "
in describing the action of elements in wholes with respect
to each other. Mind in "volition" is an inner self-
direction of the structure of Body, as I explained in

a8o HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Chapter VII. Body, again, in giving rise to mental
" sensation," is simply performing that mutation or crea-
tive leap, which we have found at every other stage of
Evolution.

In the second place, and what is even more important,
the whole is an active mediating factor in whatever action
takes place among its elements. We have referred in
previous chapters to the metabolic transformative activity
of organic wholes in respect of all stimuli or materials
which affect them from the outside. The organic whole
itself acts creatively, and subtly changes all alien stimuli
or material into its own form and structure. It is the
very nature of the whole in each particular case to display
this inner creative, recreative and transformative activity.
We see it not only in the organism but even more con-
spicuously in psychic wholes. Thus sensations arise from
bodily states or affections. Now in all that happens
between the elements in a whole this subtle, creative,
holistic factor intervenes. Mind and body as elements in
the human Personality influence each other because of
their co-presence in this creative whole of Personality.
The real actor is the Holism in and of which they are
but parts and elements. It is this subtle inner meta-
boliser or creator which makes all the difference. It
is not so much a case of mind and body interacting;
rather is it a case of holistic Personality dominating
the scene where both of them but humbly serve or
subserve. It is the Holism in which they both " live,
move and have their being " that is the real explanation
of whatever happens or appears to happen between
them. It is the Third, which is greater than both of
them, that really counts in the action or peraction. To
me this, or something like this, is the last word in the
relations of mind and body, of the spiritual and the physical.
It may sound strange and mystic ; but it is the simple fact
that the whole, in this case Personality, makes all the
difference. Just as Kant at last gave the explanation of
mental activity by pointing to the central " synthetic unity

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 281

of apperception," in other words, to the holistic Subject as
the pervading dominating factor, so here all action of
whatever kind, which happens between mind and body in
human Personality, is to be traced to and ultimately
accounted for by the holistic Personality itself, and its
creative shaping of all that happens to or in it. Any
explanation which ignores the Personality itself must
necessarily miss the mark.

We now see what is the real explanation of Berkeley
and Geulincx's appeal to God, of Leibniz's appeal to Pre-
established Harmony, and of Spinoza's appeal to Substance,
as the mediator of action between the mind and the body
in man, between the spiritual and the physical orders in
the universe. The whole in each case is the explanation;
the whole as Personality in the human case, the whole as
organism in the situation of life and energy. All such
action is synthetic and holistic in its very essence, and no
explanation which ignores the whole and its creative
metabolism in such action can be considered satisfactory.

It may be objected that this " explanation " involves
an even greater mystery than that which was to be explained.
No doubt we are here moving in a world of mystery, but at
any rate the mystery is now rightly placed. We have
traced it to its source in the Holism which makes and
guides the universe and all its unit structures great and small ;
and particularly to Personality as a form of Holism. Beyond
that final source no explanation can be traced. Personality
is a mystery, but at any rate we can attempt to locate it in
the order and evolution of the universe. In the relations
of mind and body Personality is no mere indifferent spectator
or passive tertium quid, and the explanation of those relations
must in the last resort be sought in the creative activity of
the Personality itself. When we analyse material structure
into its elements, we can practically afford to ignore every-
thing else besides those elements themselves, because the
traces of Holism in such a structure are so faint as to be
almost imperceptible. When, however, we go on to analyse
an organic whole into its elements, we notice at once that

282 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

there must be something more besides those elements,
something commonly called life which holds all those
elements together in a living unity. This " something
more " we have identified as Holism, and we have explained
it as not something additional quantitatively, but as a
more refined and intimate structural relation of the elements
themselves. When, proceeding yet higher or deeper, we
reach psychic wholes, we become even more keenly aware
of the presence and unmistakable function, the free creative
activity of this holistic something. And when, finally, we
reach the level of personal wholes which include all these
earlier less complex holistic types, we find all explanations
of action, relation and interaction among the elements
futile and hopeless which ignore this deeper relation, this
holistic setting, this active creative Holism which unites
all the elements into unique wholes. I believe that previous
attempts to state the relations of body and mind in the
human Personality have largely failed because the holistic
character of the Personality itself as the dominating factor
in the situation has been tacitly ignored. It is, however,
unnecessary to labour the point further in this connection,
as the whole trend of our argument in this work goes to
emphasise the importance of the holistic factor in all reality,
and a fortiori in the highest reality of which we are directly
conscious, viz. in our Personality. Any explanation which
leaves the Personality out of account in these matters is simply
like the play of Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.

Let us now approach the same point from another angle.
What is the relation of this Personality to our inheritance
from our ancestors? The general principles of organic
descent were discussed in Chapter VIII, and an attempt
was there made to show the intimate activity of the holistic
factor in all organic Evolution. In the last chapter, again,
it was shown how psychic Evolution differed from organic
Evolution in general; and it was pointed out that the
difference was principally this, that while in organic Evolu-
tion more or less definite specific modes of reaction to
stimuli were inherited, in psychic Evolution, on the other

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 283

hand, a general plasticity of reaction was inherited, an
indefinite range of acquiring experience, a vast capacity of
learning in the individual life how to react to any particular
stimulus which might happen to come along. The animal,
therefore, appears with its very limited range of faculties
ready made, so to say, and in its individual life learns very
little beyond this definite endowment for specific activities.
The human person, on the contrary, has in addition to its
organic animal inheritance a psychic inheritance which
endows it with the capacity for educability, with a capacity
for acquiring new experience and learning new ways of
acting and reacting, which raises it infinitely above the
merely animal phase. The free, creative, holistic activity of
mind appears conspicuously in its hereditary transmission,
so that our human inheritance does not fetter us, but by
its very nature confers plasticity, freedom and creativeness
upon us. What we inherit is not a ready-made affair but
a wide possibility and potency of moulding ourselves in
our lives. In other words, what above all is inherited is
freedom, and the capacity of free and self-determined
action and development in our individual lives. In our
psychic nature we are thus raised above the bondage of
organic inheritance.

Now what does this imply? Surely this, that there is
something more in us over and above this inherited endow-
ment. The freedom must belong to an agent ; the plasticity
implies a creative moulder. I inherit various capacities,
but my own Personality itself is not inherited, but is uniquely
and originally mine. I inherit a definite animal body,
slightly different from those of my parents and ancestors;
I likewise inherit a mental structure, somewhat resembling
theirs, but much less so than my body resembles theirs.
But over and above this organic and psychic inheritance
there is an individuality, an individual personality, which
makes of this double inheritance a uniquely different blend
and composition. The flavour of each human person is
uniquely and absolutely individual. However similar the
inheritance may be, yet I am a new person, a new

284 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

self -consciousness, a personal centre absolutely distinguished
from those who gave birth to me and transmitted their
qualities to me. The unique whole, called Personality,
is not inherited, however much its constituent qualities and
elements have been inherited. And the very character of
the inheritance implies a new conscious centre to which they
belong, a centre which will organise them freely and creatively
into a new unity. Freedom and plasticity belong not to
the experience but to the experiencer. It is the personal
self-conscious centre that is free and plastic and creative,
just as the artist is free and creative, and not the pigments
with which he works.

This line of reasoning leads to somewhat curious results.
It will be asked whether there is then a fresh creation of
Personality at each generation ; whether human Personality
is original and underived in the sense that it is newly created
with each human being. On the holistic theory here put
forward there seems no denying this " creationism," as it
has been called. And it is best to recognise at once that
with human Personality we enter a domain of creationism,
a domain where, far more than elsewhere in nature, creation
is at work. We have called Evolution creative; we have
seen how creative newness enters at every stage of the
evolutionary advance. As the process advances this crea-
tiveness increases and intensifies, until in the origin of the
highest known structures, that is to say in human Person-
alities, the creativeness rises to a maximum in relation to the
inherited materials used in the new structures. Our very
conception of Personality is that it is a unique creative
novelty in every human being.

From this it must, however, not be inferred that the
phenomenon of Personality should be a most uncertain and
wildly fluctuating one ; that having no roots in the past and
being a creative novelty on each separate occasion, it might
be expected to rise and fall with quite incalculable uncer-
tainty. Like all the other holistic structures of Evolution,
Personality shows a fair average constancy and probably a
tendency to rise slowly throughout the generations. And this

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 285

is only natural considering the general constancy of the in-
herited materials which go towards its composition, as well
as the constancy of the general environment in any nation or
people. But it does show much more individual fluctuation
than any other structures in the whole range of Evolution.
There is evidently no hereditary character in Personality
as such; great Personalities arise from generations of the
commonplace; and, again, the great Personality may be
followed by generations of the undistinguished. There is
utter uncertainty in detail, which goes to prove that with
Personality we are in the region of contingency and unpre-
dictability, and that it is not possible to formulate for
Personality a law of sequence in the generations. In fact
Personality may be compared to biological sports. We
know that a species which has its origin in some great sport
or mutation often shows a markedly fluctuating character
and continues to sport and to show great variability among
its individuals in many directions. This is true in a super-
lative degree of Personality, whose sportive freedom is
perhaps its most marked general feature. Still even so
there is on an average a fair amount of regularity and con-
stancy, with probably a slow tendency to rise in the scale
in the passage of the generations. Even this great spiritual
sport (as we may call it) may find its law in the end. But at
present it is still utterly individual and incalculable. It
is, however, not a mere passing accident or freak of Evo-
lution. It is in line with the whole trend of Evolution ; it
is a crowning phase of all that has gone before, and if to-day
it is still vastly variable and fluctuating, that is so because
of its youth, because it has had no time yet to develop firm
and constant characters ; because it is a whole in the making
rather than a whole completely achieved. But its imma-
turity does not detract either from its merits or its claims.
It is a youthful God destined to complete mastery over the
old regular Routine, and to achieve Freedom, Creativeness
and Value on a scale undreamt of by us of to-day.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the theory of
Personality as a real factor is necessary not only to explain

286 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the synthetic relations of the constituent elements in the
complex human being, but also to explain the peculiar
character of heredity on the human level. Without Person-
ality the Body-and-Mind relation in man appears inex-
plicable; without Personality, again, man's independence
of his hereditary bonds and fixtures would be equally
inexplicable. In both respects a far-reaching holistic
factor in the nature of Personality is at work, which cannot
be ignored without making the entire human situation an
insoluble puzzle.

There is a third point of view which lays a strong emphasis
on the individual holistic factor which underlies Personality.
That is the point of view of Psychology and Epistemology
generally. Both these great disciplines erect the human
Subject into a new centre of orientation for all experience
of reality. From the purely biological point of view
Personality is merely the highest term of a rising series;
but it is not a new and unique point of departure in the
universe. Psychology and Epistemology, however, regard
Personality from this radical point of view. To them it is
the Subject of experience to which all the rest is the Object
of experience. The Personality as the subject in experience
marches right to the centre of the world-picture ; it becomes
the key and the measure of all things; to it all things
become relative in experience. In the new universe of
experience, in the world of Spirit, the conscious self or the
Personality becomes the new point of universal reference;
the co-ordinates of reference are its co-ordinates, as we saw
in the last chapter; and without this personal orientation
all experience becomes inexplicable and all reality unintelli-
gible. We may indeed say that as soon as Personality
appears on the scene, the whole universe becomes reorganised,
transformed and almost recreated round it as the new centre ;
the universe is no longer the same as it was before Personality
but undergoes a radical change in the subtle process of
human experience. Just as Personality is essentially a new
creation, so the world which is its Object in experience is like-
wise in a sense a new creation out of the old materials. The

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 287

appearance of Personality, therefore, marks a new departure.
It is not merely an addition to the universe but involves
in some respects an organic transformation of it. On this
lofty pedestal psychology and philosophy alike place the
personal self or Personality; and surely in this apparent
anthropomorphism they are right.

But it is perhaps doubtful whether they have fully
appreciated the implications of their action. Neither
psychology nor philosophy has made much of the Person-
ality except to look upon it as a peg on which to hang the
universe. The Personality as a point of reference, the
Personality as a great Signpost in the universe appears to
them all-important. But in itself, in what it is, in what
its uniqueness consists, they have not taken any very
profound interest. Now in this they seem to me to have
missed the real point, and in consequence they have
failed to appreciate the real, as distinct from the merely
formal importance of the factor of Personality in the
universe.

The treatment that psychology has given to Personality
is another instance of this failure to appreciate its real and
unique significance. Psychology as a scientific discipline
deals with the human mind, not in its individual uniqueness,
but in its general character as distinguishing all human
beings. The individual within the purview of psychology
is the generalised individual, the average individual, not the
real individual, but the individual which is the creature of
an intellectual abstraction. In its treatment psychology
is, of course, only following the general procedure of science,
which is not concerned with the individual as such, but with
the common characters of individuals, with the specific
type more than the actual individual. Thus if Science deals
with a plant or an animal it may be any individual of the
particular species under consideration. The individual differ-
ences are generally considered negligible, and one individual
is for purposes of scientific treatment as a rule the same as
any other individual. Science is a generalising scheme and
must necessarily ignore individual differences.

288 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Now with human personalities, the individual differences,
so far from being negligible, are all-important. Each human
individual is a unique personality; not only is personality
in general a unique phenomenon in the world, but each
human personality is unique in itself, and the attempt at
" averaging " and generalising and reaching the common
type on the approved scientific lines eliminates what is the
very essence of Personality, namely, its unique individual
character in each case. The scientific procedure of
psychology, inevitable as it is for psychology as a scientific
discipline, is not very suitable in respect of a subject so
specially individual as Personality. But that is not all.
Psychology does not even purport to deal specially with
Personality. Its subject is more especially mind, mental
activity in its wider sense, the genesis and development of
the mental functions in the average human individual.
But, as we have seen, mind is merely one particular aspect
of Personality. The contribution towards Personality which
comes from the organic side is in important respects ignored
by psychology. But this contribution of the body is most
important ; we know from practical experience in our
personal lives how important bodily functions and our
general physiological state are in the total make-up of the
Personality. Our nervous system, our digestive system,
above all our reproductive system have the most far-reaching
reactions on our Personality as a whole. A little more iodine
in the thyroid gland, for instance, may make the greatest
difference, not only for the general co-ordination of physio-
logical functions and bodily development as a whole, but
for the mind itself, and may even mean all the difference
between normal and deficient mentality, between normal
and stunted Personality. All this physiological side of
Personality, important as it is in its effects, simply falls
outside the scope of psychology and is assigned to other
branches of science.

The result of this limitation of the province of psychology
is that even the mental side of Personality fails to be properly
explored and understood. The subconscious Mind is still

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 289

largely an unexplored territory, and but for the recent
pioneering work of the psycho-analysts would have been
almost entirely unknown. And yet it will be generally
admitted that this province of the subconscious is most
important, not only for mental science itself, but more
especially for the knowledge of the Personality in any
particular case. For most minds, perhaps for all minds,
the conscious area is small compared with the subconscious
area; and beyond the subconscious area is the probably
still larger organic or physiological area of the nervous,
digestive, endocrine and reproductive systems, which all
concern the Personality most vitally and closely. It is
evident that the present demarcation of areas between the
various sciences makes it difficult if not impossible to deal
adequately with so large and embracive a subject as Person-
ality. Personality is deserving of having a discipline to itself
which will not leave it merely in the position of having to
be dealt with in a haphazard and incidental way by a
number of other distinct disciplines. Hitherto, so far from
having a field of its own and being a study by itself, it has
been a sort of nondescript annex of psychology. But, as
we have seen, the province of psychology is much too narrow
and limited for the purpose of Personality; and both its
method and procedure as a scientific discipline fail to do
justice to the uniquely individual character of the Personality.
It has a third and no less serious drawback as a basis for
a discipline of the Personality. The procedure of psychology
is largely analytical; it involves an analysis of mental
functions and activities, and a detailed study of their several
lines of development ; and in exceptional cases a perfunctory
effort is finally made to view mind or character as a whole.
But mostly the last part is either avoided altogether or
attempted in such a half-hearted manner as to be of com-
paratively slight value. Take, for instance, Professor
James Ward's Psychological Principles, which is not only a
standard work but embodies and expands what has become
the great classic in psychology in the English language. It
consists of eighteen chapters, the first four of which are
u

ago HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

devoted to a general analysis and description of mental
functions, while the main body of the work, consisting of
twelve chapters, contains a detailed discussion of the various
forms of mental activity, such as sensation, perception,
imagination, memory, feeling, emotion, and action, intellec-
tion, forms of synthesis in the judgment, intuition, and the
categories, belief, and the elements of conduct. The last
two chapters only are devoted to the concrete individual
and characterology, and form merely a distant approach to
the subject of Personality. No one will deny that from a
purely psychological point of view the method and procedure
of Professor Ward are both proper and unexceptionable.
But the necessarily analytical character of psychology
largely disqualifies it from being a real foundation for a
doctrine of Personality. Psychology has, in fact, a different
scope and aim from that which would be natural and proper
for a subject like Personality. It is but one of several
preparatory studies leading up to the subject of Personality
without actually grappling with it.

The result has been that from a psychological or any other
practical point of view very little attention has been devoted
to the study of Personality. Personality has been the
concern of no particular branch of study, and it still awaits
a proper treatment of its own as a distinct discipline among
other scientific and philosophical disciplines. Its province
falls within the large debatable territory between science
and philosophy, between theory and practice, which has
been very little explored and is still terra incognita to all
intents and purposes. Its difficulties are immense; from
that wide and wild No Man's Land between science and
philosophy it rises like some forbidding mountain peak into
the heavens ; and no daring mountaineer has yet ventured
to approach it, let alone to scale its dizzy heights. But
beyond a doubt it is going to occupy a foremost place in
the attention of inquirers in future. And the time may
come when the science of Personality may be the very
keystone of the arch, and serve to complete the full growing
circle of organised human knowledge. That time is not yet ;

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 291

but I may venture to hope that the assignment of a proper
place to Personality in the structural Evolution of the
universe, such as has been attempted in this study, will help
to direct attention to what is undoubtedly one of the greatest
and most important outstanding problems of knowledge.

Professor Ward has suggested that that branch of psycho-
logy which deals with concrete individuals, with individuals
as persons endowed with character, should be called
" Characterology." l I am not clear that Characterology
in this sense would be the same as the Science of Personality
which I am discussing. The term " character " seems to me
narrower than Personality, and to refer to the external
indicia rather than the inward reality which the term
Personality here points to. And in any case Characterology
does not seem suitable as a name for the science of Person-
ality. For these and other reasons, and if a name is really
necessary, I would suggest Personology as the name for the
Science of Personality, which will not be a mere subdivision
of psychology but an independent science or discipline of
its own, with its roots not only in psychology but also in all
the sciences which deal with the human mind and the human
body. As I have just pointed out, it is a border subject be-
tween the provinces of Science and Philosophy and will sho'v
the influence of both these great subdivisions of knowledge.

Prima facie Personology seems a more suitable name for
the science or doctrine of Personality than the cacophonous
mouthful " Characterology/' But it may be objected that
Personology is a Grseco-Latin hybrid and unacceptable as
such. It may, however, be pointed out that there is a
peculiar reason for a term which is not purely Greek but calls
in the resources of the Latin language also. For it is a
curious fact that Greek philosophy, in spite of its brilliant
achievements and its inspired mintage of most of the current
coin of philosophy, never rose to a clear grasp of the idea of
Personality. Thus it is that there is no term in Greek to
express the notion of Personality. Persona is a Latin term
and a Roman idea evolved, like so many other juristic ideas,

1 Psychological Principles, p. 431.

292 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

by the legal genius of the Romans, which was in its way as
remarkable as the philosophical genius of the Greeks.
Persona in the Roman law denoted the legal status of the
individual who was by law clothed with rights and duties
in his own right ; the individual as the carrier of rights and
duties in his own right was a persona ; from a mere individual
nonentity he became in law a persona and acquired a legal
personality Thus in the classical Roman law a slave,
being without legal rights, was a human without persona.
The developed Roman law came to extend the concept of
personality beyond natural individuals to non-corporeal
companies and societies which had by law a legal entity
and could have rights and duties. Personality thus was
a matter of legal status, and denoted the legal dignity
and importance of the individual or the group. The clear
juristic concept of persona was a very good basis for the
superstructure of the psychic ethical Personality which has
been built upon it.

To the evolution of the modern idea of Personality,
Christianity made the most notable contribution in investing
the human being as such with a character of sacredness, of
spiritual dignity and importance, which implied a far-
reaching revolution in ethical ideas. The Roman legal
concept thus became blended with the moral sacredness and
inalienable rights of human beings as children of God ; and
philosophy raised the enriched term to the dignity and status
of a high philosophical conception. It has been my endea-
vour to go a step farther and to trace the concept of Person-
ality to its real relationships in the order of the universe,
to show it as not merely a juristic or religious or philosophical
concept, but as a real factor which forms the culminating
phase in the synthetic creative Evolution of the universe.
The Roman traced persona to the authority of the law.
The Christian traced Personality to the fatherhood of God
which conferred it on all human beings as a sacred birthright.
The Philosopher has translated this religious idea into the
universal language of the ethical Reason. Here Personality
becomes the last term in the holistic series, a reality in line

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 293

with the other realities which mark the creative forward
march of Holism.

Personality has thus been explained above as personal
Holism, as the whole in its human fullness of development.
Human personal development thus means the creative
synthetic whole in control of all special functions and
activities, of all organs and their functions. The activities
of the body and the mind do not embrace the whole of
personal development. There is more in the central syn-
thetic Personality than an analysis of psychological and
physiological functions can explain. Just as in the specialised
organs of sense, the underlying basis of sensitivity, the
original sensus communis, develops pari passu with the
special senses and co-ordinates and supplements their
activities in the sensuous wholes of intuition, so also the
central holistic Personality develops pari passu with all the
specialised mental and bodily functions, and produces out
of their deliverances those syntheses and unities which are
distinctive of personal experience. All experience, all
intuitions, judgments, actions, beliefs and other mental acts
are holistic products of Personality. There is no internal
chemistry which binds these products together into unities
other than Personality itself. In Personality, even more
than in the earlier structures of Evolution, the whole is in
charge, and all development and activity can only be properly
understood when viewed as being of a holistic character,
instead of being the separate activities of special organs,
or the separate products of special mental functions.
Synthesis and unity are of the whole, and not of the parts.
Holism is in all personal activity, and is the only basis on
which such activity can be properly understood.

What should be the procedure of the new discipline of
Personology ? It should, of course, take cognisance of the
special analytical contributions of psychology and physiology,
and of all the other human sciences, individual and social,
theoretical and practical. But it should do more. Following
the course above indicated, that the Personality is uniquely
individual and that this special individual character should

294 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

not be ignored, it should study the biography of noted
personalities as expressions of the developing Personality
in each case. Such a study of personal biographies will
not only have the advantage of bringing out the individual
differences among personalities, instead of blurring all differ-
ences in a generalised composite picture of Personality. It
will have the further and quite priceless advantage of study-
ing personalities synthetically as living unities and wholes
rather than in the analytical manner of psychology and the
other human sciences. In biography we have to follow the
development of a person as a whole, as a living biological
psychical entity, and we are therefore in a position to correct
the one-sided abstract generalised results of the analytical
procedure of these sciences. The study of biographies as
examples of personal Holism, as examples of the develop-
ment of Personality, will lead to very interesting and
important results.

In the first place, we shall thus get the materials for
formulating the laws of personal evolution. In the second
place, these laws will form the foundation for a new science of
Biography which will take the place of the empirical unsatis-
factory patchwork affair which biography now mostly is. In
the third place, the gradual accumulation of biographical facts
and data bearing on personal evolution will not only lead to the
formulation of the laws of this evolution, but will give the
basis for a sound theory of Personality and a proper science of
Personology. Personology as the science of Personality, as
the synthetic science of Human Nature, will form the crown
of all the sciences and in turn become the basis of a new
Ethic, a new Metaphysic, and of a truer spiritual outlook
than we can possibly have in the ignorance and confusions
of our present state of knowledge. To my mind the basis
for all these great developments can only be laid in a new bio-
graphical aim and method, which will give us the facts which
are vitally necessary for any sound scientific constructions.

The lives for this scientific study as examples of personal
holistic evolution will have to be carefully selected, if effort
is not to be largely wasted. There are many types of

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 295

personality which would not be specially suitable for studying
personal evolution. There is, for instance, the type which
does not seem to possess an inner evolution. Many dis-
tinguished persons appear to be full grown in early manhood
and thereafter to undergo no further growth. Their develop-
ment reaches maturity early in life, and thereafter appears
to be arrested. I may mention Carlyle as an instance ; his
first great work, Sartor Resartus, was a complete and final
exposition of his inner self, and no further development of
his inner life seems to have taken place thereafter. This
phenomenon of early maturity and arrest of further develop-
ment is by no means unusual. We meet it in the case of
many persons in our circle of acquaintances who somehow
don't seem to grow, but to stand still after arriving at a
certain comparatively early age. We meet it again in the
tragic case of those authors who write a famous book early
in life and thereafter can do no more than repeat themselves
with less and less freshness and ever-waning originality. All
these instances simply point to arrested development, to the
absence of a capacity for inner growth. As Personality is
best studied in its genetic development, as its plastic inward-
ness is best seen in the successive phases it assumes in a
continuously growing, expanding human being, it follows
that the exceptional stationary or early maturing person-
alities afford less favourable material for the study of
human Personality as a whole.

There is another class of persons unsuitable for our pur-
pose, consisting of those who do not seem to have much of
an inner self at all, whose activities and interests are all of
an external character, who live not the inner life of the
spirit but the external life of affairs. We often notice this
feature in the lives and characters of public men, men of
affairs, administrators, business men and others, whose
whole mind seems to be absorbed by the practical interest
of their work. In them the capacity for the inner life seems
to have shrivelled and atrophied under the pressure of
external duties and activities. They may be able, com-
petent, conscientious men, they may even be brilliant men

296 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

of affairs, with great gifts of leadership. They may be
striking and impressive personalities and seem to be specially
endowed with that indefinable attribute of Personality for
which we are searching. And yet they are lacking in that
inwardness, that inner spiritual life which is the most favour-
able medium for the study of Personality. Their lives are
generally an affair of externals, of incidents and achieve-
ments, sometimes of pomp and glory, but largely devoid of
real deep personal interest. Their biographies are usually
dull and uninspiring, and the record and recital of activities,
successes and failures soon pall on the reader. The fact is
that the real indefinable quality of true Personality is inward
and is not reflected in the life of unrelieved externality which
such people live. They usually carry on the affairs of the
world with great competence; but they are too much of
the world. What is worse, they often consciously suppress
the life of the spirit ; the still small voice is no asset to them
in the prosecution of their worldly affairs. And they are
far too cautious and reserved to give their inner selves away
and to afford the outside world glimpses into the world of
real motives influencing and guiding them. For them any
self-revelation would be something to be shy of, would
be like wearing their hearts on their sleeves. The result is
that the inner fires are securely banked, and the flame of the
spirit can only fitfully smoulder under the ashes. Even if
there is a strong personal life in such cases there is usually
no record of it, it remains entirely private and personal,
and often unknown even to the inner family circle, let alone
the scientific student who is dependent on written records,
constituting a continuous revelation of the spirit, for the
reliability of his conclusions. They may be and often are
people of outstanding personality, but the absence of the
inner life and of records of personal development make them
unsuitable material for the study of the problems of Person-
ality in its more significant aspects.

These remarks will serve to explain what sort of lives could
be studied to best advantage in the exploration of the secret
of Personality. We should, at any rate to begin with, select

x PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 297

the biographies of people who had real inner histories, lives
of the spirit, as well as a fair capacity of continuous develop-
ment during their lifetime. And among these the most help-
ful cases would be those where the written record is fairly
full in the form of writings and diaries, and where there was
no undue restraint in the process of self-revelation and faithful
portrayal of the inner life and history. On the whole, the lives
of poets, artists, writers, thinkers, religious and social innova-
tors will be found the most suitable for purposes of holistic
study. They are often people with inner lives and interest-
ing personalities, with an inner history of continuous develop-
ment ; and wherever their experiences have been more or less
faithfully recorded, the materials for fruitful study are
present. Sometimes the personal record is missing, and in
such cases the study of the Personality through the works of
the author becomes too much a matter of inference to be
really useful, at any rate in the earlier stage of the inquiry
into Personality. Such a case, for instance, is that of
Shakespeare. His plays reveal behind them a wonderful
Personality endowed with the highest genius, and moving
forward in a continuous grand crescendo of self-development
as an artist from beginning to end. But while the develop-
ment is there, the Personality itself is too much hidden
behind the dramatic mask, and therefore too much a matter
of inference in the absence of proper personal records. In
other cases, again, the personal record is well and fully known,
but the written works are not sufficiently illuminating as a
true index of the growing Personality. For a man often
reveals himself more profoundly in his master products than
in his diaries or correspondence or other incidental com-
munications. Milton's great dictum holds for all time:
" A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit,
embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond
life." There is nothing trivial in Personality, and the
greatest, most serious work is usually the most faithful
index to the Personality behind. Both are, in fact, required
the work as well as the personal record for a full under^
standing of any particular Personality.

298 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP, x

From a series of biographical studies, such as I propose, it
will, I imagine, become clear that Personalities follow their
own laws of inner growth and development, which will,
while conforming to a general plan, show very considerable
diversity in detail. It will be found that each Personality
is a psychic biological organism, an individual personal
whole, with its own curve of development, and its own
series of phases of growth. A person will thus be found to
be very different at different stages of his development, but
all the stages and phases will be bound together by and be
the outcome of the identical inner Personality. A com-
parison of such studies of individual Personalities will then
give the curve or the law of Personality, and reduce to
rational order a phenomenon which is to-day still within
the region of mystery.

As the key to all the highest interests of the human race
Personality seems to be quite the most important and fruitful
problem to which the thinkers of the coming generation could
direct their attention. In Personality will probably be
found the answer to some of the hardest and oldest questions
that have troubled the heart as well as the head of man.
The problem of Personality seems as hard as it is important.
Not without reason have thinkers throughout the ages shied
off from it. But it holds precious secrets for those who will
seriously devote themselves to the new science or discipline
of Personology.

CHAPTER XI

SOME FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS OF PERSONALITY

Summary. The central conception of Personality is that of a
whole ; it is the most holistic entity in the universe, hence no other
category will do justice to it, and certainly not mechanism. Psycho-
logy is too much of an abstract science to give an adequate view of
Personality, though even psychology is dependent on the theory of
a central synthetic activity for the correct construction and inter-
pretation of mental experience, and ignores that theory at its peril.
The suggestion of a new science or discipline of Personology has
therefore been made which will study Personality more synthetically
and concretely than is possible for psychology.
/As an active living whole, Personality is fundamentally an organ
of self-realisation; the end of a whole is more wholeness, in other
words, more of its creative self, more self-realisation. This means
that the will or active voluntary nature of Personality is its predomi-
nant element, and the intelligence or rational activity is subordinate
and instrumental it has to discover and co-ordinate means to the
end of self-realisation. Feeling is likewise subordinate, its function
being to give strength and impetus to the will. The Personality is
thus a more or less balanced whole or structure of various tendencies
and activities maintained in progressive harmony by the holistic
unity of the Personality itself. In fact Personality resembles an
organised society or state with its central executive and legislative
authority wielding sway over its individual members in the interest
of the whole. Kant has rightly called man a legislative being. Part
of this control in Personality is conscious, most of it is, however,
subconscious. This control is still largely imperfect and immature
owing to the extreme youth of Personality in the history of Evolu-
tion. But it is growing. More holistic control in the Personality
means greater strength of mind and character, better co-ordination
of all impulses and tendencies; less internal friction and wear and
tear in the soul, more peace of mind, and finally that spiritual purity,
integrity and wholeness which is the ideal of Personality. The
Personality has the same self-healing power which we saw already
in the case of the mutilated organism ; and in case of moral or other
aberration it usually has the power to right and recover itself and
often creatively to gather strength from its own weakness or errors.

299

300 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

J Personality is not only a self-restorer; it is a supreme spiritual
tnetaboliser ; it absorbs for its growth a vast variety of experience
which it creatively transmutes and assimilates for its own spiritual
nourishment. As metabolism and assimilation are fundamental
functions of all organic wholes, the Personality takes in and assimi-
lates all the social and other influences which surround it, and makes
them all contribute towards its holistic self-realisation. Personal-
ities vary greatly in their capacity for holistic assimilation, some easily
suffering from spiritual indigestion, while great minds and characters
can absorb a vast experience which only serves to fructify and
enrich them without any detriment to their spiritual wholeness and
integrity. Where a Personality takes in alien experience which it
cannot assimilate into its own spiritual substance, such experience
becomes an impurity to it; " purity " in reference to Personality
meaning the absence of all elements alien, heterogeneous and dis-
harmonious to the Personality.

The holistic categories sketched in Chapter VI are specially charac-
teristic of Personality as a whole par excellence : these are Creative-
ness, Freedom and Wholeness or Purity. Its creativeness refers to
the ideal Values, rational, ethical, artistic and religious, which it
creates for its own spiritual environment and inner guidance and
illumination. As these, however, fall outside the scope of this work,
the category of Creativeness as applying to Personality will not be
further considered here. But something must be said about Free-
dom and Wholeness or Purity.

The essence of Personality is creative freedom in respect of its own
conditions of experience and development ; as an initiator, metaboliser
and assimilator it has practical self-determination. Again, as a
selector and co-ordinator of the elements in the situations that con-
front it, it also has practical freedom. Its very nature as a whole
confers freedom upon it. This freedom is not a negation of the
physical order of causality but arises inside that order ; holistic free-
dom is a continuous organic or psychic miracle which happens
between cause and effect, so to say, as we saw in Chapter VI. Free-
dom is thus a fact in the universe, and is not a mere capricious power
peculiar to the will; it pertains tc^ Personality as a whole. (Freedom
jagansholistic je^deterrmngjiaa^^nd as such it becomes one of the
greatldeals of ^rs^nalityTwhose self-realisation is dependent on its
inner holistic freedom.

As regards Wholeness or Purity, it is essentially identical with
Freedom. Purity means the elimination of disharmonious elements
from the Personality. It means the harmonious co-ordination of the
higher and lower elements in human nature, the sublimation of the
lower into the higher, and thus the enrichment of the higher through
the lower. From this it follows that moral discipline is an essential
part in the culture of Personality. Personality is a spiritual gymnast,

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 301

whose object is the freedom and harmony of the inner life through the
refinement and sublimation of the cruder features in the Personality
and their subordination and co-ordination in the growing whole of
Personality. If this object is secured by the Personality, all the rest
will be added unto it : peace, joy, blessedness, goodness and all the
great prizes of life. \Wholeness as free and harmonious self-realisa-
tion thus sums up the summum bonum of Holism. \

IN the preceding chapter we have viewed the Personality
as a whole, as a form, and indeed the highest form of Holism ;
and we have also considered some of the difficulties and
problems which arise from this view of Personality as a
real whole. In this chapter we shall consider Personality
in action, in its operation as a whole, as an active shaping
factor in the life of the human individual. Let me,
however, first briefly resume what was said about the holistic
character of Personality, especially in its psychological
aspect.

In Chapter VII I tried to reconcile the conflicting claims
of Mechanism and Vitalism in the larger setting of Holism.
In considering the behaviour of organisms and organic
control generally, it may still be a question whether the
Mechanistic or the Vitalistic aspect of Holism is predominant ;
when, however, we come to the conscious human Personality
the question loses all its force and meaning. For there can
be no reasonable doubt that the mechanistic conception is
not competent to explain or even describe the facts of
human Personality. Psychology itself is unintelligible
except on the assumption that in Mind we have a central
synthetic power which marshals and controls, and largely
determines all the facts and functions of mental life, such as
sensations, perceptions, conceptions, conations and emotions.
Our developed consciousness directly reveals an identical
and persistent Self which refers all its experiences to itself ;
and, as we have seen, but for such a personal centre and
unity of reference, mental life and experience would be
impossible and unintelligible. This personal Self underlies,
upholds, directs and controls all our experience as in-
dividuals. In this Self we behold, not only what is deepest

302 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

and most central in ourselves as human beings, but also that
power of Holism which operates blindly as life and organic
control in organisms ; nay, more, in it we behold the cul-
mination of that fundamental holistic motive power of the
universe, the beginnings of which lie far back, impersonal
and embedded in the inorganic order of Nature, but which
gradually disentangles and frees itself, until in the Self of
the human Personality it attains its highest measure of
freedom. The synthetic organising power of Holism,
starting from the darkest and feeblest beginnings and blindly
battling with all sorts of refractory situations in the course
of cosmic Evolution, gradually evolves and wins through,
until at last it emerges in the Self with luminous and radiant
self-consciousness. Through the Self, which possesses the
power of conscious reflection and retrospection, Holism can
look back to its own early beginnings and review its own
progress throughout the course of organic and inorganic
Evolution. As Nature finally learns to read herself with the
human eyes which are her own, so through the human Self
which is the highest and best it has yet come to, Holism may
gaze back to its beginnings and scrutinise what would other-
wise be dark and unintelligible for ever. And thus it is that
the worm of Personality comes to turn to the light of the
Whole, and presumes to view and discuss the Whole, of which
it forms itself but a part.

As was pointed out in the last chapter, the procedure of
psychology is largely and necessarily analytical and cannot
therefore do justice to Personality in its unique wholeness.
For this a new discipline is required, which we have called
Personology, and whose task it would be to study Personality
as a whole and to trace the laws and phases of its develop-
ment in the individual life. Such a study would be of the
greatest interest from every point of view, as it would envisage
Personality in its unique wholeness and unity, rather than,
in the way of psychology, as a series of separate abstracted
activities. Personology would study the Personality not
as an abstraction or bundle of psychological abstractions,
but rather as a vital organism, as the organic psychic whole

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 303

which par excellence it is ; and such a study should lead to
the formulation of the laws of the growth of this unique
whole, which would not only be of profound theoretical
importance, but also of the greatest practical value. One
cannot read the lives of the great Personalities without
feeling that a vast field for first-class scientific and philo-
sophic research remains still unexplored, and that discoveries
of the highest importance await the student of Personology.
Here I shall confine myself to a few indications of the
general activity of Personality as a whole.

As a whole, as the individualising power and activity of
Holism, the Personality is fundamentally an organ of self-
realisation. As in the case of the growing or mutilated
organism the whole manifests itself by bearing through all
obstructions and overcoming all obstacles in its efforts to
realise and complete itself or its type in each individual case,
so too the Personality has, as its central end, the straightening
out of all difficulties and the elimination of all elements which
militate against the attainment of its own immanent ideal.
In essence the task is the same in both cases. But there is
this material difference in objective, that whereas in the case
of organism the end towards which the whole is moving is
the completion of the material structure and its functions,
in the case of Personality, on the other hand, the end and
object of the inner whole is the realisation of an invisible
spiritual structure or character. The organism is still
mainly material, while the Personality is essentially an
inward ideal; but in both cases the shaping power of the
inner whole strives to realise its end, to eliminate what is
alien and adventitious, to conserve and develop what is
pure and relevant to its ideal, and so to reach perfection, of
visible outward structure and function in the one case, of
inward spiritual grace and unity in the other.

From this it will be seen that apart from our bodies the
basis of that complex whole which we call the Personality
is our voluntary activity or the will; it is the active,
self-maintaining, self-realising power of the Personality
in us which underlies and directs and to a large extent

304 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

conditions all other activities. The Intelligence has been
evolved largely though not entirely as an instrument of
the will; in its endeavour to realise its conscious or
unconscious ends the Personality qua will has developed
the intellectual or thinking power as a subsidiary activity
which prescribes the means by which that realisation has
to be effected. The power of Holism in us moves at
first unconsciously and blindly, as in other organisms, and
later on consciously and purposively to certain ends which
increase in complexity and difficulty as the capacity for
abstract thinking and rational co-ordination progresses.
This fundamental movement is the will, whose activity is
dependent not only on the primary forms of feeling, which
make the movement slow or rapid according to the strength
and volume of the feelings, but also on the growth of intelli-
gence which adjusts means to ends. The active movement
to satisfy the appetite or craving of hunger, for instance,
depends largely on the strength of the promptings of hunger ;
and the intelligence of the hungry animal is developed and
sharpened in order to devise ways and means by which the
pangs of that craving may be alleviated and removed. And
similarly the complex impulse which makes a great thinker,
artist or statesman endeavour through long years to execute
some great and far-reaching plan, while fundamentally a
movement of his active voluntary nature, depends for its
strength on his emotions, and for the correctness of execution
on the power of thought and judgment and insight which
have been matured in the personal life. The conception of
Personality, as an active movement of the whole in each
individual, seems, therefore, necessarily to lead to the
primacy of the will or active nature of the mind, and to
the instrumental character of the intellectual or thinking
power. Personality is thus a balanced whole or structure
of various tendencies and capacities which are maintained
in mutual and reciprocal harmony by the holistic nature
of the Personality itself. As the whole is the essence
of Personality, so wholeness in self-realisation and self-
expression is its essential aim and object.

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 305

The great practical problem before the Personality is
thus to effectuate and preserve its wholeness through the
harmonising of its several activities, and the prevention
among them of any random discord or sedition, whereby one
or other might be enabled to assume ascendancy over the rest
and so prepare the way for the disintegration and destruction
of the whole. In the Personality there is superadded to the
unconscious organic control a whole complex machinery of
conscious purposive action which is intended more effectively
to maintain and increase this highly organised harmony in
the developing individual. The machinery of conscious pur-
posive control becomes highly elaborate and almost artificial.

In fact the nature of the Personality is distinguished by
its departure from the processes of organic nature and an
approximation to the forms of action which are characteristic
of society. Just as in a well-organised society or state there
is a central legislative and executive authority which is for
certain purposes supreme over all individuals composing
that society or state, and controls their activities in certain
definite directions deemed necessary for the welfare of the
state, so the human Personality is distinguished by an even
more rigorous inner control and direction of the personal
actions to certain defined or definable ends. This is the
reason why Kant has called man a legislative being. He is
an inward kingdom or sovereignty, whose powers and
actions are directed, not by some external agency, but by
an inner agency which is none other than the activity of the
personal whole itself. Much of this control and direction is
conscious will, but far more is unconscious and operates in
the subconscious field of the personal life, and it is only on
great occasions or crises that light comes suddenly to be
thrown on this inner leading in the personal life, and the
individual becomes conscious that he has been guided or led
along paths which were apparently not of his choosing, but
which nevertheless were the outcome of the mysterious inner
self-direction which distinguishes the Personality. The
ideal personality is he in whom this inner control is sufficiently
powerful, whether exercised by conscious will or some
x

306 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

unconscious activity, to harmonise all the discordant elements
and tendencies of the personal character into one harmonious
whole, and to restrain all wayward, random activities which
are in conflict with that harmony. This ideal is far from
being realised universally in practice. Personality is still a
growing factor in the universe, and is merely in its infancy.
Its history is marked by the thousands of years, whereas that
of organic nature is marked by millions. Personality is as
yet but an inchoate activity of the whole, but nevertheless its
character is already distinct and well-marked ; and its future
evolution is the largest ray of hope in human, if not terrestrial,
destiny. Its incomplete imperfect character is largely re-
sponsible for the interminable disputes and differences among
philosophers and theologians about the human soul and
human destiny. For so long as the true nature of Personality,
which in one form or another, and whether consciously or
unconsciously, forms the ultimate subject matter of all their
dogmas and speculations, is still indefinite and undetermined,
it is not to be expected that they will be agreed as to the funda-
mental postulates, or the proper methods to be followed, or
the correct inferences to be drawn from the apparent facts.
The scientist has the advantage that in matter and organism
he deals with older well-marked manifestations of reality
about whose definition and principal characteristics there can
be little dispute. But philosophers, whose subject matter is
still in process of growth and inward definition, find them-
selves unable to agree about fundamentals largely because
Nature herself is not yet certain about these fundamentals.
However, even admittedly inchoate and infantile as Person-
ality is, it is already sufficiently developed and distinct to
enable us to consider its fundamental characteristics and their
bearings on the interpretation not only of human conduct
but of our conception of the universe in general. And its
fundamental character is just this wholeness which justifies
us in saying that Personality is a special activity or form of
the Whole. For consider for a moment what distinguishes
the formed and developed personality from the unformed
and incomplete personality ; the strong character from the

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 307

weak ; the master of his fate from him who is blown about
by every wave of impulse or opinion. In the latter case
the case of the weak, or flabby, or irresolute person you
have usually the same elements of character as in that of the
strong man. But the difference is that while in the case of
the strong man or personality all these elements are unified
into one central whole which shapes and directs their
separate activities, in the case of the weak man these ele-
ments of thought, emotion, will and passion have never been
harmonised or fused into one whole ; the sovereign legislative
and executive authority in the personality has never been
properly constituted or exerted, or is so weak as to be
regularly disobeyed and defied ; the unorganised and unco-
ordinated factions in the character fight for their own hand
and keep up a constant state of inner warfare in the person-
ality, with the result that the stronger passions or impulses
carry the day and ruin the character, which depends on a
harmonious subordination of all the various elements of
character under one supreme ethical authority. The inner
discord may even proceed the length of apparent dissocia-
tion of the personality and lead to the singular phenomenon
of multiple personality in the same individual.

In proportion as a personality really becomes such, it
acquires more of the character of wholeness ; body and mind,
intellect and heart, will and emotions, while not separately
repressed but on the contrary fostered and developed, are
yet all collectively harmonised and blended into one
integral whole; the character becomes more massive, the
entire man becomes more of a piece ; and the will or con-
scious rational direction, which is not a separate agency
hostile to these individual factors, but the very root and
expression of their joint and harmonious action, becomes
more silently and smoothly powerful; the wear and tear
of internal struggle disappears ; the friction and waste which
accompany the warfare in the soul are replaced by peace and
unity and strength ; till at last the Personality stands forth
in its ideal purity, integrity and wholeness. And through all
this transformation from the disorganised atomic state to the

3 o8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

full realisation of unity in the personal character, the Person-
ality as the activity of Holism in the human individual is itself
the creative shaping agency which directs the movement ;
it is the Personality which not only develops all the separate
faculties of mind and soul, but which concentrates and finally
unifies their activities; the various mental elements it
organises and fuses into one luminous personal whole, which
in time exercises a restraining and overshadowing power
over all tendencies and impulses harmful to the whole, and
directs the entire current of being, thinking and feeling to
the realisation of the highest ethical and spiritual ends.

We have seen in earlier chapters how in case of mutilation
of an organism some central control often avails to restore or
repair the mutilated organ. In the same way the Personality,
as an activity of Holism in the individual, repairs any breach
in the personal character and restores the balance disturbed
by any impairment of character. The Personality appears
as the self-healer, which through all obstacles and impedi-
ments endeavours to preserve and realise its own type or
ideal, and often even from defeat and disaster itself to wrest
the accomplishment of the ethical ideal at which it is con-
sciously or unconsciously aiming. Not seldom, of course,
the Personality finds it impossible to overcome the defeats
it has sustained and goes under ; for it is as yet weak and
inchoate as a function of Holism, and in some cases it is
weaker than in others. But the level of its power and
activity is gradually rising; more and more it is gathering
the unorganised centrifugal tendencies of the individual
into an effective central control, and often it wins even in the
most discouraging circumstances those moral victories
which form the great landmarks of personal and human
progress. From the depths of moral and spiritual aberration
it guides the weak steps of the wanderer to conscious man-
hood and moral self-control. As the organism heals itself
after a mutilation, so the Personality through identically
the same functioning of Holism saves and purifies the
personal character often even by means of the sins and
excesses of which it has been guilty. Thus the Personality

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 309

realises itself by producing unity and wholeness in the
personal character; and when through its own weakness
the character is degraded and a course of conduct embarked
on which constitutes a denial of that fundamental tendency
and aspiration towards wholeness, the force of the Personality
in the individual is often strong enough to rescue the
individual and sometimes even through a more or less violent
crisis to convert him to sanity, self-respect and moral whole-
ness. The moral and spiritual bearings of this fact lie
beyond the scope of this work.

The aberrations of the individual from the ethical standard
are due not only to the inner weakness of the personal
character but also to the influence of the environment.
From the consideration of the internal we therefore pass on
to discuss the external relations of Personality. And here
the first point to note is that in so far as the individual is at
the mercy of external circumstances and forces, the situation
is largely of a mechanical character. We have seen in
earlier chapters how such a mechanical situation is con-
verted into an organic one. The organism does not merely
passively receive the force, pressure or influence of the
environment ; it appears not as a mere passive sufferer, but
as an active agent in the drama of existence. And it is
considered an organism only to the extent to which it
exercises this active function of assimilation or metabolism
of the material which it receives from the environment. So
far from being a mere channel or conduit pipe for transmit-
ting the inorganic forces and energies of Nature, it disin-
tegrates all the materials supplied to it, and transmutes them
into forms which are serviceable for its own organic purposes,
and then builds these materials so transmuted into the stately
type which it is its immanent end to realise. The power
of assimilation is essential to the organism; without this
power it would simply be flooded with its surroundings, and
instead of conquering the environment and victoriously
adjusting itself to its surroundings, it would be overcome and
disappear as an organism. Metabolism and assimilation
are indeed the fundamental activities of organic wholes.

310 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Now all this is, mutatis mutandis, even truer in relation to
the Personality. Any element of a foreign, alien or hostile
character introduced into the Personality creates internal
friction, clogs its working and may even end in completely
disorganising and disintegrating it. The Personality, like
the organism, is dependent for its continuance on a supply
of material, intellectual, social and such-like, from the
environment. But this foreign material, unless properly
metabolised and assimilated by the Personality, may injure
it and even prove fatal to it. Just as organic assimilation
is essential to animal growth, so intellectual, moral and social
assimilation on the part of the Personality becomes the central
fact in its development and self-realisation. The capacity
for this assimilation varies greatly in individual cases. A
Goethe could absorb and assimilate all science and art and
literature and in addition take part in much of the practical
administration of his little state and other work of all kinds
without finding himself oppressed by a load which must have
killed a lesser man ; he could, as he has described in the
character of Faust, gather up into himself not only all the
knowledge of his day, but all the richness and variety of
experience which makes his life one of the most interesting
records in the history of the world ; he could drink of the
deepest fountains of passion and arise to the loftiest heights of
ideal aspiration he could do all this and not only preserve
his spiritual manhood unimpaired, but actually deepen and
broaden and enrich it in every direction. He could
assimilate this vast mass of experience, could make it all his
own, and make it all contribute to that splendour and
magnificence of self-realisation which has made him one of
the greatest among men. A lesser Personality would have
gone under ; could either not have acquired so much know-
ledge and experience, or could not have assimilated it, and
in the end would have become depersonalised, a mere
mechanical acquirer and hoarder at the cost of essential
unity and integrity. As soon as a person acquires either
knowledge or experience or falls under social or other in-
fluences in a mechanical manner without assimilating them,

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 311

he injures his Personality; he overburdens and disorganises
himself; he surrenders to the environment that in him
which is and should ever remain a pure unconstrained self-
activity. There are many forms which this enslavement of
the Personality takes. Looking upon the Personality as
merely a natural activity and not yet in an ethical or religious
light, we find that it is sometimes overloaded and gorged
with knowledge which it cannot assimilate and digest, and
the person degenerates into a mere gatherer of knowledge,
a sort of intellectual hoarder. In other cases, again, it
accepts the social influences and conventions without
mastering and assimilating them and develops into a purely
conventional character in which the spontaneity of the inner
life is deadened under a mass of social conventions. In other
cases it acquires power which it is beyond its capacity to use
wisely and well, and it develops a proud, cruel, overbearing
or tyrannical character, and that too under circumstances
which would have built up a strong and noble Personality
in a case where the assimilative, controlling, co-ordinating
power was greater. Too often, alas ! it simply surrenders
itself weakly and self-indulgently to outside influences or
temptations, and becomes weak, vicious and contemptible.
In all these cases the Personality succumbs to the environ-
ment, to external influences which bear on it, but which it
cannot resist or master and make its own ; in fact, to the
introduction of foreign or hostile material into its pure inner
self-activity. The ideal Personality is a whole; it is a
whole in the sense that it should not have in it anything
which is not of a piece with itself, which is alien or external
to itself. Any such extraneous or adventitious element in it
which does not really harmonise with it prevents it to that
extent from being a whole. Now as the Personality is a
self-realising holistic activity in us, it follows that its
immanent end and ideal is to realise and develop itself as a
whole, to establish and secure its wholeness, and to render
itself proof against invasion and injury from all extraneous
and hostile influences. It cannot do this by cutting itself off
from the environment on which it is dependent for the

312 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

material which it requires for its sustenance and self-realisa-
tion. It can only do this by, on the one hand, developing
and strengthening its power of assimilating and making an
integral part of itself all the materials which are necessary
for its requirements, and, on the other, rejecting all un-
assimilated extraneous materials which come to it without
being incorporated into it as a whole. In other words, it
aims at efficiency and purity the assimilation or making its
own of whatever is required for its self -development, and the
rejection of all influences or materials which are extraneous to
its wholeness, which would be alien and impure to that
wholeness.

The term " purity " is here used in the same sense in
which the German " Reinheit " is often used, to indicate
the absence of matters or influences which are alien or non-
homogeneous or extraneous to the thing in question. A
thing is called pure when it is free from such alien or ex-
traneous or adventitious elements as are considered destruc-
tive of its integrity and simple transparency or homogeneity.
This seems to be the fundamental meaning of the term
" purity/' Its moral meaning as freedom from vice, or
hygienic application as cleanliness or freedom from dirt, are
essentially derivative. If an object is itself and nothing
but itself, without the adherence of any adventitious matter
foreign to it, it will be pure or clean in the fundamental
sense. If a person keeps out of his nature any warring or
jarring elements or complications, keeps himself free of all
moral or spiritual entanglements, and is nothing but himself
whole, simple, integral and sincere he will also be pure
in the vital holistic sense. The food which enters the
organism as alien material is destroyed as such in the process
of metabolism and is assimilated as blood and other sub-
stances and goes to feed the organic system and to form an
essential part of it. And similarly the Personality through
perception, intuition, conception, emotion, etc., assimilates
the influences of its environment and works them up into its
own substance its inner world of thought and will and
emotion. And the more thoroughly this mental or personal

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 313

assimilation is carried out, the richer and more distinctive
the Personality is. The wider the range of its acquisitions,
the more powerful and thorough the intellectual and
emotional assimilation, the more complex and the grander is
the Personality.

Here then we reach the central idea and function of the
Personality. Like organism, only in a far more complex
and developed form, it is a whole, with an interior conscious
self-direction of all its component functions ; with a power
of acquisition from its environment which is not mechanical,
but really transforms all the acquired material into trans-
parent unity with its own nature. It is a whole which in its
unique synthetic processes continuously performs that
greatest of all miracles, the creative transmutation of the
lower into the higher in the holistic series.

And, in order to maintain the right perspective, let us not
forget that Personality is but a specialised form of Holism,
this Personality in all its uniqueness is still but a function of
Nature in the wider sense; that in it we see matter itself
become somehow aglow and luminous with its own unsus-
pected immanent fire; that as Personality transforms the
material into the spiritual, so regressively a deeper view
discloses Personality as itself but a more interior function
of that Holism which has been slowly evolving since the
beginning of the universe.

In fact Personality in its fundamental activities illustrates
all those functions which in Chapter VI we have ascribed to
wholes. As a whole it is creative, it is free, and it is unified
in the highest sense. In that chapter the groundwork of the
holistic categories was laid down, and those categories
themselves were derived from the concept and nature of
wholes. Personality is the highest type of whole which we
have knowledge of, and we should therefore expect to find
that the holistic categories of Creativeness, Freedom and
Wholeness will apply in a pre-eminent degree to the functions
and activities of Personality. I shall conclude this chapter
with a brief statement of Freedom and Wholeness or Purity,
as illustrated by Personality. The category of Creativeness

314 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

in its full application to Personality is best illustrated by the
appearance of the great artistic, ethical and spiritual Values
or Ideals, which are the creations of Holism on the personal
plane. These Values and the higher order of the human
spirit which they constitute fall beyond the scope of the
present work, which is concerned more with the laying of the
foundations of the holistic concept than with the erection of
the superstructure. The creative Ideals of Holism in their
human aspects, although they give better illustrations of
Holism than anything we have discussed in this work, will
not be dealt with at this preliminary stage. I therefore
proceed to discuss Freedom and Purity in their application
to Personality.

The creative power by which both organism and Person-
ality metabolise and assimilate extraneous materials raises
the issue of Freedom in an obvious and natural way, and we
may briefly resume here what has been said before as to the
rival claims of Freedom and Mechanical Necessity in their
application to organic and personal wholes. In Chapter
VII I have explained in what sense and to what extent the
categories of Mechanism and Necessity apply to such wholes.
That to a certain extent they are mechanisms falling within
the physical laws of Necessity is clear ; but only to a certain
extent. Beyond that Holism appears as a real active factor
in each such whole, controlling and directing its physico-
chemical energies towards definite ends.

The free activity of Holism in the organism and in the
personality, considered merely as an organism, does not
affect the mechanical chain of natural causation. In aft
organism the same combination of physical causes produces
the same total of physical effects as in any other system.
As we saw in Chapter VII, the law of the conservation of
energy holds exactly in the same way as in any other natural
system. Holism does not break the causal chain ; it does
not override the laws of physical causation. The laws of
physics and chemistry are the same, whether they are studied
in the growth of a crystal or in the development of a plant or
animal. To that extent and in that sense Necessity reigns

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 315

in the plant or animal no less than in the crystal. But that
does not exhaust the matter. On the basis of these natural
conditions and factors Holism proceeds to bring about
results which are impossible in the case of mere mechanisms.
Holism does not annihilate its form of space when it proceeds
on its road of inward development, but within the limits and
limitations of the spatial external form it proceeds to the
creation of a new inner world. In the same way Holism
accepts its own well-known natural conditions and principles
of action when it comes to develop inward organic or personal
wholes, but it evokes meanings and values and results from
those conditions which would have been impossible on the
plane of the merely spatial or mechanical. Holism, while in
no sense overriding natural factors which are but an earlier
phase of its own activities, develops inside and through
those factors the individual wholes of organism and
Personality. Similar causes produce similar effects under
similar conditions : that is a statement of natural law. But
the miracle of Holism is performed in that infinitely small
or timeless, spaceless interval which elapses between cause
and effect. Hence whereas on the physico-chemical plane
cause A is followed by effect B, in the case of an organism
the operation of Holism is seen in that cause A is followed
not only by effect B, but also by a new non-mechanical
element X of a holistic character in the shape of what is
ordinarily called life or sensation, organic or mental activity.
Organism as a whole is not merely a link in the chain of
natural causation, but is itself an absorber, assimilator and
transformer of causes on the way to their effects. And this
active free power of absorption, assimilation and transforma-
tion is evidenced not only in the creative appearance of the
new vital or mental element X, but also in the natural sense
of freedom which accompanies this activity in personal
consciousness. A causal stimulus applied externally to an
organism does not merely result in some mechanical move-
ment, but between the stimulus and the resulting movement
a whole new world intervenes, which transforms the stimulus
into the state of the organism, and makes the resulting

316 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

movement, not the mere mechanical effect of that cause,
but the free action of the organism. The organism absorbs
the cause as mere material, and emits the movement as
the resulting action of itself as the real cause. This trans-
formation is not only seen to happen in the case of the lower
organisms, but is revealed and interpreted in human con-
sciousness as what actually does take place. Consciousness
interpolates the self between all causal stimulus and all
resulting response, and reveals the self as the free creator or
prompter of the response after it has absorbed the stimulus.
Accordingly, as we saw in Chapter VI, freedom arises
creatively inside the process of natural causation.

The spontaneous self-activity of the organism in the
assimilation of material necessary for its nutrition and
development shows that it is free as an organic whole ; while
the assimilation and transformation of that material and the
reference of any resulting movements or responses to the
organism as their originating and determining cause show
that freedom or self-determination from another point of
view. There is no such spontaneity nor such power of
creative assimilation in any mere mechanical aggregate ; in
so far as an organism is a whole, it is also a free self -determin-
ing agent in the activity which dissolves and assimilates
extraneous influences or materials and substitutes freedom
for causal necessity.

We thus see that Freedom has its roots deep down in the
foundations and constitution of the universe. It is a pro-
found mistake to look for Freedom only in the human will.
The correct and fruitful view discloses Freedom, not as an
exceptional development in the universe, as an attribute
merely of the human will, but as itself in one degree or
another the grand rule of the universe, as the free self-
determined activity of Holism in its universal process of
self-realisation in Evolution, and as the fundamental prin-
ciple of each individual whole set free in the course of
this Evolution. As Holism in its individuating activity
evolves and sets free smaller wholes, these wholes are them-
selves in ever-increasing measure set free from external

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 317

determination and acquire an ever greater measure of self-
determination and freedom in their activities and develop-
ment. Holism not only means the development of the
universe on holistic lines, the realisation of ever more
perfect wholes, and the assimilation, transformation and
absorption of non-holistic material or relations. It means
also the ever-widening reign of Freedom, the realisation
of the Ideal of Freedom in the gradual breaking down
of all external fetters, and the gradually increasing
inward self-determination of the universe through the pro-
gressive evolution of ever higher holistic entities in the
universe. This free holistic activity is not only the source
of the idea of causation in human consciousness; it is
ultimately the only source of efficient action or causation in
the universe. The free activity of Holism or a whole is the
type and source of all efficient causation. The concept of
necessity, which arises in connection with that of causation,
is not grounded in the reality of things, but is (as Kant
showed) a mere mental expedient for joining up or recon-
necting parts of the whole which have become dissociated or
severed in the course of thought or experience. The synthetic
activity of mind, in producing the category of necessity, is
simply intended to recover or reconstitute intellectually
that whole which has been shattered into fragments in
experience and thought; and as mind is itself but part
of the larger whole of Personality, this intention can only
be carried out imperfectly. In the whole Freedom and
Causation, or rather efficient action, are not utterly
different; their antagonism arises only in the application
of consciousness to the atomic aspects of our empirical
experiences. Determinism is in the last resort based on
free holistic self-determination. We may sum up by
saying that Holism is free, and in so far as Holism has
realised itself in the universe, in so far as the universe is
of a holistic character and consists of holistic entities, to
that extent the universe and these entities are themselves free.
But Personality is the highest type of such holistic entities.
We may therefore say that Personality as a whole is free ;

3i8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the more completely it realises the character of a whole, the
more perfect also will be its freedom as such. The freedom
of the Personality is simply its character of pure self-activity,
untrammelled by external influences, its character of
spontaneous or conscious self-determination by virtue of
which all its actions flow from the pure source of self and are
not pressed or forced on it by unassimilated external con-
ditions or causes alien to itself, and which have not been
transformed into unity with itself. Sincere self-expression
in men and in nations thus becomes the true ideal of
human development and culture.

Freedom is thus not a mere abstract formal concept, but
a real activity ; it is the limits within which Holism moulds
and develops the individual Personality. In proportion as
the Personality is holistic, it is rich in the characters of self-
direction and self-determination ; in other words, it is free.
Moral Freedom is thus a form of the holistic activity of
Personality.

It will be seen that we predicate Freedom, not of the Will,
but of the Personality itself. However important and
indeed fundamental an aspect of Personality the will is, yet
it is merely an aspect and not the whole of Personality.
Freedom is wider than the will ; the spontaneity of conscious-
ness itself, and of the mind in its various constructive or
creative activities, shows that Freedom is not limited to the
will, but characterises also other forms of personal activity.
In fact Freedom is not an attribute of mere parts or aspects
but of the whole, and therefore of Personality considered as a
whole.

Most important of all, we have to point out that Freedom,
like Personality itself, admits of degrees in its personal
manifestations. We saw earlier in this chapter that
Personality, at the present stage of its history, is not yet fully
developed ; that it is imperfect as a whole even in the highest
individuals, and that it varies in degree and intensity in all
individuals. The power of perfect self-direction, assimila-
tion and self-orientation which would distinguish a perfect
personal whole is only imperfectly realised in individual

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 319

%

cases; and in the same way there is a corresponding
failure to realise the perfect ideal of Freedom.

Now in proportion as the Personality fails to achieve the
character of a perfect whole, in the same proportion it is
merely mechanical in its action, and therefore in the same
proportion it becomes externally determined or un-free in
its actions. The result is that the Personality is partly (so
far as it is a whole) free, and partly bound or externally
determined that is to say, in so far as it is or behaves like a
mechanism. Thus the fuller and more complete a Person-
ality is the greater its power of central self-control, or the
fuller its freedom. Weak characters have much less
freedom than strong characters.

Temptation to the strong Personality finds itself enmeshed
in and defeated by the transforming power of a great system
of central control which will actually turn it into a stimulus to
the higher life ; while the same temptation operating on a weak
Personality finds little to withstand its force, and the resultant
moral lapse is almost a mechanical equivalent of the tempta-
tion. Freedom is characteristic of the Whole just as Necessity
is characteristic of Mechanism ; and this is as true in regard
to the moral action of the human agent as in abstract
theory.

In what sense is the human agent free ? In the everlasting
controversy as to the freedom of the will, it has never been
really denied that the will determines actions; that I can
will to do this or that and do it accordingly. But Necessi-
tarians and Determinists have contended that this will is
itself not free, but determined by motives and conditions
like all other natural events ; that it is itself a mere link in
the causal mechanical chain ; and that the consciousness of
freedom is really an illusion. Supporters of the Free Will
theory have, on the other hand, contended that volitions are
free, that the will in deciding on any course of conduct may
act irrespective of motives or external conditions operating
in it ; and that this indeterminism is borne out by our con-
sciousness of freedom of choice between various alternatives.
Against this view there is not only the scientific evidence, but

320 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

also the feeling that Freedom in this sense of unmotivated
decision would be an exceptional capricious element in
the orderly procedure of the universe. Capricious individual
behaviour seems unworthy of such a world, and would
certainly not accord with Holism such as we see it in the
course of cosmic Evolution. In trying to arrive at the correct
view, we must on the one hand discard mere physical deter-
minism as being purely mechanical and in conflict with Holism
in its organic and personal forms ; and on the other we must
recognise the universal orderly character of Holism, which
does not admit of particular or individual caprice. And in
this way we arrive at the idea of holistic, as distinguished
from physical or mechanical, determinism. The Whole,
and Personality in so far as it is a whole expressive of the
individuating activity of Holism, are not and cannot be
mechanically determined ; they are self-determined in their
characters as wholes. In other words, theirs is holistic as
distinguished from mechanical determination. Freedom,
not in the sense of individual caprice of choice, but in the
sense of self-determination of a whole, or holistic determin-
ism, is an inherent character of Personality, and flows from
the very nature of Holism. In so far, however, as any
human being is deficient in Personality his actions also tend
to be a mechanical reflex of impulses and external con-
ditions, and to that extent to lose the character of true
freedom.

It is clear from the foregoing that Freedom is not
merely a concept but becomes an ethical and personal
ideal. Freedom is the full measure of self-realisation
which each human being by its nature aspires to. It
is not yet a firm possession of Personality. No doubt
all Personality has it in some degree, just as every organism
has it in a lower, more primitive form. But the free-
dom of a Personality is the measure of its development
and self-realisation. It is the active power which secures
the imperial legislative authority of the Personality, not
only over its own rebellious impulses and tendencies, but
even over the fleeting evanescent forms of thought and

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 321

experience. In the ideal Personality Libertas and Imperium
are identical. It is, in fact, the supreme prize to be con-
tended for in the striving of each human being; and the
extent of its inward realisation denotes the measure of
the victory attained. To be a free Personality represents the
highest achievement of which any human being is capable.
The Whole is free ; and to realise wholeness or freedom (they
are correlative expressions) in the smaller whole of individual
life represents not only the highest of which the individual
is capable, but expresses also what is at once the deepest
and the highest in the universal movement of Holism.

So much in regard to Freedom as the form and measure of
personal development.

The problem of Purity is at bottom identical with that of
Freedom; they are both but aspects of Wholeness. But
while Freedom concerns the power of the Personality and
means strength as against weakness, Purity means the
harmony of the Personality through the elimination of alien
elements and the co-ordination of all the personal tendencies
in one harmonious whole of the spirit. A pure, free, homo-
geneous spirit is the ideal of Personality.

So long as disharmonies exist in the Personality and
conflicts arise between different tendencies in it, so long the
Personality will fall below its ideal of a pure homogeneous
Whole. That ideal will only be attained when in the
progress of personal development harmony and internal
peace have been secured. It must not be supposed that the
only manner in which this peace is possible is by the
elimination or absorption of all the lower or earlier phases
of personal evolution and the survival of the later higher
phases. The Ideal Man will not be devoid of those passions
and emotions which ordinarily war against the higher
tendencies and aspirations of the Personality. But in the
Ideal Man they will not cause conflict by contending for a
dominating position in the Personality; they will be
relegated to the subordinate position to which their more
primitive crude character entitles them. In the Ideal
Man the discords of ethical life will be composed, because
Y

322 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

there will be a harmonious correlation of higher and lower ;
the harmony will be the richer in proportion to the variety
of elements which have been conserved and will thus com-
bine to produce it. It takes all sorts to make the little world
of Personality. The unity of character which the holistic
movement aims at does not involve the destruction of the
lower by the higher ethical factors, but the clear undisputed
hegemony of the latter over the former, and the reduction of
the former to a subordinate or servile position in the whole.
It is this combination, in a harmonious form, of all grades
of ethical evolution in the ideal Personality which will make
it truly human, while at the same time it will be expressive
of the universal order. To secure that harmony ought to be
the supreme aim of the ethical individual.

From these remarks it will be clear how important a part
moral discipline plays in the furtherance of the evolutionary
holistic scheme. The life of the moral individual does not
drift smoothly on like that of the happy gods, but is a
constant gymnastic effort to strengthen the higher and to
secure its dominance over the lower tendencies. The
spiritual sublimation of the lower into the higher becomes the
constant unremitting effort. The mechanical operation of
Natural Selection is supplemented on the ethical plane by
the conscious co-operation of those powers and agencies
which have been evolved in the higher evolutionary pro-
cesses. The contest is no longer left to be carried on by the
blind activity of natural forces and animal instincts; but
reason and conscience take a deliberate hand in the great
issue of Holism. The progress of Holism involves that
mere Naturalism shall be superseded or at least subli-
mated at the higher stages of evolutionary progress into
the deeper holistic factors which have appeared on the
scene in Personality. And the object of this conscious
moral discipline should not be the ascetic suppression of
primitive healthy human instincts, but their refinement
and sublimation, their subordination and co-ordination in
the growing whole of the Personality under the hegemony
of the later and higher ethical factors.

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 323

% While moral discipline thus plays an important part in
personal evolution, it must not, however, be supposed that
Personality should go on for ever oppressed by an overpower-
ing sense of Duty, and should hear for ever the thundering
reverberations of the Categorical Imperative. No doubt
when the person at his moral awakening or some other
moral crisis in his life first hears the trumpet-call of Duty,
the effect is tremendous. But the thunder should die away
into the still small voice of the inner life; the apparently
alien forbidding aspect of Duty should be assimilated into
the quiet normal impulses of the Personality; moral
discipline should so thoroughly become second nature to the
ethical warrior that its effects will be there without its
operation being felt. The Personality should reach such a
standard of purity and homogeneity that there will be no
alien stuff in it to offer resistance to the promptings of
Conscience or Duty or to cause friction or disquietude in the
soul. The highly developed and disciplined Personality,
pure and homogeneous in itself, and in harmony with
universal Holism, and thus finely responsive to all things
true and good and fair in the universe, will not only embody
the ancient Greek ideal of oaxfrpoovvrj, or moderation and
self-control, but will also come to realise both the Stoic and
the Epicurean ideal of drapa/oc, or tranquillity of soul, and
finally to know that peace of God, passing all understanding,
which is the supreme promise of the Buddhist no less than
of the Christian religion.

The ethical message of Holism to man is summed up in
two words : Freedom and Purity. And from what we have
just seen it is clear that these two grand ethical ideals are
at bottom identical. The function of the ideal of Freedom
is to secure the inward self-determination of the Personality,
its riddance of all alien obstructive elements, and thus its
perfection as a pure, radiant, transparent, homogeneous
self-activity. In other words, the function of Freedom is to
attain Purity in the Personality. And similarly the function
of the ideal of Purity is to afford free play to the inward
self-determination and self-activity of the Personality by

324 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

removing all external impediments, all stains and impurities,
all vice, cowardice, intemperance and injustice, all evil and
ugliness ; in short, all elements alien to the nature of the
Personality, and thus to realise the Ideal of Freedom in the
Personality.

This statement differs considerably from the usual ways
of formulating the Summum Bonum or Ethical End. The
Pleasure of the Hedonist, the Good of the Intuitionist, and
all the other abstract formulations of the Ethical End
appear partial and one-sided from the holistic point of view.
The end of Personality does not lie outside it but is given
inwardly. As Goethe has so well said of Life : " Der Zweck
des Lebens ist das Leben selbst/' Even more truly one may
say that the Whole knows no end beyond or outside itself.
The object of the holistic movement is simply the Whole,
the Self-realisation and perfection of the Whole. And the
same is true of Personality in so far as it is a whole. Its
object is to achieve self-realisation, to realise its wholeness,
to attain freedom not in a selfish, egoistic sense but in the
universal holistic order. Holistic self-realisation is no
doubt pleasurable to the individual; but the pleasure is a
mere side issue and by-product, so to say, of the striving
towards wholeness in the individual life and character.
And the same may be said in regard to all the other particular
ends and aims usually considered worthy of our serious
endeavour. Learn to be yourself with perfect honesty,
integrity and sincerity; let universal Holism realise its
highest in you as a free whole of Personality; and all the
rest will be added unto you peace, joy, blessedness, happi-
ness, goodness and all the other prizes of life. Nay, more :
the great evils of life pain, and suffering, and sorrow will
only in the end serve to accelerate the holistic progress of
the Personality, will be assimilated and transformed in the
spiritual alchemy of the Personality and will feed the flame
of the pure and free soul.

It would be a mistake to look upon the ideal of personal
holistic self-realisation as merely egoistic. No doubt in some
cases the subjective selfish features may predominate; but

xi FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS 325

earnest men will always find that to gain their life they must
lose it ; that not in self but in the whole (including the self)
lies the only upward road to the sunlit summits. We
mostly move in the channels worn by social usage or con-
vention and are influenced by personal and social impulses
such as ambition, patriotism, love of money or power. But
Holism is deeper than any of these. The inner call of Holism
is to none of these things in themselves and for their own
sake, but to its own victory in the personal life; to unity,
freedom and free plastic power for the Personality; to
active moral efficiency and the suppression of harmful
elements in the personal life : in a word, to the wholeness
and perfection of the Personality. The response to that
call in the personal life constitutes the great inner drama,
the warfare in the Soul, which issues either in the attain-
ment of Wholeness and Freedom and membership in the
immortal Order of the Whole, or otherwise in defeat,
enslavement and death.

CHAPTER XII

THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE

Summary.- The fundamental, seminal character of the concept
of Holism is bound to affect our general views of the nature of the
universe, our Weltanschauung, and this chapter deals with this wider
aspect of Holism.

Holism has been presented in the foregoing chapters as the ulti-
mate synthetic, ordering, organising, regulative activity in the
universe which accounts for all the structural groupings and syntheses
in it, from the atom and the physico-chemical structures, through
the cell and organisms, through Mind in animals, to Personality in
man. The all-pervading and ever-increasing character of synthetic
unity or wholeness in these structures leads to the concept of Holism
as the fundamental activity underlying and co-ordinating all others,
and to the view of the universe as a Holistic Universe.

On a strict and narrow view Science may consider the concept of
Holism as extra-scientific, as giving a metaphysical and not a
scientific explanation of things. But this would be a mistake for
three reasons. In the first place, the conclusion to which Science is
pointing, namely, that the whole universe, inorganic as well as
organic, is the expression of cosmic Evolution, necessitates a ground-
plan which will formulate and explain this vast scientific scheme
of things. Mere preoccupation with detailed mechanisms will no
longer suit the immensely enlarged scope of present-day Science.
In the second place, Science has already had to assume such ultra-
scientific entities as, for instance, the ether of space, as necessary to
give a coherent explanation even of purely physical phenomena.
And the correlation of the physical and organic and psychical in
one vast scheme of Evolution similarly necessitates much more widely
operative factors than have been hitherto recognised. Holism is far
more necessary for cosmic Evolution than was the ether for light
transmission. In the third place, Holism is essentially no more
ultra-scientific than are life and mind ; it is simply a wider concept
than either and is the genus of which they are the species. And it
enables all the evolutionary phenomena of Nature to be co-ordinated
under and traced to the same operative factor.

The New Physics has traced the physical universe to Action;
and Relativity has led to the concept of Space-Time as the

326

CHAP, xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 327

medium for this Action. Space-Time means structure in the
widest sense, and thus the universe as we know it starts as structural
Action ; Action which is, however, not confined to its structures, but
continually overflows into their " fields " and becomes the basis for
the active dynamic Evolution which creatively shapes the universe.
The " creativeness " of evolutionary Holism, and its procedure by
way of small increments or instalments of " creation," are its most
fundamental characters, from which all the particular forms and
characteristics of the universe flow.

The ignorance or neglect of these two fundamental characters
accounts for the elements of error involved in certain widely held
world-conceptions, such as Naturalism, Idealism, Monadism and
Spiritual Pluralism or Panpsychism. Naturalism is wrong where it
fails to recognise that there is creative Evolution, and that real
new entities have arisen in the universe, in addition to the physical
conditions of the beginning. Idealism is wrong where it fails to
recognise that the Spirit or Psyche, although now a real factor, did
not exist either explicitly or implicitly at the beginning, and has
arisen creatively in the course of organic Evolution. The Monadism
of Leibniz and his modern sympathisers, while a great advance in
that it recognises the inward holistic element in things and persons,
yet goes wrong when it attributes an element of Mind or Spirit to
physical things like atoms or chemical structures. While things are
wholes they are not yet souls; and the view of the universe as a
Society of Spirits ignores the fact that spirit is a more recent creative
arrival in the universe and cannot be retrospectively antedated to
the earlier material phase. Spiritual Pluralism is a modern refine-
ment of Monadism and similarly subject to the criticism that it fails
to recognise the really creative character of Evolution.

This is a universe of whole-making, not of soul-making merely.
The view of the universe as purely spiritual, as transparent to the
Spirit, fails to account for its dark opaque character ethically and
rationally ; for its accidental and contradictory features, its elements
of error, sin and suffering, which will not be conjured away by an
essentially poetic world-view. Holism explains both the realism
and the idealism at the heart of things, and is therefore a more
accurate description of reality than any of these more or less partial
and one-sided world-views.

Nature or the Universe is sometimes metaphorically spoken of as
a Whole or The Whole. Sometimes it is even personified, and the
trend of Evolution then becomes the Purpose of some transcendent
Mind. All this is, however, unwarranted by the facts and un-
necessary as an explanation of Evolution. [Holism as an inner evolv-
ing principle of direction and control in all Evolution is enough; it
underlies the variations which arise and survive in the right direction,
and it creates in the " field " of Nature a general environment of

328 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

internal and external control. The " wholeness " or holisfic
character of Nature appears mostly in this field or environment of
Nature, with its friendly intimate influences, and its subtle appeal
to all the wholes in Nature, and especially to the spiritual in us. The
fact is that the Holism in Nature is very close to us and a real support
in all our striving towards betterment. \ Qu^aspiraiiojnL_is_its in-
spiration, and it is thus the inner guarantee of eventual victory in
pfte of all set-backs and defeats. I

THIS is not a treatise on Philosophy; not even on the
philosophy of Nature; not even on the philosophy of
Evolution. It is an exploration of one idea, an attempt to
sketch in large and mostly vague, tentative outline the
meaning and the consequences of one particular idea. But
that is a seminal idea ; indeed it is here presented as more
than an idea, as a fundamental principle operative in the
universe. As such it is bound to affect our general view of
the nature of the universe. I therefore come in this con-
cluding chapter to consider what Holism means for our
general world-view, our Weltanschauung, and as briefly as
possible to sum up the bearing which the argument of the
preceding chapters must have on such a general conception
of the universe.

Holism has been our theme Holism as an operative
factor in the universe, the basic concept and categories of
action of which can be more or less definitely formulated.
I have in the broadest outline sketched the progress of
Holism from its simple mechanical inorganic beginnings to
its culmination in the human Personality. All through we
have seen it at work as the fundamental synthetic, ordering,
organising, regulating activity in the universe, operating
according to categories which, while essentially the same
everywhere, assume ever more closely unified and syn-
thetic forms in the progressive course of its operation.
Appearing at first as the chemical affinities, attractions
and repulsions, and selective groupings which lie at the
base of all material aggregations, it has accounted for
the constitution of the atom, and for the structural
organising of atoms and molecules in the constitution

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 329

of matter. Next, after some gaps which are being ener-
getically explored by biology and bio-chemistry, and still
operating es a fundamental synthetic selective activity,
it has emerged on a much higher level of organisation
in the cell of life, and has again been responsible for the
ordered grouping of cells in the life-structures of organisms,
both of the plant and the animal type, and in the progressive
complexifying of these structures in the course of organic
Evolution. The synthetic activity in these organic structures
has been so far-reaching that the independent existence of
the original unit cells has sometimes been questioned, and the
organism has been taken as the synthetic unit, of which the
cell is but a defined portion of nucleated protoplasm. 1 In other
words, theorganic synthesis of cells has been such as practically
to lead to the suppression of the individual cells as such.
Next, in the higher animals and especially in man, Holism
has emerged in the new mutation or series of mutations of
Mind, in which its synthetic co-ordinating activity has risen
to an unheard-of level, has turned in upon itself and become
experience, and has achieved virtual independence in the form
of consciousness. Finally, it has organised all its previous
structures, including mind, in a supreme structural unity in
Human Personality, which has assumed a dominating
position over all the other structures and strata of existence,
and has in a sense become a new centre and arbiter of
reality. Thus the four great series in reality matter, life,
mind and Personality apparently so far removed from each
other, are seen to be but steps in the progressive evolution of
one and the same fundamental factor, whose pathway is
the universe within us and around us. Holism constitutes
them all, connects them all and, so far as explanations are at
all possible, explains and accounts for them all. Holism is
matter and energy at one stage ; it is organism and life at
another stage ; and it is mind and Personality at its latest
stage. And all its protean forms can in a measure be
explained in terms of its fundamental characters and
activities, as I have tried to show. All the problems of the
1 Doncaster: Introduction to Study of Cytology, pp. 3-4.

330 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

universe, not only those of matter and life, but also and
especially those of mind and personality, which determine
human nature and destiny, can in the last resort only be
resolved in so far as they are at all humanly soluble by
reference to the fundamental concept of Holism. For this
reason I have called our universe " the Holistic universe/'
as Holism is basic to its constitution, its multitudinous forms
and its processes, its history in the past, and its promise and
potency for the future. 1

The scientist, viewing my claims for Holism in the dry
light of Science, might perhaps feel tempted to demur to
them. He might object that Holism is a mere assumption
which may have a philosophical or metaphysical value, but
that it has no scientific importance, as it cannot be brought
to the test of actual facts and experiments. Holism as here
presented, he will say, is not a matter for Science ; it is an

1 Professor Lloyd Morgan has made the creative or emergent
character of Evolution the theme of his book on Emergent Evolu-
tion and it has been suggested to me that I should explain my
relation to it. The fact is that my views had a different origin
from his, and that they had been matured and the whole of this
book written before I saw his interesting and suggestive volume.
The result is that, in spite of many surprising similarities of thought,
there remains an essential diversity in our themes as well as in our
emphasis even on those matters on which we apparently agree.
To him emergence of the new in the evolution of the universe is the
essential fact; to me there is something more fundamental the
character of wholeness, the tendency to wholes, ever more intensive
and effective wholes, which is basic to the universe, and of which
emergence or creativeness is but one feature, however important
it is in other respects. Hence he lays all the emphasis on the feature
of emergence, while I stress wholes or Holism as the real factor,
from which emergence and all the rest follow. To me the holistic
aspect of the universe as fundamental, and appears to be the key
position both for the science and the philosophy of the future.

Besides, Professor Lloyd Morgan makes the psychical factor
the correlate at all stages of the physical factor, thus in effect getting
back to the Spinozist position that all bodies, even inorganic matter,
are animata in their several degrees. This view seems to be a rever-
sion to the pre formation type of Evolution and to be destructive
of all real effective " emergence." In any case it is wholly different
from the view of creative advance consistently put forward in this
book. As he makes life and mind as primordial in the order of the
universe as matter, there is a special appropriateness in his adoption
of the term "emergent " in preference to "creative " as the character
of Evolution.

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 331

ultra-scientific entity or concept. It falls outside the scope of
Science, and the explanation of things which it purports to give
is not a scientific explanation. Even assuming that there is
such an activity as Holism at work in the universe, it would
have no value for Science. To be of interest to Science, it
must make a difference to actual facts and therefore be
capable of experimental verification. But clearly Holism,
owing to its pervasiveness and universality, cannot be
so tested. As its presence would not be revealed by an
examination of the particular facts, mechanisms and pheno-
mena with which Science deals, it is unnecessary for Science
to take any further interest in it.

I hope I have fairly summarised the attitude which
Science might perhaps feel impelled to adopt towards the
claims I have put forward on behalf of Holism. And I would
reply by pointing out what seems to me to be the weakness
or rather the one-sidedness and partialness in this strictly
scientific attitude. Science seems to me to take too narrow
a view of her sphere and functions when she confines herself
merely to details, to the investigation and description of the
detailed mechanisms and processes in regard to matters
falling within her province. A description of analytical
details, however true so far as it goes, is not yet a full and
proper account of the thing or matter to be described. It
is not enough; the details must be supplemented by a
description which will take us back to the whole embracing
those details. The anatomy and physiology of a plant would
surely not be sufficient as a description of the plant itself. No
description of the parts is a complete description of the whole
object ; it is only a partial descripton, and falls short of a
true and full account in proportion as the object partakes of
the character of a whole; where the object, for instance, is
what I have called a biological or psychical whole. We may
say generally that wherever an object shows structure or
organisation (as every object does) a full description of it
would involve at the very least an account of this structure
or organisation as a whole, in addition to its detailed
mechanisms and functions. And where many objects show
similar or related structures, a proper description would in-

332 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

volve an account of the ground-plan of organisation affecting
them all. Thus in regard to organic and inorganic Evolution,
where the whole world of matter and life and mind can be
grouped into progressive series of structures from the begin-
ning to the end, a scientific account of the universe would
necessarily involve the working out of the universal ground-
plan which expresses this Evolution. And it can but add to
the value of such a ground-plan that it is not merely descriptive
but also attempts to be self-explanatory. A plan or scheme
is by its very nature not properly stated unless it is not merely
described but also explained and accounted for as far as
possible. Now I ask, what else is Holism but such an
attempted ground-plan of the universe, which is of a self-
explanatory character, a ground-plan which makes the
whole scheme the progressive operation and effect of a given
cause ? It may be objected that ultimate causes lie beyond
the purview of Science. But even so the descriptive ground-
plan of Holism would remain and would challenge serious
consideration on scientific grounds. To me the issue seems
quite simple. So long as Science eschewed all wider view-
points (as she modestly did in her earlier years) and confined
her attention to particular areas of facts, such as are em-
braced by the separate sciences, she was quite entitled to
look upon a general explanatory ground-plan of Evolution
as too ambitious for her and as falling outside her proper
sphere. But once she abandons this sectional standpoint
and comes to look upon the entire universe as evolutionary
(as she now does), she is bound to examine a scheme such as
is here put forward on its merits as falling within her universal
province.

Science has been compelled in other instances to complete
and support her account of detailed processes by the
assumption of factors which lie beyond the area of observa-
tion, but without which the detailed processes become un-
intelligible. Thus the assumption of the ether of space was
resorted to as the basis of the undulatory theory for the
transmission of radiant energy. Although ether admittedly
lies beyond the area of scientific observation and experi-
ment, and no test however delicate has ever revealed its

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 333

actual existence, it was long accepted as one of the con-
ceptual entities which were necessary to complete the
coherent system of Science, and indeed as a real physical
element in the universe. It is true that ether seems to have
fallen on evil days and that its existence or conceptual
necessity is being more and more questioned by various
groups of physicists. But it has admirably served its
purpose as a scientific hypothesis, and the legitimacy of
such a hypothesis was never questioned by even the most
rigid school of scientists. And I would submit that the case
for Holism is much stronger than that for ether ever was, as
ether was meant to account only for one particular group
of phenomena in physics, while Holism in the main phases
of its development is necessary to account for the facts and
phenomena of Evolution, both organic and inorganic. The
plain fact is that, as our intellectual outlook widens and the
intellectual horizons recede more and more, the domain of
Science is undergoing an ever greater expansion, and there-
fore the formulation of new principles and new concepts
embodying them becomes necessary for the support and
the coherence of the whole vast scheme of Science. Science
is thus for ever encroaching on the domain of philosophy and
the other great disciplines of the Reason or the Spirit, and
it becomes ever more difficult to confine her activities within
the old orthodox limits. Holism no doubt breaks new ground ;
it is here intended as the basis of a new Weltanschauung
within the general framework of Science ; it is meant to be
the foundation of a new system of unity and inward character
in our outlook upon the universe as a whole. But it does not
fall outside the province of Science in the larger sense. And
it does not introduce strange, alien concepts into the sphere
of Science.

I would also point out that the scientific objection to
Holism as above formulated would, in fact, be identical with
the objection which mechanistic Science has taken to life
and mind as operative factors in the universe an objection
which Science is feeling herself ever more strongly compelled
to overrule. The difficulty to verify Holism in the detailed
mechanisms and functions would be the same as the

334 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

difficulty to verify life and mind as operative factors in
organic and human structures. Holism is really no more
than an attempt to extend the system of life and mind, with
the necessary modifications and qualifications, to inorganic
Evolution, and to show the underlying identity of this
system at all the stages of Evolution. In life the character
of the system becomes clear, in mind still more so.
That is no reason to look upon it as non-existent in the case
of matter. The facts submitted in the foregoing chapters
disclose a more or less connected, graduated, evolutionary
series covering the phenomena of matter no less than of life
and mind. Holism is a concept and a factor which formulates
and accounts for the fundamental ground-plan of this series.
It is therefore very much of the same order of ideas as life
and mind, and stands or falls very much by the same lines
of reasoning as they.

The graduated serial character of the universe has led to
the theory of Evolution. But it is clear that that serial
character opens up still greater questions of sources and
origins. A connected graduated system of facts implies
not only a particular method of their becoming, such as the
theory of Evolution formulates, but also a common origin
and a common propelling force or activity behind the
system. In life and still more in mind we get clear indica-
tions of this origin and this activity. All that remains is to
take a wider view and to bring all the facts and pheno-
mena of the universe within the scope of this common
method and origin. We then reach the concept of Holism
as embracing life and mind, but covering a much wider area
and forming, in fact, the genus of which they are the species.
All Evolution then becomes the manifestation of a specific
fundamental, universal activity.

Having thus attempted to vindicate Holism as a proper
scientific concept in the wider sense, let us now proceed to
sketch the main distinguishing features of the Holistic
universe, in other words, of the conception of the universe
which results from the principles discussed in the foregoing
chapters. The final net result is that this is a whole-
making universe, that it is the fundamental character of

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 335

tMs universe to be active in the production of wholes, of
ever more complete and advanced wholes, and that the
Evolution of the universe, inorganic and organic, is nothing
but the record of this whole-making activity in its progressive
development. Let me briefly summarise the main points
in the preceding argument which lead up to this result.

We have seen that this is an essentially and wholly active
universe ; that its apparent passiveness as matter is nothing
but massed energy, and that activity is therefore its funda-
mental character. Indeed, energy itself is too narrow and
metrical a term to do justice to this character of the physical
universe as concrete activity. Activity in time, energy mul-
tiplied by time, Action as it is technically called in physics,
is the physical basis of the universe as a whole, and nothing
besides. The universe is a flowing stream in Space-Time,
and its reality is not intelligible apart from this concept of
activity. So much the new Relativity has made us realise ;
and to this conclusion the profoundest reflections on the
nature of the universe also tend. For us, constituted as we
are, the universe starts and takes its origin in Action. With
deeper meaning than ever before we realise that " Im Anfang
war die That/' It is, of course, conceivable that much lies
beyond and back of this beginning as it appears to us. It
may be that the universe of Action has itself evolved out of
a prior order which lies beyond human ken ; that there is an
infinite regress of celestial Evolution into time past; and
that the physical universe as it now appears to or is
conceived by us is the evolved result of inconceivable
prior developments. We do not know, and speculation
would be barren and futile.

The physical stuff of the universe is therefore really and
truly Action and nothing else. But when we say that, when
vve make activity instead of matter the stuff or material of
the universe, a new view-point is subtly introduced. For the
associations of matter are different from those of Action, and
the dethronement of matter in our fundamental physical
conception of the universe and its replacement by Action
must profoundly modify our general outlook and view-
points. The New Physics may prove a solvent for some of

336 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

the most ancient and hardest concepts of traditional humn
experience and has brought a rapprochement and recon-
ciliation between the material and organic or psychical
orders within measurable distance. I must refer to the
concluding portion of the third chapter for a statement of
this far-reaching advance which has been made by Science
within this century. That is the contribution of the New
Physics to the new outlook.

Action in Space-Time is necessarily structural; indeed
Space-Time supplies the co-ordinates, the framework of
the Activity which is the ultimate stuff of the world. Space-
Time is the structure ; hence Action in Space-Time, in the
first phase of Holism, is purely structural and mechanistic,
as we saw in Chapter VII. The recognition of the funda-
mental structural character not only of matter but of the
whole universe is the contribution of the Relativity theory
to the new outlook. The physical world thus becomes at
bottom structural Action, Activity structuralised in bodies,
things, events. Thus arises the apparent material universe
which surrounds us and in our bodies forms part of us.

What is the next step ? Action does not come to a stop
in its structures, it remains Action, it remains in action.
In other words, there is more in bodies, things and events
than is contained in their structures or material forms.
All things overflow their own structural limits, the inner
Action transcends the outer structure, and there is thus a
trend in things beyond themselves. This inner trend in
things springs from their very essence as localised, imprisoned
Action. From this follow two important conclusions. The
first is the concept of things as more than their apparent
structures, and their " fields " as complementary to their
full operation and understanding. A thing does not come
to a stop at its boundaries or bounding surfaces. It is over-
flowing Action, it passes beyond its bounds, and its surround-
ing " field " is therefore essential not only to its correct
appreciation as a thing, but also to a correct understanding
of things in general, and especially of the ways in which they
affect each other. I have tried, at various points in the fore-
going discussion, to emphasise the great importance of this

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 337

concept of " fields " not only for physics but also for biology
and philosophy.

The second and more important conclusion is the great
fact and concept of Evolution. The inner character of
the universe as Action expresses itself in actuality as a
passage, a process, a passing beyond existing forms and
structures, and thus the way is opened up for Evolution.
The actual character of Evolution can, of course, only be
concluded and known from the facts, and is not a matter of
logical inference deducible from the nature of the universe
as Action. But if activity is the essence of the universe we
see more easily why the universe is evolutionary and
historical rather than static and unchangeable. There is a
passage, a process, a progress, but its characters can only
be determined by a study of the facts of the passage. It
may turn out to be merely a movement of combinations and
groupings ; or it may turn out to be an unfolding, explica-
tion and filling out, an evolutio in the stricter sense; or it
may turn out to be a real creative Evolution such as we have
seen it to be. Real Evolution requires other concepts
besides those of Action and structure ; and these concepts can
only be derived from experience. Thus the actual creative-
ness of Evolution is a conclusion not so much from theory
as from the empirical facts. And the exact nature of this
creativeness is unknown in some respects and remains a prob-
lem for the future to solve. 1 A still wider survey and closer
scrutiny of the facts lead to the conception of Holism which
accounts not only for the structural combinations of bodies,
things and events, but for all the progressive series of unities
and syntheses which have arisen in the cosmic process.

Assuming that Holism and the nature of wholes in the
universe have been sufficiently explained in the foregoing
chapters, I now proceed to compare the world- view to which
Holism leads with those which resemble or touch it at various
points and yet are essentially different from it.

The Holistic view agrees with the Naturalistic con-
ception of physical science in giving the fullest importance
to the physical aspect of the universe. It does full justice

1 See pp. 136-8.
z

338 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

to the structural and mechanistic characters of Nature, and
indeed it considers Mechanism simply an earlier phase of
Holism, and therefore perfectly legitimate up to a point.
It affirms the validity of the fundamental laws and principles
of physics not only for inorganic bodies but also for
organisms, in so far as they are material. It represents
the organic order as arising from and inside the inorganic
or physical order without in any way derogating from
it. If in the end it erects on the physical a super-
structure which is more and more ideal and spiritual, that
does not mean a denial of the physical. The idealism of
Holism does not deny matter, but affirms and welcomes
and affectionately embraces it. If Holism begins as real-
ism and ends as idealism, it does not spurn or deny its
own past; in Holism both realism and idealism have
their proper place and function and indeed find their justi-
fication and reconciliation. It breaks with Naturalism only
at the point where Naturalism becomes purely materialistic,
and in effect denies the creative plasticity of Nature, presents
Nature as an anatomical museum, as a collection of dead and
dried disjecta membra, instead of the interwoven body of
living, creative, progressive unities and syntheses which she
essentially is. Naturalism represents the universe as a vast
reservoir of energy, unalterable in amount but steadily
deteriorating in character, subject to immutable laws and
fixed equations which prevent anything essentially new from
ever arising or having arisen. It thus negatives the concept
of creative Evolution except as a mere figure of speech.
It presents life and mind as mere wandering insubstantial
shadows on the shores of this ocean of energy; the great
Mirage of Evolution broods over the waters; and Man
himself, so far from being a creative factor in reality as a
whole, becomes an impotent spectator of this melancholy
scene, wrapped up in the illusions of his own self-con-
sciousness. Such a view of the universe seems to me hope-
lessly one-sided and distorted, and comes into direct conflict
with large and important bodies of facts of experience which
cannot be denied or reasoned away. To me the rock on
which Naturalism must split is the fact of creative Evolution.

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 339

Jn the first chapter I pointed out that the old materialistic
Naturalism is inconsistent with a clear and frank recognition
of the great fact of Evolution, and in the body of this work
I have tried to drive the point further home.

Creativeness is the key-word and the key-position, not
only so far as Naturalism is concerned, but also as regards
those other world-conceptions which are most hostile to
Naturalism, such as the various modern forms of Spiritual
Idealism. Naturalism imposes the past on the present and
the future; Idealism, again, imposes the present and the
future on the past. Both implicitly deny that creative
Evolution which shows the universe historically as a gradual
transformation, as a real creative process moving from the
real structures of the past to the real structures of the
future; and therefore as a system which in its historical
development embraces and gives justification to both con-
trasted points of view. To view the ideal or spiritual
element in the universe as the dominant factor is to ignore
the fact that the universe was before ever the ideal or
spiritual had appeared on the horizon; that the ideal or
spiritual is a new and indeed recent creation in the order of
the universe, that it was not implicit in the beginnings and
has not been reached by a process of unfolding; but that
from a real pre-existing order of things it has been creatively
evolved as a new factor; and that its importance 4 o-day
should not be retrospectively antedated to a time when the
world existed without it. Where was the Spirit when
the warm Silurian seas covered the face of the earth, and the
lower types of fishes and marine creatures still formed the
crest of the evolutionary wave? Or going still further
back, where was the Spirit when in the Pre-Cambrian
system of the globe the first convulsive movements threw
up the early mountains which have now entirely dis-
appeared from the face of the earth, and when the living
forms, if any, were of so low a type that none have been de-
ciphered yet in the geological record ? Where was the Spirit
when the Solar System itself was still a diffuse fiery nebula ?
The evolutionary facts of Science are beyond dispute, and
they support the view of the earth as existing millions of years

340 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

before ever the psychical or spiritual order had arisen ; and
what is true of the earth may be similarly true of the universe
as a whole. The fact that we have to grasp firmly in connec-
tion with creative Evolution is that, while the spiritual or
psychical factor is a real element in the universe, it is a com-
paratively recent arrival in the evolutionary order of things ;
that the universe existed untold millions of years before its
arrival ; and that it is just as wrong for Idealism to deny the
world before the appearance of Spirit, as it is for Naturalism
to deny Spirit when eventually it did appear in the world.

Creative Evolution seems to move forward by small steps
or instalments or increments of creativeness. Why there
should be this discontinuity rather than a smooth con-
tinuous advance we cannot say ; we can but note the fact,
which seems to be a universal phenomenon. Not only does
matter in its atomic and elemental structure show this
minute discontinuity, but the electric elements in the atom,
and in the electric current generally, and the quanta of heat
and radiant energy show the same remarkable feature.
Thus the unit character of Action and Structure is repro-
duced in the unit character of Evolution and of nuclear
change in the cell. There is real creation as distinct from
mere combinations of pre-existing units or mere unfolding
of implicit elements ; but this creation is not consummated
in one supreme creative Act ; nor is it evenly and uniformly
distributed throughout all time. Its distribution is un-
evenly spread in minute parcels over the whole almost
infinite range of Evolution. Evolution thus becomes a
long-drawn-out process of creation, in which the new for
ever arises by slow and minute increments from the old, or
rather by way of the old, as it is not known how the new
actually arises from the old. As I have explained in Chapter
VII, Holism is the presiding genius of this advance. It deter-
mines the direction of the advance, and it incorporates the
new element of advance synthetically with the pre-existing
structure. It thus harmonises the old and the new in its
own unity; it sy nth esises Variation and Heredity; and by
slow degrees and over enormous periods of time carries
forward the creative process from the most simple, primitive,

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 341

inorganic beginnings to the most exalted spiritual creations.
From the atom to the Soul, from matter to Personality is a
long way, marked by innumerable steps, each of which
involved a real creative advance and added something
essentially new to what had gone before. Such seems to be
the nature of Evolution, and it appears to be fatal alike to
the retrospective interpretation of the universe according
to Idealism, and the prospective interpretation according to
Naturalism. Mind or Spirit did not exist at the beginning,
either implicitly or explicitly; but it does most certainly
exist now as a real factor.

Another world-conception which may be considered as
having considerable affinities with the Holistic view is
that of Leibniz's Monadology. The resemblance is, how-
ever, confined to certain aspects of the respective central
ideas; beyond those aspects the two views are totally and
essentially different. There is a close resemblance between
the central ideas of wholes and monads; that is all. The
unities and units which exist in Nature seemed to Leibniz to
be of the greatest importance for the interpretation of the
universe; not the One but the Many and their intimate
nature seemed to him to supply the key to the great riddle.
I have in the foregoing reached the concept of wholes by a
different process of reasoning from that followed by Loibniz,
but the result looks very much like that arrived at by him
along different lines. And the convergence of the two views
from totally different standpoints would appear to suggest
that there is a substantial element of truth and value in the
concept of wholes, as there undoubtedly is in the Leibnizian
theory of Monads. They agree in having an innerness, in
being little worlds of their own, with their own inner laws
of development and with a certain measure of inner self-
direction or self-conservation which makes them partial
mirrors or expressions of the greater reality. But the
monads according to Leibniz are essentially spiritual entities
or selves, conceived on the analogy of the human mind, and
their activities are of a purely psychical character such as
perception. They are, moreover, absolutely closed, isolated,
self-contained units, each with its own immutable inner

342 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

*

system, uninfluenced by any other monad; and all main-
tained in harmony with each other by some divine pre-
established order outside of them. The greater and lesser
selves of the universe lead their own inner self-existences,
without any contact between one another, and only the
divine interposition maintains a Pre-established Harmony
between them. There is a scale of these monads, from the
lowest most simple, such as atoms or molecules, whose con-
fused perceptions produce the world of matter, to the highest
most complex in the universe, such as human minds, whose
clear and distinct perceptions produce the world of spirit.
God Himself is but the Supreme Monad of monads on this
view. It will be seen how different this monadic conception
is from that of wholes developed in this work. In the first
place, wholes are not all spiritual entities, and the world is not
a hierarchy of spirits exclusively, as Leibniz conceived it.
Spiritual wholes are merely the apex and crowning feature of
the universe, while non-spiritual (material or organic) wholes
compose its earlier phases. In the second place, wholes are
not closed, isolated systems externally ; they have their fields
in which they intermingle and influence each other. The
Holistic universe is a profoundly reticulated system of inter-
actions and inter-connections rising into a real society in its
later phases. In the third place, genetic relationships con-
nect the entire Holistic universe. Wholes from the lowest to
the highest are akin and form one great family, and are
derived from one another in the process called Evolution.
In the fourth place, it is the ascertainable character of this
evolutionary process which holds all the wholes together in
one vast network of adaptations and harmonious co-ordina-
tions, and not some mystic assumed Pre-established
Harmony. Leibniz, while he correctly guessed the real
secret in his idea of Monads, missed yet the true explanation
through not having any knowledge of creative Evolution,
such as the deeper science of our day has revealed to us.
To him Evolution was a mere unfolding of an implicit con-
tent ; he adhered to the traditional preformation views of
his day as well as to the current belief in the fixity of
species. He could not, therefore, realise the idea that

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 343

monads were genetically related and evolved ; and that the
order which underlay the series of monads from the lowest
to the highest was of a creative character. In the absence
of genetic relationships and creative Evolution, he had to
make shift with the notions of isolated inner selves and a
pre-established harmony. We may therefore say that just
as both Naturalism and Idealism are shattered on the rock
of creative Evolution, so likewise the Monadology, however
valuable and suggestive in other respects, founders on that
same rock, which was, however, still secret and undisclosed
to the science of Leibniz's time. But for that ignorance
who knows whether Leibniz might not have elaborated a far
more adequate and suggestive Holistic conception than
that contained in this poor effort !

The astonishing thing is that thinkers of our own time,
who are not only conversant with the idea of creative
Evolution but convinced adherents of it, fail to adjust their
view-points to it. Thus the late Professor James Ward,
who advocated the view of Evolution as epigenesis or creative
synthesis, and whose Pluralism has close affinities to the
Monadology, seems yet to have failed to realise that his view
of Evolution as creative was in conflict with his spiritual
Pluralism or Panpsychism. His Pluralistic universe also
consists entirely of spiritual monads or entities, and this
implies the possession of spiritual or psychical characters
not only on the part of the higher monads, like persons, but
also on the part of the most rudimentary monads, such as
atoms and chemical compounds. Spinoza, who otherwise
differed widely from Leibniz, had also assumed that all
things were in their several degrees animata, but he had
the excuse of being, like Leibniz, ignorant of the idea
of creative Evolution. But Ward, in spite of his fuller
knowledge, calmly follows Leibniz and Spinoza in their
error. The plain fact, of course, is that psychism or
spiritualism can by no stretch of language be ascribed to
mere bits of matter or energy or physical entities like atoms
or chemical compounds without the gravest confusion.
The very idea of creative Evolution or epigenesis is that
both life and mind are later arrivals in the evolutionary

344 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

series, and cannot possibly be antedated to the mere physical
level of Evolution. There is not a great Society of Spirits
in the universe, of which Persons and Things, Souls and Atoms,
alike are members on the same spiritual footing. When the
term " Spiritual " is stretched that far and spread that thin, it
loses all real value and becomes a mere empty figure of speech.
There is indeed no such spiritual Society of the whole universe,
but there is the Holistic order, which is something far greater,
and stretches from the beginning to the end, and through all
grades and degrees of holistic self-fulfilment. Holism, not
Spiritualism, is the key to the interpretation of the universe.
Mind is not at the beginning but at the end, but Holism is
everywhere and all in all. If the universe were a great spirit-
ual Society of lower and higher souls or spirits, Evolution as
creative would become meaningless ; it would be merely a
process of explication of the implicit spirituality (if any)
inherent in the universe. The Holistic view thus not merely
negatives the far-reaching spiritual assumptions of the
Monadology, or Panpsychism, but it is also in firm agreement
with the teachings of science and experience. Nor does it, in
fact, detract from the value or importance of the universe.
It but impresses on us the necessity of that great lesson of
humility which is the ethical message of Evolution. It
shows that values should not be confused with origins, and
that from origins the most lowly may be raised values the
most exalted and spiritual in the order of the universe. The
Great Society of the universe leaves a place for the most
humble inanimate inorganic structure no less than for the
crowning glory of the great soul. To conceive the universe
otherwise is to indulge in anthropomorphism, which may be
pleasing to our vanity, but in reality detracts from the rich-
ness and variety of the universe. The Holistic universe
embraces all the real structures from the lowest to the highest
in their own right and as they are, without decking them in
spiritual habiliments which are alien to their true nature.
This world, in the noble language of Keats, is indeed the
valley of soul-making ; but it could not be that if the valley
itself consisted of nothing but souls. To those who have the
deepest experience of life, this world is not only the upward

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 345

path for the soul, but a very hard and flinty one. To attempt
to pave that rugged way with the roses of the spiritual order
would be a profound mistake from every point of view.

To say this is not to assume that there is anything alien
or antagonistic between the human soul and the natural
environment in which it finds itself in this world. There is
not only poetic value but profound truth in the spiritual
interpretation of Nature to which Wordsworth and other
great poets of Nature have accustomed us. And that truth
is not merely due to the creative part which mind plays in
the shaping and fashioning of Nature. It is not merely
that we invest Nature with our own emotional attributes.
It is, in fact, to be traced to far deeper sources in our human
origins. For we are indeed one with Nature; her genetic
fibres run through all our being ; our physical organs connect
us with millions of years of her history ; our minds are full
of immemorial paths of pre-human experience. Our ear
for music, our eye for art, carry us back to the early begin-
nings of animal life on this globe. Press but a button in our
brain, and the gaunt spectres of the dim forgotten past rise
once more before us; the ghostly dreaded forms of the
primeval Fear loom before us and we tremble all over with
inexplicable fright. And then again some distant sound,
some call of bird or smell of wild plants, or some sunrise or
sunset glow in the distant clouds, some mixture of light and
shade on the mountains, may suddenly throw an unearthly
spell over the spirit, lead it forth from the deep chambers,
and set it panting and wondering with inexpressible emo-
tions. For the overwrought mind there is no peace like
Nature's, for the wounded spirit there is no healing like
hers. There are indeed times when human companionship
becomes unbearable, and we fly to Nature for that silent
sympathy and communion which she alone can give. Some
of the deepest emotional experiences of my life have come
to me on the many nights I have spent under the open
African sky ; and I am sure my case has not been singular
in this respect. The intimate rapport with Nature is one
of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed
very close to us; sometimes perhaps closer than hands

346 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension.
The emotional appeal of Nature is tremendous, some-
times almost more than one can bear. But to explain
it we need not make the unwarrantable assumption of
a universal animism or animatism, and invest inanimate
things with souls kindred to our own. Evolution, with the
genetic relationships and fundamental kinship it implies,
accounts for all this intimate emotional appeal. The idea
of the universe as a spiritual Society of Souls is a poetical
idealised picture, and not in accord with the sober realistic,
scientific view of the facts. This is a universe of whole-
making, not merely of soul-making, which is only its climax
phase. The universe is not a pure transparency of Reason
or Spirit. It contains unreason and contradiction, it con-
tains error and evil, sin and suffering. There are grades
and gaps, there are clashes and disharmonies between the
grades. It is not the embodiment of some simple homo-
geneous human Ideal. It is profoundly complex and replete
with unsearchable diversity and variety. It is the ex-
pression of a creative process which is for ever revealing
new riches and supplying new unpredictable surprises.
But the creative process is not, on that account, issuing
in chaos and hopeless irreconcilable conflict. It is for
ever mitigating the conflict through a higher system of
controls. It is for ever evolving new and higher wholes
as the organs of a greater harmony. Through the steadily
rising series of wholes it is producing ever more highly
organised centres whose inner freedom and creative
metabolism transform the fetters of fate and the contin-
gencies of circumstance into the freedom and harmony of
a more profoundly co-operative universe. But though the
crest of the spiritual wave is no doubt steadily rising, the
ocean which supports it contains much more besides the
Spirit. Enough for us to know that the lower is not in
hopeless enmity to the higher, but its basis and support, a
feeder to it, a source whence it mysteriously draws its
creative strength for further effort, and hence the necessary
pre-condition for all further advance. Thus beneath all
logical or ethical disharmonies there exists the deeper creative,

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 347

genetic harmony between the lower and the higher grades
in the Holistic series.

Reference must be made to one more question or set of
questions before we conclude. I have said before that the
scope of this work is limited, and that it is not intended to
deal exhaustively with the entire subject of Holism. But
within the limits of the introductory task which I have
set myself here, one problem remains to be mentioned. It
is the problem of The Whole, the great whole itself as dis-
tinguished from the lesser wholes which we have found as
the texture of Evolution. In other words, is there a Whole,
a Supreme Whole, of which all lesser wholes are but parts or
organs ? And if there is such a Whole of wholes, how is it
to be conceived ? Is it to be conceived on the analogy of
an organism, as Nature? Or is it to be conceived on the
analogy of Mind and Personality as a Supreme divine
Personality ? Or are both these conceptions inadmissible,
and is there some other way of conceiving the system of
wholes in their actual or possible synthesis? These are
very difficult and thorny questions, but it is clear that we
cannot leave the consideration of wholes at the present stage
of our argument. For that argument implies clearly some-
thing more to complete it, even in the preliminary way which
is all that is intended in this work.

Two points arise from the preceding discussion which
naturally carry us forward to the consideration of these
larger questions. In the first place, where do we fix
the limits of a lesser whole? In a whole we have in-
cluded its field; but how far does this field extend?
What limits are there to the field of an inorganic body,
or an organism, or a Personality? Leibniz represented
each monad as containing or mirroring the whole universe in
its own way and from its own particular angle; lower
monads, of course, more imperfectly than higher monads;
but each in its own degree is a sort of microcosm or minia-
ture universe. In other words, each tiniest least monad is
in a sense cosmic and universal. This description would not
apply to a field. As we have seen, a field is of the same
character as the inner area of the whole, only more attenuated

348 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

in its force and influence, and the farther it recedes from
that area the greater the attenuation ; so that the field,
though theoretically indefinite in extent, is in effect quite
limited in practical operation. When we come to consider
a group of wholes we see that, while the wholes may be
mutually exclusive, their fields overlap and penetrate and
reinforce each other, and thus create an entirely new situation.
Thus we speak of the atmosphere of ideas, the spirit of a class,
or the soul of a people. The social individuals as such remain
unaltered, but the social environment or field undergoes a
complete change. There is a multiplication of force in the
society or group owing to this mutual penetration of the
conjoint fields, which creates the appearance and much of
the reality of a new organism. Hence we speak of social or
group or national organisms. But as a matter of fact there
is no new organism ; the society or group is organic without
being an organism; holistic without being a whole. The
mentality of a crowd as distinct from the number of in-
dividuals composing it is a good illustration of the changed
and reinforced mental field which results from the meeting
of many individuals and the fusion and heightening of their
conjoint fields. And the more psychic they are, the more
they are under the influence of strong passions or carried
away by some contagious idea, the more overpowering the
common field becomes. The force of the group field is
generally out of all proportion to the strength of the idea
or the passions in the individual units composing the group.
The group field is so to say the multiplication of all the
individual fields. The subject falls under the study of
social psychology and is referred to here only for the pur-
pose of illustration. We have in such cases an organic
situation but not an organism. Groups, families, churches,
societies, nations are organic but not organisms.

Taking all the wholes in the world and viewing them
together in Nature, we see a similar interpenetration and
enrichment of the common field. When we speak of Nature
we do not mean a collection of unconnected items, we mean
wholes with their interlocking fields; we mean a creative
situation which is far more than the mere gathering of

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 349

individuals and their separate fields. This union of fields is
creative of a new and indefinable spirit or atmosphere ; the
external mechanical situation is transformed into an in-
ward synthetic, " organic " situation or atmosphere. This
" organic " Nature seems in certain situations to be alive to
us, to stir strange unsuspected depths in us, to make an
appeal to our emotional nature which often " lies too deep for
tears/' Thus we come to consider Nature as an organism;
we personify her, we even deify and worship her. But the
sober fact is that there is no new whole or organism of Nature ;
there is only Nature become organic through the intensi-
fication of her total field. In other words, Nature is holistic
without being a real whole.

Nor is it merely we humans, with our intense psychic
sensitivity, who feel this appeal of organic or holistic Nature.
All organic creatures feel it too. The new science of Ecology
is simply a recognition of the fact that all organisms feel
the force and moulding effect of their environment as a
whole. There is much more in Ecology than merely the
striking down of the unfit by way of Natural Selection.
There is a much more subtle and far-reaching influence within
the special or local fields of Nature than is commonly
recognised or suspected. Sensitivity to appropriate fields
is not confined to humans, but is shared by animals and
plants throughout organic Nature.

There is a second point which emerges from the foregoing
chapters and leads up to the issue now under discussion.

In Chapter VII we have spoken of a general common
trend of Evolution, of Evolution as not tacking and veering
about, but as moving in one general direction, as keeping
a general course and direction through all the endless ages
of her voyaging. How is this to be explained? Here
again the expedient of personification is often resorted to
for the purpose of finding an explanation. It is said that
Evolution discloses a grand inner Purpose, that Nature or
the universe is purposive or teleological, and that no other
category will do justice to the great fact of Evolution as we
see it. But if there is purpose there must be a Mind behind
that purpose. And thus Mind comes to be personified in

350 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Nature as the source of the great evolutionary purpose wkich
the world discloses. Cosmic Teleology spells a corresponding
transcendent Personality. Do the facts warrant or necessi-
tate such tremendous assumptions? Would it not rather
seem that the whole basis of this reasoning is unsound and
false ? In all the previous cases of wholes we have nowhere
been able to argue from the parts to the whole. Compared
to its parts, the whole constituted by them is something
quite different, something creatively new, as we have seen.
Creative Evolution synthesises from the parts a new entity
not only different from them but quite transcending them.
That is the essence of a whole. It is always transcendent
to its parts, and its character cannot be inferred from the
characters of its parts. Now the above reasoning, by which
a supra-mundane Mind or Personality is reached, ignores
this fact. Such a " Personality " would be creatively new
and unlike the wholes which we know and which would
constitute its parts. It would be as different at least from
human Personality as this again is from mere organism. To
call such a new Transcendent Whole by the same name as
human Personality is to abuse language and violate thought
alike. There is universal agreement with the well-known
argument of Kant, that from the facts of Nature no inference
of God is justified. The belief in the Divine Being rests,
and necessarily must rest, on quite different grounds, as a
God whose concept is deduced from natural process is
not a being whom the human soul can worship. From
the facts of Evolution no inference to a transcendent Mind
is justified, as that would make the whole still of the same
character and order as its parts; which would be absurd,
as Euclid says. From the facts neither an organism nor a
Mind of Nature can strictly be inferred ; still less a Person-
ality constituted by both. It may be that the universe is
a whole in the making. That has been suggested as a
possible view. But as yet no such whole can be discerned
or inferred, either in its lower organic or its higher
personal form. The World-Soul is a poetic metaphor
and probably no more.

Nor is it necessary to make these far-reaching assumptions.

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 351

Th<ve is indeed a great trend in Evolution, but it would be
wrong and a misnomer to call that trend a purpose, and
worse to invent a Mind to which to refer that purpose.
There is something organic and holistic in Nature which
shapes her ends and directs her courses. Without forming
an organism or a mind the totality of wholes which compose
Nature develops an organic field which is sufficient to control
her creative movement. As a physical field has its lines of
force, so the organic field of Nature, which results from the
creative interpenetration of all fields of wholes composing
her, has its own structural curves of progress. In human
society we see how the social field or atmosphere becomes a
system of control, a moulding influence to which all incom-
ing members are subject. The individual in society is born
into a vast network of controls, and from birth to death
he never escapes its subtle toils. The holistic organic
field of Nature exercises a similar subtle moulding, controlling
influence in respect of the general trend of organic advance.
That trend is not random or accidental or free to move in all
directions; it is controlled, it has the general character of
uniform direction under the influence of the organic or
holistic field of Nature.

And there is more. Behind the evolutionary movement
and the holistic field of Nature is the inner shaping, directive
activity of Holism itself, working through the wholes and in
the variations which creatively arise from them. We have
seen in Chapter VIII that these variations are not accidental
or haphazard, but the controlled, regulated expression of
the inner holistic development of organisms as wholes.
There is Selection, and thus direction and control, right
through the entire forward movement, not only in the origin
of variations but also at the various subsequent stages of
their " selection/ 1 internal and external. This organic
holistic control of direction, this inner trend of the evolu-
tionary process, is really all that is meant by the metaphor
of Purpose or Teleology as applied to Nature or Evolution.
To infer more is in effect to make the mistake of spiritual
Idealism and to apply later human categories to the earlier
phases of the evolutionary process.

352 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION CHAP.

Thus it is that when we speak of Nature or the Univers^ as
a Whole or The Whole, we merely mean Nature or the
Universe considered as organic, or in its organic or holistic
aspects. We do not mean that either is a real whole in the
sense defined in this work. We have seen that the creative
intensified Field of Nature, consisting of all physical organic
and personal wholes in their close interactions and mutual
influences, is itself of an organic or holistic character. That
Field is the source of the grand Ecology of the universe.
It is the environment, the Society vital, friendly, edu-
cative, creative of all wholes and all souls. It is not
a mere figure of speech or figment of the imagination,
but a reality with profound influences of its own on all
wholes and their destiny. It is the oZ/co, the Home of
all the family of the universe, with something profoundly
intimate and friendly in its atmosphere. In this Home
of Wholes and Souls the creative tasks of Holism are
carried forward. Without idealising it unduly we yet feel
that it is very near and dear to us, and in spite of all
antagonisms and troubles we come in the end to feel
that this is a friendly universe. Its deepest tendencies are
helpful to what is best in us, and our highest aspirations
are but its inspiration. Thus behind our striving towards
betterment are in the last resort the entire weight and
momentum and the inmost nature and trend of the universe.

I have now reached the end of my argument. The re-
flections embodied in this work lie far removed from the
busy and exciting scenes in which most of my life has been
spent ; and yet both of them tend toward the same general
conclusions. It has been my lot to have passed many of
the years of my life amid the conflicts of men, in their wars
and their council chambers. Everywhere I have seen men
search and struggle for the Good with grim determination
and earnestness, and with a sincerity of purpose which added
to the poignancy of the fratricidal strife. But we are still
far, very far, from the goal to which Holism points. The
Great War with its infinite loss and suffering, its toll of
untold lives, the shattering of great States and almost
of civilisation, the fearful waste of goodwill and sincere

xii THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 353

hifcnan ideals which followed the close of that vast tragedy
has been proof enough for our day and generation that
we* are yet far off the attainment of the ideal of a really
Holistic universe. But everywhere too I have seen that it was
at bottom a struggle for the Good, a wild striving towards
human betterment; that blindly, and through blinding
mists of passions and illusions, men are yet sincerely,
earnestly groping towards the light, towards the ideal of a
better, more secure life for themselves and for their fellows.
Thus the League of Nations, the chief constructive outcome
of the Great War, is but the expression of the deeply-felt
aspiration towards a more stable holistic human society.
And the faith has been strengthened in me that what has here
been called Holism is at work even in the conflicts and con-
fusions of men ; that in spite of all appearances to the
contrary, eventual victory is serenely and securely waiting,
and that the immeasurable sacrifices have not been in vain.
The groaning and travailing of the universe is never aimless
or resultless. Its profound labours mean new creation, the
slow, painful birth of wholes, of new and higher wholes, and
the slow but steady realisation of the Good which all
the wholes of the universe in their various grades dimly
yearn and strive for. It is the nature of the universe to
strive for and slowly, but in ever-increasing measure, to
attain wholeness, fullness, blessedness. The real defeat for
men as for other grades of the universe would be to ease the
pain by a cessation of effort, to cease from striving towards
the Good. The holistic nisus which rises like a living
fountain from the very depths of the universe is the guarantee
that failure does not await us, that the ideals of Well-being,
of Truth, Beauty and Goodness are firmly grounded in the
nature of things, and will not eventually be endangered or
lost. Wholeness, healing, holiness all expressions and ideas
springing from the same root in language as in experience
lie on the rugged upward path of the universe, and are secure
of attainment in part here and now, and eventually more
fully and truly. The rise and self-perfection of wholes in
the Whole is the slow but unerring process and goal of
this Holistic universe,
AA

INDEX

ABSOLUTE Values as wholes, 109
Absolutists and " the whole/' 102,

104-5, 113; their sterile monism,

in
Abstraction, the error of , 15, 20-1,

22 n, 29, 121, 122, 1 86
Acceleration and gravitation,

equivalent expressions, 29-30, 31
Acquired characters, inheritance of,

202, 209-10
Acquired experience, inheritance of,

214 n.
Action, the physical basis of the

universe, 33, 42, 45, 52-3, 57, 335,

33i 337 1 its structural character,

42-3, .45. 336
Adsorption, 47
Alchemists, their guesses not far

from the truth, 43-4
Alga and fern, possible bridge

between, 76

Algonkian mountains, age of, 43 n.
Alternation of generations, basis of,

75.

Aquinas, St. Thomas, holistic doc-
trine of, 1 06 n.

Analysis, the error of, 20, 21, 29

Anaxagoras, 238

Aniline dyes, 58

Animals : the psychical develop-
ment manifested in Sexual Selec-
tion, 13-14 ; plants and, their simi-
larities and divergences, 71, 72,
74-5; co-ordination and self-
regulation in, 78, 79, 84, 108, 109,
239, 240; power of self-healing
in, 82-3 ; regarded as wholes,
83-4, 108, 109; Whitehead's doc-
trine of organic mechanism, 122;
animals and humans, heredity
and educability, 261, 283

Aristotelianism of St. Thomas
Aquinas, and Holism, 106 n.

Armstrong, Dr. E. F., 48

Artistic creations as wholes, 100-
101, 108

Associative memory of white mice,
experiments on, 214 n.

Atom, the, 38, 41, 62, 72, 85,
100, 1 80; importance of placing
and spacing of atoms, 38-9;
not static but active in the
Space-Time continuum, 39; the
conquests of the New Physics,
39-40 ; theory of Rutherford and
Bohr, 40-42 ; nucleus, electrons,
and quanta of radiation, 40-41,
42, 50; its planetary structure,

40, 41, 46, 49, 85; the proton,

41, 42; as a potential source of
energy, 43 ; the artificial break-
ing up of matter and the trans-
mutation of metals, 43-4; ex-
ternal properties dependent on
internal structure, 44-5 ; the
basis of the hypothesis of its
structure, 49-5 1 ; not an organ-
ism, 124; a creation of Holism,
136, 160, 237, 238, 328-9; dis-
continuity in its structure, 340

Atomic numbers, 41-2
Attention, development of power
of, 245, 246, 249, 250

Baly, Professor, 70

Beauty, its holistic basis, 230, 231

Becquerel, 24, 39

Bergson : his philosophy of Evolu-
tion summarised and examined,
94-7; the principle of Duration,
94-5, 96, 97, 102, 118; the Intel-
lect, 95-A 97> II 4

Berkeley, 279, 281

Bio-chemical mechanisms, 158

Bio-chemical wholes, 158-9, 161,
I 75 1 7&, 177. See Organisms.

Bio-chemistry, recent advances in,

73
Biographies as aids to the science

of Personology, 293-8, 303
Biological wholes, 102, 103, 106-7
Biology : and a new concept of life, 3,
5; Mechanism and, 4, 5, u, 112,
116-17, 128; latest advances in,
5,7; new syntheses more impor-
tant than specialisation, 5, 7,

354

INDEX

355

iV Sexual Selection in Organic
Evolution, 14 ; its study of Evolu-
tion and the cell, 62 ; value of
the concept of the whole to,
113, 230, 268; value of the con-
cept of "fields" to, 116-19;
Vitalism and, 167; the germ-
cell theory of Variation, 198, 206-
ii ; Mendelism, 202, 203-4;
Personality compared to bio-
logical sports, 285

Body, the : needless confusion over
interaction of mind and, 164, 165 ;
early Christian controversy on
immortality, 165 ; Descartes and
the relation of mind and, 168,
171, 177; the laws of thermo-
dynamics and the principles of
mind and, 170-78; Holism on
the action of " life "on, 180-89;
the Subject-Object relation of
mind and, 248 ; in relation to
Personality, 273-6, 288, 289;
relations of spirit and, 273, 275-6 ;
conventionally degraded by mor-
bid religious spirit, 274; re-
habilitated by modern science,
275 ; relation of mind and, in
Personality, 276-80, 286, 288

Body-cells differentiated from germ-
cells, 207, 209-10; possible reci-
procal influence of body-cells and
germ-cells, 211, 212, 213-14, 228

Bohr, Professor Niels, 40

Bower, Professor F. p., 216 n.

Brain, the : its holistic functions,
150; mind and, 253, 262

Breathing, physiology of, 148

Brown, Robert, 63

Cage, closed, Einstein's illustration,

29-3

Carbon dioxide, its transformation
in the plant, 69, 78

Carlyle, arrested development of
his inner self, 295

Catalysis, use of colloids in, 47, 69

Causation, rigid concept of, in
19th-century science, 9, 16-17,
162, 163; and the idea of
" fields," 17-19; Holism and,

134-5* 142-3. M4. 145-6, 3*4. 3 J 5-
16, 317; freedom creative within
the process of, 145-7, 315-16
Cell, the, 62, 64, 65, 84, 85, 99, 100,
161, 230, 237, 238, 239; colloidal
system of plant cell, 47-8, 66;
enzyme action in, 47-8, 69-70;
the chromosomes, 54, 63, 72, 74,

200, 228, 229 n.; history of study
of cells, 63-4 ; structure and func-
tions of cells, 63, 64-70, 119; the
cell wall, 63, 66; cell-divisions,
63. 64, 71-2, 74-5, 77; attempt
to explain physical mechanism of
heredity from, 64; some central
control of its functions implied,
67, 68-9, 78, 79-85, 199; its
origin possibly electrical, 71-
6; reproduction by reduction
division, 74-5, 77; single-content
and double-contents cells, 75;
differentiation in cells, and diver-
gence of plant and animal forms,
76-8, 8 1 ; the co-operation and co-
ordination of cells towards a whole,
79-86, 99, 199, 223, 239, 329;
the power of restitution of
damaged cells, 82 ; body-cells
differentiated from germ cells,
207, 209-10; possible reciprocal
influence of body-cells and germ-
cells, 211, > 12, 213-14, 228 ; germ-
cell theory of Variation, 196, 198,
199, 202, 203-14, 2^8-9
Cell-division, process of, 64, 712,
74-5, 77 ; its electrical character,

72-3

Chance, the idea of, a fallacy, 185-6

Characterology, 291

Chemical affinity, accounted for,
39, 44-5 ; the selectiveness of
matter in its colloid state possibly
related to, 58; Holism and, 328

Chemical changes in environment
and hereditary variations, 212 n.

Chemical compounds, holistic char-
acter of, 106, 108, 109, 130, 136,
140-41, 1 80; Mechanism and
chemical combination, 157

Chemistry, 55 ; the analysis of the
constitution of matter, 38 ; the
importance of " structure," 38,
39 ; two types of chemical change,
48-9

Chlorophyll, its part in plant life,
4?, 59. 69, 72, 78

Christianity and the evolution of
the idea of Personality, 292

Chromosomes, 63; differences in,
and organic variations, 54 ;
their behaviour in cell-division,
72, 74 ; hereditary characters
carried by, 208, 228, 229 n.

Clerk-Maxwell, 173-5, 177, 179, 180

Colloid state of matter, 46-8, 58-9,
69, 161, 169; distinctive of all
life-forms, 47 ; colloidal system of

356

INDEX

plant eel], 47-8, 66; distinctive
properties of colloids, 47-8, 69-
70 ; enzyme action, 47-8, 69-70 ;
anticipates processes and activities
of life, 58-9, 108

Compounds, unstable equilibrium
and formation of, 45

Conation, development of capacity
of, 246-7, 249, 251

Concepts and their " fields," 17-19;
holistic unity of conceptual sys-
tem, 247, 253, 255, 256

Configuration psychology, 269

Consciousness : the closed system
of physical science denied by,
162-4, 172, 177; the develop-
ment of, 245, 246-7, 248, 249, 250,
259, 329; the Subject and the
Object in, 247-9, 301, 316;
and the "field" of mind, 262;
its freedom and spontaneity, 315,
3*6. 3 1 ?, 3i8, 329

Conservation of energy, law of,
and the systems of life and mind,
170, 171-2, 173-7. 3*4

Co-operation and co-ordination,
holistic, 78-85, 108, 223-4, 229,
239-41 ; in the cells, 79-85, 99,
199, 223, 239, 329; in variations,
217-18, 219, 229; mental pro-
cesses crude in comparison, 240

Creation : two views of the creation
of the universe, 90-92, 137 ; an
unintelligible sense of the word
creation, 135, 138; holistic
creation, 136, 144-5. $ ee Crea-
tive Evolution.

Creative Evolution, 91-8, 135, 144-
5, 148-9, 178, 225-6, 284, 337;
modern belief in, and its implica-
tions, 9-1 1 ; science and philo-
sophy brought together by, 92-
4 ; as structure plus principle,
93, 94; Bergson's system sum-
marised and examined, 94-7;
its holistic character, 100, 101-2,
104-5, 136-9, 145, 148-50, 151,
220, 221-4, 225-6, 330 n,, 332, 334,
33734-4 I > 344. 35*; fundamen-
tal issues raised by, 139-47; the
lower unit always the basis of
the next higher, 160-61, 177, 182,
185, 1 86, 340; beyond the scope
of Mendelism, 204 ; the germ-cell
theory of Variation, 196, 198,
199, 202, 203-14, 228-9; nega-
tive aspect of, 224-5 ; Naturalism
irreconcilable with, 338-9, 341,
343 ; Spiritualism irreconcilable
with, 339-40. 341. 342, 343-4;

discontinuity of its progress,
340-41 ; Monadology and, 341-3;
Pluralism and, 343-5 ; ano^ the
idea of a Supreme Whole, 350-52

Creative Evolution (Bergson), 95,
96, 98

Creativeness : of mind, 34, 92, 255,
259-61, 345; of matter, 54-9, 91-
2, 98, 136; of thought, 92; of
Holism, 103, no-ii, 136-43, 149-
51, 186, 189, 230, 231, 282, 313,
314 ; fundamental issues raised by
concept of, 139-47; reaches its
maximum in Personality, 284 ; of
Personality, 313-14

Crowd mind, the, 348

Crystal structure, 39, 46; the
lattice pattern, 46 ; the unit body,
46; process of its growth, 68

Curves, the pathways of all events
in the Space-Time universe, 31,

3 2
Cytology, present study of, 64.

See Cell.
Cytoplasm, 66

Darwin, 6, n, 24, 193-4, J 95
Darwinism : a new view-point in
respect of existing knowledge,
6; the theory of Descent and
Natural and Sexual Selection not
mechanical but psychical, 11-16;
Holism and, 190-232; the Dar-
winian theory summarised, 194-
6, 200-203; Variation, 194, 195,
196, 198, 200-203, 226-7; Natural
Selection, 194, 195-8, 200, 201,
226-7, 228; the Neo-Darwinians,
198-201, 202-1 1, 227, 229; co-
ordination and co-adaptation of
organs and characters not ex-
plained by orthodox Darwinism,
217-18; Holistic Selection and
Natural Selection, 218-19, 220-28
De Vries, 54, 64, 197, 202, 205
Descartes, on the relations of mind

and body, 168, 171, 177
Descent : Darwin's theory of, 1 i-
16, 194, 195 (See Darwinism) ;
the operation of Radioactivity
compared to that of Organic
Descent, 53-4, 55 ; creative
Evolution and, 137, 139
Determinism, holistic, 317, 319, 320
Development and Purpose (Hob-
house), 256

Diploid cells, generation of, 75
Dissipation of energy, law of, and
the relations of life and mind,
170, 171, 172-7

INDEX

357

Doryaster : Introduction to Study

of Cytology, 329 n.
Double- contents cell, generation of,

75*
Driesch, Professor Hans, 179

Ductless glands, holistic organs,

150, 213
Duration, Bergson's principle of,

94~5> 96, 97, 102, 118
Durkhen, experiments of, 2i6w.
Duty, Personality and, 323

Ecological modifications leading to
variations, 216, 217, 219, 227,
228, 247

Ecology, science of, 227, 349, 352.
See Environment.

Einstein, 6, 7, 248-9; the new
view-point of Relativity, 6 ; pub-
lishes General Theory of Relativity,
24 ; the theory capable of being
put simply and intelligibly, 25-6 ;
its mathematical origin, 23, 26-8 ;
the Ten Equations, 26, 193;
the old mechanics and the new,
2^-33; motion never absolute,
26-8 : the Special Theory of
Relativity, 28 ; his application
of the concept of the Space-Time
continuum, 29-33, 34~5 > the
illustration of the closed cage,
29-30 ; the idea of the inertia of
matter destroyed, 52; the sub-
jective and objective in the
, Space-Time synthesis, 34, 35

Elan vital, 102

Electro-magnetism, an instance of
the selectiveness of matter, 169

Electrons, 40, 41, 50, 122; and the
nucleus, 40 ; combinations of
protons and, 41 ; external pro-
perties of the atom decided by
number and grouping of, 44

Elements, the, 42, 53; their nuclei,
41; atomic numbers, 41-2; the
Periodic Table, 42, 43, 53~4;
their spontaneous breaking up
in Radioactivity, 43, 53, 54 ; arti-
ficial destruction and transmuta-
tion of, 43-4, 53, 54; external
properties the expression of in-
ternal structure, 44-5

Elimination of the unfit, 11-12, 13.
See Natural Selection.

Embryo : formation of, by cell-
division, 63 ; phylogeny repeated
in ontogeny, 75, 118

Emergent Evolution (Morgan), 330 n.

Ends, the realm of, 268

Energy : the " field " of an object,

17-18, 19, 115, 336-7; matter
simply a form of, 32, 33, 42, 45,
5 2 -3> 57. 335. 336, 337; intimate
relation between structure and,
4 2 -3. 45. 52, 56, 57. 336; potenti-
ally available by artificial break-
ing up of matter, 43 ; first func-
tional in the cell, 65, 66, 68 ;
holistic use and control of, 108,
109, no; laws of, and principles
of life and mind, 162, 170-78, 314
Entelechy, theory of, 179-80, 184,

278

Environment : a confused complex
concept, 116; the organism in
relation to, 119, 123, 144, 145,
39, 349; Variation and, 212 n.,
216, 217, 219, 227-8; conscious-
ness increases influence of, 247;
mind as creator of, 260; social
inheritance borne by, 260-61 ;
Personality and, 309, 310-13
Enzymes, action of, 47-8, 69-70
Epistemology, Personality and, 286
Equilibrium : of the atom, and its
external properties, 44-5 ; in-
stability and readjustment of
fundamental structures of Nature,
81, 181, 182; the same rhythm in
the structure of life, 182, 183-4,
185, 225, 244; persistent over-
balance caused by Holism, 186-7,
223, 243 ; tension and selective
compensation as the source of
mind, 2445

Ether, hypothesis of, 17, 278, 332-3
Ethics : individualism arid ethical
problems, 250, 255 ; ethical char-
acter of Personality, 303, 304, 307,
308-9, 3I3-M. 320/321, 322,
323-5

Euclidean geometry and the theory
of Relativity, 26, 31 ; suitable to
the Newtonian and Kantian con-
ception of Space and Time, 33, 34
Evolution, 2-3, 8-10, 22, 90-92, 148-
9, 178, 225-6, 332, 334, 337, 340-
41; Darwinism, 6, 11-16, 194-8,
200-203, 226, 227; the 19th-cen-
tury battle over, 89 ; the modern
belief in Creative Evolution, and
its implications, 9-11, 24, 91-2,
136-43, 145 (See Creative Evolu-
tion) ; mechanistic conceptions
strengthened by Darwinism, n-
16, 197-8; its tendency to
hark back to simpler types, 55 ;
the idea applicable to matter,
57-8, 91-2; the position of the
cell in, 65-6, 85; cell different!-

358

INDEX

ation and the divergence of
plant and animal forms, 76-8, 81 ;
creative Holism the motive force
behind Evolution, 100, 101, 105,
107-8, iio-n, 136-43, 145-7.
149-51, 1 86, 225, 229-32, 239, 282,

329. 330 . 332, 334. 335. 337;
theory of organic mechanism and,
122-4 ; the lower unit the basis of
the next higher unit, 160-61, 177,
182, 185, 186, 340; life and mind
the two great saltus in, 161, 280;
its persistent trend not accidental,
185, 186, 187, 349, 351; Neo-
Darwinian theories, 196, 198-200,
202-212; the Germ-cell theory,
196, 198, 202, 206-214; Mendel-
ism, 202, 203-4; the Mutation
theory, 202, 204-5; experimental
Evolution and its limitations, 202,
203-4, 208, 225-6; hybridisation
and, 206 n. ; Holistic Selection in,
220-24, 229; its negative aspect,
224-5, 230-31; interaction of
internal and external factors in,
227-9 ; the place of mind in, 15-16,
235, 237, 238-44, 257-8, 260 ; the
psychic and the organic in, 239-
41, 243, 244-7, 249-50, 252-3,
258-62, 282-3; *t s advance
towards individuality and Per-
sonality, 241-2, 284, 285, 291,
329; Naturalism and, 338-9;
Monadology and, 341-3," Plural-
ism and, 343-4 ; purposive view
of, justifies no inference of a
Supreme Mind, 350-51

Evolution in the Light of Modern
Knowledge (Bower), 216 n.

Experience : interaction of matter,
life, and mind confirmed by, 2, 3,
162-3, l6 4; its plasticity and the
rigidity of our concepts, 17-18, 21,
24; the Space Time continuum
of events in, 28-9, 34, 35 ; the
Subject-Object relation in, 34-5,
97, 247, 248, 285 ; Bergson on,
94-5 ; the duality of the mind
and, 247, 248, 249, 254, 255-60;
scientific interpretation of, 256-7,
259; influence of past on present,
263; Personality as the Subject
of, 286, 301

Females, emotional sensitiveness of,
implied by the principle of Sexual
Selection, 13, 14, 231-2

Ferments, action of, in protoplasm,

48, 69
Ferns, gametophytes of, 75, 76;

modifications and variations* in,
216 n.
Fibro-vascular system of plants, 77,

79

Fields, value of the concept of, 17,
18, 113, 114-17, 336-7. 347- 8 ;
applied to concepts, 17-19 ; things
and their fields, 17-19, 22 n., 115,
116-17, I2I-2, 336-7; the Space-
Time continuum the field of the
material universe, 32-3, 35, 117,
336; the field and structure, 45,
115-19, 199; colloidal surfaces as
fields, 48 ; wholes and their fields,
113, 115-120, 344, 347-8, 349;
organisms and their fields, 115-
120, 199; the field of the germ-cell,
199, 212, 213, 215-17, 228; the
field of mind, 237, 262-8; the
field of Nature, 349, 35 1 * 352;
group fields, 347-8

Fitzgerald, experiments of, 27

Force, doubtful validity of concept
of, 167 ; laws of, and the prin-
ciples of mind and body, 170-78

Freedom : of the organic whole,
145-7, 28 3, 3i3. 314, 3i5. 3i6,
318; of the Personality, 146, 283,
284, 285, 313, 314, 3*8-21, 323,
324 ; of the mind, 259, 267-8 ; the
rule of the universe, 316-17; not
limited to the will, 316, 318, 319

Function and structure, their rela-
tion in wholes, 81, 106-7, 108, 109,
no, 115, 118-19, 129-31, 170

Future, the, an operative factor in
the activity of the mind, 267-8

Galileo, 26

Gametes, the, 74, 75

Gametophyte generation, the, 75-6

Gases, result of internal equilibrium
in the atoms and molecules, 45, 46

General Theory of Relativity (Ein-
stein), 24, 25

Generalisation, the error of, 15, 20-21

Genes, 54, 208, 229; struggle for
existence assumed among, 210;
"gene' 1 theory of Variation
criticised, 229 .

Genetics, 54, 64 ; theories of Varia-
tion, 54, 202-214, 229

Geological age measured by Radio-
activity, 43

Germ-cell theory of Variation, 196,
198, 199, 202, 205-214, 229; the
field of the germ-cell, 199, 212,
215-17, 228; possible reciprocal
influence of body-cells and germ-
cells, 211, 212, 213-14, 228

INDEX

359

"Gestalt" psychology, 269

Glfctathione, 73

God : as the medium of the inter-
action of body and mind, 279, 281

Gold, transmutation of Mercury
into, 43-4

Gravitation : Relativity and, 26, 29-
32, 193; Einstein's closed cage
illustration, 29-30 ; acceleration
and, equivalent expressions, 29-30,
31; as the curved structure of
the real Space-Time world, 32-3 ;
Newton's Law of, 192-3

Grew : study of plant cells, 63

Guelincx, 281

Habit and hereditary modifications
leading to variations, 211, 212-
13, 214-17

Haemoglobin, 59

Haldane, Professor, 148, 185

Haploid cells, generation of, 75

Harrison, Dr. J. W. H., 212 n.

Hegel, 90

Helium atom, the, 41, 43; Helium
nuclei, 41 , 43 ; emission of Helium
used as a geological clock, 43 ;
transmutation of elements by ex-
pulsion of Helium atoms, 43-4, 54

Heredity, 64; the organism and
its field, 115-20; Variation
infinitesimal compared to, 149;
inheritance of acquired characters,
202, 209-10; inheritance of modi-
fications, 202, 209, 2io-i i ; inherit-
ance of mutations, 202, 205-6, 215 ;
Mendelism, 203-4 ; the germ-cell
theory and, 207-8, 209 ; chemical
changes in environment and,
212 w., 228; inheritance of ac-
quired experience, 214^.; educa-
bility and, in the human, 261, 283 ;
the hereditary past in Personality,
264, 282, 283; Holism and, 264,
282, 283, 340

Hobhouse, Professor L. T., 256

Holism, loo-ioi, no, 12021, 124,
155, 187-8; co-operation and co-
ordination in cell activities, 79-86,
99, 199, 223, 239, 329; the funda-
mental whole-making tendency of
the universe, 83, 85-6, 100-101,
102, no, in, 150-51, 186, 188-9,
316-17, 328-30, 334-5, 33 8 . 344.
346, 353; its progressive phases,
99-100, 107-110, 187-8,344; ideal
wholes, 100, 108, 109, no, 151,
231, 250, 252, 268, 303, 314, 320,
321, 322, 3 2 3-5. 33#> 353; the
motive power of creative Evolu-

tion, 100, 101, 105, 107-8, no ii,
i3-43. M5-7. M9-5I. 186, 225,
229-32, 282, 329, 330 ., 332, 334,
335. 337; a similar doctrine in St.
Thomas Aquinas, 106 n. ; the
source of all Values, 109, 151, 230,
250, 252, 268, 314, 344, 353 ; crea-
tiveness of, no, 135-43, 149-51,
186-7, 188-9, 230, 231, 282, 313,
314 ; value of the concept of, 1 10-
T 3 I 55. 268, 269 ; bridges the gaps
between matter, life, and mind,
in-i2, 128, 165, 182-5, 186, 187,
329-30; Science and, 112-13, 121,

150, 155. 230, 257, 330-34; sug-
gested substitution of notion of
Holism for that of life, 112, 168;
as a concept, a factor, and a
theory, 120-21, 165; doctrine of
Organic Mechanism and, 121-4;
functions and categories of, 127-
5 1 ; and the idea of causality,

J 34-5. !4 2 -3 M4. 145-6. 3 r 4.
315-16, 317; Freedom and, 145-

7. 283, 313, 314, 315, 3 i6, 3 r 7 -

23 ; inner co-ordination and self-
regulation by, 78-85, 108, 148-50,

151, 223-4, 229, 239-41, 242, 243,
249, 251, 328-9; structural charac-
ter of, 150-51, 160, 182-3, J 88;
Mechanism and, 154-89, 30 [, 338 ;
Personality the supreme ex-
pression of, 158-9, 160, 225, 272-3,
276, 282, 292, 293, 301, 302, 304,

3.13. 317. 325- 329, 338; and
life and its action on the body,
18087; overbalance of equili-
brium in all structures towards,
185-7, 223; Darwinism aud, 192-
232; Variation as explained by,
199-200, 215, 218-24, 34. 35 1 ;
Holistic Selection, 220-24,
229; repressive aspect of, 224-
5; spiritual aims of, 225, 231,
346. 353 i mind as an organ
and expression of, 231, 235-69,
273, 301, 329, 334; individu-
ality and universality, two ten-
dencies of, 241, 242-4, 247, 249-
50, 251, 252, 254-5, 328; develop-
ment of attention and conscious-
ness, 246 ; the Subject-Object
relation in, 247, 248, 249, 302,
304; holistic aspects of sub-
conscious mind, 263-4, 2 &6, 288-
9; the senses and, 264-5, 293;
purpose and, 267-8; body and
spirit reunited in, 275-6; and
body-and-mind relation in Per-
sonality, 276-82, 286, 288; itself

360

INDEX

the real actor in Personality, 280-
85, 292, 308; self-realisation the
aim of, 303, 323-5; will and,
304; the ideal of Purity and, 312-
13, 321, 323-4; moral discipline
in scheme of, 322, 323; the
holistic universe, 328-53 ; un-
verifiable, 330-31, 333-4; Spirit-
ualism and, 339-40, 341-2, 343-5 ;
Monadology and, 3413, 344;
Pluralism and, 343, 344 ; the
Supreme Whole in, 347, 349-50,

351, 352

Holistic Selection, 220-24, 229
Hooke, Robert, 63
Hormones, functions of, 213-14
Hybridisation, 226 ; Evolution and,

206 n.
Hydrogen atom, the, 41, 42-3

Ideal Man, the, 321-2

Idealism, a denial of creative Evolu-
tion, 339-4* 34 !> 343> 34^, 35 1

Ideals, Holistic, 100, 108-9, IIO
123, 151, 231, 250, 268, 303, 314,
320, 321, 322, 323-5. 338, 353

Immortality, early Christian con-
troversy on, 165

Individual, the, and the race,
differentiation of development of,
207-8, 209-10, 212

Individuality : fundamental in
Nature, 84 ; mind and the holistic
process of individuation, 147,
241-3, 247-9; consummated in
the human Personality, 242, 250,
254-5, 283-4, 285, 286, 287-8,
293-4, 2 9** ; in its higher develop-
ments, 249-55; the individual
and his social environment, 254,
260, 261, 348, 351 ; the individual-
ist mind and the universal mind,
254-5 ; memory as the basic
bond of individuality, 263 ; the
study of the individual Person-
ality in biography, 293-8

Inert elements, and internal equili-
brium of the atom, 44, 45

Inorganic, the : vanishing fixity of
inorganic elements, 24-5 ; its
conversion into organic at col-
loidal surfaces, 48, 59; chemical
combination and structure in
inorganic chemistry, 48-9; the
cell the real distinction between
organic and, 65

Instinct : in Bergson's philosophy,
96 ; and the development of
mind, 246

Intellect, the : in Bergson's philo-

sophy, 95-6, 97, 114; effect f of
its selectiveness, 1 14-15 ; develop-
ment of, 303-4

" Intro-action " of body and mind,
279

Intuition, in Bergson's philosophy,
96

Inverse Square, Newton's law of
Gravitation, 193

Iodine, its effect on the thyroid
gland, 288

Isomerism, 39

Judgment, synthetic, 268

Kammerer, 216 n.

Kant : his conception of Space and
Time, 33-4, 96; on the creative
action of the mind, 34; and
the Newtonian system, 193 ;
his realm of Ends, 268 ; his " syn-
thetic unity of apperception,"
268-9, 280 ; man a legislative
being, 305 ; the concept of Neces-
sity, 317; no inference of God
justified from the facts of Nature,

35<>

Keats, 344
Kolbe, Mgr. F. C., 106 n.

Lamarck, reaction towards, 196
Language, a social instrument, 254,

260

League of Nations, the, 353
Leibniz, 22 w. ; pre-established har-
mony of, 35, 91, 279, 281, 342,343;
his reply to Descartes, 171, 175;
Holism and the Monadology of,

34!~3, 347~ 8

Life : apparent separateness of life,
mind, and matter not founded
in fact, 2, 3, 22, 51 ; new concept
of, needed, 3, 4, 5 ; mechanistic
view of , 4, 12, 112, 113, 162, 187-
8; thought and, 4, 164; vague-
ness of present concept of, 5, 16,
IH-T2, 127, 165-6; its develop-
ment from matter, 7-8, lo-n,
182-4; life an d mind true opera-
tive factors in Evolution, 16, 333-
4, 341 ; chemical structure of its
mechanism, 49; in the cell, on
its way to mind, 67, 78 ; electrical
energy of sun and the origin of,
72, 73 ; character of wholeness in,
78-86, 100; overflow of life, mind,
and matter into each other's
domain, 89, 99-100, in, 236, 237,
279 ; the gaps between life, mind,
and matter bridged by Holism,

INDEX

|ii-i2, 128, 165, 182-5, *86, 187,
329-30 ; the concept of the whole
preferable to that of, 112-13,
168 ; degrees of Freedom in, 146-
7; the laws of thermodynamics
and the principles of life and mind,
162, 170-78; development of
mind from, 158-9, 161, 185, 186,
187, 240-43, 244-7; life and mind
not independent entities, 164-6,
177-8; the Vitalistic hypothesis
criticised, 166-8, 179-80, 184;
power of selection and self-direc-
tion in, 66, 169-71, 172, 174-5,
178-9, 184-5, 245, 246, 258 ; unity
and interaction of life and mind,
177-8; the theory of Entelechy
and, 179-80, 184; life and its
action on the body, Holism and,
180-87 ; a new structure based on
those of the physico-chemical
order, 182-4, 186, 187, 188, 239,
343 ; the rhythmic equilibrium in,
182, 183-7; Goethe on its pur-
pose, 324; Naturalism and, 338

Light : its velocity, and the principle
of Relativity, 28; the curvation
of, 31 ; accounted for by quanta
of radiation released by electrons,
40-41 ; light effects as basis of
theory of atomic structure, 50-51

Liquids : and internal equilibrium
of the molecule, 45-6 ; molecular
structure of, 46, 65

Lorentz, experiments of, 27

Lotsy, Prof. J. P., 206 n.

Males, the operation of Sexual
Selection limited to, 13

Malpighi, 62

Man : a psycho-physical whole,
159; his mind and his environ-
ment, 260-61 ; the role of struc-
ture not very prominent in,
261-2; hereditary past in mind
of, 264, 283; heredity and
educability in, 283; "a legis-
lative being," 305; the Ideal
Man, 321-3; Naturalistic view
of, 338

Materialism, its unjustified infer-
ences, 8, 10, 15, 122 ; its struggle
with Spiritualism over Evolution,
8-9, ii

Matter : apparent separateness of
matter, life and mind, not founded
in fact, 2, 3, 22, 51 ; new concept
of, needed, 3, 4-5, 10, n, 16, 51-
3> 57> 5 8 02 9 8 > thought and,
4 ; development of life and mind

from, 7-8, lo-n, 52, 53, 54-5,
56, 58, 59, 182-4; 19th-century
materialism, 8, 9; Evolution
and the new concept of, 10-11,
24 ; its field the structure of the
Space-Time universe, 32-3, 35,
45. IJ 7 336; a form of Energy or
Action, 32, 33, 42, 45, 52-3, 57, 335,
33 6 > 337; recent advances in the
knowledge of its constitution, 38-
51, 97, 170; structural character
of, 38, 39. 45-6, 52, 56, 57, 97, 169,
1 80-8 1, 239, 240, 340; the proton
possibly the fundamental form
of, 42; artificial breaking up of,
greatest potential source of energy,
43 ; internal structure and external
properties of, 45-6, 115; its
behaviour in the colloid state,
46-8, 58-9, 169; selectiveness of,
48, 58, 169-70, 244; creativeness
of, 56-9, 91-2,98-9, 135-6; in the
cell, 64, 65 ; overflow of matter,
mind, and life into each other's do-
main, 87,99-100, 111,236,237,279 ;
Holism and the disappearance of
the gulf between life, mind, and
matter, 111-12, 128, 165, 182-4,
185-7; life a complex structure
of, 182-4, l8 . 187, 239, 343 ; spirit
and, Spinozist position, 330 ., 343

Mechanical system, holistic system
distinguished from, 106, 132-3,
134-5, 140, 148, 314

Mechanics, 26; the new system of
Relativity, 26-35

Mechanism, 156, 159-60; invades
the domain of life, 4, 5, 12, 112;
biology and, 4, 5, n, 102-3, 112,
11617, 128; the system shaken
by the concept of creative Evolu-
tion, lo-ii, 140-42; strengthened
by a misconception of Darwinism,
11-16, 197, 198; its recent
domination of science, 91, 102-3,
105, 106, 331, 333-4; wholes not
mechanical systems, 106, 133,
134-5. I4L I4 8 3M: organic,
doctrine of, 121-4; Holism and,
123-4, 154-89; the concept of
Holism transforms and transcends
the mechanistic system, 123-4,
154, 155-9, 187-9; man and, 159;
an early phase of Holism, 160,
l8 7. 338 I inadequate for modern
physiology, 185; its view of
Variation arbitrary and mislead-
ing, 198-200, 218, 223-4, 229-30;
unable to cope with Personality,
301

362

INDEX

Melanism in moths, 212 n.

Memory, 263; associative, 214 . ;
hereditary, 264

Mendel, Abbot, 203

Mendelism, 64 ; its theory of Vari-
ation, 202, 203-4, 212 n.

Mercury, its possible transmutation
into Gold, 43-4

Metabolism, the process of, 68, 79,
103, 136, 173, 199, 309; the
same power necessary to the
Personality, 310-13

Metaphysics, Holism and, 269

Mice, associative memory in, 214 n.

Michelson-Morley experiments, 28

Milton, 297

Mind: apparent separateness of
mind, life, and matter not founded
in fact, 2, 3, 22, 51 ; new concept
of, needed, 4-5, 10, u, 16; general
acceptance of physical basis of,
7-8, lo-n; life and mind, true
operative factors in Evolution,
15-16, 235, 237, 238-44, 257-8,
260, 333-4, 341 ; mind and the
Space-Time universe, 34, 263;
Kant on, 33-4 ; creativeness of,
34> 92, 255, 259-61, 345; life
in the cell on its way to, 67,
78; its development in animals,
78; the overflow of mind, life,
and matter into each other's
domain, 89, 99-100, in, 236, 237,
279; structure and, 96, 97, 261,
262 ; gaps between mind, life,
and matter bridged by Holism,
iu-12, 128, 165, 182-5, 186, 187,
329-30; in doctrine of organic
mechanism, 122 ; its development
from life, 158-9, 161, 185, 186, 187,
240-43, 244-7 * ne closed system
of physical science and, 162, 163,
1 68 ; life and mind not indepen-
dent entities, 164-6, 177-8; the
laws of thermodynamics and the
principles of life and mind, 162,
1 70-78 ; power of self -direction
in, 169, 170-72, 174-5, 176, 178,
259-61, 279; unity and inter-
action of life and mind, 177-8;
the theory of Entelechy and,
179-80, 184; psychology and,
236, 2 37; tne fi 6 ^ of, 237, 262-8;
Personality and, 238, 242, 244,
273. 276-82, 286, 288; crude as
compared with organic co-ordina-
tion and self -regulation, 240;
lines of advance of its evolution,
240-44; as an organ and ex-
pression of Holism, 231, 235-69,

2 73. 3 OI 329, 334; individuatifm
and, 147, 242, 243-4, 250, 253-5,
257; organisation and central con-
trol of, 242, 243, 257, 259, 301 ;
development of attention and
consciousness, 245, 246, 249, 250;
duality of, the Subject-Object re-
lation, 247-9 ; mind and body not
independent, 248, 276-82, 286,
288 ; as a rebel against univers-
ality, 250, 253, 255, 257; Reason
and, 252, 253, 256-7; the Self
conquered by, 253-5 Science
the proudest achievement of,
2567, 258, 259; its enrichment
of the universe, 257-60; and its
environment, 260; the sub-con-
scious mind, 263-4, 266, 288-9;
influence of the past on, 263-4,
266, 345 ; the senses and, 264-6 ;
telepathy and, 266 ; influence
of the future on, 267-8 ; purpose
the highest manifestation of its
activity, 267-8 ; body and mind
in Personality, 276-80, 286, 288 ;
Naturalistic view of, 338 ; the
assumption of a Supreme Mind,

349-51

Minkowski, 28, 29
Misplaced concreteness, fallacy of,

22W., 121

Modifications: in theory of organic
mechanism, 122-3 ; Darwin's the-
ory of, 200, 201 ; inheritance of,
negatived by Weismann, 202, 209,
210-11; possibly the conditions
precedent to Variation, 211, 212-
14, 215, 216, 221, 228

Mohl, von, 63

Molecule, the, 38, 160; importance
of the placing and spacing of its
atoms, 38 ; combination of atoms
into molecules rests on unstable
internal equilibrium, 44, 45 ; mole-
cular structure of liquids, 46, 65 ;
lattice pattern in crystal structure,
46 ; in the colloid state, 47 ; in
theory of organic mechanism,
122

Monadology, 22 n. ; Holism and,

341-3. 344
Monistic conception of the universe

furthered by Holism, 1 1 1
Moral character and the influence

of Holism, 308-9, 322, 323
Morgan, Professor Lloyd, 330 n.
Morgan, T. H., 206 n., 229 n.
Morley and Michelson, experiments

of, 28
Motion : Newton's laws, 26 ; the

INDEX

363

^Einstein theory, 26-35 ; never
absolute, 26, 28; stationariness
an illusion, 27-8 ; the co- variation
*of Space and Time, 27-31; the
Space-Time continuum applied
to, 29-31, 32

Multicellular organisms : reproduc-
tion by cell fusion, 74, 75 ; repro-
duction by reduction division,
74-5, 76 ; formation of the earliest,

Mutations : De Vries' theory of,
54, 202, 205, 206; of matter to
life, 58 ; Darwin's theory of, 200,
201; exceptional, 205, 227; of
body to mind, 279-80

Natural Science reunited with
psychology, 249

Natural Selection : erroneous
mechanical view of, 11-12, 14-
I5 19* 197, 198; fundamentally
psychical, 14-15, 231-2, 322;
Darwin's theory of, 194, 195-6,
197-8, 200, 201-2, 215, 228; co-
operation between Variation and,
200-202, 219-25; operative
within the germ-cell, 210 ;
of small variations, 214-17, 219-
23; Holistic Selection and, 215,
218-25; its limitations, 223-4;
co-operative and helpful rather
than murderous, 227, 229

Naturalism : and the principles
of life and mind, 161-2, 163, 164-

5, 176-7, 179; Holism and, 337-
8, 339, 340; irreconcilable with
creative Evolution, 338-9, 341,

343

Nature : errors in the observation
of, 1921 ; new view of, 245,
275; her high-speed internal
energies, 52; the concept of
Holism and the explanation of,
97-9, 100, in, 138-43. 231, 35i"2 ;
mind and, 98, 99, 163, 238, 345,
350, 351 ; wholes as the real units
of, 101, 102, 104, 113; value of the
Space-Time integration to the
understanding of, 114, 129, 181;
fields in, 114, 115-16, 348-9;
the concept of creativeness and,
138-9, 140, 140-42; the closed
system of physical science, 162-
3 ; life a new structure of her
holistic physico-chemical struc-
tures, 182-4, l86 l8 7 l88 2 39.
343 ; warfare not the rule in, 227,
229 ; the emotional appeal of, 345-

6, 349, 352 ; holistic, not a whole,

349* 35 1 , 352 ; teleological view of,
349-51 ; the holistic Field of, 351,
352 ; the inference of a Supreme
Mind behind, 349-51, 332

Necessity : in the closed system of
physical science, 162 ; the limi-
tations of its power over wholes,
314-15; the concept not grounded
in reality, 317

Neo-Darwinians and the theory of
Variation, 198-200, 202-214

Newton, 7, 26, 33, 171, 193, 194;
his First JLaw and the inertia
of matter, 3}, 52; his conception
of Space and Time, 33, 34, 35 ; his
Law of Gravitation, 192-3

Nitrogen atom split up by Ruther-
ford, 44

Nomenclature, reforms needed in
scientific and philosophical, 6

Nucleus, the : of the atom, 40, 41,
4 2 > 43' 5 spontaneous breaking
up in Radioactivity, 43 ; of
cell, 63, 66; its part in heredity,
64; in cell-division, 71-2, 74

Object, relation of Subject and,
247-9

Objects : their fields, 17, 18-19,
22 ;/., 115, 116-17, I2I-2, 336-7;
regarded as events in Space-Time,
113-14; misinterpreted by our
intellect and senses, 114-15

Ontogeny repeats phylogeny, 75,
118

Organic and inorganic : vanished
fixity of, 25 ; the colloidal surface
as the bridge between, 48, 59 ;
different structure of organic and
inorganic compounds, 489, 65 ;
the cell the real distinction
between, 65-6

Organic Descent : its operation
compared to that of Radio-
activity, 53-4, 55. See Descent.

Organic Mechanibin, doctrine of,
and Holism, 121-4

Organisms : power of regeneration
possessed by, 81-2, 308 ; as typical
wholes, 84-6, 99, 100, 103, 106-7,
112-13, 122-4, I2 9~32, 135, 218,
222-4, 277, 280; relations of the
parts and the whole in, 83-5, 99-
100, 103, 106-7, I0 9 I 3 I - 2 > 1 34~5>
149, 218-19; inner co-ordination
and self -regulation of, 99, 100,
109, 147-51, 166, 169-70,185, 218,
219, 223-4, 225, 229, 239-41, 243;
their fields, 115-20, 199; time
factor in development and explan-

364

INDEX

ation of, 117-18, 219; transform-
ation of a stimulus into free action
by 135, 143,315-16; creativeness
of wholes as seen in, 136-9, 140-
43, 144-5 ; and their environment,
119, 123, 144, 145, 219, 247, 309,
349 ; Vitalism and, 166-8; selec-
tiveness the fundamental property
of, 169, 170; the freedom of, 170,
314,315,316; the laws of thermo-
dynamics and the principles of
life and mind in, 170-78; varia-
tions in, 217-18, 219-20 (See
Variation) ; holistic repression of
variations in, 224-5; individu-
ality of, 241, 242, 251; develop-
ment of mind in, 244-7 material
objective of, 303 ; treated as
synthetic units, 329; organic
situations distinguished from, 349

Organs, holistic, 150

Origin of Species (Darwin), 24,

194-5

Osmosis, 66, 69, 78
Oxygen in the vital processes, 73

Pangenesis, Darwin's theory of, 196
Panpsychism and creative Evolu-
tion, 343-4
Past, the, in the activities of mind,

263-4, 266, 345
Pavlov, Professor, 214 n.
" Peraction," suggested term for

body-and-mind relation, 279
Periodic Law, the, 39
Periodic Table, the, 42, 44, 55, 56
Persona in Roman law, 291-2
Personality, the, 22, 123, 124; the
supreme embodiment of Holism,
108, 109, 147, 159, 160, 242, 255,
272-3, 285, 286, 292, 301, 302,
3 r 3 3 X 7> 3 2 9; repressive activity
of Holism and, 224-5 ; mind and
the development of, 238, 242, 244,
273, 276-82, 286, 288 ; Purpose a
function of, 244, 249, 250, 268,
305 ; an apparent deviation from
the main plan of Holism, 250;
its present imperfection, 250,
255, 36, 308, 318-19; its basis
universal, 254-5, 272-3; the
hereditary past and, 264, 282,
283, 284, 285; as a whole, 272-
98; the body and, 273-5, 288,
289; body and spirit in, 273-6;
body and mind in, 276-80, 281,
282, 286; its own creative
holistic activity, 280-82, 293, 301,
308, 313; its individuality, 283-
4, 287-8, 293-4; constant and

progressive, 284-5; as the Sub-
ject of experience, 286-7 ; psycho-
logy and, 286, 287, 288-91, 302;
the subconscious mind and, 28$'-
89, 305-6; the need for a science
of, 290-91, 293-8,302-3; evolu-
tion of the idea of, 291-2 ; value
of biography to the study of,
293-8, 303 ; functions and ideals
of, 301-25; an organ of selt-
realisation, 302, 303, 304, 324-5 ;
ethical ideals of, 303, 304, 307,
38-9, 3 12 , 3 J 4> 320, 321, 322,
323-5; the will and, 303, 304,
307* 318; the intelligence and,
33~4I inner control and direc-
tion of, 305-8, 309, 319; self-
healing power of, 308-9; en-
vironment and, 309, 310-13;
purity or wholeness of, 312-13,
314, 321-4; freedom of, 313,
318-21, 324, 325; and the idea
of a Supreme Whole, 350

Personology, the science of Per-
sonality, 291, 293-8, 302-3

Phado (Plato), 104

Philosophy, 92, 93, 306; its co-
operation with science ensured
by acceptance of creative Evolu-
tion, 92-4; the idea of the whole
neglected by, 102-3, I2 8; " the
whole " in absolutism, 102, 104-5 ;
the concept of the whole more pre-
cise than that of life in, 112-13;
Holism and the old concepts of,
155; and the relations of body
and mind, 163, 278; Personality
in, 286, 287

Photo-synthesis in plants, 69, 70,

72, 77- 78

Phylogeny repeated in ontogeny,
75, 118

Physical mixtures and chemical
compounds, analogies from, 130-
31, 134, 136, 140-41, 142

Physical science : new concept of
matter in, 3, 5, 52; recent
progress in, 5, 7; the general
acceptance of Evolution and, 1 1 ;
and the relations of life and mind,
16, 161-2, 163, 164, 170-78; the
error of abstraction in, 20-21 ; the
doubtful validity of the concept
of force in, 167; Holism and the
Naturalism of, 337-40

Physico-chemical mechanisms, 157,
164, 180-81; Vitalistic hypothesis
of, 166-7; structural equilibrium
in, 180-82, 183-4; inner holistic-
character of, 182; the material

INDEX

365

^of the new structure of life,
'* 182-4

Physics, the New, 38, 336; dis-
coveries as to the constitution of
matter, 38, 39-42, 335-6; assimi-
lates chemical categories to
physical, 48-9, 157; associates
energy and mass, 171-2
Physiology: and Mechanism, 159;
new categories demanded by,
185 ; and Personality, 288
Planck, Max, 40

Plants: the plant cell, 63, 66-70;
the origin of the cell, 71-7; the
process of reproduction similar
to that of animals, 71, 72, 74;
common origin of animals and, 76-
7; causes of divergence of plant
and animal forms, 77-8 ; holistic
co-operation and co-ordination
in, 79-80, 83-4, 108, 109, 239,
240; regenerative power of, 81,
82 ; ecological modifications and
Variation in, 216
Plato, 104

Pleurococcus, cell aggregation in, 77
Potentiality and organic creative-
ness, 139
Pre-established harmony, 35, 91,

229, 279, 281, 342, 343
Proton, the, 41, 42
Protoplasm, 47, 55, 63, 66, 114;
enzyme action in, 47, 48, 69 ; its
movement in the cell, 66; always
in a process of creative change,
67-8 ; its formation of new proto-
plasm, 68 ; metabolism of, 68, 69 ;
possible origin of its primitive
forms, 73
Psychical nature of Natural and

Sexual Selection, 13-14, 231-2
Psychological Principles (Ward),

289-90, 291

Psychology, 121, 248,253,287; its
methods, 236, 237, 287-9; the
standpoint of Relativity essential
to, 248, 249; natural science
reunited with, 249; and the
syntheses of Reason, 253; the
services of Holism to, 268-9;
and the Personality, 286, 287,
288-91, 302

Psycho-physical wholes, 161, 175,
176-7; the theory of Entelechy
and, 179-80
Purity, an ideal of the Personality,

312-13, 314, 321-4
Purpose : purposiveness distinctive
of wholes, 147; a function of
Personality, 244, 249, 250, 267-8,

305; the highest manifestation
of mind, 267-8; the purposive
view of Evolution, 349-50, 351

Quantum, the, 40, 42, 124; quanta
of radiation released by electrons,
40-41, 50; discontinuity of the
quanta, 41, 340; supremacy of
the quantum law, 52-3

Racial and individual development,
differentiation of, 2078, 20911,
213

Radioactivity, 24, 38, 39; a spon-
taneous breaking up of matter,
43 ; and the transmutation of
elements, 43-4, 53, 54 ; its
operation compared to that of
Organic Descent, 53-4, 55

Radium converted into Lead, 43

Reality, 4 ; its nature obscured by
the analytical character of
thought, 15, 19-20, 114; the sen-
sible order and the conceptual
order, 50-51, 94, 113-14; the old
static view of, 90, 91; creative
Evolution and, 91, 94, 121, 122,
139-40; not explained by Berg-
son's Duration, 94, 95, 96 ; Holism
and the evolution of, 109, 1 10-1 1,
120, 123, 149-51, 230; Relativity
and, 113-14, 117, 129, 335; form-
ula for its fundamental problems,
154, 156; individuation and,
248, 249, 251, 255; Reason and,
252; our sense of, and a sixth
holistic sense, 265 ; Personality
and, 272, 282, 286

Reason, 252-3; creative of values,
92, 252

Reflexes and the development of
mind, 246, 258

Regeneration, organic, 81-2

Relativity, theory of, 6, 24. 25-6;
its mathematical origin, 26-8 ;
gravitation in, 26, 29-30, 31-33,
193 ; the Space-Tim^ universe,
29-33. 34-5. 335. 336; its subjec-
tive and objective aspects, 34-5 ;
value of the Space-Time inte-
gration to our understanding
of Nature, 113-14, 117, 129, 335;
psychology and, 248

Reproduction, the process of :
similar in plants and animals, 71,
72-5; cell-division, 71-2, 73-4;
cell fusion, 74 ; reduction division,
earlier than the separation of
plant and animal forms, 74-5,
76-7 ; its holistic nature, 83 ; and

366

INDEX

the germ-cell theory of Variation,

206-7, 209
Rock-formations, measurement of

age of, 43
Roman law, concept of personality

in, 291-2
Rontgen, 40
Roux, Wilhelm, 197
Rutherford, Sir Ernest, 40, 44

Saltus, creative leaps in Evolution,
161, 205, 280

Sartor Resartus (Carlyle), 295

Scheiden, 63

Schwann, 63

Science, 122, 256, 287; rigidity of its
former concepts, 9, 16-17 ; linked
with philosophy by creative
Evolution, 92-4, 155 ; mechan-
istic outlook of, 93, 102, 103, 105,
122, 1 60, 331, 333; its neglect of
the idea of the whole, 102, 103,
121, 331 ; Holism in relation to,
112-13, 150, 155, 167-8, 230, 257,
330-34 ; its mistaken view of life
and mind as separate entities from
the body, 162, 163, 164-5, 168,
333-4 ; the system of Science the
greatest achievement of mind,
256-7, 258, 259; the body re-
habilitated by, 275

Science and the Modern Woyld
(Whitchead), 22 >i., 121 n.

Selectiveness : of matter, 48, 58-9,
169, 244; of life, 66, 80, 169-71,
173, 174-5. 178-9, 184-5, 244, 246.
258; of intellect, in Bergson's
philosophy, 95-6, 114-15; in-
herently holistic, 170, 351; the
tap-root of will, 169, 170; of
mind, 174, 175, 178

Self, the, 301 ; as the centre of
experience, 247, 249, 252, 254-5,
301-2 ; an apparent rebel against
the universal order, 250, 253, 255 ;
as the centre of the higher order
of Holism, 252, 302; largely a
social construction, 253-4, 2 55-
See Personality.

Self-determination, the true ideal
of human development, 318, 320

Self-direction in life and mind, 170,
171-2, 174-5, 178, 184-5, 259-61,
269

Senses, the : their limitations and
defects, 114-15; holistic char-
acter of, 264-5, 2 93J mind and,
265-6

Sexual Selection : Darwinian theory
of, 12-13; its operation limited

to males, 13 ; emotional sensitive-
ness of females implied by, 13-13,
231-2; psychical nature of, ift
14, 231-2

Shakespeare, his hidden Personality,
297

Simple location, error of, 22 n., 121

Single-content cell, generation of,
75-6

Society: holistic, 109, 353; crea-
tion of, by mind, 260, 261 ; Per-
sonality and, 305 ; group fields
and, 348-9, 351

Socrates, 238

Solids, internal structure of, 46

Soul, the : 19th-century material-
ism and, 8, 9; as a whole, 104;
mistaken physical analogies of,
165; relations of body and, 168,
273, 274-6; Personality and,
273, 274-6, 307; and the ideals
of Holism, 321, 323, 324, 325,
344-5, 346-7; the universe not
a Society of Souls, 344-5, 346,
350 ; environment and, 345-6

Space : in the theory of Relativity,
278, 2933, 34~5 '> as conceived
by Newton and Kant, 335, 96

Space-Time universe, the, 28-33,
39, 42, 122, 181, 335, 336; things
as events in Space Time, 22 n.,
113-14, 121 ; value of the concept
to our understanding of Nature,
114, 117, 122, 129, 181

Special '1 keory of Relativity (Ein-
stein), 27-8

Spectrum analysis, 40, 41

Spencer, Herbert, 196, 211

Spinoza, 121, 269, 281, 330 n., 343

Spirit, the : spiritual ideals of
Holism, 101, 109, no, 151,

J 59. 2 3 r > 2 49. 2 5 2 5 X 2 5 2
spiritual structure of man, 159;
materialist misconceptions of the
spiritual, 165; the trend of
Evolution towards, 185-6; rela-
tions of body and, 273, 275-6;
Personality best studied in
spiritual life, 295-7; spiritual
objective of Personality, 303, 308,

3*4

Spiritual idealism (Spiritualism) :
its battle with materialism over
Evolution, 8-9 ; life and mind in,
176, 177; irreconcilable with
creative Evolution, 339-40, 341,
342-5, 346, 352

Sporophyte generation, the, 75, 76
Sports, biological, and Personality,

INDEX

367

State, the, a super-individual whole,

M>O, 109

Stricture: structural character of
me universe, 25, 32-3, 35, 38, 45,
239332,336; of matter, 38-43,
44-5, 52, 56, 57, 97, 169, 180-81,
239, 240, 340 ; relations of energy
and, 42, 45, 52, 56, 57, 336; in-
ternal structure and external
properties, 44-6, 115, 181, 183-4;
dynamic self-controlled equilib-
rium of, 44-6, 81, 1 80-8 T, 183-7,
244; organic, 65, 116, 117, 177,
185; modern science and the
study of, 92-3 ; and the process
of creative Evolution, 93, 94, 137-
8, 141-3, 151, 176-7, 185-7, 239,
332; mind and, 96, 97, 261, 262 ;
intellect and experience and, 97;
functions and structure in wholes,
106-7, IQ 8, I( >9, 11, 115, 118-
19, 129-31, 160-61, 170; holistic
character of, 107, 108, 109, no,
in, 129, 130-31, 134, 160, 182,
183, 185-7, 241; the field and,
115-19, 199; life a new structure
based on the physico-chemical
structures of Nature, 182-4, I ^6,
187, 1 88, 239, 343 ; mind as a new
departure in, 186, 188, 238, 240,
244-5, 262 ; distinction between
Mechanism and, 187-8; heredi-
tary, less important in the human
than the animal, 261, 262; unit
character of, 340

Struggle for existence, the, 11-12,
13, 14-15, 194. 195-6, J 97> 214,

. 215; the exception, not the rule,
227, 229

Subconscious mind, the, 262-4; in
the Personality, 288-9, 305

Subject-Object relation, the, 247-9

Substance, divine, Spinoza's, 121,
279, 281

Sunlight and its action upon chloro-
phyll, 48, 59, 69, 72, 78

Survival of the fittest, law of, 11-12,

13, I5> i94> 195-6, 197
Synthetic unity of wholes, the, 131-2,

133. 134-5, 136, 137, 138

Teleological view of the universe,
349-50, 351. See Purpose.

Telepathy, 266

Thermodynamics, laws of, 162; and
the principles of life and mind,
i 70-78

Things and their fields, 17-19, 22 .,
115, 116-17, 121-2, 336-7J as
events in Space-Time, 22 #., 113-

14, 121 ; misinterpreted by the
senses, 114-15; Professor White-
head on, 22 n., 121-2.

Thomson, Sir J. J., 40

Thorium, its conversion into
Radium, 43

Thought : baffled by misconcep-
tions of life, mind, and matter,
2, 3, 4, 164, 165-6; value of the
idea of fields, 1719, 32; errors
due to analytical character of,
20, 29 ; creativeness of, 92 ;
deductive and inductive, 136;
structural character of, 188;
a social instrument, 254; tele-
pathy and, 266

Time : in the theory of Relativity,
27, 28, 29-33, 34. 35; as con-
ceived by Newton and Kant, 33-
5,96; and Bergson's principle of
Duration, 95 ; the Time factor in
the field of mind, 263. See Space -
Time universe.

Transmutation of elements, 43-4,

53> 54

Treviranus, 63
Tropisms, 245, 246, 258

Unicellular organisms, reproduction
of, 71-72, 74, 76-7

Unity : of structure and functions in
the whole, 86, 129-33, J 34~5.
150, 170; Holism the tendency
towards, 22, 186, 189, 229, 24.1

Universality and individuation, two
tendencies of Holism, 247, 249,
250, 251; Reason the organ of
universality, 252-3

Universe, the : its structural char-
acter, 25, 32-3, 35, 38, 45, 239, 332,
336 ; stationariness in, an illusion,
27-8, 32 ; the Space-Time uni-
verse, 28-33, 39, 42, 113, 117, 129,
J 8i, 335. 336; Action its inmost
nature, 33, 42, 45, 52-3, 57, 335,
336, 337 ; its creativeness, 56-8,
91, 140; Holism fundamental in,
83, 85-6, 100-101, 102, no, in,
122, 124, 150-51, 186, 188-9, 3 IO ~

17. 328-30. 334-5. 338, 344. 34 6 ,
353 ; two contrasted explanations
of, 9092 ; mechanistic view of,
91, 102-3, 105. 1 06, 331, 333-4:
Bergson on Duration as its crea-
tive principle, 94-5; absolutist
view of, 102, 104-5; its friendli-
ness, 227, 229, 352; the value of
mind to, 257-60; transformed by
Personality, 286-7, 329; Freedom
the rule of, 316-17; Naturalistic

INDEX

view of, 338-9; Idealist view of,
339-40, 346; monadic view of,
342, 347 ; Ideological view of, 349,
^5. 35 1 35 2 ; the assumption
ol 9. Supreme Mind in, 349-51;
possibly a whole in the making,

350
Uranium, 42; its conversion into

Radium, 43
Use and routine, and modifications

and variations, 211, 213, 215-17,

221, 228

Values, or creative Ideals of Holism,
100, 108-9, *i 123, 124, 151,
23*, 250, 268, 303, 314, 320, 321,
322, 323-5, 338, 353

Variation, 149, 200-201 ; Darwinian
theory of, 194, 195, 196, 197,
200-202,214-15; Neo-Darwinian
theories of, 198-200, 202-14 ; the
germ-cell theory of, 196, 198, 199,
202, 205-14, 229; mechanistic
view of, arbitrary and misleading,
198-200, 218, 223-4, 229-30;
the principle of Holism and, 199-
200, 215, 218-24, 229 n., 340, 351 ;
Mutation theory of , 54, 202 , 205-6 ;
Mendelism, 202, 203-4; possible
influence of modifications on the
germ-cell, 212-14, 215, 216-17,
221, 228; the natural selection of
small variations, 213-17; environ-
ment and, 212 w., 216, 217, 219,
227-8; Holistic Selection and,
220-24, 229; Holism and the
repression of variations, 224-5 ;
"gene" theory criticised, 229 w.

Vitalism, the hypothesis of, criti-
cised, 1 66-8 ; the theory of
Entelechy in, 179-80, 184, 278

Wallace, A. R., 13

War, the Great, 352-3

Ward, Professor James, 289-90, 291,

343

Weismann, 14; his germ-cell theory
of Variation, 198, 199, 202, 205-
14; his doctrine of germinal
isolation, 207, 209-10, 211, 227,
229

Whitehead, Rrof. A. N., and the
fallacy of simple location, 22 n. t
121 ; his doctrine of organic
mechanism, 121-4

Whole, the : the reciprocal influence
of the whole and its parts, 79-86,

105, 106, 107, 109-10, 129-35,
145-6, 218-19, 222-3, 280, 28^-2,
350 ; fundamental tendency o./the
universe towards wholes, 83, j)^*-6,
100-101, 102, no, in, 150-5^,
1 86, 188-9, 316-17. 328-30, 334-
5, 338, 344, 34 6 , 353; the charac-
ter of wholes, 100, 101, 103-4,
105-7, 109-10, in, 128, 12931,
350; ideal wholes, 100, 108-9,
no, 151, 231, 250, 252, 268, 303,
3M, 320, 321, 322, 323-5, 338,
353 ; the whole in absolutist philo-
sophy, 1 02, 104-5, 113; creative-
ness of wholes, 103, 105, 107,
136-40, 141-3, I49-5L 230, 231.
280, 282, 313 ; relation of function
and structure in wholes, 106-7,
108, 109, nor 115, 118-19, 129-
31, 1 60-6 1, 170; progressive scale
of wholes, 107-9 ; the concept of
life and that of the whole, 112-13,
1 68; wholes and their fields, 113,
115-20, I2I-2, 344, 347~8, 349;
stimulus transformed into free
action by, 135, 143, 145,315-16;
the whole and the idea of cause,
134-5, 142-3, *44 145-6; freedom
of wholes, 145-7, 315, 316, 318;
individuality of wholes, 147,
241-3, 247-9; co-ordination and
co-adaptation in wholes, 147-9,
217-18, 223-4, 229, 342-3; selec-
tivity of wholes, 170, 351; the
trend towards a greater Whole,
185, 186-7, 252, 302, 324, 325;
Personality as the highest whole,
272, 273, 276, 281, 282, 284, 30^,

303, 304, 3, 3n, 313, 3i8, 319;
psychic wholes,28o, 282 ; monads
and wholes, 341-3, 344 ; the nature
of the Supreme Whole, 347, 350 ;
Nature as a society of wholes,

348-9, 35* 352

Wholeness : in life, 79-86, 100 ; the
aim of Personality, 304-5, 306,
307, 309, 311-13, 318, 321-2,
323-4, 325

Will, the, 162, 259; selectivity
and, 169, 170; development of,
249, 252; the basis of Person-
ality, 303, 304, 305, 307; freedom
and, 316, 318, 319

Wordsworth, 345

X-rays and the investigation of
atomic structure, 40, 114

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