50 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



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- 

 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 converted by the 

 mind 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 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 sensi- 

 ble reality. The hypothetical structure of the atom repro- 

 duces and expresses the observed facts; without such struc- 

 ture 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. 



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 

 breaking down the apparently impassable gulfs between 

 them, and to interpret them in such a way as to present them 

 as successive more or less continuous forms and phaises of 

 one great process, or as related progressive elements in one 

 total coherent reality. In pursuance of that general object 



