84 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap, iv 



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 creative harmony of the cell. These two funda- 

 mental structures are the great abiding achievements in the 

 course of Evolution, before the advent of Mind, and though 

 many other experiments were 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 

 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. 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 creative synthetic 

 ordering character has been accumulating in this and the 

 two preceding 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. 



