io6 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



nervous system or brain we see a new element of control 

 and direction, which transforms the whole 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 still only an approximation to the 

 ideal wholeness. And Holism, standing on that high level 

 of attainment in the human, points the way to the future, 

 and shows that in wholeness, in the creation of ever more 

 perfect 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 stages in which Holism expresses itself and creates 

 wholes in the progressive phases of reality may therefore 

 be roughly and provisionally summarised as follows: 



\ I. 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 



