128 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



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 characterisation. It 

 is important to see in what sense wholes, or Evolution 

 generally, or even matter is called "creative," and the fore- 

 going discussion will have prepared us for the explanation 

 which follows. There is a sense in which the word "crea- 

 tion" is unintelligible and falls outside the scope of an in- 

 telligible science or philosophy. I refer to absolute crea- 

 tion — creation, that is to say, out of nothing. Absolute 

 creation just as absolute annihilation cannot be compre- 

 hended by the human mind. E nihilo nihil fit is a funda- 

 mental principle of thought as well as of Nature. But 

 there is another form of creation which is not only intelli- 

 gible but follows directly from the explanation of holistic 

 action which I have already given. Holistic action is cre- 

 ative, and is the only form of creation or creativeness 

 which is intelligible to us. Here again the distinction be- 

 tween 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 in- 

 ductive — 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. 



