VI FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 129 



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 quite 

 new, of the inorganic into the organic, of the organic mate- 

 rial of one kind into that of an entirely different kind. Crea- 

 ative synthesis is the inmost nature and character 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 sig- 

 nificant 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 

 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 which 

 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 j 

 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 



