130 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



[ units are the same in both cases, and only their arrange- 

 ment or synthesis into structures is different. Mere re- 

 arrangement of supposed unalterable pre-existing elements, 

 mere reshufflings of the old cards, will give us a sort of 

 chemistry of Evolution, but not the vast range of real ef- 

 fective development which we know. The process of crea- 

 tive Evolution is not a mechanical rearrangement of old 

 material; it involves the qualitatively new at every stage, 

 from the most minute elements to the most complex struc- 

 ture. It is not merely the structure which is new and dif- 

 ferent from what has gone before, some of the materials 

 are also new; the details of the new structure also involve 

 new smaller structures along with the old inherited struc- 

 tures; and in the final analysis (if that were possible) we 

 would find among the elementary units also new ones in 

 addition to the old ones carried forward in the process of 

 descent. There is the creation of the new variety or species 

 (the new structure) ; there is the creation of new unit char- 

 acters (parts of the structure) which justify the new 

 species or variety; and there is behind the new unit char- 

 acters not mere rearrangements of elements of old char- 

 acter units, but an integration of new materials or quality 

 elements with the old elements in the formation of the 

 new unit characters. The process is creative of the new 

 at every step and at every stage, and in the smallest qual- 

 ity elements no less than in the large or total structures. 

 Starting from imaginary elements a, b, c, d, we find in 

 organic advance in no case a mere structural regrouping 

 of these elements only, but everywhere an element of quali- 

 j tative newness, x, incorporated along with the old elements 

 I into the new structure. In every advance we would find 

 '^ not merely a new structure but also an x in one form or 

 another. I have used the concept of units or elements 

 I for the purpose of illustration; but really the creative pro- 

 cess of Evolution is holistic, and in the last resort un- 

 analysable into definite units; the blending of inherited 

 with new structures and characters is so close that no 

 dissociation is possible, and it is impossible to say where 



