138 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



From this discussion it is clear how the concept of Free- 

 dom is rooted in that of the organic whole. The whole is 

 free, the parts are bound: such would be a formula of 

 metaphysics. For beyond the whole there is nothing ex- 

 ternal to determine it, and it is therefore free; while the parts 

 are necessarily bound by their relation to the whole and 

 to each other in the whole. But we are not concerned with 

 metaphysical wholes, but with those of reality, such as 

 organisms. And we have seen how the functioning of an 

 organic whole releases it from the domination, the causation 

 of the external, and conduces to its freedom. The external 

 causation, the stimulus which operates on it ab extra, is 

 transformed by its subtle metabolism into something of 

 itself; otherness becomes selfness; the pressure of the ex- 

 ternal or the other is transformed into the action of itself. 

 The organism is largely detached from its surroundings and 

 centres in itself. Necessity is transformed into freedom. 

 The causal chain of physics becomes the new badge of 

 freedom. The whole, therefore, even in its most humble 

 organic forms, lays the foundations of the new world of 

 freedom. We can arrive at the same result by another 

 process of reasoning, based on the creative activity of 

 Holism. Under the physical system the effect equals the 

 cause, and is therefore completely determined by the cause, 

 Causa = effectum. But we have seen how this formula 

 disappears before creative Holism; how the effect comes to 

 contain the new and therefore to transcend its cause. The 

 element of newness, of novelty in the holistic order of the 

 world, means a release from the complete bondage of matter 

 and its causality and necessity. It means a certain latitude 

 for expansion and growth. It widens the range of possi- 

 bilities; the strait and narrow path of physics become^ 

 the prospect which ultimately widens into the great horizons 

 of life and mind. Freedom broadens out into a world of 

 opportunities. The animal finds that it is no longer im- 

 prisoned in its cell like the plant; it begins to move about. 

 Gradually it learns the great lessons of direction and self- 

 direction. The great Experiment of life assumes ever- 



