ISO HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



mechanism, and it is the negation of the idea of a whole. 

 Mere juxtaposition in space and time is the only description 

 which could be applied to such a situation, which must 

 necessarily be a rare one in Nature. 



(2) Elements a and b are material elements in active 

 physical relation to each other in the combination or system, 

 and this relation affects the characters of the combination. 

 The relation may be one of gravity or electricity or magnet- 

 ism or any other of the forces by which matter acts on mat- 

 ter. In such a case the resultant system is physical, and 

 may be properly called a mechanism. There is combination 

 of parts, which do not lose their identity, and whose indi- 

 vidual actions are summed up and expressed in the action of 

 the system. The ordinary physical categories apply to such 

 a system. 



(3) Elements a and b are material elements which enter 

 into chemical relation to each other, and without losing 

 their identity form a system which is in substance new and 

 different from the component elements. This is a chemical 

 combination of a substantially different character from the 

 physical combination mentioned under (2), which calls for 

 other categories of explanation besides the purely physical 

 ones. As the parts still retain their identity and individual 

 action, the concept of Mechanism applies to their combina- 

 tion; but it is evidently a different kind of mechanism in 

 which a higher degree and intensity of union of the parts 

 are displayed which affect the character and nature of the 

 resultant entity x. It is, of course, true that the New 

 Physics is rapidly assimilating chemical categories of ex- 

 planation to physical categories, but a real difference in the 

 results remains; in character a chemical mechanism is sub- 

 stantially different from a mere physical mechanism, al- 

 though ultimately the underlying forces of union may be 

 proved to be the same in both cases. Material substances 

 in Nature arise from the combination of both forms of union 

 or synthesis; hence all material substances are properly 

 called physico-chemical mechanisms. 



(4) Elements a and b enter into a combination which 



