152 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



biological and psychic elements, with an interaction so close 

 and intimate that the psychic element can only be properly 

 looked upon as an outgrowth or development of the bio- 

 logical characters. In other words, the holistic element 

 which entered into x at stage (4) now becomes inextricably 

 blended with another even more pronouncedly holistic ele- 

 ment; and the result is a still further approximation to 

 the full holistic type. In fact man is only mechanistic in 

 respect of his physical bodily organism; the true personality 

 which arises from the blending of the biological and psychic 

 elements into one unique whole is the highest and fullest 

 expression of Holism which Nature has yet realised. If we 

 apply mechanical characters to man's mental or spiritual 

 world, that is only by way of analogy from lower forms of 

 experience, and not because his spiritual structure is in any 

 way of a mechanistic type. Man is based on both worlds; 

 while he has one foot planted on the mechanistic plane, his 

 other is firmly planted on the holistic plane, with a distinct 

 lean-over towards the latter. Essentially he is a spiritual 

 and holistic being, not a mechanistic type, with sui generis 

 categories of the mental and ethical orders. But his physio- 

 logical basis gives him partly a mechanistic character. He 

 is thus what is called a psycho-physical whole. This will be 

 more fully elaborated in its proper connection later on in this 

 work. 



This rough summary of the main phases and stages of 

 synthetic development through which inorganic and organic 

 Evolution has passed will suffice to make clear two points 

 which I wish to emphasise : 



In the first place. Mechanism as applied to types of evolu- 

 tion is an elastic concept, capable of much refinement in its 

 application to ever higher forms and types. The mecha- 

 nism envisaged from the point of view of chemistry is 

 different from that of physics, while again the mechanism of 

 the cell and of simple organisms is a vastly different affair 

 from that of chemistry, and even so is stretched to a limit 

 beyond which it ceases in many respects legitimately to 

 apply. We have different levels of Mechanism, with their 



