1 62 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



menon; so is the very constitution of matter, whose ultimate 

 forms of structure depend on inherent affinities and selec- 

 tivities of still smaller structures or units. So is the 

 behaviour of matter in the colloidal state. In the selective- 

 ness of matter we seem to meet with an ultimate property 

 for which no accounting on further more ultimate grounds 

 is possible. 



Now selectiveness is likewise the fundamental property 

 of all organism; it is indeed the most primitive property 

 of life. Perhaps it is the very point where the organic and 

 inorganic were still one and began to diverge. A cell shows 

 selective power or selectivity in all its processes, such as 

 the assimilation of its food and the rejection of what is 

 not suitable for its nourishment. An organism shows this 

 selective power in all its movements as well as in its nutri- 

 tion. There is a selection of ends and an adjustment of 

 its movements to the attainment of those ends. If the 

 adjustment is wrong, if mistaken or abortive movements 

 are made, the experiment is repeated until the object is 

 attained — the food is reached, the danger is avoided, or 

 the enemy is routed. This primitive power of selection or 

 selectivity is not yet choice or will as seen in the higher 

 phases of organic development, but it is the tap-root of 

 choice or will. One form of this selective power is self- 

 direction, which is equally characteristic of organisms. 

 Life has a power of self-direction, of selecting to go in one 

 direction rather than in another, of taking the path which 

 leads to the attainment of its unconscious or consciously 

 realised object. This power of self-direction is clearly only 

 a particular form or species of the more general power of 

 selectivity. 



Perhaps I may in passing be allowed to make another 

 venturesome suggestion; and that is, that selectivity is 

 an inherently holistic attribute or quality. A natural whole 

 as a small limited centre of unity has a definite structure 

 which necessarily limits its functioning to certain ways or 

 modes and no others. All possibilities are not open to it; 

 it has only more or less limited degrees of freedom for its 



