VII MECHANISM AND HOLISM 179 



always tends to be somewhat more in one direction than the 

 return swing in the other direction. Thus there is an in- 

 finitesimal overbalance or tendency to increased over- 

 balance in the one direction. And this is the direction in 

 which the dynamic equilibrium is therefore continuously 

 moving, and which determines the persistent trend of 

 Evolution. Why should there be this difference? Why 

 are the oscillations of equilibrium not equal and opposite? 

 I can only make the further assumption, in keeping with 

 the spirit of our whole subject, that all structures are 

 under the fundamental influence of Holism, which is faintly 

 but perceptibly pulling all structures in its direction. The 

 trend of this slight overbalance of equilibrium is thus to- 

 wards Holism, towards a structural character which will ever 

 more approximate towards wholeness. In other words, 

 the inner trend of the universe, registered in its very con- 

 stitution, is directed away from the merely mechanical 

 towards the holistic character and towards the realization 

 of Holism as its immanent ideal. The nature of the universe 

 p)oints to something deeper, to something beyond itself. 

 The persistent overbalance in its equilibrium shows that 

 it is not self-sufficing. It has a trend; it has a list. It 

 has an immanent Telos. It belongs to or is making for 

 some greater whole. And the pull of this greater whole is 

 enregistered in its inmost structures. I only mention this 

 subject in passing, without waiting to develop it more fully 

 at this stage. 



At the conclusion of my argument I shall be asked how 

 the result bears on the problem of Mechanism and Holism 

 with which I began this chapter. Life has been shown to 

 be a structure, or structure-like, or best represented by the 

 imagery of a structure, just as matter is. Life has appeared 

 as a continuation on a higher plane of the sort of structure 

 which matter is on a lower plane — a higher structure of 

 the same material, and therefore at bottom not something 

 utterly alien to and different from it. And I shall be asked, 

 ^'Is Mechanism then final? Is life only a more refined 

 mechanism, a mechanism of a higher type, but still a 



