CHAP, vm DARWINISM AND HOLISM 183 



binations in crossing follow a certain definite law; and the experi- 

 mental Evolution and Cytology of to-day consist mostly in tracing 

 these unit-characters and their manipulations in breeding and in 

 the laboratory. The idea of more or less mechanical combinations 

 thus takes the place of the idea of creative variations, which under- 

 lay the Darwinian conception, and it becomes most difficult to 

 understand how the new variation arises, and how it is that Evolu- 

 tion is really progressive and creative, and not a more or less 

 stationary regime of casual character combinations. 



These later developments take too narrow a view of Evolution 

 as a whole and therefore tend to become one-sided and to over- 

 emphasise certain aspects of the whole process. They are, how- 

 ever, right in their emphasis on the inner creative factor which is 

 the real positive motive force of Evolution. The real secret is in 

 the cell, in the germ-cell or fertilised ovum rather than in the 

 external situation, important as that is. That is the inner seat of 

 Holism, which is the real source of all variation and Evolution. 



There is, however, no doubt that variation is influenced directly 

 by external ecological conditions, which show themselves in the 

 general characters of plant formations and societies, for instance. . 

 And there can likewise be little doubt that acquired characters in 

 the long run reach down to the hereditary germ-cell and become 

 transmissible variations. While these variations are still small and 

 without survival value the acquired characters and animal routine 

 shield and nurse them until they are strong and developed enough 

 to confer survival value on their organisms. Modifications thus 

 are the rough material of variations ; and to that extent Weismann 

 was wrong, and Darwin — and further back, even Lamarck — right. 



There is, however, a further complication which cannot be dealt 

 with on purely Darwinian principles. Modifications and varia- 

 tions do not come singly but in complexes, involving many minor 

 and consequential modifications and variations. Are they all indi- 

 vidually "selected" even before they have any survival value or 

 strength? These difficulties force us to look deeper, to abandon 

 the idea of the individual selection of variations, and to look upon 

 the advance as not being that of a single variation or variations 

 but of the organism as a whole. It is the organism that advances 

 on a certain more or less limited front; the "variation" is only 

 the most conspicuous point of advance, but there is a whole curve 

 of advance involving many other minor points. In other words, 

 the advance is holistic and the variation is only the most striking 

 item of a whole series. And the progress and survival of the 

 variation are an equally holistic affair. The organism is simply 

 maintaining its own advance in the variation ; the variation issues 

 from it and is in conformity with its whole trend and movement; 

 the variation is not single and unsupported, but behind it is the 



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