vm DARWINISM AND HOLISM 213 



It has a distinct advantage; the dice are loaded in its favour 

 by the nature, pressure and practice of the organism as a 

 whole. These forces behind it are probably strong enough 

 to keep it going, though only at the very slow pace at which 

 all biological Evolution moves. Eventually, when it has de- 

 veloped enough to add a sensible measure of strength to the 

 parent organism, it will reward its parent for its secular sup- 

 port, it will join forces with it, and fight a victorious battle 

 against its competitors. At this stage the belated force of 

 Natural Selection has arrived on the scene. But not earlier, 

 the earlier phases having depended on what I call Holistic 

 Selection. 



The Holistic Selection which acts within each organism 

 in respect of its parts inter se is essentially different from 

 the Natural Selection which operates between different or- 

 ganisms, which is more appropriately called the struggle 

 for existence. Holistic Selection is much more subtle in 

 its operation, and is much more social and friendly in its 

 activity; it puts the inner resources of the organism behind 

 the promising variation, however weak and feeble it may 

 be in comparison with other characters, and makes it win 

 through powerful backing rather than through the ruthless 

 scrapping of the less desirable variations. In the organism 

 the battle is not always to the strong, nor is the struggle an 

 unregulated scrimmage in which the most virile survive. 

 The whole is all the time on the scene as an active friendly 

 arbiter and regulator, and its favours go to those variations 

 which are along the road of its own development, efficiency 

 and perfection. 



The continuous Holistic Selection of small variations may 

 be compared to the survival of obsolete organs in an organ- 

 ism. Both are carried forward by the organism as a whole, 

 perhaps for millions of years, without being in either case 

 directly useful to the organism. The whole, if one may say 

 so, takes long views, both into the future and into the past; 

 and mere considerations of present utility do not weigh 

 very heavily with it. It carries its infant variation with it 

 In the same way that it carries the aged and dying members 



