232 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



that immense formative period it was but a nursling of 

 life and in no intelligible sense was it responsible for the 

 delicate, complicated, internal self-ordering of the life- 

 structures which must be attributed to another prior factor, 

 or rather to a prior development of the same underlying 

 holistic process of which Mind is a later development. 



Let me now turn to the consideration of the double lines 

 of advance along which Mind emerges and pushes forward 

 in its evolution. In the discussion of cell-structures in 

 Chapter IV we noted a double process in Holism, one of 

 which is the regulative universalising process of structural 

 order to which so much attention has been paid in this 

 study, and the second of which I called individuation. 

 Let me here say a few words about the latter aspect of 

 the holistic advance, which remained of a somewhat sub- 

 ordinate character and comparatively minor importance 

 until the appearance of Mind. Holism, as its very idea 

 implies, is a tendency towards unity, a blending and order- 

 ing of multiple elements into new unities. From the more or 

 less homogeneous to the heterogeneous; from heterogeneous 

 multiplicity again to greater, more advanced harmony, to 

 a harmonious co-operative ordered structural unity; such a 

 formula may serve as a rough-and-ready description of the 

 holistic process. Thus, for instance, in the process of 

 Evolution we see the advance from material systems to 

 individual organisms. One organism is not merely a dupli- 

 cate of another, as one molecule of water is a duplicate of 

 another. It is single and individual, with a character of 

 its own. And the element of separate individuality increases 

 as the differentiation and variation increase with the 

 advance of Evolution. Such individual differences tend to 

 increase, and at the same time their blending in the indi- 

 vidual tends to become ever more unique. This tendency 

 towards individuation is inherent in the holistic process 

 and receives an immense impetus when the human level 

 of development is reached. Here for the first time indi- 

 viduality acquires its true and full meaning. Everyone 

 knows what is meant by individuality as applied to humans. 



