246 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



these elements are fused and metabolised into a holistic 

 unity which becomes a unique centre in the universe and, 

 in a real sense, of the universe. Nowhere in the world do 

 we find a greater intensity of the holistic effect produced 

 than in the individual Self or Personality. And yet even 

 there it is by no means complete, for the individual Per- 

 sonality, as we shall see, still shows a discordance of elements 

 which leads to most of the great problems of thought and 

 conduct. The point I am trying to make, however, is that 

 the apparently individualist Mind is in reality deeply and 

 vitally influenced by the universal Mind; and that the in- 

 dividual self only comes to its own through the rational 

 and social self which relates it organically to the rest of the 

 universe. It is rooted in and dependent on the greater whole, 

 and only to a minor extent a rebel against its controlling 

 influence. The immense power of Mind is shown in the way 

 in which, out of the simple data of the rudimentary Self and 

 its experiences, it has raised the noble superstructure of 

 the human Personality. Mind here appears as the great 

 creative artist. But it is more than that; for its work is 

 no mere picture of reality, but is reality itself. It is the 

 great archetype of the artist, and it has this pure creative 

 power because it is but a form, a phase of the supreme 

 creative activity in the universe. 



When Mind comes to apply its conceptual system to its 

 experience of the world, we see the same synthetic holistic 

 activity at work. At first crude, naive experience is simply 

 taken at its face value, and from it a rough empirical order 

 is constructed which is sufficiently correct for all ordinary 

 purposes, and may fairly be called the world of common 

 sense. Of course even this common-sense empirical order 

 will vary widely at different levels of culture. But in every 

 case it is a first rough approximation and a grouping, order- 

 ing and arranging of experience according to the standards 

 and the needs of the common man at that level of mental 

 culture. It is a more or less faithful reading of ordinary 

 experience, and although it contains many discrepancies and 

 contradictions, it is on the whole a more or less connected, 



