J 



276 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



tendency to rise slowly throughout the generations. And this 

 is only natural considering the general constancy of the in- 

 herited materials which go towards its composition, as well 

 as the constancy of the general environment in any nation or 

 people. But it does show much more individual fluctuation 

 than any other structures in the whole range of Evolution. 

 There is evidently no hereditary character in Personality 

 as such; great Personalities arise from generations of the 

 commonplace; and, again, the great Personality may be 

 followed by generations of the undistinguished. There is 

 utter uncertainty in detail, which goes to prove that with 

 Personality we are in the region of contingency and unpre- 

 dictability, and that it is not possible to formulate for 

 Personality a law of sequence in the generations. In fact 

 Personality may be compared to biological sports. We 

 know that a species which has its origin in some great sport 

 or mutation often shows a markedly fluctuating character 

 and continues to sport and to show great variability among 

 its individuals in many directions. This is true in a super- 

 lative degree of Personality, whose sportive freedom is 

 perhaps its most marked general feature. Still even so 

 there is on an average a fair amount of regularity and con- 

 stancy, with probably a slow tendency to rise in the scale 

 in the passage of the generations. Even this great spiritual 

 sport (as we may call it) may find its law in the end. But at 

 present it is still utterly individual and incalculable. It 

 is, however, not a mere passing accident or freak of Evo- 

 lution. It is in line with the whole trend of Evolution; it 

 is a crowning phase of all that has gone before, and if to-day 

 it is still vastly variable and fluctuating, that is so because 

 of its youth, because it has had no time yet to develop firm 

 and constant characters; because it is a whole in the making 

 rather than a whole completely achieved. But its imma- 

 turity does not detract from either its merits or its claims. 

 It is a youthful God destined to complete mastery over the 

 old regular Routine, and to achieve Freedom, Creativeness 

 and Value on a scale undreamt of by us of to-day. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the theory of 



