XII THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 319 



evolving principle of direction and control in all Evolution is 

 enough; it underlies the variations which arise and survive in the 

 right direction, and it creates in the "field" of Nature a general 

 environment of internal and external control. The "wholeness" or 

 holistic character of Nature appears mostly in this field or en- 

 vironment of Nature, with its friendly intimate influences, and its 

 subtle appeal to all the wholes in Nature, and especially to the 

 spiritual in us. The fact is that the Holism in Nature is very 

 close to us and a real support in all our striving towards better- 

 ment. Our aspiration is its inspiration, and it is thus the inner 

 guarantee of eventual victory in spite of all set-backs and defeats. 



This is not a treatise on Philosophy; not even on the 

 philosophy of Nature; not even on the philosophy of Evo- 

 lution. It is an exploration of one idea, an attempt to 

 sketch in large and mostly vague, tentative outline the 

 meaning and the consequences of one particular idea. But 

 that is a seminal idea; indeed it is here presented as more 

 than an idea, as a fundamental principle operative in the 

 universe. As such it is bound to affect our general view of 

 the nature of the universe. I therefore come in this con- 

 cluding chapter to consider what Holism means for our 

 general world-view, our Weltanschauung, and as briefly as 

 possible to sum up the bearing which the argument of the 

 preceding chapters must have on such a general conception 

 of the universe. 



Holism has been our theme — ^Holism as an operative 

 factor in the universe, the basic concept and categories of 

 action of which can be more or less definitely formulated. 

 I have in the broadest outline sketched the progress of 

 Holism from its simple mechanical inorganic beginnings to 

 its culmination in the human Personality. All through we 

 have seen it at work as the fundamental synthetic, ordering, 

 organising, regulating activity in the universe, operating 

 according to categories which, while essentially the same 

 everywhere, assume ever more closely unified and syn- 

 thetic forms in the progressive course of its operation. 

 Appearing at first as the chemical affinities, attractions 

 and repulsions, and selective groupings which lie at the 

 base of all material aggregations, it has accounted for 



