320 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



the constitution of the atom, and for the structural 

 organising of atoms and molecules in the constitution 

 of matter. Next, after some gaps which are being ener- 

 getically explored by biology and bio-chemistry, and still 

 operating as a fundamental synthetic selective activity, 

 it has emerged on a much higher level of organisation 

 in the cell of life, and has again been responsible for the 

 ordered grouping of cells in the life-structures of organisms, 

 both of the plant and the animal type, and in the progressive 

 complexifying of these structures in the course of organic 

 Evolution. The synthetic activity in these organic structures 

 has been so far-reaching that the independent existence of 

 the original unit cells has sometimes been questioned, and the 

 organism has been taken as the synthetic unit, of which the 

 cell is but a defined portion of nucleated protoplasm.^ In 

 other words, the organic synthesis of cells has been such as 

 practically to lead to the suppression of the individual cells 

 as such. Next, in the higher animals and especially in man, 

 Holism has emerged in the new mutation or series of muta- 

 tions of Mind, in which its synthetic co-ordinating activity 

 has risen to an unheard-of level, has turned in upon itself 

 and become experience, and has achieved virtual independ- 

 ence in the form of consciousness. Finally, it has organised 

 all its previous structures, including mind, in a supreme 

 structural unity in Human Personality, which has assumed a 

 dominating position over all the other structures and strata 

 of existence, and has in a sense become a new centre and 

 arbiter of reality. Thus the four great series in reality — 

 matter, life, mind and Personality — apparently so far re- 

 moved from each other, are seen to be but steps in the pro- 

 gressive evolution of one and the same fundamental factor, 

 whose pathway is the universe within us and around us. 

 Holism constitutes them all, connects them all and, so far as 

 explanations are at all possible, explains and accounts for 

 them all. Holism is matter and energy at one stage; it is 

 organism and life at another stage; and it is mind and Per- 

 sonality at its latest stage. And all its protean forms can in 



^Doncaster: Introduction to Study of Cytology, pp. 3-4. 



