xn THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 323 



involve an account of the ground-plan of organisation affect- 

 ing them all. Thus in regard to organic and inorganic Evo- 

 lution, where the whole world of matter and life and mind 

 can be grouped into progressive series of structures from the 

 beginning to the end, a scientific account of the universe 

 would necessarily involve the working out of the universal 

 ground-plan which expresses this Evolution. And it can but 

 add to the value of such a ground-plan that it is not merely 

 descriptive but also attempts to be self-explanatory. A plan 

 or scheme is by its very nature not properly stated unless it 

 is not merely described but also explained and accounted for 

 as far as possible. Now I ask, what else is Holism but such 

 an attempted ground-plan of the universe, which is of a 

 self-explanatory character, a ground-plan which makes the 

 whole scheme the progressive operation and effect of a given 

 cause? It may be objected that ultimate causes lie beyond 

 the purview of Science. But even so the descriptive ground- 

 plan of Holism would remain and would challenge serious 

 consideration on scientific grounds. To me the issue seems 

 quite simple. So long as Science eschewed all wider view- 

 points (as she modestly did in her earlier years) and confined 

 her attention to particular areas of facts, such as are em- 

 braced by the separate sciences, she was quite entitled to 

 look upon a general explanatory ground-plan of Evolution 

 as too ambitious for her and as falling outside her proper 

 sphere. But once she abandons this sectional standpoint 

 and comes to look upon the entire universe as evolutionary 

 (as she now does), she is bound to examine a scheme such as 

 is here put forward on its merits as falling within her uni- 

 versal province. 



Science has been compelled in other instances to complete 

 and support her account of detailed processes by the 

 assumption of factors which lie beyond the area of observa- 

 tion, but without which the detailed processes become un- 

 intelligible. Thus the assumption of the ether of space was 

 resorted to as the basis of the undulatory theory for the 

 transmission of radiant energy. Although ether admittedly 

 lies beyond the area of scientific observation and experi- 



