XII THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 325 



to overrule. The difficulty to verify Holism in the detailed 

 mechanisms and functions would be the same as the 

 difficulty to verify life and mind as operative factors in 

 organic and human structures. Holism is really no more 

 than an attempt to extend the system of life and mind, with 

 the necessary modifications and qualifications, to inorganic 

 Evolution, and to show the underlying identity of this 

 system at all the stages of Evolution. In life the character 

 of the system becomes clear, in mind still more so. 

 That is no reason to look upon it as non-existent in the 

 case of matter. The facts submitted in the foregoing chap- 

 ters disclose a more or less connected, graduated, evolu- 

 tionary series covering the phenomena of matter no less 

 than of life and mind. Holism is a concept and a factor 

 which formulates and accounts for the fundamental ground- 

 plan of this series. It is therefore very much of the same 

 order of ideas as life and mind, and stands or falls very 

 much by the same lines of reasoning as they. 



The graduated serial character of the universe has led to 

 the theory of Evolution. But it is clear that that serial 

 character opens up still greater questions of sources and 

 origins. A connected graduated system of facts implies 

 not only a particular method of their becoming, such as the 

 theory of Evolution formulates, but also a common origin 

 and a common propelling force or activity behind the 

 system. In life and still more in mind we get clear indica- 

 tions of this origin and this activity. All that remains is to 

 take a wider view and to bring all the facts and pheno- 

 mena of the universe within the scope of this common 

 method and origin. We then reach the concept of Holism 

 as embracing life and mind, but covering a much wider area 

 and forming, in fact, the genus of which they are the species. 

 All Evolution then becomes the manifestation of a specific 

 fundamental, universal activity. 



Having thus attempted to vindicate Holism as a proper 

 scientific concept in the wider sense, let us now proceed to 

 sketch the main distinguishing features of the Holistic 

 universe, in other words, of the conception of the universe 



