XII THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 327 



associations of matter are different from those of Action, and 

 the dethronement of matter in our fundamental physical 

 conception of the universe and its replacement by Action 

 must profoundly modify our general outlook and view- 

 points. The New Physics has proved a solvent for some of 

 the most ancient and hardest concepts of traditional human 

 experience and has brought a rapprochement and recon- 

 ciliation between the material and organic or psychical 

 orders within measurable distance. I must refer to the 

 concluding portion of the third chapter for a statement of 

 this far-reaching advance which has been made by Science 

 within this century. That is the contribution of the New 

 Physics to the new outlook. 



Action in Space-Time is necessarily structural; indeed 

 Space-Time supplies the co-ordinates-, the framework of 

 the Activity which is the ultimate stuff of the world. Space- 

 Time is the structure; hence Action in Space-Time, in the 

 first phase of Holism, is purely structural and mechanistic, 

 as we saw in Chapter VII. The recognition of the funda- 

 mental structural character not only of matter but of the 

 whole universe is the contribution of the Relativity theory 

 to the new outlook. The physical world thus becomes at 

 bottom structural Action, Activity structuralised in bodies, 

 things, events. Thus arises the apparent material universe 

 which surrounds us and in our bodies forms part of us. 



What is the next step? Action does not come to a stop 

 in its structures, it remains Action, it remains in action. 

 In other words, there is more in bodies, things and events 

 than is contained in their structures or material forms. 

 All things overflow their own structural limits, the inner 

 Action transcends the outer structure, and there is thus a 

 trend in things beyond themselves. This inner trend in 

 things springs from their very essence as localised, impris- 

 oned Action. From this follow two important conclusions. 

 The first is the concept of things as more than their apparent 

 structures, and their '' fields " as complementary to their 

 full operation and understanding. A thing does not come 

 to a stop at its boundaries or bounding surfaces. It is over- 



