XII THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 335 



atoms and chemical compounds. Spinoza, who otherwise 

 differed widely from Leibniz, had also assumed that all 

 things were in their several degrees animata, but he had 

 the excuse of being, like Leibniz, ignorant of the idea 

 of creative Evolution. But Ward, in spite of his fuller 

 knowledge, calmly follows Leibniz and Spinoza in their 

 error. The plain fact, of course, is that psychism or 

 spiritualism can by no stretch of language be ascribed to 

 mere bits of matter or energy or physical entities like atoms 

 or chemical compounds without the gravest confusion. 

 The very idea of creative Evolution or epigenesis is that 

 both life and mind are later creations in the evolutionary 

 series, and cannot possibly be antedated to the mere physical 

 level of Evolution. There is not a great Society of Spirits 

 in the universe, of which Persons and Things, Souls and 

 Atoms alike are members on the same spiritual footing. 

 When the term " Spiritual " is stretched that far and spread 

 that thin, it loses all real value and becomes a mere empty 

 figure of speech. There is indeed no such spiritual Society 

 of the whole universe, but there is the Holistic order, which 

 is something far greater, and stretches from the beginning 

 to the end, and through all grades and degrees of holistic 

 self-fulfilment. Holism, not Spiritualism, is the key to the 

 interpretation of the universe. Mind is not at the begin- 

 ning but at the end, but Holism is everywhere and all in all. 

 If the universe were a great spiritual Society of lower and 

 higher souls or spirits, Evolution as creative would become 

 meaningless; it would be merely a process of explication of 

 the implicit spirituality (if any) inherent in the universe. 

 The Holistic view thus not merely negatives the far-reaching 

 spiritual assumptions of the Monadology, or Panpsychism, 

 but it is also in firm agreement with the teachings of science 

 and experience. Nor does it, in fact, detract from the value 

 or importance of the universe. It but impresses on us the 

 necessity of that great lesson of humility which is the ethical 

 message of Evolution. It shows that values should not be 

 confused with origins, and that from origins the most lowly 

 may be raised values the most exalted and spiritual in the 



