342 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



human Personality as this again is from mere organism. To 

 call such a new Transcendent Whole by the same name as 

 human Personality is to abuse language and violate thought 

 alike. There is universal agreement with the well-known 

 argument of Kant, that from the facts of Nature no inference 

 of God is justified. The belief in the Divine Being rests, 

 (1 and necessarily must rest, on quite different grounds. From 

 the facts of Evolution no inference to a transcendent Mind 

 is justified, as that would make the whole still of the same 

 character and order as its parts; which would be absurd, 

 as Euclid says. From the facts neither an organism nor a 

 Mind of Nature can strictly be inferred; still less a Person- 

 ality constituted by both. 



Nor is it necessary to make these far-reaching assump- 

 tions. There is indeed a great trend in Evolution, but it 

 , would be wrong and a misnomer to call that trend a purpose, 

 I and worse to invent a Mind to which to refer that purpose. 

 There is something organic and holistic in Nature which 

 shapes her ends and directs her courses. Without forming 

 an organism or a mind the totality of wholes which compose 

 Nature develop an organic field which is sufficient to control 

 her creative movement. As a physical field has its lines of 

 force, so the organic field of Nature, which results from the 

 creative interpretation of all fields of wholes composing 

 her, has its own structural curves of progress. In human 

 society we see how the social field or atmosphere becomes a 

 system of control, a moulding influence to which all incom- 

 ing members are subject. The individual in society is born 

 into a vast network of controls, and from birth to death 

 he never escapes its subtle toils. The holistic organic 

 field of Nature exercises a similar subtle moulding, control- 

 ling influence in respect of the general trend of organic 

 advance. That trend is not random or accidental or free 

 ^ to move in all directions; it is controlled, it has the general 



character of uniform direction under the influence of the 

 organic or holistic field of Nature. 



And there is more. Behind the evolutionary movement 

 and the holistic field of Nature is the inner shaping, directive 



I. 



