no CREATIVE EVOLUTION 



are multiplied. The philosopher, who begins by laying 

 down as a principle that each detail is connected with 

 some general plan of the whole, goes from one dis 

 appointment to another as soon as he comes to examine 

 the facts ; and, as he had put everything in the same 

 rank, he finds that, as the result of not allowing for 

 accident, he must regard everything as accidental. For 

 accident, then, an allowance must first be made, and 

 a very liberal allowance. We must recognise that all 

 is not coherent in nature. By so doing, we shall be 

 led to ascertain the centres around which the in 

 coherence crystallizes. This crystallization itself will 

 clarify the rest : the main directions will appear, in 

 which life is moving whilst developing the original 

 impulse. True, we shall not witness the detailed 

 accomplishment of a plan. Nature is more and better 

 than a plan in course of realization. A plan is a 

 term assigned to a labour : it closes the future whose 

 form it indicates. Before the evolution of life, on 

 the contrary, the portals of the future remain wide 

 open. It is a creation that goes on for ever in virtue 

 of an initial movement. This movement constitutes 

 the unity of the organized world a prolific unity, of 

 an infinite richness, superior to any that the intellect 

 could dream of, for the intellect is only one of its 

 aspects or products. 



But it is easier to define the method than to apply 

 it. The complete interpretation of the evolution 

 movement in the past, as we conceive it, would be 

 possible only if the history of the development of the 

 organized world were entirely known. Such is far 

 from being the case. The genealogies proposed for 

 the different species are generally questionable. They 

 vary with their authors, with the theoretic views 



