What is Potentiality? 297 



series which that thing embodies ; but (2) that it is some- 

 thing more than a restatement of any or all of the elements 

 of the series thus embodied. Now, what else is there ? 



The remaining element in the category of potentiality 

 involves, it seems, a very subtle movement of the mind along 

 the same distinction of the prospective from the retrospec- 

 tive. Briefly, the potentiality which I ascribe to a thing is 

 my general expectation of more career in connection with it, 

 with the added sense, based on the combined experiences 

 of mine that the prospective does get a retrospective filling 

 after it has happened, that the new career of the thing to 

 which I ascribe the potency, although not yet unfolded, 

 will likewise be capable of retrospective interpretation as 

 further statement of the one series which now defines the 

 thing. 



In short, there are three elements or phases of conscious- 

 ness involved : first, let us say, the general prospective 

 element, the expectation that something will happen ; sec- 

 ond, the causation or retrospective element, the expectation 

 that when it has happened it will be a consistent part of 

 the history of the thing; and, third, the conscious setting 

 back of my observation to the dividing line between these 

 two points of view, and the contemplation of the thing 

 under both of them — both as a present thing, and as a 

 thing for what it will be when the future becomes present. 



For example : I say that a tree expresses the potency or 

 potentiality of the seed. This means three very concrete 

 things. I expect the seed to have a future ; I expect the 

 future to be a tree — that is, a thing whose descriptive 

 series is continuous with that already descriptive of the 

 seed, — and, finally, I look upon the seed as now embodying 

 the whole tree series thus artificially present in my thought. 



