in THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 285 



which in their interaction produce an orderly series of 

 changes along a definite line, the support of the other 

 elements is something that furthers that development. 

 This principle is co-extensive, not merely with the activity 

 of Mind, but with the organic world. The organism, as 

 will be shown more fully later, is a harmony which is per- 

 fect or imperfect according as the organic unity is complete 

 or incomplete. But throughout the organic world harmony 

 is shot through with discord. The cunningly arranged 

 harmony of the parts and processes of the individual living 

 being only enable it to prey more successfully on other 

 living beings. 1 But, as we have seen, the advance of Mind 

 is measured by the constant extension of the sphere of 

 harmony and the removal of partial disharmony and dis- 

 cord within that sphere. There is here a double advance, 

 the general conditions of which are very simple, (i) As 

 far as two things support each other, they have an advantage 

 in the struggle with others which conflict with one another, 

 and their type will tend to multiply. The advantage, more- 

 over, increases as the harmony widens, and from being very 

 small may become the decisive factor. (2) What applies 

 to concrete individuals applies also to principles, tendencies, 



1 In the lower stages this rivalry appears as contributory to the develop- 

 ment of the successful types. Hence the view that natural selection is 

 the cause of progress. If this were true progress must be a self-defeating 

 process, because the struggle for existence on which natural selection 

 depends is the negation of harmony. The truth is, as argued further on 

 in the text, that harmony always involves some selection, but (a) not a 

 selection determined by the law of force, (b) not necessarily a selection 

 involving the destruction of any other members of the species, but only 

 modification of their character. 



I have put it that rivalry ' appears ' contributory to progress in the 

 lowest stages. Is it only appearance ? I confess to thinking a more 

 radical view preferable. According to this view progress at any stage 

 depends (a) on variations due at bottom to the efforts of the living being 

 in the lower stages to maintain, in the higher to extend and perfect 

 itself, () on the suitability of the resultant variation to conditions. It is 

 this relation of variation to conditions which we have constantly used as 

 the explanation of reflex, instinct, sentiment, custom and so forth. Thus 

 it is not the extinction of other types but the suitability of the higher 

 type at each point which is the condition of its advance. At most the 

 elimination of the lower would only be an indispensable condition as 

 long as the food supply is insufficient for both. 



