3i 8 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



which are to be gathered together in the general 

 purpose. 



10. So far there is little difficulty, because the mind in 

 which we place the centre of the teleological system is con- 

 ceived as standing outside the instrument and shaping it, 

 operating upon it as any other existent cause may do. But 

 this operative organising activity is not restricted to the 

 external. Within the mind, so far as any given purpose 

 possesses it, feelings, impulses and thoughts come under 

 its moulding power. Even the emotional interest in the 

 end itself is mastered and moderated if its excess interferes 

 with the steady movement requisite to secure the aim. 

 The purposive mind presents itself, in fact, as an organised 

 system of elements organised for the production of a 

 common end. Whereas in a field of mechanical elements 

 we have a set of forces subsisting side by side, each pro- 

 ducing its own effect without regard to the rest, and 

 unaffected by the resultant character of the whole process 

 which their interaction forms, in the case of purpose we 

 have a system of elements in which the part played by each 

 is subdued to the requirements of the whole. In short, 

 we have an organism. Just as the conception of organic 

 unity led us up to that of purpose, so the analysis of pur- 

 pose leads us back to organic unity. But in so doing it has 

 brought to light the principle of organisation for which we 

 were looking. The principle determining the relation of 

 elements in the organic unity, that is to say, is the tendency 

 of their combination towards a certain result. 



But here we touch the centre of the problem. We have 

 seen that this principle of determination has a clear and 

 consistent meaning as long as it is applied to means, or 



even to psychic elements as a whole, so long as we could 



1 i ji- 



conceive the purpose as something acting upon and shaping 



them. But to conceive the purposive consciousness in this 

 external fashion is to destroy its organic character. What 

 holds of the means, however, will be seen on close analysis 

 to apply also to the mind, which uses the means. The 

 means come into existence, we agree, on account of their 

 causal efficacy, as starting-points of certain lines or streams 



