334 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



of the whole, and if the structure is determined by its value, 

 then equally every part exists for the contribution that it 

 makes to the value of the whole, and Reality is Perfect. 

 But if this is so, perfection loses all meaning, and the value 

 which we attribute to the whole of things is so discrepant 

 from what we recognise as value that all use of the term 

 becomes misleading. It has brought us only to the edge 

 of the gulf where the piety of optimism disappears into 

 a whirl of unmeaning words. A retreat lies open, how- 

 ever, if we reconsider our conditions. Our postulate is a 

 system in which every element is conditioned by every 

 other. The structure of this system may be conditioned 

 by its value, but the value is then an element within the 

 system, a living principle running through the whole, but 

 not identical with the whole. What we have done in effect 

 is to look for the explanation of the whole, not to itself, 

 which would be tautology, but to something within it ; not 

 a part strictly, for the conception of division does not apply, 

 but a determining character or condition. But the moment 

 that this condition is clearly recognised as something less 

 than the whole, it in turn requires to be conditioned, and 

 we may take all the elements that go to make up reality as 

 among its conditions. The relation then is mutual. 

 Though the structure of reality exists because it has value, 

 every element that goes to build it up is on its side, so far 

 as it goes, a condition of the structure, and, therefore, of 

 the value secured by it. The contribution of each element 

 is certainly a condition of its existence in the structure of 

 things, but its own inherent nature is in turn a condition 

 of the structure, and, therefore, of the value which that 

 structure possesses. Dualism remains in this account, 

 but not, it may be urged, a dualism inconsistent with 

 the nature of the system propounded. It was essential 

 to this system that every part should be at once condi- 

 tion and conditioned, and now we find that, in fact, while 

 everything that is real is fixed in its place by the structure 

 of the whole, and is, therefore, dependent ultimately on the 

 value which this structure secures, it is at the same time a 

 condition, contributing on its part to determine the char- 

 acter of the whole which it helps to build up. The good 



