v EVOLUTION AND TELEOLOGY 337 



equally and more truly a development of mind itself. That 

 is to say, it would be on a vaster scale a process analogous 

 to that which we have traced in the successive stages of 

 human evolution. 



4. As thus stated, the argument assumes that we can, and 

 therefore that we should, form for ourselves an intelligible 

 account of Reality as a whole. It is, we have seen, possible 

 to question this assumption and to contend that the utmost 

 that our thought can postulate is a system completely 

 intelligible in itself, but not exhaustive of reality. Such 

 a demand, it may be said, meets the needs and corresponds 

 more nearly to the actual position of our cognitive powers. 

 For it may be said, we may suppose a fabric of knowledge 

 so compact that it stands as a single truth, and so fully 

 articulated that the whole meaning of every fragment is 

 clearly visible in the bearing of every bit of it upon the 

 rest. Such a system would possess the maximum of 

 certain and rational explication. Yet, taken as a whole, 

 it must be said to be a mere datum. Why does it exist? 

 Why should anything exist? Would its internal com- 

 pleteness necessarily bar these questions? On the con- 

 trary, if we face them fairly, may they not deliver us from 

 the dilemma of the infinite process? Let us consider the 

 position. We assume as before, that the rational impulse 

 is to weave experience into a connected whole. But we do 

 not postulate that this whole must be co-extensive with 

 reality. We postulate only that it should be intrinsically 

 intelligible and should include all that comes or can come 

 within our experience. Of such a whole, it is still possible 

 to ask how or why it came into being, but it is not possible 

 to ask this question of any part as opposed to the whole. 

 Every part is fully explained within the whole, and this 

 will apply to the whole itself at any given moment of its 

 existence, which is, of course, a part as compared to the 

 entire stretch of time through which it persists. 



Now the essence of such a system has been seen to be that 

 there should be contained within it nothing unconditioned. 

 If, then, we seek to trace back the genesis of things within 

 it on mechanical principles to an initial cause, we are 



