348 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



one another, or it must be referable to a cause, the elements 

 of which necessitate one another. Now let us consider 

 such a whole. Let us call it M and enquire into its rela- 

 tions with any other concomitants as L or N. There are 

 two alternatives, either it is related to N, say, as such, or 

 the collocation MN is variable. In the latter case, the same 

 principles apply, and there must be a whole P in which 

 M and N are reciprocally necessary, or in which /*, v, deter- 

 mining the relation MN, are so. This argument must be 

 repeated with regard to anything standing in relation to M. 

 If variable relations are to be resolved throughout into 

 'as such' relations, each variable collocation must have a 

 place determined by and determining other relations, and 

 ultimately related, in this reciprocal manner, to an entire 

 system. 



7. This mutual determination of parts must therefore run 

 through Reality as a whole, and we are led accordingly to 

 conceive of Reality, either as being at any given moment 

 a system of parts which necessitate one another, or as being 

 a collocation determined by such a system. Thus in the 

 actual scheme of things existing at any given moment, any 

 part has its determinate relation to the whole system. This 

 relation, i.e. the existence and character of the part in its 

 precise position, is determined, either by an antecedent 

 collocation of reality out of which it grew, or by a future 

 collocation into which it is to grow, or by the actual and 

 existent nature of the part and the system as such. The 

 two former cases, then, throw us backward or forward as 

 the case may be. That is, if the relation of the moment is 

 not determined by the nature of the terms as such, it 

 depends on a relation which is so determined. But if any 

 existing relation of a given part to the whole is something 

 fixed by the character of the whole and part as such, if, that 

 is, such a whole, as such, necessitates the existence of such 

 a part in such a relation to it, and if, conversely, the part 

 necessitates other parts, and through them, finally, the 

 whole, that is a relation of mutual necessity, mutual 

 support, or harmony, and if the same relation pervades all 

 the parts, there is a harmony throughout them. They 



