vi DEVELOPMENT AND HARMONY 361 



There is no further development except through a new 

 synthesis. 



4. Of the causes which bring about such a synthesis we 

 know little, except in the higher stages of development, 

 where it is the deliberate work of Mind. Yet a new 

 synthesis, with whatever modification it may involve, is 

 often for the organism the only alternative to destruction. 

 Each organism proceeds in the path of its development, 

 just as each member of a mechanical structure moves in the 

 orbit marked out by the conditions of the structure, with- 

 out regard to its effect on other organisms or other struc- 

 tures. Hence discord, disorder and, at a higher remove, 

 the pain and suffering which are disorder rendered in con- 

 sciousness. There is, however, from the first this difference 

 between the organism and the mechanical structure, that 

 the organism can adapt itself within limits that gradually 

 expand to new circumstances, guard against dangers, and 

 even in some degree remodel itself so as to avoid or to 

 soften the shock which would otherwise destroy it. It is 

 not regardless of the foreign body so far as the effects on 

 itself are concerned. It is, however, so long as it is fully 

 separate, regardless of its own effect upon the others. 

 Hence the clash of organic forces and the struggle for 

 existence. The only escape from this struggle lies in the 

 disengagement of new forces, which, modifying each 

 organism, lay the basis of a new synthesis. This is the 

 regular work of the higher forms of mental activity, which 

 move consciously towards a harmony that is to leave nothing 

 outside its limits. At a lower stage the process is fitful 

 and uncertain, depending on the general condition that a 

 new synthesis can only occur when elements fitted to unite 

 with one another are brought into a favourable conjunction. 

 But, as has been remarked in a different context, there is 

 this general condition making for harmony, and therefore 

 for development, that so far as organisms, or indeed any 

 structures, come into conflict, they tend to arrest, cancel 

 and destroy one another, while conversely, so far as har- 

 mony extends, they tend to maintain and further one 

 another's development. 



