Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/185

124 coherence, he thinks, is only possible by the Actual’s consisting of certain primitive elements, definite in size, figure, and number, subject to definite laws of combination and change of combination. The permanent in the Actual is thus (1) Atoms, (2) Types, or the primitive Kinds of the atoms, the origin of species in Nature, and (3) Laws, determining the possible combinations of the types and the order of succession in these combinations. The variable, on the other hand, is the series of changing combinations as they actually occur; these amount simply to a change in the form of the Actual, in its parts and in its whole. The evolution of this form moves toward a certain result, which, as necessarily evolved from the primitive conditions and therefore involved in them, may be regarded, though only in the sense of a mechanical destination, as the Final Purpose of the World.

The Actual, then, taken in its entire career and being, presents the form of a self-completing system of relations. In other words, there is a Logic of Nature, inherent in the world itself. To reproduce this logic in the form of our knowledge is the aim and sum of science; to reproduce it not only so, but also in disposition and life, is the sum of philosophy. Philosophy being thus the aim and