ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS 41 



is the complete translation: it is the one provided by the progress 

 of observation. '6 Here we see two elements of Taine's method: a 

 nominalism combined with induction. 'Exact translation' repre- 

 sents the nominalist element in Taine; 'complete translation', 

 however, implies a theory of induction, with which he had long 

 been concerned; what finally emerged was closest to the inter- 

 mediate conceptualist position (Chapter XI). 



M. Pierre goes on to show that such a concept as 'vital force' in 

 physiology can be analyzed, first, into two orders of facts ('a 

 principal fact, the process of destruction and renewal which is 

 called life; subordinate facts, the functions and the structure which 

 render these functions possible . . .'),'7 and second, into a necessary 

 relation which attaches the subordinate facts to the principal one; 

 thus, 'We have purged our spirit of a metaphysical being. '^ A 

 similar analysis can be made of such terms as 'function', 'nature', 

 'law', 'individual', and 'perfection', and of statements in the so- 

 called 'moral sciences', such as: 'It was the destiny of Rome to 

 conquer the universe.' ^ 



From the analysis of words we pass to the analysis of things: 

 'We imitate the algebraists: after having transformed the problem 

 into a precise equation, we translate the unknowns in the equa- 

 tion by known quantities.' 10 This inductive phase of the process, 

 revealing the full complexity of phenomena, and going beyond 

 what is simply clear to what is fruitful of fresh insights, requires 

 the creation of new instruments of observation, such as the 

 microscope, and modification of the objects observed, as in con- 

 trolled experiments.il 



How is this second step, the use of inductive method, to be 

 applied in the moral sciences and to literature? The two new 

 'scientific' instruments and tools of analysis to be used are the 

 new history and the new psychology, whose use Taine illustrates 

 by considering briefly Rabelais' Pantagruel and Diirer's Passion. 

 We multiply our knowledge of the relevant facts concerning the 

 man and his times and seek out the important, necessary relations 

 involved. At the centre of these, we discover, is a certain psycho- 

 logy: 'Art, literature, philosophy, family, society, government, 

 every establishment or external event necessitates and discloses a 

 mass of habits and of internal events. The outside expresses the 

 inside, history makes psychology manifest, the face reveals the 

 soul.' 12 Psychology has become, as it were, the 'thermometer' of 

 history, accomplishing two purposes: first, by penetrating 



