BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS: RACE AND GEOGRAPHY 87 



influence of milieu and moment. Both in Tainism and Hiderism . . . 

 civilizadon has been replaced by biology.' 1 



This is a serious indictment indeed, which, to the extent that it is 

 true, should make us extremely wary of accepting Taine's generali- 

 zations uncritically. But neither should it blind us to the elements 

 of truth in his method. The Devil, it has been said, can quote 

 Scripture. The fact that Hitler's deeds were perpetrated under a 

 party banner which read 'National Socialism' need not imply that 

 nationalism and socialism are totally evil, though it should lead us 

 to clarify, more rigorously than ever, what has been, and should 

 be, meant by such terms. 



Nor can we permit the imperfect state of our knowledge to 

 deter us. Most really important subjects are of such depth that, 

 perhaps inevitably, they can never be exhausted; nevertheless, the 

 search for understanding continues. We must rather agree with 

 Albert L. Guerard, a liberal American citizen and student of 

 European civilization, that, though 'Taine himself may be anti- 

 quated: his method is still with us. It does not tell the whole truth, 

 nor perhaps the essential truth: but the truth that it tells is far from 

 negligible.' 2 Like Professor Guerard, 'We have no desire to 

 "explode" Race, Environment, and Time: we only want to under- 

 stand. We all feel that there is "something" to them: but what is 

 that something, and how much of it is there?' ^ 



It is, therefore, with modest aims — and some trepidations — that 

 this chapter is begun. Since the problem of Race could very well be 

 the subject of a volume in itself, our present considerations must 

 be severely limited: we shall try primarily to understand what 

 Taine probably meant by his formula; only such secondary 

 sources as seem directly relevant to a study of Taine himself will be 

 considered; and our attention must be restricted to those aspects of 

 the subject which contribute to an understanding of Taine's philo- 

 sophy and method of criticism. 



Historical Backgrounds 



Taine's use of the category of Race must be seen against the 

 background of two strong movements in the Europe of his day: 

 first, nationalist developments, cultural and political, both fostered 

 and expressed by the Romantic movement, and the latter resulting 

 in the final unification of Italy and Germany in 1870; second, a 

 tremendous growth of biological science, crystallized in Darwin's 



