88 ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM 



The Origin of Species (1859), ^^^ applied by many thinkers to the 

 nascent social sciences in a movement commonly referred to as 

 'Social Darwinism'/ 



Thus, the racial element in Taine's theory is the product both 

 of the spirit of his age (if we may apply his method to himself!) 

 and of an honest attempt at scientific formulation, along lines 

 which were shared by many of his contemporaries. For Taine, the 

 goal of science is, through a process of abstraction, to growp facts 

 according to their various relations, and Race is a formula which 

 attempts to sum up a number of those relations: 'What we call the 

 race are the innate and hereditary dispositions which man brings 

 with him into the world, and which, as a rule, are united with the 

 marked differences in the temperament and structure of the body. 

 They vary with various peoples. There is a natural variety of men, 

 as of oxen and horses. . . .'^ This is described as a distinct and 

 tenacious force, whose workings, Taine feels, writing in 1863, are 

 still only imperfectly understood. ^ 



There is comparatively little mysticism, if any, in Taine's ex- 

 planation of the persistence of racial traits: 'For as soon as an 

 animal begins to exist, it has to reconcile itself with its surround- 

 ings; it breathes and renews itself, is differently affected according 

 to the variations in air, food, temperature. Different climate and 

 situation bring it various needs, and consequently a different 

 course of activity; and this, again, a different set of habits; and 

 still again, a different set of aptitudes and instincts. ... So that at 

 any moment we may consider the character of a people as an 

 abridgment of all its preceding actions and sensations . . .'"^ In 

 other words. Race too has its conditions, which Taine is studying 

 along with other causes: it is not being treated as more or less 

 'real' or 'ideal' than any of the other abstractions of science, but as 

 one among many important factors. 



Biological Heredity 



Nevertheless, Race does frequently play an important part in 

 Taine's criticism, though, as has already been suggested, he tends 

 to focus his attention chiefly on problems of history and psycho- 

 logy: Environment, Time, and Master Faculty.^ Part of this may 

 be traced to his fondness for the biological metaphor and analogy. 

 If people are like plants and works of art are like flowers, then 

 problems of heredity or Race must be placed logically first, as they 

 usually are in biological science; however, it is not always clear, 



