CULTURAL FACTORS: ENVIRONMENT AND TIME 107 



we have since become accustomed, Taine fell back on his ever- 

 present biological metaphor and compared the action of 'social 

 mediums' to that of climate in biology. Instead of physical heat 

 and cold, we now have a sort of 'moral temperature' which, like 

 the German 'Zeitgeist', is rather hard to define. It seems to be 

 largely a psychological affair, though its causes may be non- 

 psychological; the example Taine chooses is that of a 'melancholy' 

 state of mind: 'five or six centuries of decadence, depopulation, 

 foreign invasion, famine, pests, and aggravated misery, are 

 amply sufficient to produce it.'33 The distinction, pointed out by 

 Spitzer, between milieu as friendly and antagonistic, is reflected 

 here: thus, to develop his general 'law', Taine considers also 

 states of cheerfulness, which work in the opposite sense to that of 

 melancholy, as well as intermediate cases. 'Let us conclude, 

 therefore, that in every simple or complex state, the social medium, 

 that is to say, the general state of mind and manners, determines 

 the species of works of art in suffering only those which are in 

 harmony with it, and in suppressing other species, through a 

 series of obstacles interposed, and a series of attacks renewed, at 

 every step of their development.' ^4 On the whole, however, 

 milieu in Taine has a negative connotation, that of an 'external 

 pressure' or 'constraining force' against which the more positive 

 force of Race or native endowment has to struggle, and through 

 which it must break to achieve fulfilment. 35 



These are some of the varied senses in which Taine uses the 

 term milieu^ which his writings did so much to make an essential 

 part of our critical vocabulary. A close equivalent in English is 

 the word 'environment', which Carlyle coined in 1827 to translate 

 the word 'Umgebung' in a passage from Goethe's Dichtung und 

 Wahrheit (Book XI 1 1). 3 6 The quahty of the French word is per- 

 haps 'more personal and more intangible', 37 while the English 

 word is more technical and analytic; however, like milieu, the 

 latter's connotations start on the biological level and are capable 

 of extension to include all 'the surrounding conditions, influences, 

 or forces, which influence or modify', 38 and we have therefore 

 translated Taine's word as Environment. 



Time {'moment') as Epoch and Tradition 



Winthrop H. Rice, in an article which attempts to show that, 

 since 'there is no generally accepted meaning' for moment, 'the 

 term is entirely unnecessary, even inappropriate', ^^ has done a 



