no ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM 



'Permanent Causes' (Part I), but when considered historically they 

 are seen to change with Time, and art is seen to change with them. 



Here the distinction between the biological and cultural aspects 

 of milieu becomes important, since it corresponds roughly to the 

 distinction between permanent and changing causes. At least, the 

 section on the Nation in Part P^ stresses the relations between 

 the Land (climate and soil) and the national characteristics of the 

 Flemish and Dutch people, both as the former moulded the 

 latter and as the latter was revealed in grappling with the former; 

 these are relatively permanent forces. In Part II, the emphasis is 

 placed on political and social changes and on intellectual move- 

 ments, which are pictured as now fostering, now inhibiting, the 

 'natural proclivities' of the people, ^o The two aspects of Time, or 

 history, are thus hard to separate: accumulations of experience, 

 and especially the 'persistent and gigantic pressures' of nature, 

 tend to create uniformity, continuity, and stability; but historical 

 changes, and especially the ones we have characterized as cultural, 

 tend to make for discontinuity and development. Given two sets of 

 ambiguities — Environment as biological and cultural. Time as 

 Epoch and Tradition — in various combinations, it is easy to see 

 why some confusion should result. 



In The Philosophy of Art in Greece, 'The Period' (the French here 

 is 'moment') referred to is more Tradition than Epoch: the 

 moment in question is that of 'ancient', contrasted with 'modern', 

 civilization, and the emphasis is therefore not on the development 

 of Greek life from century to century, but on the traits which 

 characterized it as a whole; when the moment is long, rather than 

 short, it assumes the meaning of Tradition. Climate is mentioned 

 here too, but briefly; most of the emphasis is on such cultural 

 factors as costume, architecture, social organization, idea of 

 death, language, education, and, in the last part, on the major 

 'Institutions' of Greek life. 



Problems, Not Solutions 



A backward glance over these last two chapters should reveal 

 the basic soundness of Taine's formula, despite the serious errors 

 in detail he, together with others of his generation, committed in 

 its application. It still remains true, as a general, philosophic law 

 of history, that all civilization, all human experience and creation, 

 is a product of 'the interactions of men with their environments'. ^^ 

 Though our understanding of each of the terms in the formula has 



