CULTURAL FACTORS: ENVIRONMENT AND TIME in 



become more complex and, it is hoped, more soundly based; and 

 though it is not a matter of indifference from which of the terms 

 we start our analysis, or whether we emphasize cultural or bio- 

 logical factors; yet the formula remains unchanged — just as new 

 discoveries concerning the properties of hydrogen and oxygen do 

 not change the fact that water is H2O. 



Taine's formula is still true, and his uses of it were much more 

 subtle than they are usually made out to be. Under the rubric of 

 Race they included a complex of notions concerning heredity, 

 land, climate, and nation; under that of Environment, a whole 

 set of political, social, economic, psychological, and cultural, as 

 well as geographical, factors; under that of Time, the facts of 

 historical changes and epochs, as well as those of continuity and 

 tradition. As Taine frequently repeated, he was espousing and 

 practising a method, not formulating a closed system. Each of the 

 elements in his formula is rather an abbreviation of a set o{ pro- 

 blems than a finished solution] each is capable of reinterpretation 

 and expansion, as our knowledge and understanding of the social 

 sciences and humanities increases and improves. 



Finally, it should never be forgotten that the importance of all 

 these factors for Taine lay in the fact that they were necessary 

 conditions for the production of 'the man invisible', of 'states of 

 mind', which in turn produced works of literature, art, and 

 civilization. We must, therefore, turn next to a brief consideration 

 of his psychology, and then to some of the general problems which 

 this method of critical analysis presents. 



NOTES 



1 History of English Literature, I, 14. 



2 This point, implied rather than stated, may be a gratuitous assumption. 



3 Ibid., p. 15. 



4 Ibid. 



5 Ibid., pp. 16-17. 



6 Literature and Society, p. 102. 



7 Essays in Historical Semantics, pp. 180-181. 



8 Ibid., p. 187. 



9 Ibid., pp. 208-209. 



10 Geoffroy, who tried to apply physical and chemical methods to the study 

 of life, used the phrase 'milieu ambiant'. 



11 Illustrated in the following quotation from John Stuart Mill: 'And the 

 mode of thinking thus designated [Positivist — S. J. K.] is already manifesting 



