PROBLEMS OF ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM 131 



principle, as polar elements of an organic unity, ^o As a result, 

 we find a dual attitude to Taine's method in Professor Muller's 

 recent discussion. On the one hand, Taine is mentioned, only 

 once, among those who advocated 'the more harmless form of the 

 race hypothesis', with the observation that 'culture and not race 

 is the ruling force'^^; and every effort is made to stress indivi- 

 duality, flexibility of categories, opposition to absolutes, and the 

 importance of differences and particularities. On the other hand, 

 those elements of Taine's system which have become common- 

 places of critical thinking are vigorously defended: 'Joel Spin- 

 garn's manifesto on the "new criticism" is typical. "We have 

 done with the race, the time, the environment of a poet's work as 

 an element in Criticism". ... As a matter of fact, we have done 

 with none of them; all the species are still alive and kicking. Nor 

 should we have done with any of them.' ^2 Further: 'The race, the 

 milieu, the moment largely determine what is possible and im- 

 portant, and must influence the choice we usually have to make, 

 in life as in literature, between width at the price of disorder and 

 order at some price of narrowness.' ^^ The 'sociology of know- 

 ledge' represented by Karl Mannheim is cited as 'an elaboration 

 of the familiar idea of cultural compulsions or climate of opinion', ^4 

 the latter being, of course, a paraphrase of Taine's 'moral tempera- 

 ture'. In general, Prof. Muller insists on the importance for 

 criticism of seeing literature in its context of time and place: 'the 

 great fathers were also children of a country and an age . . .'.^s 

 He argues eloquently for Matthew Arnold's conception of litera- 

 ture as 'criticism of life' and for recognition of the mutual involve- 

 ment of 'The Individual and Society', ^ 6 concluding with a 

 quotation from Kierkegaard to the effect that responsibility and 

 freedom are achieved when 'The individual becomes conscious of 

 himself as being this particular individual with particular gifts, 

 tendencies, impulses, passions, under the influence of a particular 

 environment, as a particular product of his milieu. '^"^ 



In sum, with necessary modifications and qualifications, the 

 scientists, if not the critics, have been moving towards, rather than 

 away from, Taine's general biological orientation. That the 

 organic concept implies some principle of unity in variety, and 

 some hierarchy of forces within the organism, is fairly evident. 

 Just what that principle and hierarchy may be in the case of 

 aesthetic criticism is a problem we have yet to examine. 



