158 SCIENCE AND AESTHETIC JUDGMENT 



truer historical sense than Taine ever achieved. Though theoreti- 

 cally aware that permanence and change are both involved in 

 development, he tends to stress the former, thereby oversimplifying 

 his formulas. We should, by way of correction, pay more attention 

 to the fourth dimension of such 'permanent causes' as 'the English 

 character' and 'the Gallic tradition', including in our accounts the 

 facts of their origins, gradual and complex developments, and 

 sometimes drastic changes. That Race, Environment, and Time 

 are less stable forces than Taine suspected has been dramatized 

 by such technological developments as the aeroplane and atomic 

 energy; and the factor of change has been emphasized by later 

 historians, like Spengler and Toynbee, who have considered the 

 dynamisms of declining civilizations. The Race of ancient 

 Babylon has vanished in the abysses of Time; not even its Environ- 

 ment of fertile soil and flourishing cities remains unchanged; and 

 its Master Faculty survives, if at all, in historical documents and 

 fragmentary ruins. ^i 



Finally, if we may resort to a paradox, our causes must be seen 

 as only ''relatively permanent' and 'relatively universal'. This must 

 be so because the best of scientific knowledge remains hypothetical 

 and subject to emendation. Thus, we may say that, on the basis of 

 these and these facts thus far studied^ 'the English character' seems to 

 exhibit such and such traits; but we have no guarantee — though, 

 as Taine says, we may have 'considerable probabilities' — that 

 what seem like permanences now will always remain such; new 

 combinations, and new perspectives, are always possible. Excep- 

 tions do indeed 'prove' our rules, but in the original Latin mean- 

 ing of 'testing' them. We can only say that a condition is universal, 

 to the best of our knowledge.^ - 



These are the chief modifications introduced by a functional 

 analysis of Substance; and similar revisions are implied for Taine's 

 hierarchical principle by our critique of Absolute Idealism. Thus, 

 any scale of values we use remains valid for a particular purpose, or, 

 even if it seems all-inclusive, as the best we have achieved thus far. 

 The 'Declaration of Human Rights' proclaimed by the United 

 Nations as 'universal' includes many articles not included in the 

 'Bill of Rights' of the United States Constitution; and we may 

 expect it to be superseded and perfected in turn. So with the strife 

 of scientific theories and philosophical systems: they are all, at best, 

 approximations of the truth. 



Nevertheless, granted these cautions and modifications, the 



