FROM ANALYSIS TO JUDGMENT 163 



grace of excessive happiness, the tragic grandeur of haughty- 

 energy, or the depth of intelHgent and refined sympathy? All 

 correspond to some essential portion of human nature, or to some 

 essential moment of human development ... all the important 

 parts in the province of life have their value. '^ 



These are conclusions to which one might be led by a superficial 

 understanding of analysis. 'And yet in the imaginary world as in 

 the real world there are different degrees because there are 

 different values. . . . We have always, and at every step, pro- 

 nounced judgment. '4 By a general consensus of opinion, such 

 figures as Dante, Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven, Goethe, 

 Rubens, Rembrandt, Durer, Titian, Leonardo, Michael Angelo, 

 and Raphael are acknowledged to be supremely great. Since such 

 'definitive judgments' are the accumulated products of many 

 generations, all of whom, each 'from his own point of view, . . . agree 

 in the same verdict, the sentence, probably, is just . . .'.^ On the 

 one hand, 'A critic is now aware that his personal taste has no 

 value, that he must set aside his temperament, inclinations, party, 

 and interests; that, above all, his talent lies in sympathy . . .'; 

 but on the other, 'Such a course, ... as it is composed of analysis, 

 ... is, like every scientific operation, capable of verification and 

 perfectibility. By following this method we have been able to 

 approve and disapprove of this or that artist, ... to determine 

 the nature of values, to point out progress or decline, to recognize 

 periods of bloom and decay, not arbitrarily, but according to a 

 common criterion.' ^ More profoundly considered, analysis and 

 judgment are inseparable."^ 



To justify this conclusion, Taine invokes the doctrine which has 

 been discussed above as that of the natural type or universal. 

 Since, as we have seen, the object of art is 'to make predominant an 

 essential character', ^ the most perfect art will be that in which the 

 character is 'the most notable possible and the most dominant pos- 

 sible'. ^ The natural question — What makes a character notable or 

 essential? — is then answered in a brief section ^o which, in concise 

 form, conveys the essence of Taine's doctrine on universals, 

 'general things', or 'permanent causes'. ^^ In sum, Taine contends: 

 (i) that 'general characters' are real, existing causes; and (2) that 

 they can be arranged on a hierarchical scale, the peak of which is 

 occupied by characters variously described as being most forceful; 

 most simple, general, and elemental; most permanent and stable; 

 and most important. 



