FROM ANALYSIS TO JUDGMENT 165 



Taine's faith than a demonstrated proposition — the elaborate and 

 persuasive set of analogies which Taine develops in the course of 

 his lectures may be examined. The diagrams in Appendix E are 

 an attempt at representing the various scales and their relations 

 to one another; since Taine is not always neat in distinguishing 

 the steps in his hierarchies, some of our breakdowns may well be 

 questioned, but, with all their imperfections, these pictures may 

 help the reader to gain a synoptic view. They should be accom- 

 panied by Taine's concluding summary: 



'We have established, according to our preceding studies, that a 

 work of art is a system of parts, at one time imagined in its 

 entirety 17 as it happens in architecture and in music, at another 

 reproduced according to some real object as it happens in htera- 

 ture, sculpture, and painting; and we are reminded that the 

 purpose of art is to manifest by this ensemble some notable character. 

 We have hence concluded that the merit of the work is greater 

 proportionately as this character becomes more notable and 

 more predominant. We have distinguished in the notable charac- 

 ter two points of view, according as it is more important, that is to 

 say more stable and more elementary; and according as it is more 

 beneficent, that is to say, more capable of contributing to the 

 preservation and to the development of the individual and of the 

 group in which he is comprehended, i^ We have seen that to these 

 two points of view, according to which we may estimate the value 

 of characters, correspond two scales by which we may value works 

 of art. We have remarked that these two points of view are com- 

 bined in a single one, and that, in short, the important or beneficent 

 character is never but one force, measured at one time by its 

 eflfects on others ^^ and, at another, by its eflfects on itself 2 O; whence 

 it follows that character having two kinds of power has two kinds 

 of value. We have then sought how, in a work of art, it can be 

 more clearly manifested than in nature; and we have seen that it 

 takes a more powerful relief when the artist, employing all the 

 elements of his work, makes all their eflfects converge. 21 Thus is 

 established before us a third scale; and we have seen that works of 

 art are so much more beautiful as character is imprinted and 

 expressed in them with a more universally predominant ascen- 

 dency. The masterpiece is that in which the greatest force receives 

 the greatest development. 22 In the language of the painter, the 

 superior work is that in which the character possessing the greatest 



