APPENDIX G 



TAINE AND THE NATURALIST TRADITION 



yts Professor John H. Randall, Jr., has pointed out, 'Nature' 

 L\ is, in fact, 'the oldest idea in the Western intellectual tradi- 

 Jl jL tion'. 1 The chiefcharacteristic which seems to have persisted 

 through the centuries as a link among the various naturalisms has 

 been their opposition or relative indifference to any supernatural 

 or transcendental principle as a category or source of explanation; 

 the naturalist has been, generally, one who has insisted on seeking 

 the 'nature of things' in the things themselves, and not in any 

 principle external to them. Negatively, this has precluded accept- 

 ance of the Bible, for example, as divine revelation; positively, it 

 has tended to stress the social, or 'environmental', explanation. 

 In the field of criticism, as in that of philosophy generally, this 

 temper of thought has had three compellingly influential formula- 

 tions: the Aristotelian, the Romantic, and the scientific (the last 

 being distinguished as Naturalism, properly so called, with a large 

 'N').2 



Without pretending to do more than skim the surface of many 

 centuries of intellectual history, we may briefly recall some of the 

 ways in which 'nature' provided criteria for criticism in each of 

 these systems. The Aristotelian imitated nature; realized the 

 nature, i.e. potentialities, of an art, in terms of object, means, 

 and manner of imitation; valued nature, in the sense oi normality, 

 as a 'golden mean' between the excesses possible to each kind of 

 thing; and was most influential in Europe during the Middle 

 Ages and Renaissance. The Romantic also sought the 'natural', 

 but stressed originality and individuality, rather than typicality; he 

 valued growth or progress and began to think in terms of organic 

 unity and the reconciliation of opposites. Then, 'Taking over 



the romantic interest in origins, in historical change, in the 



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