508 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



or agencies which mould " each distinct civilisation as the 

 effect of a permanent force." They are race and epoch 

 [moment, momentum]. Thus race, surroundings, and 

 epoch are the three different sources which contribute 

 to produce the whole moral and social constitution. 

 " What we call the Race means the innate and hereditary 

 dispositions which man brings with him into the world." 

 But " man is not alone in the world ; nature surrounds 

 him and his fellow-men surround him." And there is 

 yet a third series of causes ; for, " with the forces within 

 and without there is the work which they have already 

 produced together, and this work contributes to produce 

 that which follows. Besides the permanent impulse 

 and the given surroundings there is the acquired 

 momentum." 



To illustrate this theory Taine wrote his ' History of 

 English Literature,' seeking in it " for the psychology of 

 a people," and the reason why he chose this special 

 subject is because " there are few nations that have, 

 during their whole existence, really thought and written." 

 " Besides there is a peculiarity in this civilisation, that, 

 apart from its spontaneous development, it presents a 

 forced deviation, it has suffered the last and most 

 effectual of all conquests, and the three grounds whence 

 it has sprung, race, climate, the Norman invasion, may 

 be observed in its remains with perfect exactness : so 



respondante, ne me reprocheront 

 pas, sans doute, 1'introduction de 

 cette expression nouvelle. Quant 

 a moi, la spontaneity avec laquelle 

 elle s'est si souvent pr^sent^e sous 

 ma plume, malgrc ma constant e 

 aversion pour le n^ologisme sys- 

 tematique, ne me permet guere de 



douter que ce ternie abs trait ne 

 manquat re"ellement jusqu'ici a la 

 science des corps vivans" ('Phil- 

 osophic Positive,' iii. p. 301 n.) 

 He makes extensive use of it in 

 his later work, and it has there 

 been rendered in English by the 

 term "environment." 



