OF SOCIETY. 



507 



line of philosophic thought. To this he drew attention 

 in the above-named work upon French thinkers, and 

 still more in the Introduction to his ' History of English 

 Literature.' Like Comte, he connects psychology with 

 physiology ; but with him physiology no longer meant 

 the vitahstic physiology of Bichat, but the experi- 

 mental physiology of Claude Bernard. He did not 

 share Comte's belief in phrenology, and yet he accepted 

 a mechanical explanation of sensation and put it forward 

 in his work, ' De I'lntelligence ' (1870). 



This work formed, as it were, a landmark in the 

 history of French psychology, — the beginning of a new 

 life of that science in France.^ In it also he revives 

 that connection which existed between the earlier French 

 psychology of Cabanis and Broussais and the medical 

 sciences, notably the study of pathological states. In 

 fact, Taine's psychology has a pathological flavour. But 

 so far as the subject of this chapter is concerned Taine's 

 most important contribution is to be found in his attempt 

 to explain and understand historic events and persons 

 by looking at their surroundings. He has adopted and 54. 



His tlieorv 



enlarged an idea thrown out by Comte, that of the milieu ofenvhon- 



° _ ment, race, 



or environment." To this he has added two other factors •'^"'^ '^p°'=''- 



^ See ante, vol. iii. p. 270 u. 



" The word niilieu is one of the 

 terms by which Comte's influence 

 has become perpetuated in the his- 

 tory of French thought, but he did 

 not create it as he did the other 

 two watchwords of his system — 

 Sociology and Altruism. He took 

 it over from biology, but thinks 

 it necessary to defend the use 

 and extend the meaning of the 

 term : "II serait superflu, j'espere, 

 de motiver espressement Tusage 



frequent que je ferai desormais, 

 en biologie, du mot milieu, pour 

 designer spocialemeiit, d'une man- 

 iere nette et rapide, non seule- 

 ment le fluide oil I'organisme est 

 plonge, mais, en general, I'en- 

 semble total des circonstances ex- 

 terieures, d'un genre quelcouque, 

 necessaires Ji I'existence de chaque 

 organisme determine. Ceux qui 

 auront sufEsammeut medite sur le 

 role capital que doit remplir, dans 

 toute biologie positive, I'idee cor- 



