112 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



possible to assimilate a civilisation that had no 

 cohesion or controlling force, since, except in 

 name, it no longer existed. 



We find equally convincing and even more 

 delicate the deductions drawn from the study of 

 the philosophy of art, and we may refer on this 

 point to Taine's remarks on the development of 

 painting in the Low Countries : 



4 'Here, as everywhere, art interprets life; the 

 talent and taste of the painter change at the same 

 time and in the same sense as public manners and 

 sentiments. Just as every geologic revolution has 

 its fauna and flora, so each transformation of society 

 has its ideals. . . . 



4 'The fourteenth century is the heroic and 

 tragic period of Flanders ; at that time there lived 

 artisans like Artevelt, who were at once tribunes, 

 dictators, captains, who met their death on the 

 battle-field or by assassination ; civil and foreign 

 war succeeded one another ; city fought with city, 

 state with state, man with man ; there were in 

 Ghent 1400 murders in one year; energy was so 

 keen that it survived all ills, and supplied the 

 needs of all forces. . . . 



" In this human effervescence the richness and 

 abundance of provisions and the habit of individual 

 action excited courage, unrest, audacity, insolence, 

 and all the excesses of overwhelming brute force ; 



