History of English Literature Volume 1 (of 3)Taine, Hippolyte
History
History of English Literature Volume 1 (of 3)
Taine, Hippolyte
English literature -- History and criticism
special traits, according to such differences of race and of
civilizations. And so for every kind of human production, for letters,
music, the arts of design, philosophy, the sciences, state industries,
and the rest. Each has some moral tendency for its direct cause, or a
concurrence of moral tendencies; given the cause, it appears; the cause
withdrawn, it disappears; the weakness or intensity of the cause is the
measure of its own weakness or intensity. It is bound to that like any
physical phenomenon to its condition, like dew to the chilliness of a
surrounding atmosphere, like dilatation to heat. Couples exist in the
moral world as they exist in the physical world, as rigorously linked
together and as universally diffused. Whatever in one case produces,
alters, or suppresses the first term, produces, alters, and suppresses
the second term as a necessary consequence. Whatever cools the
surrounding atmosphere causes the fall of dew. Whatever develops
credulity, along with poetic conceptions of the universe, engenders
religion. Thus have things come about, and thus will they continue to
come about. As soon as the adequate and necessary condition of one of
these vast apparitions becomes known to us our mind has a hold on the
future as well as on the past. We can confidently state under what
circumstances it will reappear, foretell without rashness many portions
of its future history, and sketch with precaution some of the traits of
its ulterior development.
VIII. General problem and future of history. Psychological method.
Value of literature. Purpose in writing this book
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