BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

IBppolyte Adolphe Taîne, bom April 21, 1828, at Vouziera, Ardennes, was the son of a barrister. His father, anxious to bave his son educated, instructed hîm in the éléments of LAtin, while an uncle who had spent some time in America xmdertook to teach the boy English. But the father died eariy, leaving the boy and his two older sisters to the care of the mother. The small family moved to Paris in 1842 where young Taine entered a boarding school, but was subsequently sent to the Collège de Bourbon. His brilliant talents made him ezcel and during his last two yeara there (1847-48), he carried off the honors in Rhetoric and Philosophy. Because of this he became eligible to the École Normale, the great training school of future teachers for the higher schools of France. The intellectual atmosphère that prevailed there proved to be a most powerful reagent for inquiring minds among whom Taîne soon came to be the leader. Hère he began those processes of abstraction which hâve made him one of the keenest minds of the âge. He attributes the secret of his success to the power of concentration, and to the habit of making an abstract of everything he read. His formula was: "Read every book of importance, pen in hand; reduce eight chapters of your author to eight pages; condense thèse into eight lines; better still, if you can, sum up your information in eight wordsl" . It is readily seen how he, by this method, was able to master in a few days what his fellows could only master in weeks. This gain in time afforded him much opportunity for additional theological and philosophîcal studies among which were the Fathers, Descartes, Hegel, and Condillac. Thus he acquired a vast store of knowledge which, with his rhetorical ability, made hîm a dangeious opponent in

6 Origines de la France Contemporaine

debate. Hc loved knowledge not for îts uses but for îtself, and

under the libéral régime of the École Normale, where f reedom of

thought and of speech prevailed, he soon developed ideas toc

libenl for staid orthodoxy. The Minister of Public Education

scented rank materialism in the young scholar, and he promptly

lefuaed him an appointment when he left the institution in 1851.

The combined efforts of Guizot and Saint-Marc Girardin, how-

ever, placed him in a modest position. When he requested that

tfae appointment be somewhere in the North of France so that he

mieht be near his mother, the minister answered by sending him

to Toulon in the south. After four months he was transferred to

Nevers, to occupy the chair of Philosophy, inddentally "to wear

ofif his hcretical notions." The proclamation of the constitution

of the Second Empire under Louis Napoléon was just impending

(Tan. 18, 1852) and the rector at Nevers had prepared an address

of felicitation to the new monarch. This circulated among the

fcculty for their signatures. Taine, for political reasons, refused

to sîgn. In conséquence he was removed, four months later, to

Poitiers where new troubles were in store for him. After his

arriva! he was requested to write a panegyric in French or LAtin

verse to the bishop of that city. His refusai to do this added

bittemess to the suspicion with which he was being regarded.

The govemment even sent a note threatening him with expulsion.

probably to bring matters to a crisis, the govemment appointed

him, shortly after the incident at Poitiers, to an inferior position

in a primary school at Besançon. Nothing further was needed to

show what attitude his superiors assumed toward him and he

promptly resigned his govemment position. He had scarcely

entered upon his duties as a professor in a noted private school in

Paris, where his famé had preceded him but where his enemies

also foUowed him, when he was forced to resign. Such invidious

bounding led him to abandon teaching for a while and he devoted

himself to further studies at the Sorbonne. The three years

spent there in the company of kindred minds were among the hap^

piest of hia life.

Origines de la France Contemporaine 7

Taine finîshed the studies for his doctorate in 1853, and he sent ont his thesis on Ih Fontaine and his FaHes in which he had worked ont his contentions on those three prîndples which characterize his investigations, viz., ail histprical &cts are explicable from circumstance, race and epoch. This work was followed by an essay on Titus Livius, which was awarded a prize, also by a philosophical discussion of the Eclectîc Philosophers which is included in his French Philosophers of ihe Nineteenth Century. Further critical studies followed and in 1858 he wrote essays on Macaulay, Thackeray and Dickens, to which, six years later, he added excellent critidsms on Balzac, Racine, Jefferson, Marcus Aurelius and others.

In 1863, the position of examiner in German in the Military Academy of St. Cyr was offered to him. That same year appeared the ûrst three volumes of his famous history of English Literature, the fourth volume of which followed a year later. The histoiy is really a séries of monographs and is, perhaps, one of the most interesting works on that subject written by a foreigner. When it was offered to the French Academy it was condemned as heretical on the ground that it denied the freedom of the wîll, and because it had commended the Book of Common Frayer. To the crédit of the same body be it said that they honored themselves in 1878 by electing Taine to membership in the place of Louis Léonard de Loménie.

The high critical faculty of Taine was being recognîzed and the École des Beaux-Arts, in 1864, secured- him for the professorship of Aesthetics. The incumbent was required to lecture on Art, its Philosophy and its Ideals. It is obvions that this would take one far aûeld in the province of art. Taine's studies in Greek and Roman, Italian and Dutch art exhibit the versatility of his genius.

For a considérable time his literary labors were interrupted by a nervous breakdown which required him to seek absolute rest. In 1867 we hear from him again in his Notes sur Paris, ou Vie et Opinions de Fréd, Thomas Graindorge. The year foUowing the

8 Origines de la France Contemporaine

appearance of this work he married the daughter of a wealthy merchant of Paris, Denuelle, and subse^uently traveled extensîvely in Gennany, with the philosophy and literature of which he had kept in touch. During a visit to England, in 1872, he'delivered an address at Oxford which brought him an honoraiy degree. The impressions received during that visit are excellently gîven in his Notes sur V Angleterre.

Taine's magnum opus, on which he labored during the last twenty years of his life, is Les Origines de la France contemporaine,/ It is divided into three sections: L'Ancien Régime, La Révolution, and Le Régime Moderne. The last section was not finished when he died in 1893 but it was brought to a conclusion by the eminent historian A. Sorel. The work is only "the logical resuit of the researches to which this passionate investigator has devoted hîmself from his youth/' With it begins that period of Taine's actîvity that might well be styled "sociological" (1870-1893), having been preceded by one that was literaiy and historical (1853-63), and one that was aesthetic (1864-1870). Like ail great mlnds he had grown towards the end into a wîder conception of things, a modification which has been excellently stated by M. Laborde-Milaà: "Suivant une courbe inattendue mais nette, Taine a refait, avec moins d'angoisse apparente, le chemin de Biaise Pascal; parti de la raison pure il a dû compter avec la raison pratique; parti à la recherche du relatif, il s'est acheminé insensiblement vers l'absolu; occupé d'abord exclusivement du Vrai, il a fini par se préoccuper du Beau et du Bien, élevant peu à peu son regard vers la Notion Suprême qui lui eût permis de les unir tous trois."

Because he was controlled by his three gênerai ideas, "Le milieu, la race, le moment," from which he endeavored to explain every historical fact, Taine has been chàrged with insincerity. Nothing could be more unjust and the fine critic Emile Faguet has conclusively shown that the controlling faculty of Taine was probity, and that he hated sham and l3ring of every sort. If it appears as though he had sought out and quoted t3rpical and striking exam-

Origines de la France Contemporaine 9

pies to prove his contentions along thèse three principles mentîoned, it only shows that his principles were insufficient to ezplaîn ail the facts and that in his considérations he had lef t out the important factor, the personal élément. Once wedded to his principles he was bound to reach those conclusions he has presented. The chief defect then in this work is that it is uncritical, though its facts are exceedingly înteresting. Petit de JuUeville, recognizing this fact, would propose to call it Tableau des abus de V ancien régime et des desordres de la Révolution. But the defect of this monumental work is compensated for by vivid and stirring description, and a lucid and pithy style, sparkling with brilliant expressions and terse sayings. Beside this it has the merit of having paved the way for a scientîûc and critical study of the French Révolution.

The order of his works: >

La Fontaine et ses Fables . . . 1853 (i8th éd. 1907)

Essai sur Tite-Live 1855 ( yth éd. 1904)

Voyage aux Pyrénées .... 1855 (lyth éd. 1907) Les Philosophes Classiques du

XIXe siècle 1856 ( 9th éd. 1905)

Essais de critique et d*histoire . . 1858 ( 6th éd. 1905)

Le Positivisme anglais .... 1864

Histoire de la Littérature anglaise . 1863 (i2th éd. 1905) 4 vols.

Nouveaux essais 1865 ( 8th éd. 1905)

Philosophie de l'art en Italie . . 1865 (i3th éd. 1907)

Voyage en Italie 1866 (i3th éd. 1907)

Notes sur Paris, ou vie et opinions

de Fréd. Thomas Graindorge . 1867 (i6th éd. 1907)

De ridéal dans l'art 1867

Philosophie de l'art en Grèce . . 1869

De l'Intelligence J870 (iith éd. 1906)

Le Suffrage Universel (pamphlet) . 187 1

Notes sur T Angleterre . . • • 1872 (i3th éd. 1907)

lo Origines de la France Contemporaine

Vol. I. L'Ancien Régime

Vol. 2-4. La Révolution . .

Vol. 5. Le Régime moderne .

Vol. 6. Le Régime moderne

(concluded and edited by A.

Sorel), ....'....

Derniers essais de critique et d'his*

toire

(26th éd. 1906) II vols.

Works of Référence on Taine:

Barzellotti, G. Ippolito Taine, Rome, 1895.

Dowden, E. Literaiy Criticism, Boston, 1895.

Faguet, É. Politiques et Moralistes du dix-neuvième

siècle, third séries, Paris, 1899.

Giraud, V. Essai sur Taine, Paris, 1902 ($d éd.).

Laborde-Milaà, A. Hippolyte Taine, Paris, 1909. Lefèvre, É. Hippolyte Taine, Paris, 1904.

Margerie, A. de Hippolyte Taine, Paris^ 1894. Monod, Gabr. Renan, Taine, Michelet, Paris, 1894.

Montégut, É. Essai sur la littérature anglaise, 1863.

Sainte-Beuve, C. A. Causeries du lundi, tome XIII, 1857.

Nouveaux lundis, tome VIII, 1864.

Sorel, A. Études de littérature et d'histoire, Paris, 1901.

Hippolyte Taine, sa vie et correspondance, Paris, 1902-7, 4 vols.