TRINE, tan, HIPPOLYTE ADOLPIIE (1828-93). A French historian and critic of literature and art, born at Vouziers, April 21, 1828. He went to Paris in 1841, entered the Ecole Normale in 1848, where he showed much independence and restiveness under its philosophic eclecticism. In 1851 he was appointed to the chair of phil osophy at the College of Toulon, but he iiinuedi ately resigned, studied medicine and the sciences, and so brought himself into touch with the spirit of the rising generation, with whom his essays on La Fontaine, Limy, and Les Philosophes franca is du ..11eme siecle won im mediate recognition, while his Voyage aux caux des Pyrenees (1855) showed his mastery of or derly and minute observation. Thus he compelled recognition, and the Government that had thought him dangerous in 1854 made him pro fessor in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1864. Here be gave several series of lectures on the history of art that are models of philosophic criticism, and, applying the same principles in another field, published a monumental i/istoire de la litterature anglaise (1864). Then followed Idealisme anglais (1864) ; Positivismc anglais (1864), the latter a study of J. S. Mill; Philoso phie de Part (1865) ; Philosophic de fart en Italie (1866) ; Voyage en Italic (1866.72) ; L'ideal dans Part (1867) ; the cynically amusing Notes sur Paris (1867) ; the important De l'itt telligcnee (1870) ; Notes sur l'Angleterre (1872) ; and finally his greatest work, Origines de la France contcmporaine, consisting of dneien regime (1875), La Revolution and the Regime snodcrne (1890). A Life and Let ters of H. Taine (1828-52) was published in French and in English in 1902.
Table was the theorist of naturalism, of im mense yet systematized erudition, and of a logic that was almost mechanical. lie represents in criticism the scientific spirit that was making itself felt almost simultaneously in all branches of French intellectual activity, in the poetry of the Parnassians, the philology of Henan, the fiction of Flaubert, the dramas of the younger Dumas, the high art of Meissonier, and the low art of Forain. The analytic, meticulous spirit
of his generation found in his "little facts, well chosen, important, significant, amply substan tiated, minutely noted, the material of every science." He sought to make psychology, (esthetics, and literary criticism into exact sci ences, capable of rigorous analysis and syste matic deduction. Physiology determined psy chology, environment was the cause of literary evolution. Moral standards fell under the same dissection. "Virtue and vice are products like vitriol and sugar." Ills is always the interest of the naturalist, not of the artist. The style was like the man and like the philosophy, grave, sin cere, simple, almost always serene. There is in his work hardly a trace of irony, of strain or of enthusiasm, none at all of sentimentality or of mysticism. His system may not have been deep, but it was wonderfully opportune, and Taine was a guiding light to the intellectually productive men of France almost until his death. Oxford gave him an honorary degree of LL.D. in 1871. He was tardily elected to the French Academy in 1878, and died in Paris, March 5, 1803. Most of his works have been translated into various languages. Consult: Bourget, Essais de psychol ogie conteniporaine, vol. i. ( Paris, 1887) ; Le maitre, Les contemporciins, vol. iv. (ib., 1890 92) ; Alonod, in Contemporary Review (London, 1893) ; Margerie, Ilippolyte nine (Paris, 1894) ; Boutmy, Taine, Scherer, Laboulayc (ib., 1901) ; Tiraud, Hippolyte Taine (ib., 1901).