Already for several years， M. Taine， aware that his time was short， had narrowed the limits of the work he was engaged upon. But what his work lost in breadth and in richness of detail it would have gained in depth and in power. All his master ideas would have been found in it， foreshortened and concentrated. Always seeking in this or that group of them what he called his generators， intellectual and moral as well as political， he would have described all those which explain the French group. Unfortunately， here again the elements are wanting which allow one to foreshadow what this final analysis and last construction might have been. M. Taine did not write in anticipation. Long before taking the pen in hand he had derived his most significant facts and formed his plan. He carried them in his brain where they fell into order of themselves. Ten lines of notes， a few memoranda of conversations - faint reflections， to us around him， of the great inward light - are all that enable one to attempt an indication of the few leading conceptions were to complete "Les Origines de la France Contemporaine.""Le Milieu Moderne"， was to have been the title of the last book. The question here is how to discover the great characteristics of the period into which European societies entered and about were to live.
Rising to a higher point of view than that to which he had confined himself in studying France， M. Taine regarded its metamorphosis as a case of transformation as general as the passage of the Cité antique over to the Roman Empire over to the feudal State. Now， as formerly， this transformation is the effect of a "change in the intellectual and physical condition of men"； that is to say， in other words， in the environment that surrounds them. Such is the advent of a new geological period， of a glacial period， for example， or， more precisely， "the very slow and then accelerated upheaval of a continent， forcing the submarine species which breathe by gills to transform themselves into species which breathe by lungs." It is impossible to divine in what sense this adaptation takes place if we do not comprehend the event， that is to say if we do not perceive its starting-point and the innate force which produces it. According to Taine， this force， in the present case， is the progress the increasing authority of positive， verifiable science. What a definition he would have given of science and its essence！ What a tableau of its progress， the man whose thought was matured at the moment when the scientific spirit entered into history and literature； who breathed it in his youth with the fervid and sacred enthusiasm of a poet seeing the world grow brighter and intelligible to him， and who， at the age of twenty-five， demanded of it a method and introduced this into criticism and psychology in order to give these new life - the mechanical equivalent of heat， natural selection， spectroscopic analysis， the theory of the microbes， recent discoveries in physics and the constitution of matter， research into historic origins， psychological explanation of texts， extension of oriental researches， discoveries of prehistoric conditions， comparative study of barbaric communities - every grand idea of the century to which he has himself contributed， all those by which science embraces a larger and larger portion of the universe， he saw them containing the same essence； all combining to change the conception of the world and substitute another， coherent and logical in the best minds， but then confused and disfigured as it slowly descends to the level of the crowd. - He would have described this decent， the gradual diffusion， the growing power of the new Idea， the active ferment which it contains after the manner of a dogma， beneficent or pernicious according to the minds in which it lodges， capable of arming men and of driving them on to pure destruction when not fully comprehended， and capable of reorganizing them if they can grasp its veritable meaning.
Its first effects are simply destructive， for， through Darwinism， through experimental psychology， through the physiology of the brain， through biblical exegesis， through the comparative study of savage communities and their moral systems， the new concepts at first shocks the religious idea which it tends to replace； even， with the half-cultivated and in the minds of novices， it tends to pure negation， to hostility against existing religions. To every social gathering around the religious idea that explains and sustains it， what a disturbance in the secular system formed by the co-ordination and mutual adaptation of laws， customs， morality， and institutions！ What a rupture of the inward equilibrium which maintains man passive and tranquil！ The consequent mental agitation will lead to agitation， impulsion， ambitions， lassitude， despondency， and disorder in all the sentiments which had thus far maintained every species of society， the family， the commune， the Church， free association and the State！ -Now， along with the immediate effects of science on the intellectual habits of men consider the effects of its application to their material condition； at first， their increased well-being， their power increased， then the rupture of the ties that bind them to their birthplace， the concentration of masses of workmen in the towns to which they are attracted by great and rapid industrial development， the influx of new ideas， of every species of information， the gradual decline of the old hereditary prejudices of caste and parish which act automatically as instincts， and are useful as instincts to the small groups in which the individual is born and in which he lives. How could such a profound change in the condition of humanity fail to undermine everywhere the order of things which group men together？ Why should not the new milieu at once attack all ancient forms of society？