A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

62.
biologists like Darwin and Lewes .eontributed equally to the developing
Psychology. Both schools of thought emphasised the importance of "medium"
and the crucial interdependence of an organism with its environment.
"Medium" became a key assumption. Let us now briefly exC'.mine this assumption
before turning to a closer examination of George Eliot's novels and
of the ways in which she incorporated this assumption into her work.
Comte and Spencer both occupied themselves with biological as well
as with sociological questions. Each of them at different times has been
described as the father of modern sociology. They are both what A. N.
V'lhitehead called "Systems Philosophers lt 17 because they: tried to incorporate
all human knowledge within one general, over-riding principle.
In Comte's case it was his descriptive and progressive law of the three
states; in the case of Spencer it was the law of progress which, he says,
"consists in a change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous." 18
They were alike in other respects too, especially in their independence
of thought and the "cerebral hygiene" 19which was Comtets term for the
avoid.nnce of contamination from contemporary works. ~fuey
both evidence
a Lamarckian bias, but Comte was closer to the precursors of Darwin in
his acceptance of the fixity of species. What is important about both
writers is their insistence on the need for a close study of society
under its different aspects. Spencer's Social Statics (1852) outlines
the two main aspects he believed worthy of study: social statics, or the
synchronic study of social order; and the contrasting social d~arnics,
or the diacr..ronic study of movement, of progress ana. change.
From his study of society, Comte discerned the importance of a
healthy interaction between an organism and its medil~,
he describes it.~ Th~:Ho\,;.fng
quotations make this clear.
or milieu, as
I designate by this vlord milieu,not only the fluid in which the
organism is immersed, but, in general, the totality of external