The action of influence Theory of a word in the nineteenth century

Does the French word “influence” refer to one particular concept? In the nineteenth century, when it was used widely in literary discourse, it did anything but that: it applied to such varied contexts that it is difficult to keep track of all the actions it was able to denote. This article attempts to list three of these actions, while at the same time seeking to understand the reason for the century’s infatuation with this word, which Louis de Bonald regarded as “the vaguest word in the French language.”