New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-31
ton and ia in itself kind of homage to it," Cu'-

tiOn ana IN I'D 1tscl1 n kInO OF nDindge u S
| ture and Anarchy"
| His conceptions both of culture and of sweetness
| and hight are developed in the following extract:
THE SOCIAL IDEA.
| Culture looks beyond machinery. culture hates
hatred; culture has one great passion. .ne
| even yet greater tho passion for making them
prevail 1t is not satisfied till we all come 70, 70
perfect man il knows that the sweetness anu g,,i
| of the few must no imperfect until the raw anu
| nnkindled masses of humanity are touched with
sweetness and light If have not shrunk from say
| ing that we must work for sweetness and light so
| neither have | shrunk from saving that we must
have a broad basis. must have sweetness ana ,isne
for as MANY as possible, hgah ana AGAIN neps 'r of
| humanity, how those are the marking epocns OF
peoples life, how those are the Towering tunes ior
| literature and art and all the creative power OF
genius. when there is national glow OF lie ana
thought when the whole OF society IS In the iulest
measure permeated by thought. sensible TO beauty,
intelligent and alive. Only 1t must be rear th9nSn'
| and real beauty real sweetness and real light
! Plenty of people will try to give the masses, as
they call them an intellectual food prepared ana
adapted in the way they think proper Tor the act1a
condition OF the masses The ordinary popular
| literature is an example of this way OF WORKING
OH the masses. Plenty of people VIII try 10 i in
trinate the with the set of ideas and lndg-
ments constituting the creed OF their own profession
| or party. Our religious and political orgahlza-
| tions give an example of this way of working on
| the masses. / condemn neither way; but culture
works differently. Ii does not TRY 10 teacn cow
TO the level of inferior classes IT does not try 10
ready made judgments and watch words IL seeks
to do away with classes and sects to make the pest
that has been thought and known IN me Woria
current everywhere; TO make all men live IN an
atmosphere of sweetness and light, where they
may use ideas as it them itself, freev,-nOur-
shcd, and not bound ly them.
This is the social idea: aud the men OF culture are
the true apostles of equality Culture ana AL
archy."
To understand Mr.. Arnold's attitude toward
the dull respectable conservative, and fat-wltted
| ,l,n nara
which stands at Tie head of his volume
THH MODERN SPIRIT.
Modern times find themselves with an immense
system of institutions established facts, accredited
iogmas customs. rules, which have come to them
from times not modern. In TINS system thcif ne
has TO be carried forward yet they have a sense
that this system is not OF their own creation hai II
by no means CORRESPONDS exactly WIN lhe Wints
OF their actual life that. for them. II Is Customary
not rational. The awakening OF TINS SENSE is tIc
awakening of the modern spirit. Tho modern spirit
is now awake almost every where; the sense OF want
of correspondence between the forms OF modern
Europe and its spirit. between the new VINE OIL te
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. and the Oh
bot lies of the eleventh and twelfth centuries or
| even of the sixteenth and seventeenth. almost
eN cryOuc now peTcelvcS II Is no longer dangerous
to affirm that this want OF correspondence cNiN's;
ueople are even beginning TO bc shy OF dcnyins H.
TO remove this want of correspondence Is mSlp-
ming To he the settled cndcaVor of most persons oi
good sense Dlssoivenis OF the Old EUROPEAN sNsI
TEN of domnan ideas and Facts we must an pe' an
! of us who have any power OF working ; WHAT we
| have to study is that may not be acrld dssol-
| vents of it," Essays i'll Criticism"
| "Pmlistnsin' is not a word Of his invention,
| but he has given it currency III our language:
PHILIsTINIsM.
Philistnsm we have not the expression III
| English. Perhaps have not the word because
! we have so much of the thing. Al SOIL mag
inc they did not talk of sClecisns; and here at the
| very headquarters of Goliath, nobody talks OF
| Philistinism. The French have adopted the term
! 6pjcier grocer, TO designate the sor OF ncinS
| A. n he
tine but the French tcTm,-bcsides that III casts u
| slur upon a respectable class, composed OF living
and susceptible members, while the original fhii-
istnes are dead and buried long ago. is really,
think, in itself much less apt ana expressive IMAM
| the German term. Efforts have been made TO Oh
tain IN English term equivalent TO I'llster or
! <D;cf7 Mr CARLYLE has made several such efforts
Responsibility with Its thousand gigs, he says =
well, the occupant OF every one OF these gigs IS,
| Mr. Carlyle means. Philistine. However. the
word respectable is far too valuable word TO oe
/ thus perverted from its proper meaning: II the
| English are ever to have word for the thlng we
are speaking of and so prodigouS are the changes
| which the modern spirit is introducing. that even
we English shall perhaps one day come to want
such wo.d-I think wo had much better take the
PhiIistine must have originally meant, in the
mind of those who Invented the nickhanie.
| chosen people. of the children OF the ilght.
The party of hdng tine ord rg
the inyOkers of against custom. the repre-
! sentatves of the modern spirit IN every sphere
where it is applicable regarded themsedves, WIN
a chosen people children OF the hight lhey
regarded their adversaries as hundium people
rressive but at the same time very strong. This
explains the love which Heine that Paladn OF the
modern spirit. has for France 1t explains the pref
ercnce which he gives to France over Germany
"the French" lie says, " are the chosen people OF
| the religion, its first gospels and dogmas nave
been draw up IN the Pb language v maS Us ie
divides the consecrated land of freedom from the
land of the Phiiistines" He means that the French,
az people, have shown more accessibility TO ideas
| than any other people that prescription and ron-
tine have had less hold upon them Than upon any
other people, that they have shown L'ost readiness
TO move and to alter at tho bidding treal or sup
posed of reason. This explains too, the detcsta-
ton which IIcine had for the English : 4" might
settle in England he says, in his exile II were
not that should find there two things coal smoke
and Englishnen ] cannot abide either" what he
hated in the English was the "dchtbri dscAe
BeSchrdnktAeit,n he calls 1.-THE genGine British
| narrowncss In truth, the English, profoundly as
they have modified the old Middlc-Age order, great
as is the liberty which they have secured for
themselves have in all their changes proceeded, TO
use familiar expression. by the rule OF thumb
what intelerably inconverient to them they
not because it irrational, but because II was
practically incOnvenient they have seldom III
suppressing IT appealed to reason. but always, II
possible. to precedent. or form, or letter,
which served as q convenient instrument
for their purpose, and which saved them
from the necessity OF recurring to general princi
pies. They have thus become. in certain sense.
OF all people the most inaccessiblcto ideas and the
most impatient of them /; inaccessible to Them be-
cause OF their want of familiarity with them and I'M,
patient of them, because they have got on 50 well
without them that they despisc those whO not hav
ing GOT on as well themselves, still make a fuss
for what they themselves have done so well with
ont Bnt there has certainly followed from hence,
in this country, somewhat Of general depression of
pare intelligence Phstia has come TO be thought
by us the true Land of Promise and it is ANYTHING
but that the born lover of ideas the born hater of
commonplaces must feel, in this country, that the
-. IL f,l i'll iran
Criticism"
Mr. Arnold divides society into three classes, the
Philistincs Tor middle class, Barbarians Tor ars-
tocracy). and Populace. In each class there are
a certain number Of aliens. if may call them
90 nor.lna who are mainly led not by thrir class