New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-31
THE FNGLLSHMANS DEFEOT.

The prophet of Lucidity is without honor in
his own country. Mr.. Matthew Arnold has
been snubDed and rdicued on all sides in Eng
land for pointing out a National defect. Lord
Derby, who introduced him to the Liverpool
audience, delicately suggested that the defect
in question might arise from intellectual
modesty or even a latent sceptcism in regard
to the accuracy of conclusions. This was q
complex and unintelligible explanation of the
National trait to which Mr.. Arnold had been
referring, but it was caught up by the English
journals almost without exception as most
sensible commentary on the text of the address.
The Daily Telegraph loyelled against the
apostle of culture a column of its heaviest and
soggiest fun The SATURDAY RcricW solemnly
reproduced a "patter ode" with tho burden,
"Lucidity. lucdity. Oh ! seek it with
avidity" and Manchester We'd with London
in the fatal facitywth which plain and direct
definition could be misunderstood and mis-
applied. Even The Spectator, whose vision is
seldom distorted or clOudcd by prejudice sees
men as trees walking when it analyses Mr..
Arnold's remarks on the great English want.
1t admits that no truer sentence was ever
uttered than his dictum about sweetness and
light, which not only passed into the language
ms phrase, but affected the National habit
" of extoling the middle class as the source of
:" all intelligence and civilization, and the fly
"wheel Of the State machine" 1t will not.
however, accept lucidity IA the word embody-
ing the "great want of the English people.
1t pron0unces the utterance neither new nor
true, as the want of lucidity is nothing in the
world but want of logic, and as that is a
@ L., IL tl,o,y
but proud, and not so much defect az it is
"a quality tending to produce something of
sweetness and light"
Now it matters little whether Mr.. Arnold uses
the right or the wrong word when he speaks of
lucidity, for he adapts it to his own needs and
applies it in IL special sense which he is careful
to define Lucidlty may be roughly explained
as intellectual light, us the faculty of inyari-
ably forming a correct and adequate Judgment
or as good logic but he did not use it in any of
these senses. When lie spoke of the great want
of the English as a want of lucldity, he defined
it as the perception of the want Of truth and
"validness in notions long current, the percep-
"tlon that they are no longer possible, that
their time is finished, and they can serve lis
/" no more" Now want of logic can scarcely
Dc COuSluCIpu duCIudlC ~ uOIN III IOr lucid
ity in this special sense. Indeed, Mr.. Arnold's
first sentence, after giving his definition. ex-
Guided the idea OF logical precision as tho es-
sence of lucidity "Practical cOnsderations.r
he said, "swayed the English, the danger sig-
nal went up; they often stopped short, turned
their eyes another way. or drew down q our
tain between their eyes and the Light This
did not imply any lack Of logical power. 1t
implied an unwillngness to see things as they
are, deliberate attempt to turn aside, to look
in another direction and to bandage the ewes
rather than to 90 on and face the living facts.
a constitutional tendency TO follow rrecon-
ceiyed notions rather than to revise impres-
sions by the light of new experience. IL ia the
characteristic attitude OF the Embellishments
mind, not any imperfectiOn Of his logical pro-
cesses, of which lack Of lucidity is made the
symbol. That attitude, as Tho Spectator seeks
to prove, may induce habits of prudence and
conservatism and may widen the area of intel
lectual activity. On the other hand, it dulls
perception clouds the mind, perverts the intel
ligence, and involves hesitation in thought de-
lay in action and ruinous waste of Opportu-
mites. In the long run it is best for Nations as
for men TO see things, not they have fallen into
the habit of looking at them, or as they prefer
to see them, but simply as thoy are and when