New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-14
seven months 1t is probable that tho expcdi-
ton will remain ice-b bound in the Kara Sea.
MdTTHEW ARNOLD on LUCIDI7Y.

| artistic as to be absolutely without art" He
laughingly described himself as "a nearly
sworn out man of letters with one nosirum for
apractical applcaton-pubic schools for the
amddle classes and one phrase about sweet
sness and light, which had quite lost the
charm of novelty" His address fully justified
the unique tribute which Lord Derby had paid
| to him, as it was veined with Thought ana
absolutely faultless in literary Workmanship.
| Combining his rem arks to the old lines OF edu-
cation and lucidity, he speedily succeeded IN
proving that even if the man OF letters were
nearly worn out his characteristic themes
were not.
| Tho occasion Of the address was the opening
of the annual session of the new University
| College founded ana endowed by that middle
class to whose improvement Mr.. Arnold has
devoted such anxious thought, -Four years
| ago public meeting was held i'll Liverpool
at which the plan of the college was first I'M
folded. Now the college is actually in opera
ton, with 500 students qualifying for univer-
sity degrees of arts and science, with an impor-
tant medical faculty in connection with various
branches of technical instruction, and with n
corporation grant of land and buildings and
| an endowment of $780, 900. This prosperous
institution so rapidly built and 50 generously
endowed is splendid monument to that
middle class whose intellectual abasement
| Mr. Arnold has repeatedly .deplored. He could
| not help c0nfessng that the subscription list
| so quickly raised in that commercial city was
startling surprise to him, and that he could
| no longer affirm that State and was absolutely
| indispensable to the Improvement of the middle
| classes. Private muniicence and municipal
| grants had certainly in this case given them
| something better and more useful than State
| aid could have given them. Yet he WAS not
| convinced that State-founded and State-regI-
lated schools were inexpedient, and he con-
tended that some such provision for middle
class improvement should be made i'll England
as is already made in Germany. Schools with
university studies might be founded by munich
palities and endowed by individuals, but
schools for the intermediate education Of the
commercial and industrial classes could not
be established without State aid. What had
been the burden of his song hitherto would,
SO far as be could see, remain the burden to the
end At the same time he was evidently inn
pressed by the intelligence and liberality with
which commercial Liverpool had supported the
rising institution. His diatribes against
middle class mediocrity were not renewed with
his old-time vigor.
| 1t was, not until Mr.. Arnold referred to the
public wants which the new college would in
some degree supply that he appeared at his
| best. lie summed up those wants in his favor
ite word, "lucidity." This he defined as /" the
perception of the.want of truth and validness
| " in notions long current, the perception that
"they are no longer possible, that their time is
"inished and they can serve us no more" lie
| illustrated his meaning by referring first to
| the vagaries of the Salvation Army, wherein
were witnessed energy, devotedness, excite
| ment conversions, with q total absence Of
| lucidity; and, secondly, to the Anglo Catholic
movement in its double phases of Puseyism
and Ritualism, to which lucidity would have
been absolutely fatal, for all those questions
of apostolic succession, primitive usage, en-
| blems and vestments had been passiOnately
| debated without recognition of the fact that if
| the basis were not solid all that was built upon
it was fantastic. Fixing upon the great wants
of the three principal Nations of Europe, lie
| declared that the French needed morality, the
| Germans civil courage, and the English
| lucdity. The French had lucidity without
seriousness, and the English seriousness with
out lucidty. Lucidity in Voltaire was accom-
panied by antipathy for what was absurd.
| Lucidity in Luther was accompanied by antip-
| atly for what was immoral. 1t was the posi-
tive lucdity Of which he hoped the new college
would be an exponent. " If they found a mega
" tive lucidity was not in itself a satisfying
possession, and that in France it was accom-
spaniel by much that they shrank from, they
must reflect that in England it would have in
II Al otin Nvit urbip
. France and in our natural seriousness, our
{" sense of reverence, and our love OF the past
| "would be our safeguards"
This is a most admirable analysis of national
traits and defects. Who that has studied the
last decade of French politics or watched the
changeful phases of Partisan frivolity can ques-
ton Mr.. Arnold's conviction that the great want
in public and private life is morality Who
that has wcarieG Of the inactiOn of German
legislators and the political paralysis of the
constituencies themselves even under universal
suffrage can doubt that the great want Of the
Fatherland is civil couragcP Who that has
followed with panstaking care the recent
aspects OF English public life can dissent from
the conclusion that what is lacking there is the
ability to see things as they are, to perceive
when ideas and institutions have survived
their usefulness to discern the necessity of
new ideas, new institutions and new modes of
dealing with old dil1icutiesl This, rs we
understand it, is what Mr.. Arnold means by
lucidIty. 1t is not intellectual light 50 much
as the faculty of seeing Alright what is good
and useful and what is no longer good and
useful. 1t is the ability to discern the right
way to govern iIreland by means of Irishmen
| 4 I,;a mat rafh kv
which have uniformly failed in the past. 1t