Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-04-06


In scholarly review of the life and
writings Of Matthew Arnold" whose
portrait makes the frontispiece of the
April Century, Mr.. Andrew Lang de.
scribes as follows Arnold's success as
a critic:
bis poetry, on the whole, to use his
own words about Greek tragedy. aims
at producing sentiment of sublime
acquiesence in the course of fate and
in the dispensations of human life. In
prose he has been able to say. more
definitely, what he thinks as a critic of
life, literature, and society. Not long
since. in a preface to Mr.. Wards
Anthology of English Poets," MIR.
Arnold spoke of poetry as if it might
become substitute for religion. Now,
it we allow the word religion to in.
clude authoritative speaking on the in
terests of mans spirit, and on the con.
duct of his life, Mr.. Arnold's own ex-
perience bears hardly upon his argu-
ment. AS long as he wrote poetry
alone, the great public did not much
mark him. / doubt if the Lord Mayors
Jour official patrons of litersture) ever
heard of Mr.. Arnold, or asked him to
dine with Mr.. Sala, in the DAYS when
he was only poet. But as soon as he
began to talk about religion, morality,
education, and literature in prose, the
great public heard him, though not
very gladly. AS soon as he began to
crlticise the middle classes and their
teachers-the newspapers-the middle
classes and the newspapers pricked up
their ears and listened, with many in
terruptions and circumstances. to
what he had to tell them. He spoke
to them in new voice, to which they
were not accustomed. He did not
merely giorify England and everything
English. He looked outside our coun-
try and our literature, to France, Ger.
many, Italy. He employed a strain of
humor and sarcasm, which has an ex-
traordinary power of irritating his vic
TINS.
1 believe Mr. Arnold has done us a
great deal of good. The f.suficiency
OF this county, our belief in our en-
terprise, trade, intelligent middle class
es, jealous dissent, right of free speech,
and so forth, were, fifteen years ago,
perfectly incredible and intoleyable.
Events have since taken good deal
of our conceit cut of us. Sadowa,
Sedan, Isandhlan3 and Majuba have
opened the eyes Of many of us. Ire
land and the east have taught us a few
lessons of self-distrast. But Mr.. Am
Old has kept on enforcing the lessons.
He will not let us rest an hour in the
delusi0n that our newspapers utter TIE
voice of unmitigated wisdom; that
our free speech is necessarily true or
instructed speech; that our middle
CLASSES, or lower classes, or upper
classes, are educated on sound princi.
pies; that our dissentsrs are living
and working in a pure spirit of gener-
Gus and liberal and genial Christianity.
All ONE Dagons he has blasphemed.
Our popular writer's, our popular theo-
logians, Our popular philosophers, our
Observation-Disclosures, Re has touched
with his'irreverent wit. "These be thy
gods, o. Israeli" he has cried, and the
idols lock as decrepit as, "that twice
battered god of Palestine" or the
Olympians m Bruno's
satirical tract. In this p;Ous and uni
versal crusade, I do not mean that Mr..
Arnold has always had light on his
side. He has said things, that seemed
eruel, or otherwise indesensible. He
has made the dissenters wpithe with
impOtent desire to smite, controversial
~, this cool and agile opponent. Many
people, doubtless, have qGite shut their
senses against him-liks the adder
who, says st. Augustine. thrusts the
Up of his tail into one OF his ears and
lays the other in the dussg But even
these deaStones know andafeei that the
oztbbles ef' British optimism are being
pricked. They are less. comfortable
than Of sid among theic, idoss. They
may neveT'Depent and be converted, but
their children and thei-r kinsmen are
TO listen to Mr.. Arnold, ano,
to try to- winnow the wheat from the,
toe eOpious "chaff' which his
offers the public.