The San Francisco call., 1896-11-29
MQsa aATTFIEW ARNOLD. POET AND
SSB So PHIL LOSOPTIER, WITH WHOM
CULTURE IMPLIED A TRULY RELIGIOUS
DEPTH AND SWEETNESS OF MIND

glon OF thought and feeling and to write this
win perfection sof form demands not merely
an effort and labor, but an actual tearing of
oneself to pieces which one Goes not readily
consent to unless one can devote ones whole
lie TO poetry" His inspectorship o. schools
was sad drudgery, which occupied some of the
best years of his life. He was forced TO con-
TIME in 1t because his writing at that time
brought him in very little money.
Even after he became greatly distinguished
he was hardly what could be called popular
author. He gives an amusing account to his
mother of his interview with the Income-Tax
commissioners. They assessed his profits at
$1,000 year because he was 'most distih-
guished literary man. and his "works were
mentioned everywhere" He answered them.
"You see before you, gentlemen, what you
have often Iheard. OF, an unpopular author!'
The tax was finally cut down to f200 year.
Even hen he tod them he should have to
write more articles not to be a loser and the
chairman answered, "Then the public will.
have reason to be much obliged to us Mr..
Arnold" This incident recalls Carlyle's in
terview with these same commissioners-or,
rather, Mrs. Carlyle's interview, for, as usual
it was she who bore the brunt OF practical
affairs
In 1857 Arnold was elected professor of poe
try at Oxford. His influence in Oxford came
TO be very great, succeeding that OF Newman
In his later lie his. writing was mostly prose.
His Literature and Dogma" and Couture
and Anarchy" had tremendous influence
upon contemporary thought. He was affec-
tionate and, as he grew older, even demon
strative father. His attitude toward his two
daughters is charming. He wrote long and
interesting letters from America to his "Dar-
ling Nelly" The eldest daughter Lucy, ac-
companied him and "met her fate," the
saying goes, in New York. They visited this
country in the winter of 1SS3-S4.
Arnold lectured in most of the Eastern
cities. He was received with great enthusi-
asm, but his comments afterward on the
| United States were not entirely flattering.
However, our selflove need not be too much
! hurt when we remember that he'wrote OF his
own country one possessing "an upper
| class materialiZed, a middle class vulgarized,
and a lower class brutalized." These words
| occur toward the end of his Civilization in
America" In speaking of this country, its
present Limitation and its future possibilities,
| he says: DISTINCTION and beauty are needs,
and civilization is insufficient where these
needs are not satisfied, faulty where they are
! thwarted."
He had very just estimate of his own
work. In a letter to his mother he says: 'My
( poems represent on the whole the main move
'ment of mind OF the last quarter of century,
! and thus they will probably have their day as
people become conscious to themselves OF
/ what that movement of mind is. and inter
ested in the literary productions which reflect
it. 1t might be tairly urged that nave less
poetical sentiment than Tennyson, and less
| intellectual yigor and abundance than Brown
ing; yet, because 1 have perhaps more OF q
fusion OF the two than either of them, and
have more regularly applied that fusion to the
main line of modern development, am likely
enough to have my turn, as they have had
| theirs.'t
Truly, when we regard the increasing preva-
| lence OF his views and of the philosophy
which he taught, we are forced TO. admit that
! working with him is that Thine Spirit" for
whose operations he himself had so great a
respect GRACE S. MUssER