Matthew Arnolds Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems | Page 8

or literature, he saw his
countrymen under the domination of narrow ideals, he came speaking

the mystic word of deliverance, 'Culture.' Culture, acquaintance with
the best which has been thought and done in the world, is his panacea
for all ills.... In almost all of his prose writing he attacks some form of
'Philistinism,' by which word he characterized the narrow-mindedness
and self-satisfaction of the British middle class.
"Arnold's tone is admirably fitted to the peculiar task he had to
perform.... In Culture and Anarchy and many successive works, he
made his plea for the gospel of ideas with urbanity and playful grace, as
befitted the Hellenic spirit, bringing 'sweetness and light' into the dark
places of British prejudice. Sometimes, as in _Literature and Dogma_,
where he pleads for a more liberal and literary reading of the Bible, his
manner is quiet, suave, and gently persuasive. At other times, as in
Friendship's Garland, he shoots the arrows of his sarcasm into the
ranks of the Philistines with a delicate raillery and scorn, all the more
exasperating to his foes, because it is veiled by a mock humility, and is
scrupulously polite.
"Of Arnold's literary criticism, the most notable single piece is the
famous essay On Translating Homer, which deserves careful study for
the enlightenment it offers concerning many of the fundamental
questions of style. The essays on Wordsworth and on Byron from
_Essays in Criticism_, and that on Emerson, from Discourses in
America, furnish good examples of Arnold's charm of manner and
weight of matter in this province.
"The total impression which Arnold makes in his prose may be
described as that of a spiritual man-of-the-world. In comparison with
Carlyle, Buskin, and Newman, he is worldly. For the romantic passion
and mystic vision of these men he substitutes an ideal of balanced
cultivation, the ideal of the trained, sympathetic, cosmopolitan
gentleman. He marks a return to the conventions of life after the storm
and stress of the romantic age. Yet in his own way he also was a
prophet and a preacher, striving whole-heartedly to release his
countrymen from bondage to mean things, and pointing their gaze to
that symmetry and balance of character which has seemed to many
noble minds the true goal of human endeavor."--MOODY AND

LOVETT, _A History of English Literature_.
"As a literary critic, his taste, his temper, his judgment were pretty
nearly infallible. He combined a loyal and reasonable submission to
literary authority, with a free and even daring use of private judgment.
His admiration for the acknowledged masters of human
utterance--Homer, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe--was
genuine and enthusiastic, and incomparably better informed than that of
some more conventional critics. Yet this cordial submission to
recognized authority, this honest loyalty to established reputation, did
not blind him to defects; did not seduce him into indiscriminating
praise; did not deter him from exposing the tendency to verbiage in
Burke and Jeremy Taylor, the excess blankness of much of
Wordsworth's blank verse, the undercurrent of mediocrity in Macaulay,
the absurdities of Mr. Ruskin's etymology. And as in great matters, so
in small. Whatever literary production was brought under Matthew
Arnold's notice, his judgment was clear, sympathetic, and independent.
He had the readiest appreciation of true excellence, a quick intolerance
of turgidity and inflation--of what he called endeavors to render
platitude endurable by making it pompous, and lively horror of
affectation and
unreality."--Mr. GEORGE RUSSELL.
"In his work as literary critic Arnold has occupied a high place among
the foremost prose writers of the time. His style is in marked contrast to
the dithyrambic eloquence of Carlyle, or to Ruskin's pure and radiant
coloring. It is a quiet style, restrained, clear, discriminating, incisive,
with little glow of ardor or passion. Notwithstanding its scrupulous
assumption of urbanity, it is often a merciless style, indescribably
irritating to an opponent by its undercurrent of sarcastic humor, and its
calm air of assured superiority. By his insistence on a high standard of
technical excellence, and by his admirable presentation of certain
principles of literary judgment, Arnold performed a great work for
literature. On the other hand, we miss here, as in his poetry, the human
element, the comprehensive sympathy that we recognize in the
criticism of Carlyle. Yet Carlyle could not have written the essay On
Translating Homer, with all its scholarly discrimination in style and
technique, any more than Arnold could have produced Carlyle's

large-hearted essay on Burns. Arnold's varied energy and highly trained
intelligence have been felt in many different fields. He has won a
peculiar and honorable place in the poetry of the century; he has
excelled as literary critic, he has labored in the cause of education, and
finally, in his Culture and Anarchy, he has set forth his scheme of
social reform, and in certain later books has made His contribution