The essays assemble two series of criticism that defend criticism as a disinterested, clarifying practice and probe how institutions, education, and modern life shape literary taste. Arnold combines cultural diagnosis with close readings and formal analysis, treating poetic style, religious sensibility, and moral feeling across figures from classical and modern writers to Romantic poets. Topics range from the function of criticism and the study of poetry to examinations of Milton, Gray, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Heine, Spinoza, Marcus Aurelius, and Tolstoy, mixing broad theoretical reflections with interpretive essays that emphasize tone, proportion, and the moral purpose of art.