~John William Colenso~ (1814-83), Bishop of Natal, published a series of treatises on the Pentateuch, extending from 1862-1879, opposing the traditional views about the literal inspiration of the Scriptures and the actual historical character of the Mosaic story. Arnold's censorious criticism of the first volume of this work is entitled The Bishop and the Philosopher (Macmillan's Magazine, January, 1863). As an example of the Bishop's cheap "arithmetical demonstrations" he describes him as presenting the case of Leviticus as follows: "'If three priests have to eat 264 pigeons a day, how many must each priest eat?' That disposes of Leviticus." The essay is devoted chiefly to contrasting Bishop Colenso's unedifying methods with those of the philosopher Spinoza. In passing, Arnold refers also to Dr. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine (1856), quotations from which are characterized as "the refreshing spots" in the Bishop's volume.
[50] It has been said I make it "a crime against literary criticism and the higher culture to attempt to inform the ignorant." Need I point out that the ignorant are not informed by being confirmed in a confusion? [Arnold.]
PAGE 44
[51] Joubert's Pensées, ed. 1850, II, 102, titre 23, 54.
[52] ~Arthur Penrhyn Stanley~ (1815-81), Dean of Westminster. He was the author of a Life of (Thomas) Arnold, 1844. In university politics and in religious discussions he was a Liberal and the advocate of toleration and comprehension.
[53] ~Frances Power Cobbe~ (1822-1904), a prominent English philanthropist and woman of letters. The quotation below is from Broken Lights (1864), p. 134. Her Religious Duty (1857), referred to on p. 46, is a book of religious and ethical instruction written from the Unitarian point of view.
[54] ~Ernest Renan~ (1823-92), French philosopher and Orientalist. The Vie de Jésus (1863), here referred to, was begun in Syria and is filled with the atmosphere of the East, but is a work of literary rather than of scholarly importance.
PAGE 45
[55] ~David Friedrich Strauss~ (1808-74), German theologian and man of letters. The work referred to is the Leben Jesu 1835. A popular edition was published in 1864.
[56] From "Fleury (Preface) on the Gospel."—Arnold's Note Book.
PAGE 46
[57] Cicero's Att. 16. 7. 3.
[58] ~Coleridge's happy phrase~. Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, letter 2.
PAGE 49
[59] ~Luther's theory of grace~. The question concerning the "means of grace," i.e. whether the efficacy of the sacraments as channels of the divine grace is ex opere operato, or dependent on the faith of the recipient, was the chief subject of controversy between Catholics and Protestants during the period of the Reformation.
[60] ~Jacques Bénigne Bossuet~ (1627-1704), French divine, orator, and writer. His Discours sur l'histoire universelle (1681) was an attempt to provide ecclesiastical authority with a rational basis. It is dominated by the conviction that "the establishment of Christianity was the one point of real importance in the whole history of the world."
PAGE 50
[61] From Virgil's Eclogues, iv, 5. Translated in Shelley's Hellas: "The world's great age begins anew."
THE STUDY OF POETRY
PAGE 55
[62] Published in 1880 as the General Introduction to The English Poets, edited by T.H. Ward. Reprinted in Essays in Criticism, Second Series, Macmillan & Co., 1888.
[63] This quotation is taken, slightly condensed, from the closing paragraph of a short introduction contributed by Arnold to The Hundred Greatest Men, Sampson, Low & Co., London, 1885.
PAGE 56
[64] From the Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, 1800.
[65] ~Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve~ (1804-69), French critic, was looked upon by Arnold as in certain respects his master in the art of criticism.
PAGE 57
[66] ~a criticism of life~. This celebrated phrase was first used by Arnold in the essay on Joubert (1864), though the theory is implied in On Translating Homer, 1861. In Joubert it is applied to literature: "The end and aim of all literature, if one considers it attentively, is, in truth, nothing but that." It was much attacked, especially as applied to poetry, and is defended as so applied in the essay on Byron (1881). See also Wordsworth, Selections, p. 230.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 371 in this e-text.]
[67] Compare Arnold's definition of the function of criticism, Selections, p. 52.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 61 in this e-text.]
PAGE 59
[68] ~Paul Pellisson~ (1624-93). French author, friend of Mlle. Scudéry, and historiographer to the king.
[69] Barren and servile civility.
70. ~M. Charles d' Hericault~ was joint editor of the Jannet edition (1868-72) of the poems of ~Clément Marot~ (1496-1544).
PAGE 62
[71] Imitation of Christ, Book III, chap. 43, 2.
[72] ~Cædmon~. The first important religious poet in Old English literature. Died about 680 A.D.
[73] ~Ludovic Vitet~ (1802-73). French dramatist and politician.
[74] ~Chanson de Roland~. The greatest of the Chansons des Gestes, long narrative poems dealing with warfare and adventure popular in France during the Middle Ages. It was composed in the eleventh century. Taillefer was the surname of a bard and warrior of the eleventh century. The tradition concerning him is related by Wace, Roman de Rou, third part, v., 8035-62, ed. Andreson, Heilbronn, 1879. The Bodleian Roland ends with the words: "ci folt la geste, que Turoldus declinet." Turold has not been identified.
PAGE 63
[75] "Then began he to call many things to remembrance,—all the lands which his valor conquered, and pleasant France, and the men of his lineage, and Charlemagne his liege lord who nourished him."—Chanson de Roland, III, 939-42.[Arnold.]
[76]
"So said she; they long since in Earth's soft arms were reposing,
There, in their own dear land, their fatherland, Lacedæmon."
Iliad, III, 243, 244 (translated by Dr. Hawtrey).[Arnold.]
PAGE 64
[77] "Ah, unhappy pair, why gave we you to King Peleus, to a mortal? but ye are without old age, and immortal. Was it that with men born to misery ye might have sorrow?"—Iliad, XVII, 443-445.[Arnold.]
[78] "Nay, and thou too, old man, in former days wast, as we hear, happy."—Iliad, XXIV, 543.[Arnold.]
[79] "I wailed not, so of stone grew I within;—they wailed."— Inferno, XXXIII, 39, 40.[Arnold.]
[80] "Of such sort hath God, thanked be His mercy, made me, that your misery toucheth me not, neither doth the flame of this fire strike me." —Inferno, II, 91-93.[Arnold.]
[81] "In His will is our peace."—Paradiso, III, 85.[Arnold.]
[82] Henry IV, part 2, III, i, 18-20.
PAGE 65
[83] Hamlet, V, ii, 361-62.
[84] Paradise Lost, I, 599-602.
[85] Ibid., I, 108-9.
[86] Ibid., IV, 271.
PAGE 66
[87] Poetics, § 9.
PAGE 67
[88] ~Provençal~, the language of southern France, from the southern French oc instead of the northern oïl for "yes."
PAGE 68
[89] Dante acknowledges his debt to ~Latini~ (c. 1230-c. 1294), but the latter was probably not his tutor. He is the author of the Tesoretto, a heptasyllabic Italian poem, and the prose Livres dou Trésor, a sort of encyclopedia of medieval lore, written in French because that language "is more delightful and more widely known."
[90] ~Christian of Troyes~. A French poet of the second half of the twelfth century, author of numerous narrative poems dealing with legends of the Round Table. The present quotation is from the Cligés, ll. 30-39.
PAGE 69
[91] Chaucer's two favorite stanzas, the seven-line and eight-line stanzas in heroic verse, were imitated from Old French poetry. See B. ten Brink's The Language and Meter of Chaucer, 1901, pp. 353-57.
[92] ~Wolfram von Eschenbach~. A medieval German poet, born in the end of the twelfth century. His best-known poem is the epic Parzival.
PAGE 70
[93] From Dryden's Preface to the Fables, 1700.
[94] The Confessio Amantis, the single English poem of ~John Gower~ (c. 1330-1408), was in existence in 1392-93.
PAGE 71
[95] ~souded~. The French soudé, soldered, fixed fast.[Arnold.] From the Prioress's Tale, ed. Skeat, 1894, B. 1769. The line should read, "O martir, souded to virginitee."
PAGE 73
[96] ~François Villon~, born in or near Paris in 1431, thief and poet. His best-known poems are his ballades. See R.L. Stevenson's essay.
[97] The name Heaulmière is said to be derived from a headdress (helm) worn as a mark by courtesans. In Villon's ballad, a poor old creature of this class laments her days of youth and beauty. The last stanza of the ballad runs thus:
"Ainsi le bon temps regretons
Entre nous, pauvres vieilles sottes,
Assises bas, à croppetons,
Tout en ung tas comme pelottes;
A petit feu de chenevottes
Tost allumées, tost estainctes.
Et jadis fusmes si mignottes!
Ainsi en prend à maintz et maintes."
"Thus amongst ourselves we regret the good time, poor silly old things, low-seated on our heels, all in a heap like so many balls; by a little fire of hemp-stalks, soon lighted, soon spent. And once we were such darlings! So fares it with many and many a one."[Arnold.]
PAGE 74
[98] From An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, 1688.
[99] A statement to this effect is made by Dryden in the Preface to the Fables.
[100] From Preface to the Fables.
PAGE 75
[101] See Wordsworth's Essay, Supplementary to the Preface, 1815, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.
[102] An Apology for Smectymnuus, Prose Works, ed. 1843, III, 117-18. Milton was thirty-four years old at this time.
PAGE 76
[103] The opening words of Dryden's Postscript to the Reader in the translation of Virgil, 1697.
PAGE 77
[104] The opening lines of The Hind and the Panther.
[105] Imitations of Horace, Book II, Satire 2, ll. 143-44.
PAGE 78
[106] From On the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq.
PAGE 79
[107] ~Clarinda~. A name assumed by Mrs. Maclehose in her sentimental connection with Burns, who corresponded with her under the name of Sylvander.
[108] Burns to Mr. Thomson, October 19, 1794.
PAGE 80
[109] From The Holy Fair.
PAGE 81
[110] From Epistle: To a Young Friend.
[111] From Address to the Unco' Quid, or the Rigidly Righteous.
[112] From Epistle: To Dr. Blacklock.
[Footnote 4: See his Memorabilia.][Transcriber's note: The reference for this footnote is missing from the original text.]
PAGE 83
[113] From Winter: A Dirge.
PAGE 84
[114] From Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, III, iv, last line.
[115] Ibid., II, v.
LITERATURE AND SCIENCE
PAGE 87
[116] Reprinted (considerably revised) from the Nineteenth Century, August, 1882, vol. XII, in Discourses in America, Macmillan & Co., 1885. It was the most popular of the three lectures given by Arnold during his visit to America in 1883-84.
[117] Plato's Republic, 6. 495, Dialogues, ed. Jowett, 1875, vol. 3, p. 194.
[118] ~working lawyer~. Plato's Theoetetus, 172-73, Dialogues, IV, 231.
PAGE 88
[119] ~majesty~. All editions read "majority." What Emerson said was "majesty," which is therefore substituted here. See Emerson's Literary Ethics, Works, Centenary ed., I, 179.
PAGE 89
[120] "His whole soul is perfected and ennobled by the acquirement of justice and temperance and wisdom. … And in the first place, he will honor studies which impress these qualities on his soul and will disregard others."—Republic, IX, 591, Dialogues, III, 305.
PAGE 91
[121] See The Function of Criticism, Selections, p. 52.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 61 in this e-text.]
[122] Delivered October 1, 1880, and printed in Science and Culture and Other Essays, Macmillan & Co., 1881.
[123] See The Function of Criticism, Selections, pp. 52-53. [Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 61 in this e-text.]
PAGE 92
[124] See L'Instruction supérieur en France in Renan's Questions Contemporaines, Paris, 1868.
PAGE 93
[125] ~Friedrich August Wolf~ (1759-1824), German philologist and critic.
PAGE 99
[126] See Plato's Symposium, Dialogues, II, 52-63.
PAGE 100
[127] ~James Joseph Sylvester~ (1814-97), English mathematician. In 1883, the year of Arnold's lecture, he resigned a position as teacher in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to accept the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford.
PAGE 101
[128] Darwin's famous proposition. Descent of Man, Part III, chap. XXI, ed. 1888, II, 424.
PAGE 103
[129] ~Michael Faraday~ (1791-1867), English chemist and physicist, and the discoverer of the induction of electrical currents. He belonged to the very small Christian sect called after ~Robert Sandeman~, and his opinion with respect to the relation between his science and his religion is expressed in a lecture on mental education printed at the end of his Researches in Chemistry and Physics.
PAGE 105
[130] Eccles. VIII, 17.[Arnold.]
[131] Iliad, XXIV, 49.[Arnold.]
[132] Luke IX, 25.
PAGE 107
[133] Macbeth, V, iii.
PAGE 109
[134] A touching account of the devotion of ~Lady Jane Grey~ (1537-54) to her studies is to be found in Ascham's Scholemaster, Arber's ed., 46-47.
HEINRICH HEINE.
PAGE 112
[135] Reprinted from the Cornhill Magazine, vol. VIII, August, 1863, in Essays in Criticism, 1st series, 1865.
[136] Written from Paris, March 30, 1855. See Heine's Memoirs, ed. 1910, II, 270.
PAGE 113
[137] The German Romantic school of ~Tieck~ (1773-1853), ~Novalis~ (1772-1801), and ~Richter~ (1763-1825) followed the classical school of Schiller and Goethe. It was characterized by a return to individualism, subjectivity, and the supernatural. Carlyle translated extracts from Tieck and Richter in his German Romance (1827), and his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays contain essays on Richter and Novalis.
PAGE 114
[138] From English Fragments; Conclusion, in Pictures of Travel, ed. 1891, Leland's translation, Works, III, 466-67.
PAGE 117
[139] ~Heine's~ birthplace was not ~Hamburg~, but ~Düsseldorf~.
[140] ~Philistinism~. In German university slang the term Philister was applied to townsmen by students, and corresponded to the English university "snob." Hence it came to mean a person devoid of culture and enlightenment, and is used in this sense by Goethe in 1773. Heine was especially instrumental in popularizing the expression outside of Germany. Carlyle first introduced it into English literature in 1827. In a note to the discussion of Goethe in the second edition of German Romance, he speaks of a Philistine as one who "judged of Brunswick mum, by its utility." He adds: "Stray specimens of the Philistine nation are said to exist in our own Islands; but we have no name for them like the Germans." The term occurs also in Carlyle's essays on The State of German Literature, 1827, and Historic Survey of German Poetry, 1831. Arnold, however, has done most to establish the word in English usage. He applies it especially to members of the middle class who are swayed chiefly by material interests and are blind to the force of ideas and the value of culture. Leslie Stephen, who is always ready to plead the cause of the Philistine, remarks: "As a clergyman always calls every one from whom he differs an atheist, and a bargee has one or two favorite but unmentionable expressions for the same purpose, so a prig always calls his adversary a Philistine." Mr. Matthew Arnold and the Church of England, Fraser's Magazine, October, 1870.
[141] The word ~solecism~ is derived from[Greek: soloi], in Cilicia, owing to the corruption of the Attic dialect among the Athenian colonists of that place.
PAGE 118
[142] The "~gig~" as Carlyle's symbol of philistinism takes its origin from a dialogue which took place in Thurtell's trial: "I always thought him a respectable man." "What do you mean by 'respectable'?" "He kept a gig." From this he coins the words "gigman," "gigmanity," "gigmania," which are of frequent occurrence in his writings.
PAGE 119
[143] English Fragments, Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 464.
PAGE 120
[144] See The Function of Criticism, Selections, Note 2, p. 42. [Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 42 in this e-text.]
PAGE 121
[145] English Fragments, chap. IX, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 410-11.
[146] Adapted from a line in Wordsworth's Resolution and Independence.
PAGE 122
[147] ~Charles the Fifth~. Ruler of The Holy Roman Empire, 1500-58.
PAGE 124
[148] English Fragments, Conclusion, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 468-70.
[149] A complete edition has at last appeared in Germany.[Arnold.]
PAGE 125
[150] ~Augustin Eugène Scribe~ (1791-1861), French dramatist, for fifty years the best exponent of the ideas of the French middle class.
PAGE 126
[151] ~Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte~ (Napoleon III), 1808-73, son of Louis Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I, by the coup d'état of December, 1851, became Emperor of France. This was accomplished against the resistance of the Moderate Republicans, partly through the favor of his democratic theories with the mass of the French people. Heine was mistaken, however, in believing that the rule of Louis Napoleon had prepared the way for Communism. An attempt to bring about a Communistic revolution was easily crushed in 1871.
PAGE 127
[152] ~J.J. von Goerres~ (1776-1848), ~Klemens Brentano~ (1778-1842), and ~Ludwig Achim von Arnim~ (1781-1831) were the leaders of the second German Romantic school and constitute the Heidelberg group of writers. They were much interested in the German past, and strengthened the national and patriotic spirit. Their work, however, is often marred by exaggeration and affectation.
PAGE 128
[153] From The Baths of Lucca, chap. X, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 199.
PAGE 129
[154] Cf. Function of Criticism, Selections, p. 26.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 27 in this e-text.]
[155] Job XII, 23: "He enlargeth the nations and straiteneth them again."
PAGE 131
[156] Lucan, Pharsalia, book I, 135: "he stands the shadow of a great name."
PAGE 132
[157] From Ideas, in Pictures of Travel, Works, II, 312-13.
[158] ~Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh~ (1769-1822), as Foreign Secretary under Lord Liverpool, became the soul of the coalition against Napoleon, which, during the campaigns of 1813-14, was kept together by him alone. He committed suicide with a penknife in a fit of insanity in August, 1822.
[159] From Ideas, in Pictures of Travel, Works, II, 324.
[160] From English Fragments, 1828, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 340-42.
PAGE 133
[161] Song in Measure for Measure, IV, i.
[162][Transcriber's note: "From The Dying One: for translation see p. 142." in original. Please see reference in text for Footnote 180.]
PAGE 135
[163] From Mountain Idyll, Travels in the Hartz Mountains, Book of Songs. Works, ed. 1904, pp. 219-21.
[164] Published 1851.
[165] ~Rhampsinitus~. A Greek corruption of Ra-messu-pa-neter, the popular name of Rameses III, King of Egypt.
[166] ~Edith with the Swan Neck~. A mistress of King Harold of England.
[167] ~Melisanda of Tripoli~. Mistress of Geoffrey Rudel, the troubadour.
[168] ~Pedro the Cruel~. King of Castile (1334-69).
[169] ~Firdusi~. A Persian poet, author of the epic poem, the Shahnama, or "Book of Kings," a complete history of Persia in nearly sixty thousand verses.
[170] ~Dr. Döllinger~. A German theologian and church historian (1799-1890).
[171] Spanish Atrides, Romancero, Works, ed. 1905, pp. 200-04.
[172] ~Henry of Trastamare~. King of Castile (1369-79).
PAGE 137
[173] ~garbanzos~. A kind of pulse much esteemed in Spain.
PAGE 138
[174] Adapted from Rom. VIII, 26.
PAGE 139
[175] From The Baths of Lucca, chap. IX, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 184-85.
[176] Romancero, book III.
PAGE 140
[177] ~Laura~. The heroine of Petrarch's famous series of love lyrics known as the Canzoniere.
[178] ~Court of Love~. For a discussion of this supposed medieval tribunal see William A. Neilson's The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, Boston, 1899, chap. VIII.
PAGE 142
[179] Disputation, Romancero, book III.
[180] The Dying One, Romancero, book II, quoted entire.
PAGE 143
[181] Written from Paris, September 30, 1850. See Memoirs, ed. 1910, II, 226-27.
MARCUS AURELIUS.
PAGE 145
[182] Reprinted from The Victoria Magazine, II, 1-9, November, 1863, in Essays in Criticism, 1865.
[183] ~John Stuart Mill~ (1806-73), English philosopher and economist. On Liberty (1859) is his most finished writing.
[184] The Imitation of Christ (Imitatio Christi), a famous medieval Christian devotional work, is usually ascribed to Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), an Augustinian canon of Mont St. Agnes in the diocese of Utrecht.
PAGE 146
[185] ~Epictetus~. Greek Stoic philosopher (born c. A.D. 60). He is an earnest preacher of righteousness and his philosophy is eminently practical. For Arnold's personal debt to him see his sonnet To a Friend.
PAGE 147
[186] ~Empedocles~. A Greek philosopher and statesman (c. 490-430 B.C.). He is the subject of Arnold's early poetical drama, Empedocles on Etna, which he later suppressed for reasons which he states in the Preface to the Poems of 1853. See Selections, pp. 1-3. [Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 1 in this e-text.]
[187] Encheiridion, chap. LII.
[188] Ps. CXLIII, 10; incorrectly quoted.
[189] Is. LX, 19.
[190] Mal. IV, 2.
[191] John I, 13.
[192] John III, 5.
PAGE 148
[193] 1 John V, 4.
[194] Matt. XIX, 26.
[195] 2 Cor. V, 17.
[196] Encheiridion, chap. XLIII.
[197] Matt. XVIII, 22.
[198] Matt. XXII, 37-39, etc.
PAGE 149
[199] ~George Long~ (1800-79), classical scholar. He published Selections from Plutarch's Lives, 1862; Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, 1862; etc.
[200] ~Thomas Arnold~ (1795-1842), English clergyman and headmaster of Rugby School, father of Matthew Arnold.
PAGE 150
[201] ~Jeremy Collier~ (1650-1726). His best-known work is his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, 1698, a sharp and efficacious attack on the Post-Restoration drama. The Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, his Conversation with himself, appeared in 1701.
PAGE 151
[202] Meditations, III, 14.
PAGE 152
203. ~Antoninus Pius~. Roman Emperor, A.D. 138-161, and foster-father of M. Aurelius.
[204] To become current in men's speech.
[205] The real name of ~Voltaire~ was ~François Marie Arouet~. The name Voltaire was assumed in 1718 and is supposed to be an anagram of Arouet le j(eune).
PAGE 154
[206] See Function of Criticism, Selections, p. 36.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 36 in this e-text.]
[207] ~Louis IX of France~ (1215-70), the leader of the crusade of 1248.
PAGE 155
[208] ~The Saturday Review~, begun in 1855, was pronouncedly conservative in politics. It devoted much space to pure criticism and scholarship, and Arnold's essays are frequently criticized in its columns.
[209] He died on the 17th of March, A.D. 180.[Arnold.]
PAGE 156
[210] ~Juvenal's sixth satire~ is a scathing arraignment of the vices and follies of the women of Rome during the reign of Domitian.
[211] See Juvenal, Sat. 3, 76.
[212] Because he lacks an inspired poet (to sing his praises). Horace, Odes, IV, 9, 28.
PAGE 157
[213] ~Avidius Cassius~, a distinguished general, declared himself Emperor in Syria in 176 A.D. Aurelius proceeded against him, deploring the necessity of taking up arms against a trusted officer. Cassius was slain by his own officers while M. Aurelius was still in Illyria.
[214] ~Commodus~. Emperor of Rome, 180-192 A.D. He was dissolute and tyrannical.
[215] ~Attalus~, a Roman citizen, was put to death with other Christians in A.D. 177.
[216] ~Polycarp~, Bishop of Smyrna, and one of the Apostolic Fathers, suffered martyrdom in 155 A.D.
PAGE 159
[217] ~Tacitus~, Ab Excessu Augusti, XV, 44.
PAGE 161
[218] ~Claude Fleury~ (1640-1723), French ecclesiastical historian, author of the Histoire Ecclésiastique, 20 vols., 1691.
PAGE 163
[219] Med., I, 12.
[220] Ibid., I, 14.
[221] Ibid., IV, 24.
PAGE 164
[222] Ibid., III, 4.
PAGE 165
[223] Ibid., V, 6.
[224] Ibid., IX, 42.
[225] ~Lucius Annæus Seneca~ (c. 3 B.C.-A.D. 65), statesman and philosopher. His twelve so-called Dialogues are Stoic sermons of a practical and earnest character.
PAGE 166
[226] Med., III, 2.
PAGE 167
[227] Ibid., V, 5.
[228] Ibid., VIII, 34.
PAGE 168
[229] Ibid., IV, 3.
PAGE 169
[230] Ibid., I, 17.
[231] ~Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian~. Roman Emperors, 14-37 A.D., 37-41 A.D., 54-68 A.D., and 81-96 A.D.
[232] Med., IV, 28.
[233] Ibid., V, 11.
PAGE 170
[234] Ibid., X, 8.
PAGE 171
[235] Ibid., IV, 32.
[236] Ibid., V, 33.
[237] Ibid., IX, 30.
[238] Ibid., VII, 55.
PAGE 172
[239] Ibid., VI, 48.
[240] Ibid., IX, 3.
PAGE 173
[241] Matt. XVII, 17.
[242] Med., X, 15.
[243] Ibid., VI, 45.
[244] Ibid., V, 8.
[245] Ibid., VII, 55.
PAGE 174
[246] Ibid., IV, 1.
[247] Ibid., X, 31.
[248] Ibid.
PAGE 175
[249] ~Alogi~. An ancient sect that rejected the Apocalypse and the Gospel of St. John.
[250] ~Gnosis~. Knowledge of spiritual truth or of matters commonly conceived to pertain to faith alone, such as was claimed by the Gnostics, a heretical Christian sect of the second century.
[251] The correct reading is tendebantque (Æneid, VI, 314), which Arnold has altered to apply to the present case.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CELTS TO ENGLISH LITERATURE
PAGE 176
[252] From On The Study of Celtic Literature, London, 1867, chap. VI. It was previously published in the Cornhill Magazine, vols. XIII and XIV, March-July, 1866. In the Introduction to the book Arnold says: "The following remarks on the study of Celtic literature formed the substance of four lectures given by me last year and the year before in the chair of poetry at Oxford." The chapter is slightly abridged in the present selection.
PAGE 177
[253] Paradise Lost, III, 32-35.
[254] Tasso, I, 2, 304-05.
[255] ~Menander~. The most famous Greek poet of the New Comedy (342-291 B.C.).
PAGE 179
[256] ~Gemeinheit~. Arnold defines the word five lines below.
[257] See The Function of Criticism, Selections, Note 2, p. 42. [Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 42 in this e-text.]
[258] ~Bossuet~. See The Function of Criticism, Selections, Note 2, p. 49.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 60 in this e-text.]
[259] ~Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke~ (1678-1751), English statesman and man of letters, was author of the Idea of a Patriot King. Arnold is inclined to overestimate the quality of his style.
PAGE 180
[260] ~Taliessin~ and ~Llywarch Hen~ are the names of Welsh bards, supposedly of the late sixth century, whose poems are contained in the Red Book of Hergest, a manuscript formerly preserved in Jesus College, Oxford, and now in the Bodleian. Nothing further is known of them. ~Ossian~, ~Ossin~, or ~Oisin~, was a legendary Irish third century hero and poet, the son of Finn. In Scotland the Ossianic revival was due to James Macpherson. See Note 1, p. 181.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 262 in this e-text.]
[261] From the Black Book of Caermarthen, 19.
PAGE 181
[262] ~James Macpherson~ (1736-96) published anonymously in 1760 his Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland and translated from the Gaelic or Erse language. This was followed by an epic Fingal and other poems. Their authenticity was early doubted and a controversy followed. They are now generally believed to be forgeries. The passage quoted, as well as references to Selma, "woody Morven," and "echoing Lora" (not Sora), is from Carthon: a Poem.
PAGE 182
[263] ~Werther~. Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774) was a product of the Sturm und Drang movement in German literature, and responsible for its sentimental excesses. Goethe mentions Ossian in connection with Homer in Werther, book II, "am 12. October," and translates several passages of considerable length toward the close of this book.
[264] ~Prometheus~. An unfinished drama of Goethe's, of which a fine fragment remains.
PAGE 183
[265] For ~Llywarch Hen~, see Note 1, p. 180.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 260 in this e-text.] The present quotation is from book II of the Red Book. A translation of the poem differing somewhat from the one quoted by Arnold is contained in W.F. Skene's The Four Ancient Books of Wales, Edinburgh, 1868.
[266] From On this day I complete my thirty-sixth year, 1824.
[267] From Euthanasia, 1812.
PAGE 184
[268] ~Manfred, Lara, Cain~. Heroes of Byron's poems so named.
[269] From Paradise Lost, I, 105-09.
PAGE 185
[270] Rhyme,—the most striking characteristic of our modern poetry as distinguished from that of the ancients, and a main source, to our poetry, of its magic and charm, of what we call its romantic element— rhyme itself, all the weight of evidence tends to show, comes into our poetry from the Celts.[Arnold.] A different explanation is given by J. Schipper, A History of English Versification, Oxford, 1910: "End-rhyme or full-rhyme seems to have arisen independently and without historical connection in several nations…. Its adoption into all modern literature is due to the extensive use made of it in the hymns of the church."
[271] Lady Guest's Mabinogion, Math the Son of Mathonwy, ed. 1819, III, 239.
[272] Mabinogion, Kilhwch and Olwen, II, 275.
PAGE 186
[273] Mabinogion, Peredur the Son of Evrawc, I, 324.
[274] Mabinogion, Geraint the Son of Erbin, II, 112.
PAGE 187
[275] ~Novalis~. The pen-name of ~Friedrich von Hardenberg~ (1772-1801), sometimes called the "Prophet of Romanticism." See Carlyle's essay on Novalis.
[276] For ~Rückert~, see Wordsworth, Selections, Note 4, p. 224. [Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 356 in this e-text.]
[277] Take the following attempt to render the natural magic supposed to pervade Tieck's poetry: "In diesen Dichtungen herrscht eine geheimnissvolle Innigkeit, ein sonderbares Einverständniss mit der Natur, besonders mit der Pflanzen-und Steinreich. Der Leser fühlt sich da wie in einem verzauberten Walde; er hört die unterirdischen Quellen melodisch rauschen; wildfremde Wunderblumen schauen ihn an mit ihren bunten sehnsüchtigen Augen; unsichtbare Lippen küssen seine Wangen mit neckender Zärtlichkeit; hohe Pilze, wie goldne Glocken, wachsen klingend empor am Fusse der Bäume"; and so on. Now that stroke of the hohe Pilze, the great funguses, would have been impossible to the tact and delicacy of a born lover of nature like the Celt; and could only have come from a German who has hineinstudirt himself into natural magic. It is a crying false note, which carries us at once out of the world of nature-magic, and the breath of the woods, into the world of theatre-magic and the smell of gas and orange-peel.[Arnold.]
~Johann Ludwig Tieck~ (1773-1853) was one of the most prominent of the German romanticists. He was especially felicitous in the rehandling of the old German fairy tales. The passage quoted above is from Heine's Germany, Part II, book II, chap. II. The following is the translation of C.G. Leland, slightly altered: "In these compositions we feel a mysterious depth of meaning, a marvellous union with nature, especially with the realm of plants and stones. The reader seems to be in an enchanted forest; he hears subterranean springs and streams rustling melodiously and his own name whispered by the trees. Broad-leaved clinging plants wind vexingly about his feet, wild and strange wonderflowers look at him with vari-colored longing eyes, invisible lips kiss his cheeks with mocking tenderness, great funguses like golden bells grow singing about the roots of trees."
[278] Winter's Tale, IV, iii, 118-20.
[279] Arnold doubtless refers to the passage in The Solitary Reaper referred to in a similar connection in the essay on Maurice de Guérin, though Wordsworth has written two poems To the Cuckoo.
[280] The passage on the mountain birch-tree, which is quoted in the essay on Maurice de Guérin, is from Sénancour's Obermann, letter 11. For his delicate appreciation of the Easter daisy see Obermann, letter 91.
PAGE 188
[281]. Pope's Iliad, VIII, 687.
[282] Propertius, Elegies, book I, 20, 21-22: "The band of heroes covered the pleasant beach with leaves and branches woven together."
[283] Idylls, XIII, 34. The present reading of the line gives[Greek: hekeito, mega]: "A meadow lay before them, very good for beds."
[284] From the Ode to a Grecian Urn.
PAGE 189
[285] That is, Dedication.
[286] From the Ode to a Nightingale.
[287] Ibid.
PAGE 190
[288] Virgil, Eclogues, VII, 45.
[289] Ibid., II, 47-48: "Plucking pale violets and the tallest poppies, she joins with them the narcissus and the flower of the fragrant dill."
[290] Ibid., II, 51-52: "I will gather quinces, white with delicate down, and chestnuts."
[291] Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i, 249-52.
[292] Merchant of Venice, V, i, 58-59.
[293] Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i, 83-85.
PAGE 191
[294] Merchant of Venice, V, i, 1 ff.
GEORGE SAND
PAGE 192
[295] Reprinted from the Fortnightly Review for June, 1877, in Mixed Essays, Smith, Elder & Co., 1879. ~Amandine Lucile Aurore Dudevant~, née ~Dupin~ (1804-76), was the most prolific woman writer of France. The pseudonym ~George Sand~ was a combination of George, the typical Berrichon name, and Sand, abbreviated from (Jules) Sandeau, in collaboration with whom she began her literary career.
[296] ~Indiana~, George Sand's first novel, 1832.
[297] ~Nohant~ is a village of Berry, one of the ancient provinces of France, comprising the modern departments of Cher and Indre. The ~Indre~ and the ~Creuse~ are its chief rivers. ~Vierzon, Châteauroux, Le Châtre~, and ~Ste.-Sévère~ are towns of the province. ~Le Puy~ is in the neighboring department of Haute-Loire, and ~La Marche~ is in the department of Vosges. For the ~Vallée Noire~ see Sand's The Miller of Angibault, chap. III, etc.
[298] ~Jeanne~. The first of a series of novels in which the pastoral element prevails. It was published in 1844.
[299] The ~Pierres Jaunâtres~ (or ~Jomâtres~) is a district in the mountains of the Creuse (see Jeanne, Prologue). ~Touix Ste.-Croix~ is a ruined Gallic town (Jeanne, chap. I). For the druidical stones of ~Mont Barlot~ see Jeanne, chap. VII.
PAGE 193
[300] ~Cassini's great map~. A huge folio volume containing 183 charts of the various districts of France, published by Mess. Maraldi and Cassini de Thury, Paris, 1744.
[301] For an interesting description of the patache, or rustic carriage, see George Sand's Miller of Angibault, chap. II.
[302] ~landes~. An infertile moor.
PAGE 194
[303] ~Maurice and Solange~. See, for example, the Letters of a Traveller.
[304] ~Chopin~. George Sand's friendship for the composer Chopin began in 1837.
PAGE 195
[305] ~Jules Michelet~ (1798-1874), French historian.
[306] ~her death~. George Sand died at Nohant, June 8, 1876.
PAGE 196
[307]. From the Journal d'un Voyageur, September 15, 1870, ed. 1871, p. 2.
[308] ~Consuelo~ (1842-44) is George Sand's best-known novel.
[309] ~Edmée, Geneviève, Germain~. Characters in the novels Mauprat, André, and La Mare au Diable.
[310] ~Lettres d'un Voyageur, Mauprat, François le Champi~. Published in 1830-36, 1836, and 1848.
[311] ~F.W.H. Myers~ (1843-1901), poet and essayist. See his Essays, Modern, ed. 1883, pp. 70-103.
PAGE 197
[312] ~Valvèdre~. Published in 1861.
[313] ~Werther~. See The Contribution of the Celts, Selections, Note 1, p. 182.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 263 in this e-text.]
[314] ~Corinne~. An esthetic romance (1807) by Mme. de Staël.
[315] ~Valentine~ (1832), George Sand's second novel, pointed out "the dangers and pains of an ill-assorted marriage." ~Lélia~ (1833) was a still more outspoken diatribe against society and the marriage law.
PAGE 199
[316] From Lélia, chap. LXVII.
[317] ~Jacques~ (1834), the hero of which is George Sand in man's disguise, sets forth the author's doctrine of free love.
[318] From Jacques, letter 95.
PAGE 200
[319] From Lettres d'un Voyageur, letter 9.
[320] Ibid., à Rollinat, September, 1834.
PAGE 203
[321] ~Hans Holbein~, the younger (1497-1543), German artist.
PAGE 205
[322] From La Mare au Diable, chap. 1.
[323] Ibid., The Author to the Reader.
PAGE 206
[324] Ibid., chap. 1.
PAGE 207
[325] Ibid., chap. 1.
PAGE 208
[326] From Impressions et Souvenirs, ed. 1873, p. 135.
[327] Ibid., p. 137.
[328] From Wordsworth's Lines Composed a few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
[329] From Impressions et Souvenirs, p. 136.
PAGE 209
[330] Ibid., p. 139.
PAGE 210
[331] Ibid., p. 269.
[332] Ibid., p. 253.
PAGE 211
[333] See The Function of Criticism, Selections, p. 29.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 29 in this e-text.]
[334] ~Émile Zola~ (1840-1902), French novelist, was the apostle of the "realistic" or "naturalistic" school. L'Assommoir (1877) depicts especially the vice of drunkenness.
PAGE 212
[335] From Journal d'un Voyageur, February 10, 1871, p. 305.
[336] ~Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye~ (1822-92), Belgian economist. He was especially interested in bimetallism, primitive property, and nationalism.
PAGE 213
[337] From Journal d'un Voyageur, December 21, 1870, p. 202.
PAGE 214
[338] Ibid., December 21, 1870, p. 220.
PAGE 215
[339] Ibid., February 7, 1871, p. 228.
[340] Round my House: Notes of Rural Life in France in Peace and War (1876), by ~Philip Gilbert Hamerton~. See especially chapters XI and XII.
[341] ~Barbarians, Philistines, Populace~. Arnold's designations for the aristocratic, middle, and lower classes of England in Culture and Anarchy.
PAGE 216
[342] ~Paul Amand Challemel-Lacour~ (1827-96), French statesman and man of letters.
[343] See The Function of Criticism, Selections, Note 4, p. 44. [Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 54 in this e-text.]
[344] From Journal d'un Voyageur, February 10, 1871, p. 309.
PAGE 217
[345] The closing sentence of the Nicene Creed with expecto changed to exspectat. For the English translation see Morning Prayer in the Episcopal Prayer Book; for the Greek and Latin see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, II, 58, 59.
WORDSWORTH
PAGE 218
[346] Published in Macmillan's Magazine, July, 1879, vol. XL; as Preface to The Poems of Wordsworth, chosen and edited by Arnold in 1879; and in Essays in Criticism, Second Series, 1888.
PAGE 219
[347] ~Rydal Mount~. Wordsworth's home in the Lake District from 1813 until his death in 1850.
[348] ~1842~. The year of publication of the two-volume edition of Tennyson's poems, containing Locksley Hall, Ulysses, etc.
PAGE 221
[349] ~candid friend~. Arnold himself.
PAGE 222
[350] The Biographie Universelle, ou Dictionnaire historique of F.X. de Feller (1735-1802) was originally published in 1781.
[351] ~Henry Cochin~. A brilliant lawyer and writer of Paris, 1687-1747.
PAGE 223
[352] ~Amphictyonic Court~. An association of Ancient Greek communities centering in a shrine.
PAGE 224
[353] ~Gottlieb Friedrich Klopstock~ (1724-1803) was author of Der Messias.
[354] ~Lessing~. See Sweetness and Light, Selections, Note 2, p. 271.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 427 in this e-text.]
[355] ~Johann Ludwig Uhland~ (1787-1862), romantic lyric poet.
[356] ~Friedrich Rückert~ (1788-1866) was the author of Liebesfrühling and other poems.
[357] ~Heine~. See Heinrich Heine, Selections, pp. 112-144.
[358] The greatest poems of ~Vicenzo da Filicaja~ (1642-1707) are six odes inspired by the victory of Sobieski.
[359] ~Vittorio, Count Alfieri~ (1749-1803), Italian dramatist. His best-known drama is his Saul.
[360] ~Manzoni~ (1785-1873) was a poet and novelist, author of I Promessi Sposi.
[361] ~Giacomo, Count Leopardi~ (1798-1837), Italian poet. His writings are characterized by deep-seated melancholy.
[362] ~Jean Racine~ (1639-99), tragic dramatist.
[363] ~Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux~ (1636-1711), poet and critic.
[364] ~André de Chénier~ (1762-94), poet, author of Jeune Captive, etc.
[365] ~Pierre Jean de Béranger~ (1780-1857), song-writer.
[366] ~Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine~ (1790-1869), poet, historian, and statesman.
[367] ~Louis Charles Alfred de Musset~ (1810-57), poet, play-writer, and novelist.
PAGE 228
[368] From The Recluse, l. 754.
PAGE 229
[369] Paradise Lost, XI, 553-54.
PAGE 230
[370] The Tempest, IV, i, 156-58.
[371] ~criticism of life~. See The Study of Poetry, Selections, Note 1, p. 57.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 66 in this e-text.]
PAGE 231
[372] Discourses of Epictetus, trans. Long, 1903, vol. I, book II, chap. XXIII, p. 248.
PAGE 232
[373] ~Théophile Gautier~. A noted French poet, critic, and novelist, and a leader of the French Romantic Movement (1811-72).
[374] The Recluse, ll. 767-71.
[375] Æneid, VI, 662.
PAGE 233
[376] ~Leslie Stephen~. English biographer and literary critic (1832-1904). He was the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. Arnold quotes from the essay on Wordsworth's Ethics in Hours in a Library (1874-79), vol. III.
[377] Excursion, IV, 73-76.
PAGE 234
[378] Ibid., II, 10-17.
[379] Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.
PAGE 235
[380] Excursion, IX, 293-302.
PAGE 236
[381] See p. 232.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 373 in this e-text.]
PAGE 237
[382] ~the "not ourselves."~ Arnold quotes his own definition of God as "the enduring power, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness." See Literature and Dogma, chap. I.
[383] The opening sentence of a famous criticism of the Excursion published in the Edinburgh Review for November, 1814, no. 47. It was written by ~Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey~ (1773-1850), Scottish judge and literary critic, and first editor of the Edinburgh Review.
PAGE 238
[384] Macbeth, III, ii.
[385] Paradise Lost, VII, 23-24.
[386] The Recluse, l. 831.
PAGE 239
[387] From Burns's A Bard's Epitaph.
PAGE 240
[388] The correct title is The Solitary Reaper.
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT
PAGE 242
[389] This selection is the first chapter of Culture and Anarchy. It originally formed a part of the last lecture delivered by Arnold as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Culture and Anarchy was first printed in The Cornhill Magazine, July 1867,-August, 1868, vols. XVI-XVIII. It was published as a book in 1869.
[390] For ~Sainte-Beuve~, see The Study of Poetry, Selections, Note 2, p. 56.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 65 in this e-text.] The article referred to appeared in the Quarterly Review for January, 1866, vol. CXIX, p. 80. It finds fault with Sainte-Beuve's lack of conclusiveness, and describes him as having "spent his life in fitting his mind to be an elaborate receptacle for well-arranged doubts." In this respect a comparison is made with Arnold's "graceful but perfectly unsatisfactory essays."
PAGE 243
[391] From Montesquieu's Discours sur les motifs qui doivent nous encourager aux sciences, prononcé le 15 Novembre, 1725. Montesquieu's Oeuvres complètes, ed. Laboulaye, VII, 78.
PAGE 244
[392] ~Thomas Wilson~ (1663-1755) was consecrated Bishop of Sodor and Man in 1698. His episcopate was marked by a number of reforms in the Isle of Man. The opening pages of Arnold's Preface to Culture and Anarchy are devoted to an appreciation of Wilson. He says: "On a lower range than the Imitation, and awakening in our nature chords less poetical and delicate, the Maxims of Bishop Wilson are, as a religious work, far more solid. To the most sincere ardor and unction, Bishop Wilson unites, in these Maxims, that downright honesty and plain good sense which our English race has so powerfully applied to the divine impossibilities of religion; by which it has brought religion so much into practical life, and has done its allotted part in promoting upon earth the kingdom of God."
[393] ~will of God prevail~. Maxim 450 reads: "A prudent Christian will resolve at all times to sacrifice his inclinations to reason, and his reason to the will and word of God."
PAGE 247
[394] From Bishop Wilson's Sacra Privata, Noon Prayers, Works, ed. 1781, I, 199.
PAGE 248
[395] ~John Bright~ (1811-89) was a leader with Cobden in the agitation for repeal of the Corn Laws and other measures of reform, and was one of England's greatest masters of oratory.
[396] ~Frederic Harrison~ (1831-), English jurist and historian, was president of the English Positivist Committee, 1880-1905. His Creed of a Layman (1907) is a statement of his religious position.
PAGE 249
[397] See The Function of Criticism, Selections, Note 2, p. 37. [Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 38 in this e-text.]
PAGE 253
[398] 1 Tim., IV, 8.
[399] The first of the "Rules of Health and Long Life" in Poor Richard's Almanac for December, 1742. The quotation should read: "as the Constitution of thy Body allows of."
[400] Epictetus, Encheiridion, chap. XLI.
[401] ~Sweetness and Light~. The phrase is from Swift's The Battle of the Books, Works, ed. Scott, 1824, X, 240. In the apologue of the Spider and the Bee the superiority of the ancient over the modern writers is thus summarized: "Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chose to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light."
PAGE 256
[402] ~Independents~. The name applied in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the denomination now known as Congregationalists.
[403] From Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America, Works, ed. 1834, I, 187.
[404] 1 Pet., III, 8.
PAGE 258
[405] ~Epsom~. A market town in Surrey, where are held the famous Derby races, founded in 1780.
PAGE 259
[406] Sallust's Catiline, chap. LII, § 22.
[407] The ~Daily Telegraph~ was begun in June, 1855, as a twopenny newspaper. It became the great organ of the middle classes and has been distinguished for its enterprise in many fields. Up to 1878 it was consistently Liberal in politics. It is a frequent object of Arnold's irony as the mouthpiece of English philistinism.
PAGE 261
[408] ~Young Leo~ (or ~Leo Adolescens~) is Arnold's name for the typical writer of the Daily Telegraph (see above). He is a prominent character of Friendship's Garland.
PAGE 262
[409] ~Edmond Beales~ (1803-81), political agitator, was especially identified with the movement for manhood suffrage and the ballot, and was the leading spirit in two large popular demonstrations in London in 1866.
[410] ~Charles Bradlaugh~ (1833-91), freethought advocate and politician. His efforts were especially directed toward maintaining the freedom of the press in issuing criticisms on religious belief and sociological questions. In 1880 he became a Member of Parliament, and began a long and finally successful struggle for the right to take his seat in Parliament without the customary oath on the Bible.
[411] ~John Henry Newman~ (1801-90) was the leader of the Oxford Movement in the English Church. His Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864) was a defense of his religious life and an account of the causes which led him from Anglicanism to Romanism. For his hostility to Liberalism see the Apologia, ed. 1907, pp. 34, 212, and 288.
[412] Æneid, I, 460.
PAGE 263
[413] ~The Reform Bill of 1832~ abolished fifty-six "rotten" boroughs and made other changes in representation to Parliament, thus transferring a large share of political power from the landed aristocracy to the middle classes.
[414] ~Robert Lowe~ (1811-92), afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke, held offices in the Board of Education and Board of Trade. He was liberal, but opposed the Reform Bill of that party in 1866-67. His speeches on the subject were printed in 1867.