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Arnold, Matthew, 1822-1888

"Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold"


PAGE 272
[429] _Confessions of St. Augustine_, XIII, 18, 22, Everyman's
Library ed., p. 326.
HEBRAISM AND HELLENISM
PAGE 273
[430] The present selection comprises chapter IV, of _Culture and
Anarchy_. In the preceding chapter Arnold has been pointing out the
imperfection of the various classes of English society, which he
describes as "Barbarians, Philistines, and Populace." For the correction
of this imperfection he pleads for "some public recognition and
establishment of our best self, or right reason." In chapter III, he has
shown how "our habits and practice oppose themselves to such a
recognition." He now proposes to find, "beneath our actual habits and
practice, the very ground and cause out of which they spring." Then
follows the selection here given.
Professor Gates has pointed out the fact that Arnold probably borrows
the terms here contrasted from Heine. In _Ueber Ludwig Boerne_ (_Werke_,
ed. Stuttgart, X, 12), Heine says: "All men are either Jews or Hellenes,
men ascetic in their instincts, hostile to culture, spiritual fanatics,
or men of vigorous good cheer, full of the pride of life, Naturalists.


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