But what is greatness?— culture makes us ask. Greatness is a spiritual condition worthy to excite love, interest, and admiration; and the outward proof of possessing greatness is that we excite love, interest, and admiration. Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy was an odd book to come back to in t...
AbbreviationsIntroductionNote on the TextSelect BibliographyA Chronology of Matthew Arnold--Culture and AnarchyAppendix: Henry Sidgwick, 'The Prophet of Culture'Explanatory Notes
Reason -- "Sweetness and Light" -- Culture -- Perfection -- for Arnold these terms are nearly synonymous, and all underlie the same central claim: the cause of disorder is both identifiable and curable. Arnold's goal here is not to propose a specific program of reform but, as he says in Democracy, t...
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