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Page 37
"Doing as one Likes" scatters a mild rain of ridicule on this supposed
fetich of all classes in England; and then, the very famous, if not
perhaps very felicitous, nickname-classification of
"Barbarian-Philistine-Populace" is launched, defended, discussed in a
chapter to itself. To do Mr Arnold justice, the three classes are, if
not very philosophically defined, very impartially and amusingly
rallied, the rallier taking up that part of humble Philistine
conscious of his own weaknesses, which, till he made it slightly
tiresome by too long a run, was piquant enough. The fourth chapter,
"Hebraism and Hellenism," coasts the sands and rocks (on which, as it
seems to some, Mr Arnold was later to make shipwreck) very nearly in
the title and rather nearly in the contents, but still with a fairly
safe offing. The opposition might be put too bluntly by saying that
"Hellenism" represents to Mr Arnold the love of truth at any price,
and "Hebraism" the love of goodness at any price; but the actual
difference is not far from this, or from those of knowing and doing,
fear of stupidity and fear of sin, &c. We have the quotation from Mr
Carlyle about Socrates being "terribly at ease in Zion," the
promulgation of the word Renascence for Renaissauce, and so forth.
"Porro unum est necessarium," a favourite tag of Mr Arnold's, rather
holds up another side of the same lesson than continues it in a fresh
direction; and then "Our Liberal Practitioners" brings it closer to
politics, but (since the immediate subject is the Disestablishment of
the Irish Church) nearer also to the quicksands. Yet Mr Arnold still
keeps away from them; though from what followed it would seem that he
could only have done so by some such _tour de force_ as the
famous "clubhauling" in _Peter Simple_. Had _Culture and
Anarchy_ stood by itself, it would have been, though very far from
its author's masterpiece, an interesting document both in regard to
his own mental history and that of England during the third quarter of
the century, containing some of his best prose, and little, if any, of
his worst sense.
But your crusader--still more your anti-crusader--never stops, and Mr
Arnold was now pledged to this crusade or anti-crusade. In October
1869 he began, still in the _Cornhill_,--completing it by further
instalments in the same place later in the year, and publishing it in
1870,--the book called _St Paul and Protestantism_, where he
necessarily exchanges the mixed handling of _Culture and Anarchy_
for a dead-set at the religious side of his imaginary citadel of
Philistia. The point of at least ostensible connection--of real
departure--is taken from the "Hebraism and Hellenism" contrast of the
earlier book; and the same contrast is strongly urged throughout,
especially in the _coda_, "A Comment on Christmas." But this
contrast is gradually shaped into an onslaught on Puritanism, or
rather on its dogmatic side, for its appreciation of "conduct" of
morality is ever more and more eulogised. As regards the Church of
England herself, the attack is oblique; in fact, it is disclaimed, and
a sort of a Latitudinarian Union, with the Church for centre, and
dogma left out, is advocated. Another of our Arnoldian friends, the
"Zeit-Geist," makes his appearance, and it is more than hinted that
one of the most important operations of this spirit is the exploding
of miracles. The book is perfectly serious--its seriousness, indeed,
is quite evidently deliberate and laboured, so that the author does
not even fear to appear dull. But it is still admirably written, as
well as studiously moderate and reverent; no exception can be taken to
it on the score of taste, whatever may be taken on the score of
orthodoxy from the one side, where no doubt the author would hasten to
plead guilty, or on those of logic, history, and the needs of human
nature on the other, where no doubt his "not guilty" would be equally
emphatic.
The case is again altered, and very unfortunately altered, in the
next, the most popular and, as has been said, the most famous of the
series--its zenith at once and its nadir--_Literature and Dogma_.
A very much smaller part of this had appeared in magazine form;
indeed, the contents of _St Paul and Protestantism_ itself must
have seemed odd in that shape, and only strong sympathies on the part
of the editor could have obtained admission for any part of
_Literature and Dogma_. Much of it must have been written amid
the excitement of the French-Prussian War, when the English public was
athirst for "skits" of all sorts, and when Mr Arnold himself was "i'
the vein," being engaged in the composition of much of the matter of
_Friendship's Garland_. _St Paul and Protestantism_ had had
two editions in the same year (_Culture and Anarchy_, a far
better thing, waited six for its second), and altogether the state of
things was such as to invite any author to pursue the triumph and
partake the gale. And he might at first flatter himself that he had
caught the one and made cyclone-use of the other; for the book,
appearing at the end of 1872, with the date of 1873, passed through
three editions in that year, a fourth in 1874, and a fifth two years
later. It was thus by far Mr Arnold's most popular book; I repeat also
that it is quite his worst.
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