awarded the Victorian middle classes an A in the first category (i.e., conduct) but a
failing grade in the other three categories. Unsurprisingly, he also had pronounced
opinions on what he viewed as the distinct national characters of different peoples:
a sample of this strain in Arnold's writing appears in the extract from his lectures On
the Study of Celtic Literature (1867) in 'Empire and National Identity' (p. 1619). Arnold's relentless exposure of middle-class narrow-mindedness in his own country
eventually led him into the arena of religious controversy. As a critic of religious
institutions he was arguing, in effect, that just as the middle classes did not know
how to lead full lives, neither did they know how to read the Bible intelligently or
attend church intelligently. Of the Christian religion he remarked that there are two
things 'that surely must be clear to anybody with eyes in his head. One is, that men
cannot do without it; the other that they cannot do with it as it is.' His three full-
length studies of the Bible, including Literature and Dogma (1873), are thus best
considered a postscript to his social criticism. The Bible, to Arnold, was a great work
of literature like the Odyssey, and the Church of England was a great national insti
tution like Parliament. Both Bible and Church must be preserved not because his
torical Christianity was credible but because both, when properly understood, were
agents of what he called 'culture'?they contributed to making humanity more
civilized. Culture is perhaps Arnold's most familiar catchwood, although what he meant by
it has sometimes been misunderstood. He used the term to capture the qualities of
an open-minded intelligence (as described in 'The Function of Criticism')?a refusal
to take things on authority. In this respect Arnold appears close to T. H. Huxley and
J. S. Mill. But the word also connotes a full awareness of humanity's past and a capacity to enjoy the best works of art, literature, history, and philosophy that have
come down to us from that past. As a way of viewing life in all its aspects, including
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135 4 / MATTHEW ARNOLD
the social, political, and religious, culture represents for Arnold the most effective
cure for the ills of a sick society. It is his principal prescription.
The attempt to define culture brings us to a final aspect of Arnold's career as a
critic: his writings on education, in which he sought to make cultural values, as he
said, 'prevail.' Most obviously these writings comprise his reply to Huxley (his admi
rably reasoned essay 'Literature and Science,' 1882) and his volumes of official
reports written as an inspector of schools. Less obviously, they comprise all his prose.
At their core is his belief that good education is the crucial need. Arnold was essen
tially a great teacher. He has the faults of a teacher?a tendency to repeat himself,
to lean too hard on formulaic phrases?and he displays something of the lectern
manner at times. He also has the great teacher's virtues, in particular the ability to
skillfully convey to us the conviction on which all his arguments are based. This
conviction is that the humanist tradition of which he is the expositor can enable the
individual man or woman to live life more fully and to change the course of society.
He believes that a democratic society can thrive only if its citizens become educated
in what he saw as the great Western tradition, 'the best that is known and thought.'
These values, which some readers find elitist, make Arnold both timely and contro
versial. Arnold fought for these values with the gloves on?kid gloves, his opponents
used to say?and he provided a lively exhibition of footwork that is a pleasure to
observe. Yet the gracefulness of the display should not obscure the fact that he lands
hard blows squarely on his opponents. Although his lifelong attacks against the inadequacies of Puritanism make Arnold
one of the most anti-Victorian figures of his age, behind his attacks is a characteris
tically Victorian assumption: that the Puritan middle classes can be changed, that
