DEMOCRATIC CULTURE 275 



or prose. (One American reviewer confesses that in 

 a single day he has written notices of twenty new 

 works of fiction, his work bringing him, as remu- 

 neration, seventy-five cents a volume.) 



There is no evidence, however, that Americans as 

 individuals are wanting in the self-critical spirit. 

 And for Arnold this is vital, seeing that the watch- 

 word of the culture he proclaims is Know Thyself. 

 It is not a question of gaining a social advantage by 

 a smattering of foreign languages. It is more than 

 intellectual curiosity. " Culture is more properly de- 

 scribed as having its origin in the love of perfection. 

 It moves by the force, not merely or primarily of the 

 scientific passion for pure knowledge, but also of 

 the passion for doing good." Human perfection, the 

 essence of culture, is an internal condition, but the 

 will to do good must be guided by the knowledge of 

 what is good to do ; " acting and instituting are of 

 little use unless we know how and what we ought to 

 act and institute." Moreover, " because men are all 

 members of one great whole, and the sympathy which 

 is human nature will not allow one member to be 

 indifferent to the rest, the expansion of our human- 

 ity, to suit the idea of perfection which culture forms, 

 must be a general expansion." 



For Arnold's contemporary Nietzsche, the German 

 exponent of Aristocracy, the expansion of education 

 entailed its diminution. For him ancient Greece was 

 the only home of culture, and such culture was not 

 for all comers. The rights of genius are not to be 

 democratized ; not the education of the masses, but 

 rather the education of a few picked men must be 

 the aim. The one purpose which education should 



