82 INDOOR STUDIES 



ble than in America. And it is against England, 

 against British civilization, that the force of Ar- 

 nold's criticism has been directed. 



The application to America of the main drift of 

 his criticism of British civilization is lessened not 

 only for the reason above hinted at, — namely, that 

 the race refines and comes into shape in this country 

 faster than in Britain, faster, perhaps, than the due 

 proportion between character and faculty will war- 

 rant, — but because class distinctions are practically 

 abolished here, and because, in general, there is not 

 the same cramped, inflexible, artificial, and congested 

 state of things in the United States as cause all the 

 woe of England. The defects in our civilization 

 which Arnold pointed out in a paper printed just 

 before he died, — namely, that our country, or our 

 doings in it, are not interesting, that our people are 

 wanting in the discipline of awe and reverence, that 

 we are given to self-glorification, that our newspa- 

 pers are flippant and sensational, etc. — are self-evi- 

 dent to all candid observers. "In what concerns 

 the solving of the political and social problem, they 

 [the people of the United States] see clear and think 

 straight; in what concerns the higher civilization, 

 they live in a fool's paradise." It seems to me that 

 the last part of this sentence is just as true as the 

 first part. From the point of view of a good din- 

 ner, — a point of view not to be despised by any 

 means, — our country and our achievements in it are 

 very interesting; but from a high and disinterested 

 point of view — the point of view of art and litera- 



