MATTHEW AENOLD'S CRITICISM 87 



clear and triumpliant. Yet Carlyle was not so much 

 on tlie side of the man of deeds as opposed to the 

 man of ideas, as he was on the side of reality as 

 opposed to shams. His mistake probably was too 

 great haste in pronouncing all theories shams, and 

 all force beneficent. 



The keynote of Arnold's criticism of his country- 

 men might also be found in Emerson's "English 

 Traits." Emerson charges the English with the 

 same want of ideas, and credits them with the same 

 noble Hebraizing tendency. The English do not 

 look abroad into universality, he said, quoting 

 Bacon. Bacon, he said, marked the influx of 

 idealism into England. ' ' He had imagination, the 

 leisure of the spirit, and basked in an element of 

 contemplation." " German science comprehends 

 the English." The latter is "void of imagination 

 and free play of thought, " using the very phrase 

 which Arnold has made so telling and significant. 

 Arnold shows his genius in the way he seizes upon 

 and expands these ideas. What was a casual 

 thought or remark with others, in his hands becomes 

 the axis of a great critical system. What was wit, 

 or poetry, or a happy characterization with Carlyle 

 and Emerson, furnishes him the start for a most 

 searching and original analysis. 



Arnold was preeminently a critical force, a force 

 of clear reason and of steady discernment. He is 

 not an author whom we read for the man's sake, or 

 for the flavor of his personality, — for this is not al- 

 ways agreeable, — but for his unfailing intelligence 



