MATTHEW Arnold's criticism 95 



But Greece failed because the moral and religious 

 fibre in humanity was not braced and developed also. 



" But Greece did not err in having the idea of 

 beauty, harmony, and complete human perfection so 

 present and paramount. It is impossible to have 

 this idea too present and paramount; only, the 

 moral fibre must be braced, too. And we, because 

 we have braced the moral fibre, are not on that ac- 

 count in the right way, if at the same time the idea 

 of beauty, harmony, and complete human perfection 

 is wanting or misapprehended amongst us; and evi- 

 dently it is wanting or misapprehended at present. 

 And when we rely, as we do, on our religious organi- 

 zations, which in themselves do not and cannot give 

 us this idea, and think we have done enough if we 

 make them spread and prevail, then I say we fall into 

 our common fault of overvaluing machinery." 



Prom the point of view of Greek culture, and the 

 ideal of Greek life, there is perhaps very little in 

 the achievements of the English race, or in the ideals 

 which it cherishes, that would not be pronounced 

 the work of barbarians. From the Apollinarian 

 standpoint, Christianity itself, with its war upon 

 our natural instincts, is a barbarous religion. But 

 no born Hellene from the age of Pericles could 

 pronounce a severer judgment upon the England of 

 to-day than Arnold has in his famous classification 

 of his countrymen into Barbarians, Philistines, and 

 Populace, — an upper class materialized, a middle 

 class vulgarized, and a lower class brutalized. Ar- 

 nold had not the Hellenic joyousness, youthfulness, 



