u8 SCIENCE AND CULTURE 



in the intellectual and spiritual sphere make most prog- 

 ress, which most thoroughly carries out this programme. 

 And what is that but saying that we too, all of us, as 

 individuals, the more thoroughly we carry it out, shall 

 make the more progress?" 3 



We have here to deal with two distinct propositions. 

 The first, that a criticism of life is the essence of cul- 

 ture; the second, that literature contains the materials 

 which suffice for the construction of such criticism. 

 _I think that we must all assent to the first proposition. 

 For culture certainly means something quite different 

 from learning or technical skill. It implies the posses- 

 sion of an ideal, and the habit of critically estimating 

 the value of things by comparison with a theoretic stand- 

 ard. Perfect culture should supply a complete theory of 

 life, based upon a clear knowledge alike of its possi- 

 bilities and of its limitations. 



But we may agree to all this, and yet strongly dissent 

 from the assumption that literature alone is competent 

 to supply this knowledge. After having learnt all that 

 Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity have thought and 

 said, and all that modern literature have to tell us, it 

 is not self-evident that we have laid a sufficiently broad 

 and deep foundation for that criticism of life, which 

 constitutes culture. 



Indeed, to any one acquainted with the scope of 

 physical science, it is not at all evident. Considering 

 progress only in the "intellectual and spiritual sphere," 

 I find myself wholly unable to admit that either nations 

 or individuals will really advance, if their common out- 

 fit draws nothing from the stores of physical science. 

 I should say that an army, without weapons of precision 

 and with no particular base of operations, might more 

 hopefully enter upon a campaign on the Rhine, than a 

 3 Essays in Criticism, p. 37. [T. H. H.] 



