484 Culture and Science, 
things the Latin and Greek languages and literatures must be mas- 
tered, for the main object in life must be to make and understand 
classical allusions, and there can be no more grievous sin against 
culture or more glaring evidence of want thereof than not to under- 
stand every inuendo or allusion made in polite converse which 
springs from a classical source; not only ancient but modern poetry 
must be read, and not only read but enjoyed (this too is essential), 
and the principles of metric composition understood ; otherwise will 
the failing individual incur the charge of lack of culture. With a 
touch of pity Mr. Arnold recalls that “ Mr. Darwin once owned to 
a friend that for his part he did not experience the necessity for two 
things which most men find so necessary to them—poetry and 
religion; science and the domestic affections, he thought, were 
enough.” 
On the other hand, a very limited knowledge or even ignorance 
of things practical or natural is tolerable from one who has the 
positive qualifications specified. Even mathematics has entered too 
largely into the curriculum of the universities of England, and Mr. 
Arnold, for instance, declared on the occasion of his address here 
noticed, that “if in the Cambridge Senate House one may say such 
a thing without profaneness, I will hazard the opinion that for the 
majority of mankind a little of mathematics, also, goes a long way- 
Of course this is quite consistent with their being of immense im- 
portance as an instrument to something else; but it is the few who 
have the aptitude for thus using them,. not the bulk of mankind.” 
Many there are and many must there be who will object to the 
restriction of the term culture as thus advocated. In fact, the issue, 
so far as Mr. Arnold is concerned, is not between culture and sci- 
ence, but between a one-sided attention to classical studies and certain 
departments of science. The alternatives, as they appear to Mr. 
Arnold, are expressed in the following terms :— 
“A certain president of the Section for Mechanical Science 
in the British Association is, in Scripture phrase, ‘ very bold,’ and 
declares that if a man, in his education, ‘has substituted literature 
and history for natural science, he has chosen the less useful alter- 
native.’ Whether we go to these lengths or not, we must all admit 
that in natural science the habit gained of dealing with facts 15 a 
most valuable discipline, and that every one should have some 
experience of it. i 
“ But it is proposed to make the training in natural science the 
main part of education, for the great majority of mankind at i K 
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