best of its kind, but nothing better
can ever supersede it.

To this spirit the spirit of culture
is antipodal; between the two there is
inextinguishable antagonism. They
can never compromise or agree upon
a truce, any more than day and night
can consent to dwell together. To
destroy philistinism root and branch,
to eradicate the ignorance which makes
it possible for a man to believe that
he possesses all things in their final
forms, to empty a man of the stupid-
ity and vulgarity of self-satisfaction,
and to invigorate the immortal dis-
satisfaction of the soul with its present
attainments, are the ends which culture
is always seeking to accomplish. The
keen lance of Matthew Arnold, flash-
ing now in one part of the field and
now in another, pierced many of the
fallacies of provincialism and philistin-

[[160]]

p159 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p160w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p161

v?