DISCOURSES IN
AMERICA
BY
MATTHEW ARNOLD
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1885
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
PREFACE.
Of the three discourses in thisvolume, the second was originallygiven as the Rede Lecture at Cambridge,was recast for delivery inAmerica, and is reprinted here as sorecast. The first discourse, that on‘Numbers,’ was originally given inNew York. It was afterwards publishedin the Nineteenth Century, andI have to thank Mr. Knowles forkindly permitting me to reprint itnow. The third discourse, that onvi‘Emerson,’ was originally given inEmerson’s ‘own delightful town,’Boston.
I am glad of every opportunity ofthanking my American audiences forthe unfailing attention and kindnesswith which they listened to a speakerwho did not flatter them, who wouldhave flattered them ill, but who yet felt,and in fact expressed, more esteemand admiration than his words weresometimes, at a hasty first hearing,supposed to convey. I cannot thinkthat what I have said of Emersonwill finally be accounted scant praise,although praise universal and unmixedit certainly is not. What high esteemI feel for the suitableness and easyplay of American institutions I haveviihad occasion, since my return home,to say publicly and emphatically.But nothing in the discourse on‘Numbers’ was at variance with thishigh esteem, although a caution,certainly, was suggested. But thensome caution or other, to be drawnfrom the inexhaustibly fruitful truththat moral causes govern the standingand the falling of States, who is therethat can be said not to need?
All need it, we in this country needit, as indeed in the discourse on‘Numbers’ I have by an expressinstance shown. Yet as regards usin this country at the present moment,I am tempted, I confess, to resort tothe great truth in question, not for cautionso much as for consolation. Ourviiipolitics are ‘battles of the kites andthe crows,’ of the Barbarians and thePhilistines; each combatant striving toaffirm himself still, while all the vitalneeds and instincts of our nationalgrowth demand, not that either of thecombatants should be enabled to affirmhimself, but that each should be transformed.Our aristocratical class, theBarbarians, have no perception of thereal wants of the community at home.Our middle classes, the great Philistinepower, have no perception of ourreal relations to the world abroad, noclue, apparently, for guidance, where-everthat attractive and ever-victoriousrhetorician, who is the Minister of theirchoice, may take them, except the formulaof that submissive animal whichixcarried the prophet Balaam. Ouraffairs are in the condition which,from such parties to our politics,might be expected. Yet amid all thedifficulties and mortifications whichbeset us, with the Barbarians impossible,with the Philistines determiningour present course, with our risingpoliticians seeking only that the mindof the Populace, when the Populacearrives at power, may be found inharmony with the mind of Mr. CarvellWilliams, which they flatter themselvesthey have fathomed; with theHouse of Lords a danger, and theHouse of Commons a scan