![]() ![]() ![]() Curiosity is good where it is “a desire after the things of the mind simply for their own sakes and for the pleasure of seeing them as they are” (59). Arnold admits that there is such a thing, but observes that curiosity can be a good as well as a bad thing. In the first chapter, “Sweetness and Light,” Arnold addresses the argument made by the disparagers of culture that it is motivated by mere idle curiosity. Arnold has defended culture despite its disparagers: he argues that there is more to it than they allow that it can do real good and that it is needed. It is bookish and belletristic it is not practical, and so is of no use to those who are at work in the real world. This culture is “a smattering of… Greek and Latin” (55). ![]() In his Introduction, Arnold takes up what is called culture by its disparagers. We are reading Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy as a primary source for the civilized world of mid-19 th century Europe. ![]()
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