Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), a literary figure of the Victorian age, comes next to Browning and Tennyson. He is a poet, critic, religious thinker and educationist. He has the experience of twenty- four years as the inspector of schools. It provided him so much time to meet the different classes and examine their behaviours and habits. This experience pursued him to write 'Culture & Anarchy'. In his book, he has also discussed various topics about true culture. In this book, he has discussed Hebraism and Hellenism.
Here, we analyze his concept about 'Sweetness &Light'. In this treatise, his central focus and argument is on curiosity. It is defined as a liberal and intelligent eagerness about the things of mind or mental activities. According to him, the natal place of curiosity is a desire. It is desires that make some body pursue. The work of desire is to see the things as they are. If it is pursued by an intelligent person with an impartial understanding of mind, it becomes praise worthy. It bears a genuine scientific passion that is the right kind of curiosity. Such curiosity leads us to real culture. So, beyond the man of culture is curiosity.
What Can We do? Build public opinion by writing in local press and by creating awareness through all available means so that the people of all regions of the world realize the fact that change, if any, can be brought through voluntary involvement of the people involved and not by taking short cuts. As we all know, any change that is brought by force will not last long and if it is brought against the will be the people of the region, it will be short-lived.
Hellenism and Hebraism both are directly connected to the life of human beings. Hellenism keeps emphasis on knowing or knowledge, where as Hebraism fastens its faith in doing. The concluding aim of both is the partaking of divine life with knowledge and action. He describes that the Bible reveals the truth which awards the peace of God and liberty. The simple idea of Hellenism is to get rid of ignorance and to see things as they are and to search beauty from them. Socrates, as Hellenic, states that the best man is he who tries to make himself perfect, and the happiest man is he who feels that he is perfecting himself. He does not tell us how it is to be done, and how to see things in their reality and beauty.
Counselling: Any psychological or environmental change will take its own time and the best way to achieve it through perseverance and patience. If we look at the situation in Afghanistan, our breath becomes heavy since we cannot do anything. Reconstruction of such societies may take several decades mainly due to the harsh terrain and it becomes our responsibility to encourage NGOs and Governments taking initiative to take up the reconstruction work in such societies.
Arnold finds sincere and genuine connection between culture and the idea of sweetness and light. His ideal man of culture is a Greek man called Euphuasis. Arnold borrowed the phrase 'sweetness and light' from Swift. The character of a man of culture is moulded by religion and poetry. The aim of religion is to make man perfect ethically, where as the poetry possesses the idea of beauty and of human nature perfect on all its sides. Culture has the power to prevail peace and satisfaction by killing our bestiality and drawing nearer to the world of spirituality with perfection. Indeed, religion fails to lead us to such perfection. He describes about religious organizations of his time in England that they seem to have failed morally. He submits example of Puritanism that is based on the impulse of man towards moral development and self -conquest. This perfection leads to the idea or impulse of narrowness and insufficiency. He jumps to such conclusion by judging the religious organizations in terms of sweetness and light.
We will be very fortunate, if there is some response to our appeals and few of them may express their willingness to give longer time to character building in the society around us, which is the real cause of all evil around us. Since most of us live away from our parents and grand parents, character building part of human life has been neglected, particularly in the last decade or so.
Here, we analyze his concept about 'Sweetness &Light'. In this treatise, his central focus and argument is on curiosity. It is defined as a liberal and intelligent eagerness about the things of mind or mental activities. According to him, the natal place of curiosity is a desire. It is desires that make some body pursue. The work of desire is to see the things as they are. If it is pursued by an intelligent person with an impartial understanding of mind, it becomes praise worthy. It bears a genuine scientific passion that is the right kind of curiosity. Such curiosity leads us to real culture. So, beyond the man of culture is curiosity.
What Can We do? Build public opinion by writing in local press and by creating awareness through all available means so that the people of all regions of the world realize the fact that change, if any, can be brought through voluntary involvement of the people involved and not by taking short cuts. As we all know, any change that is brought by force will not last long and if it is brought against the will be the people of the region, it will be short-lived.
Hellenism and Hebraism both are directly connected to the life of human beings. Hellenism keeps emphasis on knowing or knowledge, where as Hebraism fastens its faith in doing. The concluding aim of both is the partaking of divine life with knowledge and action. He describes that the Bible reveals the truth which awards the peace of God and liberty. The simple idea of Hellenism is to get rid of ignorance and to see things as they are and to search beauty from them. Socrates, as Hellenic, states that the best man is he who tries to make himself perfect, and the happiest man is he who feels that he is perfecting himself. He does not tell us how it is to be done, and how to see things in their reality and beauty.
Counselling: Any psychological or environmental change will take its own time and the best way to achieve it through perseverance and patience. If we look at the situation in Afghanistan, our breath becomes heavy since we cannot do anything. Reconstruction of such societies may take several decades mainly due to the harsh terrain and it becomes our responsibility to encourage NGOs and Governments taking initiative to take up the reconstruction work in such societies.
Arnold finds sincere and genuine connection between culture and the idea of sweetness and light. His ideal man of culture is a Greek man called Euphuasis. Arnold borrowed the phrase 'sweetness and light' from Swift. The character of a man of culture is moulded by religion and poetry. The aim of religion is to make man perfect ethically, where as the poetry possesses the idea of beauty and of human nature perfect on all its sides. Culture has the power to prevail peace and satisfaction by killing our bestiality and drawing nearer to the world of spirituality with perfection. Indeed, religion fails to lead us to such perfection. He describes about religious organizations of his time in England that they seem to have failed morally. He submits example of Puritanism that is based on the impulse of man towards moral development and self -conquest. This perfection leads to the idea or impulse of narrowness and insufficiency. He jumps to such conclusion by judging the religious organizations in terms of sweetness and light.
We will be very fortunate, if there is some response to our appeals and few of them may express their willingness to give longer time to character building in the society around us, which is the real cause of all evil around us. Since most of us live away from our parents and grand parents, character building part of human life has been neglected, particularly in the last decade or so.
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