Synopsis
A series of essays urging culture, the pursuit of perfection through the best that has been thought, as a remedy for Victorian narrowness and social anarchy.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Public domainAgainst mechanical pursuit of wealth and liberty, culture means seeking human perfection through sweetness and light, harmonizing all sides of our nature.
It elevates cultivated reason and the state as a unifying force against sectarian self-interest and class anarchy.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with John Stuart Mill, On Liberty.
Reading note
Read it for its central ideal of culture, tolerating the Victorian idiom and its dated class categories.
Best paired with
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty