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'I have a conviction that there is a real, an almost imminent danger of England losing immeasurably in all ways ...for want of what I must call ideas, for want of perceiving how the world is going and must go...' Poet, Francophile, educationalist, social theorist and cultural commentator, Matthew Arnold was one of the greatest Victorian critics. He understood profoundly the problems to be faced by a mass democratic society, and his essays form a galvanizing call to moral and cultural arms. Passionately argued and incisive, they turn on all elements of society - from politics to literature, journalism to education. By turns ironic, mocking, self-deprecating and sweetly reasonable, Arnold cajoles his readers into action, encouraging them to pursue his belief that the English need to be taught not what to think but how to think.