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Article: The good, the true, the beautiful. (Matthew Arnold's essay 'An Eton Boy')
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- March 27, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1987 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE GOOD, THE TRUE, THE BEAUTIFUL
NOW MATTHEW ARNOLD was aliberal--in the older sense. And how different his liberalism was from what we must deal with in our colleges today. I call attention here to an all-but-forgotten essay of his, a minor masterpiece called "An Eton Boy,' about a young graduate of Eton, Lieutenant Arthur Clynton Baskerville Mynors, who died in South Africa during the Zulu War of 1879. The essay celebrates Mynors as the perfection of an English type, and it follows him through his letters and diary from the time he and his regiment sailed from England.
"When we started we were lustilycheered by crowds on the shore; the band played ...