Whispering from her [Oxford's] towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age...Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Oxford is described as a place of lingering old enchantments and lost causes.
- In plain terms
- Oxford feels like a home for old causes that are gone.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize institutions as havens for outdated beliefs.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes a cause lost?
- How do places hold history?
Another view
Universities also foster new causes and loyalties.
More from Matthew Arnold
I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.
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