ABSTRACT
Accounts of the rise and/or fall of the liberal arts as an educational ideal usually begin quite appropriately either with the glories of ancient Greece or with the revival of learning in Europe which we have come to call the Renaissance. While these time-honored beginnings of a kind of education that is supposed to exalt the human spirit and express many of the central values of Western civilization have much to tell us about how that venerable ideal of education came to prominence. By common agreement, education in England from at least the mid to late nineteenth century was a mess. Some indication of Huxley's basic moderation on the issue of redefining the general education of his time may be illustrated through his skirmish with his friend, Matthew Arnold, on educational policy. The upholders of true culture were "the true apostles of equality.".
