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Sweetness and light is an English
idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...
that can be used in common speech, either as statement of personal happy consciousness, (though this may be viewed by natives as being a trifle in earnest) or as literal report on another person. Depending upon sense-of-humour, some may use the phrase with mild
irony Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
. For example: ''The two had been fighting for a month, but around others it was all sweetness and light''.Christine Ammer, ''The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997). Esteemed humorous writer P. G. Wodehouse employed the phrase often, sometimes with a slight nod to the phrase's dual-edge. Originally, however, "sweetness and light" had a special use in literary and cultural criticism meaning "pleasing and instructive", which in classical theory was considered to be the aim and justification of poetry.
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
first used the phrase in his mock-heroic prose satire, " The Battle of the Books" (1704), a defense of Classical learning, which he published as a prolegomenon to his ''
A Tale of a Tub ''A Tale of a Tub'' was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. The ''Tale'' is a prose parody divided into sections of "digression" and a "tale" of three brothers, each representin ...
''. It gained widespread currency in the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
, when English poet and essayist
Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...
picked it up as the title of the first section of his 1869 book '' Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism'', where "sweetness and light" stands for beauty and intelligence, the two key components of an excellent culture.


Genesis

"The Battle of the Books" spoofed the famous seventeenth-century Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, a controversy that had raged first in France and then, less intensely, in England, about which was better, the Ancient or Modern learning. Should people model their thinkings and creative productions on ancient Greek and Latin culture, which had been rediscovered in Europe from the Renaissance on? Or should they stay faithful to medieval modernity, scholasticism and the authority of Christian monarchy and church; and create artistic works in living vernacular languages (not Greek or Latin) that flatter medieval society and values? In ''On Ancient and Modern Learning'' (1697), Swift's patron, the urbane Sir William Temple, had weighed in on the side of the Ancients, repeating the famous figure of speech used by Newton, that the moderns see further only because we are dwarves
standing on the shoulders of giants The phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" is a metaphor which means "using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress". It is a metaphor of Dwarf (mythology), dwarfs standing on ...
. Swift has the books come to life and step down from the library shelves to stage a mock-Homeric battle, while the goddess Criticism, a hideous hag, intervenes on the side of her beloved "Moderns" in the manner of the Olympians of yore. Midway through the story,
Aesop Aesop ( ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE; formerly rendered as Æsop) was a Greeks, Greek wikt:fabulist, fabulist and Oral storytelling, storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence re ...
, an ancient book, stumbles on a debate between a bee and a spider. The spider claims that the bee creates nothing of its own, whereas the spider is an original creator who "spins and spits wholly from himself, and scorns to own any obligation or assistance from without"; his web is a triumph of architecture and mathematics. The bee counters that the spider's web is spun from digested flies and other dirt and that all the spider really contributes is his poison. Bees range far and wide to search out the very best flowers, which they do not harm, while the spider only moves four inches and feeds on insects and other "vermin of the age.” Aesop judges the argument. The ancient writers, he says, are like bees who fill their "hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light." The Ancients "are content with the bee to pretend to nothing of
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
own, beyond…flights and…language." That is, imitation of Ancient authors results in works filled with delight (sweetness) and moral wisdom (light). Later writers, notably
Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...
used the phrase "sweetness and light", to designate the positive effects of a (predominantly classical) humanistic culture in arts and letters (without Swift's emphasis on originality versus imitation).


Popularization in cultural criticism

The Victorian poet and essayist Matthew Arnold, who was also an inspector of schools, popularized Swift's phrase as the theme and title of the first chapter of his celebrated book of cultural criticism, ''
Culture and Anarchy ''Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism'' is a series of periodical essays by Matthew Arnold, first published in Cornhill Magazine 1867–68 and collected as a book in 1869. The preface was added in 1869.Robert H. Super ...
''. Arnold contends that the most valuable aspect of civilization is its ability to confer "sweetness and light," and he contrasts this to the moralism, hatred, and fanaticism of some of the would-be educators and materialistic improvers of mankind. For Arnold, sweetness is beauty, and light is intelligence – and together they make up "the essential character of human perfection," which had its fullest development, he believed, among the ancient Greeks. Arnold criticizes the religious and utilitarian reformers of his own day for wanting only to improve humanity's moral and material condition, or for focusing "solely on the scientific passion for knowing," while neglecting the human need for beauty and intelligence, which comes about through lifelong self-cultivation. Arnold concedes that the Greeks may have neglected the moral and material, but:
Greece did not err in having the idea of beauty and harmony and complete human perfection so present and paramount; it is impossible to have this idea too present and paramount; but the moral fiber must be braced too. And we, because we have braced the moral fibre, are not on that account in the right way, if at the same time the idea of beauty, harmony, and complete human perfection is wanting or misapprehended amongst us; and evidently it is wanting or misapprehended at present. And when we rely as we do on our religious organisations, which in themselves do not and cannot give us this idea, and think we have done enough if we make them spread and prevail, then, I say, we fall into our common fault of overvaluing machinery.Matthew Arnold, ''Culture & Anarchy'', Jane Garner, ed. (Oxford World Classics, 2004), p. 41.
The phrase came into regular use as an English language idiom after the publication of Arnold's essay.


Characterizing "Queen Anne" revival in architecture

In 1977, architectural historian Mark Girouard used the title ''Sweetness and Light: The "Queen Anne" Movement, 1860–1900'', for his book chronicling the comfortably eclectic architectural style of the middle-class brick country houses that late-nineteenth-century British artists and writers built for themselves. Here "sweetness and light" implied that taste and beauty need not be restricted only to the wealthy aristocracy but could benefit all classes of society.


Mundane pleasantry

During the 20th and 21st centuries, the phrase "sweetness and light" has more typically been used, not in Arnold's sense, but more mundanely, to indicate merely a friendly demeanor or a pleasant situation. ''Bob's close friends knew he wasn't all sweetness and light''. Or: ''Our time at the opera was all sweetness and light''. The phrase is often used ironically to denote unexpected or insincere pleasantness. ''The novel's tense moments are offset by long passages of sweetness and light.'' Or: ''Fred was all sweetness and light around his ex-wife.''


Notes

{{Wiktionary English-language idioms