But What Are They?

This gives us some idea of the outline we're going to hang our details no.

The first essential of a cultured mind is that it should be thoughtful. It may be possessed of strong ideas but it must hold them on reasoned grounds and defend them by rational argument when attacked. Such a mind is free from emotional warpings.

This type of mentality naturally leads to an attitude of tolerance and friendliness but not of patronage. It also desires expression in art. It has a more than cursory knowledge of all the main fields of art. Such a man can speak intelligently and interestingly on topics connected with music, painting and [unclear: literature] and at no time is he stuck for lack of acquaintance with a topic of conversation. However he also knows when to retain his place, the art of conversation being, after all, silence. He is familiar with the main lines of the development of human thought and the principle features of contemporary thought and knowledge.

Such a man as this, one who has developed a knowledge and felt the spirit of all aspects of mankind's intellectual background, who lives a satisfied and varied life is the cultural ideal. He does not exist of course. There is no man who has the correct harmonious balance of intellectual, artistic, and physical activity in his life, the desire to cultivate which we have inherited from the Greeks. However there are many who strive for it.