And culture is, at bottom, only an enlarged and clarified experience,--an experience so comprehensive that it puts its possessor in touch with all times and men, and gives him the opportunity of comparing his own knowledge of things, his faith and his practice, with the knowledge, faith, and practice of all the generations.

This opportunity brings, to one who knows how to use it, deliverance from the ignorance or half-knowledge of provincialism, from the crudity of its half-trained tastes, and from the blind passion of its rash and groundless faith in its own infallibility.
Provincialism is the soil in which philistinism grows most rapidly and widely.

For as the essence of provincialism is the substitution of a part for the whole, so the essence of philistinism is the conviction that what one possesses is the best of its kind, that the kind is the highest, and that one has all he needs of it.

A true philistine is not only convinced that he holds the only true and consistent position, but he is also entirely satisfied with himself.

He is infallible and he is sufficient unto himself.