In the eighteen-sixties, Arnold was much concerned about the lack of organization in English intellectual life. He compared the “crudeness, provincialism, eccentricity, violence, blundering” of his countrymen to the thoroughness of German research and the efficacy of French state-controlled education. His essay on “Democracy,” first published in 1861, his essay of 1864 on “The Literary Influence of Academies,” and his “General Conclusion” in the 1868 edition of Schools and Universities on the Continent are vigorous pleas for reform. Arnold did not pretend that English “provincialism” could be cured by the establishment of an institution like the Académie Française. But he hoped to make his countrymen realize the need in England for a more centralized effort in intellectual matters.