from diary - Love of Nature - Intercourse with the

poor needed by himself and by his pupils University

settlements and mission work in connexion with public

schools Politics - The Reform Bill - The English-

man's Register-The society for the diffusion of use-

ful knowledge-Mechanics' Institutes - The London

University - Arnold's attitude towards each of these

enterprises

PAGE

. 110

CHAPTER VII

-

The Oxford movement - The Hampden controversy

Arnold's relation to the movement - His views as to

the condition of the Church of England and of neces-

sary reforms-Dean Church's estimate of Arnold's

ecclesiastical position - The Broad Church- Influence

of outside interests on the life of the schoolmaster-

The ideal teacher - Regius Professorship of Modern

History - Arnold's scheme of lectures - Its partial

fulfilment - His early death-Conjectures as to what

might have been had he lived - Mr. Forster and the

Education Act - Testimonies of Dean Boyle and of

the Times

135

-

CHAPTER VIII

Matthew Arnold The materials for his biography - His

wishes - The main facts of his life - His letters - His

character - His inspectorship-Distaste for official

routine - His relations to managers - A school mana-

ger's recollections The office of a School Inspector-

Its opportunities of influence - The Revised Code-

Arnold's methods of work - Testimony of his assist-

ant

-

157

CHAPTER IX

-

Arnold as an officer of the Education Department — His

official reports - Inspection and examination Forma-

tive studies-Learning of poetry - Grammar - Latin

and French in the primary school - Science teaching

and Naturkunde. - Distrust of pedagogic rules - Gen-

eral aim and scope of an elementary school — The

teacher's personal cultivation - Religious instruction

-The Bible in the common school - Arnold's attempt

at a school reading-book with extracts from Isaiah

The failure of this attempt .

PAGE

176

CHAPTER X

-

-

Matthew Arnold's employment in foreign countries-

The Newcastle Commission of 1859-The Schools In-

quiry Commission of 1865 — Special report to the Edu-

cation Department, 1885 - Democracy - Relation of

the State to voluntary action in France and in England

– Why Germany interested Arnold less than France -

Advantages of State action-The religious difficulty in

France Why a purely secular system became inevi-

table in that country - A French Eton-Comparison

with the English Eton Endowments under French

law-Latin and Greek as taught in French Lycées-

Entrance scholarships - Leaving examinations - In-

struction in civic life and duties.

-

CHAPTER XI

Arnold's views of English society - The three classes,

the Barbarians, the Philistines, the Populace - Char-

acteristics of the Philistine or middle class - Why his

diagnosis, though true in the main, was inadequate —

The want of culture among Nonconformists—The disa-

bilities under which they had suffered - A sonnet

-

200

Illustration of the difference between public schools

and private" academies " Schools for special trades,

sects, or professions - Hymns-Effects of his polemic

in favour of a system of secondary instruction

PAGE

220

CHAPTER XII

Arnold as a literary critic, a humorist, and as a poet-

Criticism and its functions - Comparison with Sainte

Beuve-Examples of his critical judgments - Homer,

Pope, and Dryden, Byron, Wordsworth, Burke, Ten-

nyson, Charlotte Brontë, and Macaulay - The gift of

humour indispensable to a critic - English newspapers

-The Telegraph and the Times - His American ex-

periences - His personal charm - Tributes of Mr.

John Morley, Augustine Birrell, and William Watson

- Poems — Arnold's place as a poet - Examples of

his poems
- General estimate of his own and his

father's services to English education - Rugby Chapel 241

THOMAS AND MATTHEW ARNOLD

CHAPTER I

Difficulties of biography-How Stanley's Life of Arnold has surmounted them Chief incidents of Arnold's life - Influences which shaped his character-Ships and warfare - Literary revival - History and politics-School-boy experience - Religious doubts and difficulties-Evidential theology-His intellectual outfit generally

THOMAS ARNOLD has had the good fortune to be the subject of one of the best biographies in our language. In the history of English literature, when one comes to enumerate the most notable biographies which have been produced, it will be found that the number of such books entitled to the highest rank as works of art is not large. It is easy to record the dates and parentage, the public employments, the events and movements of a man's outward life, to give a selection from his letters and to add a critical account of his principal writings. But it is not easy to present a true portraiture of the hero's character, to acquire a keen insight into the motive forces of his life, to distinguish the significant from the insignificant, the typical from the exceptional incidents in his career, to look at him from without, and also to understand him from within, and to know