THOMAS AND MATTHEW ARNOLD AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH EDUCATION BY SIR JOSHUA FITCH, M.A., LL.D. UNIVERSITY NEW YORK INTRODUCTORY NOTE In the Catalogue of the British Museum Library, there are no less than eighty-nine entries under the name of Matthew Arnold, and sixty-seven under that of his father. These entries include references to each of the several editions of their published works, whether books or pamphlets, and also to numerous tracts and essays containing criticism or comment upon those works. They do not, however, include the large number of reviews and articles which occur in the periodicals and dictionaries of the time, and which throw light on the character and achievements of the Arnolds. Of the abundant literature with which their names have thus come to be associated, much is occupied with ephemeral controversy, and with incidents little. likely to interest the coming generation of readers. or indeed to be wholly intelligible to them. It has seemed to me, therefore, that as both men have exerted a large share of influence in forming the opinion of the country on educational questions, and as their lives possess peculiar interest for those who are teachers by profession, there was room for a small volume which, without professing to furnish a new biography, or a new theory respecting either writer, should essay the modest task of bringing together so much of the teaching of both as was likely to prove of iii 105484 (RECAP) 6863 131 34 permanent value, and also to explain and justify the honourable position the Arnolds occupy in the history of public education in England and in the grateful memory of her teachers. I can claim no higher qualification for this duty than is implied in the facts that I have learned some of the best lessons of my life from the study of these authors; that as a colleague in the Education Department I had many opportunities of knowing Matthew Arnold's views and estimating his personal influence; and that, although for different reasons, I have a genuine admiration for both father and son. August, 1897. |