Tue death of Mr. Matthew Arnold removes a man of letters who has held a distinguished position for some forty years. He was the eldest son of Dr. Thomas Arnold, the famous master of Rugby, and was born at Laleham near Staines on the 24th December, 1822, educated at Winchester and Rugby and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate, graduated in honours in 1843 and was elected a Fellow of Oriel in 1845. Two years afterwards he became Private Secretary to Lord Lansdowne, who was then President of the Council in the administration of which Lord John Russell was Premier, and he continued in that position until his marriage in 1851, when he received the appointment of one of the Lay Inspectors of Schools, which he held until late years. He was also Professor of Poetry at Oxford for ten years. In the course of his connection with the Education Department he visited France, Germany and Holland and drew up a report on and_ records of the educational system in these countries, which was published. In 1865 he again visited the Continent to procure for the Royal Commission on middle class education, information re-tad upper classes, and published a ting foreign schools, for the middle
volume on the subject in 1867, He also contributed several articles to magazines and reviews on the same subject in which he strenuously advocated a higher class of education, founded to a it extent on the system in Germany.
opinions which he expressed of the results of the education given to the middle class in Britain, and its effects on the character of his countrymen, were by no means flattering; he insisted on the necessity of great being introduced so as to produce that mental quality which he defined as "sweetness and light." His teachings to this effect have had considerable influence, though not to an extent to satisfy him, which was perhaps owing toa certain over self-sufficiency which prevailed in them, and prevented their meeting with what may be called the serious attention of the great majority of his countrymen. To the greater number of ordinary people he sppted, the epithet of philistines, which has been a great source of comfort to those who consider themselves superior persons, and when using it they seemed to shut the gates of mercy on outcast folk. More recently he said that what the English world wanted was lucidity. Mr. Arnold wrote much on religious subjects, his views being of an unorthodox kind. He held by the Bible, but eliminated great parts of it which did not suit his opinions, and by Christianity, while jecting a it deal which all the Churches teach. His influence on these subjects was at one time considerable, but it is doubtful if it will last; it was that of the polished and acute, but not very profound and sceptical critic who, however, retained the conviction that—
One must Jead some life beyond, Have a bliss to die with, dim descried.
His prose writings are distinguished by grace and limpidity of style rather than vigour of thought, and his poems have the same characteristics. But in the former the views he expressed of current events, of men and institutions, and the remedies he proposed for the evils in Church and State and in common life were generally those of the student, writing at leisure in his library, rather than of the man of the world acquainted with affairs. He asserted himself, and his own opinions, strongly, and often in a manner which weakened the effect of the latter and provoked more criticism of them than fair consideration. Many of his suggestions on political matters wanted the adaptability to institutions and the common affairs of life which would have secured them general attention, and therefore they shared the fate of the writings of Mr. Ruskin on somewhat similar subjects. Mr. Arnold's first poems, "The Strayed Reveller and other poems, ay forty years 550, and were followed in 1853 by " lodes on Etna" and other poems. Subsequently he published other volumes of poetry, some of which contain of singular beauty, but seldom distingination, They are generally the writings of a scholar who drew his inspiration from the events and writings of the past, and it is probable that they are unknown to the great mass of his countrymen. Every here and there they present pictures of great power, admirably expressed and with an appropriate terseness of language, which is ulus. One of the best known of these is in " Oberman Again," when the condition of the Roman World, just before the appearance of Christianity is drawn in some masterly verses, and the feverish haste of the West is contrasted with the indifference of the East to the turmoil around it On that old Roman World disgust And secret loathing fell, jade human life a hell.
2 weariness and sated lust In his cool halls, with haggard eyes, The Roman noble ale He drove abroad in furious guise, Along the Appian Way.
He made a feast, drank fierce and fast, He crowned his head with flowers—No easier, and no quicker, passed The impracticable hours.
The brooding East with awe beheld Her impious younger world, The Roman tempest swelled and swelled, And on her head was hurled.
The East bowed down before the blast In patient, deep, disdain She let the legions thunder past, And plunged in thought again,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.