shadow the wide expanse of the school-field, which the author of "Tom Brown's School-days" has rendered classical soil. Any one who has ever read that most delightful and spirited narrative, cannot fail to regard with reverential admiration the spot where such goals have been kicked at football, where such heroes have played their part, and where combats rivalling the encounters of Trojan and Grecian worthies have taken place and have been recorded in the annals of fame. All honour to the elm-shaded school-field of Rugby! It holds its own, no less than the grey battlemented pile, that looks down with such stately pride on the well-trodden greensward! It is a Campus Martius that has done, and will do, as good service to the physical frames of the rising generation, as real downright study and toil on the hallowed fields of literature and science has done for their mental constitution. And who will say that the first result has not largely conduced to the accomplishment of the second? Of course there are exceptions to every rule; but in a general way the boy who plays most heartily at cricket, foot-ball, and hare and hounds, and fights manfully in a righteous cause, is the one most likely to enter heart and soul into his destined work, and to take his stand upon the great arena of Life with courage and vigour and earnestness.

One thing more is still to be noted before we proceed to dismiss the school-buildings altogether; and this is, the "Arnold Library," over the writing-school, adjoining the old tower-library, built as a fitting memorial of him whose loved and honoured name has conferred on Rugby its fullest and most abiding lustre. This is, of course, a recent erection, and must not form a part of the picture which the reader will draw for himself of the scene where Dr. Arnold lived so long, where he laboured so patiently and so successfully, and where, when his great work was done, he passed away so peacefully, lying down to rest beneath the shadow of those walls that had so often echoed to the deep thrilling tones of a voice hushed for ever on earth.

It now remains only to give some description of the chapel. It was built in 1820, and is in the later pointed style of architecture; it is strengthened with ornamental buttresses,

and the east and west ends are decorated with crocketed pinnacles. On the apex of the gable is a cross, and the interior is fitted up like the choir of a cathedral. Within the last few years small transepts have been added.

All the windows, save one, are of painted glass, said to be for the most part in the Renaissance style. The great eastern window represents "The Wise Men's Offering," which Dr. Arnold regarded as a subject "strikingly appropriate to a place of education:" it was the first painted window in the chapel, and was brought by himself from the Continent; from Germany, if I recollect aright. Four, if not five windows, were supplied with stained glass before his decease, entirely at his instigation, and in great part at his expense. Two more have since been added; one of which is his own memorial window, and will be noticed hereafter;the other is the Crimean window, put up in memory of those Rugbæans who fell in the Russian war, their names being inscribed on a brass plate in the wall beneath.

There is a monument of white marble, by Chantrey, near the communion table, representing Dr. James sitting with a volume in his hand, and several folios at his feet. There is also, on the opposite side, a monument to the memory of Dr. Wooll. All mention of that of Dr. Arnold is reserved for the closing chapter of the book.

This digression-and it must be acknowledged that such it is-will not, it is hoped, prove unacceptable to the general reader, who may never have visited Rugby, still less have imbibed the spirit of the place: and those who know school, and hall, and field, and chapel, far better than the writer of this brief description, will perhaps pardon all inaccuracies ;— the result of derived information, and of a very brief visit to the place, which to them is almost sacred ground.

One more remark before we proceed to the further consideration of Dr. Arnold's life and character. The state of public schools had reached a climax, which rendered them more a crying evil than a benefit to the nation. The unchristian character of that which constituted the education of the upper classes of English society had become a great scandal; and religious men in vain denounced the inutility and

mischievous tendency of the whole system. Canon Stanley in his "Life of Arnold," justly remarks:-"A complete reformation or a complete destruction of the whole system, seemed to many persons sooner or later to be inevitable." In this as in all other difficult crises, the first step was the most impracticable. Who would come forward, and, for the sake of the public good, incur the whole weight of odium, slander, and misconstruction, which is sure to be cast on the most prudent and disinterested reformer? A great work was to be done;-educational Christendom called loudly for a champion, and he must needs be the Bayard of the nineteenth century: —a chevalier, sans peur et sans reproche!" At this juncture Arnold came forth from his peaceful Laleham retirement, and entered upon the awful responsibilities, and the difficult duties of the Head Master of Rugby School.

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CHAPTER V.

THE HEAD MASTER.

Ir is almost unnecessary to declare that Dr. Arnold, at the very outset of his Rugby career, encountered manifold and almost insurmountable difficulties. Opposition, either covert or manifest, met him wherever he endeavoured to check prevalent abuses, or to institute salutary reforms. There was the natural clinging to ancient errors and standing evils ;-there was the usual amount of obstinate tenacity in upholding moral delinquencies that had been winked at, and allowed, till they had become as it were stereotyped ;-and above all there was the moral obtuseness, that is almost universal with those who have indulged in sloth, sensuality, or unchecked sin of any nature, for a prolonged space of time. In entering upon his office Dr. Arnold found that all these obstacles to reform were to be combatted single-handed; but he had looked for toil and up-hill work, and for labour that at firstsight seemed well-nigh akin to that of the Danaides, and he was not discouraged. He was not the man to make one gigantic effort, and then lose heart, because to all appearances he had been as one beating the air; and it was not his way to rise up with spasmodic energy, and under the influence of that impulsive ardour, which belongs alike to the weakest and to the most powerful minds, make a sudden attack upon the enemy's citadel, and, failing immediate success, retire dispirited from the field!

Missionaries tell us, and our own good sense confirms it, that it is sorry work attacking idolatry, and convincing its adherents of their error, if no better god be given them than the wooden and clay deities which they have learned to despise; and it is equally futile applying the lever to moral and social abuses, without presenting, in place of the demolished structure, something fresh and sound and vigorous, which may occupy, and in time beautify, the vacant space. In the

one case, infidelity supervenes, or else the dethroned idols regain a surer footing than before. In the other, the evil is only shifted, not exterminated, and, like a snowball, gathers strength and magnitude by motion; so that in the end the last state of that society is worse than the first.

Dr. Arnold was too wise to set to work with battering-rams and twelve-pounders, and too honest to have recourse to sappers and miners. He made no proclamation of war; he issued no edicts, whose terror might force the enemy to a temporary and servile submission; but he entered upon his work as one armed with lawful and indisputable authority, as one who will never succumb and never temporize, and who yet comes to his post with a heart beating high with love and hope, and trust and generous forbearance.

He began at the beginning, a mode of action which seems so natural as to be well-nigh unavoidable; but which, in reality, is only too unfrequently pursued. For the first time we see coming into full and visible action the grand and pure principle, which, from the very commencement of his Laleham life, influenced more and more strongly his least as well as his most important proceedings. He felt and declared that 'the Christian was not merely to live what is commonly called a religious life; but that his whole course was to be religion itself! and his starting idea at Rugby was the Christianizing of the whole mass. Not that he was so sanguine as to suppose it would ever be possible, in so large and varied and variable a community, to make every individual boy an earnest, consistent Christian; but he hoped, by raising the highest possible standard, to reach a much greater altitude than is generally sought for or attained in similar circumstances, and in the general course of things.

His great hope lay in making the school a place of really Christian education; and yet he did not attempt any decided increase of theological instruction; and it was not his wont to enter much into what is generally termed religious conversation; and his desire was to see the boys doing By themselves, that which many would have simply endeavoured to do FOR them. "Is this a Christian school?" was his indignant question, upon one occasion, when much bad feeling