The advance in its perfect form is Christianity, and in a corrupted world must be the true principle, although it has in many instances been so clogged with evils of various kinds, that the conservative principle, although essentially false, since man fell into sin, has yet commended itself to good men, while they looked on the history of mankind only partially, and did not consider it as a whole." I. 410, 411.

Also, he states the matter thus:

"He has taken up the notion of liberty rather than that of improvement. I do not think that liberty can well be the idol of a good and sensible mind, after a certain age. My abhorrence of conservatism is not because it checks liberty; in an established democracy, it would favour liberty; but because it checks the growth of mankind in wisdom, goodness, and happiness, by striving to maintain institutions which are of necessity temporary, and thus never hindering change, but often depriving the change of half its value." I. 431.

These are not extreme views, and, though an outcry has been raised against Dr Arnold in connection with them, they embody no more than this political axiom, that unqualified conservatism is eventual revolution-an axiom recognised by the soundest philosophy, and attested by all experience. A dread of change is wholesome and instinctive, and, as a popular feeling, is not rudely to be extirpated. Our author felt this strongly, and would have been the last man to propose or encourage indefinite movements or reckless experiments. On the other hand, he was as deeply convinced that from the very course of events it was impossible to preclude incessant and extensive alterations, in every department, and that in this way, an unreasonable conservatist would prove in the end a fell destructionist. His idea seems to have been this,―let the equipoise and harmony of the social frame-work be what it may at a given time, the slightest acceleration in the rate of speed, or the most minute improvement of its constituent portions, will so derange the balance of the whole, that all must quickly hasten to a collision, if not carefully adjusted to the altered circumstances. Now, in such a theory, whether sound or hollow, we see nothing objectionable, far less revolutionary, but much that is analogous to what occurs among the firmamental bodies, and not a little that should receive a calm and philosophical investigation. It is easy for one class of individuals to repudiate it, and another to pervert it. It is irreconcileably at variance with a supercilious, inflexible, and indiscriminate conservatism, such as the Church of England too generally insisted upon; and it must fall far short of satisfying those with whom Dissent in the south too readily made common cause, who have no watchword but liberty,' and no end but change.' Nevertheless, Arnold's view embodies a vital and momentous truth, and statesmen would do well to ponder it. The applica

tion of it might be embarrassed with many difficulties, but righteously carried into effect, it would speedily allay many fears on one side, and check much agitation on the other. Arnold may have been wrong. But let us understand where his error unquestionably lay. His, at all events, was not the rude convulsive spring towards an organic upset, of Bentham, and Tait's Magazine; but the meek, honourable, sincere, and wise aspiration of such men as Wilberforce and M'Intosh, after a state of things which would more nearly represent the optimism of the Bible.

Let it be always borne in mind, that if no Conservative, as little was Arnold a Chartist, a Radical, a Liberal, or ultra-Whig. Too many of the evangelical party in England have sought to classify him with some, or all of these parties, and to surround his name with discredit, as a wild and unsettled visionary in politics. But that is a vast misconception, if it does not attain to the rank of a slander, for whilst Dr Arnold dreaded the Conservatives, as he would have dreaded Prince Joinville at the head of his flotilla, he looked with ineffable scorn on those who embodied the antagonist views in politics.

"Politics should hold in my register' just that place which they should do in a well regulated mind; that is, as one field of duty, but by no means the most important one; and that with respect to this field, our duty should rather be to soothe than to excite, rather to furnish facts, and point out difficulties, than to press forward our own conclusions. There are publications enough to excite the people to political reform, and my writing on politics would have for its end, not the forwarding any political measure, but the so purifying, enlightening, and sobering, in one word Christianising men's notions and feelings in political matters, that from the improved tree, may come hereafter a better fruit.”

I. 302.

Again:

"The correlative to taxation, in my opinion, is not citizenship, but protection. Taxation may imply representation quoad hoc, but to confound the right of taxing one's self, with the right of general legislation, is one of the Jacobinical confusions of the later days." I. 386.

"I cannot go cordially along with the Radical party, philosophically or otherwise, even on points where in the main I agree with them. They all seem to me, more or less overrun with two things, Benthamism and political economy, and Bentham I have always thought a bad man, and as Carlyle called him, a bore of the first magnitude. II. 186."

Though still more decidedly, he writes shortly afterwards:

"I believe it to be necessary, that the popular power in a state should be, in the perfection of things, paramount to every other. But this supremacy need not, and ought not, I think, to be absolute; and monarchy, and an aristocracy of birth, appear to me to be two precious elements

which still exist in most parts of Europe, and to lose which, as has been done unavoidably in America, would rather be our insanity than our misfortune." II. 192.

After reading such extracts as these, we cannot have any hesitation in adopting Mr Stanley's language, and affirming, 'that vehement as he was in assailing evil, Arnold's whole mind was essentially not destructive, but constructive ;-his love for reform was in exact proportion to his love of the institutions which he wished to reform;-his hatred of shadows in exact proportion to his love of realities;'-or, as Archdeacon Hare says, 'Arnold was an idoloclast, at once zealous and fearless in demolishing the reigning idols, and, at the same time, animated with a reverent love for those ideas which these idols carnalize and stifle.'

Whilst Arnold by no means adopted those theories by which the poorer classes were too generally engrossed and duped at the time when he lived, no one felt a warmer interest than he in all that pertained to their real interest, or was more ready to assist in ameliorating their condition. Indeed, we cannot but admire the gentle grace, yet unfeigned cordiality with which he dropped to the level, and mingled with the concerns, and sought to promote the well-being of those who moved on the humbler levels of society; and if in any point of his multifarious character, more than in another, we feel assimilating sympathy with him, it is in this respect. We do not read that he indulged himself in this hallowed gratification to a great extent at Rugby, and this may account for his pupil, who knew him best as unfolded there, not setting out this feature of his character in that prominent relief which it merited; but at Fox How, his chosen home of retirement, and where all his more public duties were for a season suspended, he seems to have had no greater satisfaction than in visiting the abodes of the poor, and relieving the wants of the sick.

"The picture of his ordinary life," says his biographer, "would be incomplete without mention of his intercourse with the poor. He purposely abstained from mixing much in the affairs of the town and neighbourhood of Rugby. But he was always ready to assist in matters of local charity; and with the poor he made a point of keeping up a frequent and familiar intercourse. Feeling keenly what seemed to him at once the wrong and the mischief done by the too wide separation between the higher and lower orders, he wished to visit them as 'neighbours, without always seeming bent on relieving or instructing them,' and could not bear to use language which to any one in a higher station would have been thought an interference." I. 238.

Again,

Prayer and kindly intercourse with the poor are the two great safe

guards of spiritual life; it is more than food and raiment." II. 58. "At this moment, Carlyle tells the poor, that they and the rich are enemies; and that to destroy the property of an enemy, whether by fire or otherwise, is always lawful in war,-a devil's doctrine certainly, and devilishly applied. But unquestionably our aristocratical manners and habits have made us and the poor two distinct and unsympathising bodies; and from want of sympathy I fear the transition to enmity is but too easy, when distress embitters the feelings, and the sight of others in luxury makes that distress still more intolerable. This is the plague spot, to my mind, in our whole state of society, which must be removed, or the whole must perish." I. 294.

Well might Mr Stanley say, then, of Dr Arnold, "that when he thought of the social evils of the country, it awakened a corresponding desire to check the thoughtless selfishness and waste of school-boys,-a corresponding sense of the aggravation of those evils by the insolence and want of sympathy too frequently shown by the children of the wealthier classes towards the lower orders, a corresponding desire that they should imbibe the first principles of reverence to law, and regard for the poor, which the spirit of the age seemed to him so little to encourage.' Or, as our author himself writes,

It fills me

"It haunts me night and day, this spread of Chartism. with astonishment to see anti-slavery and missionary societies so busy with the ends of the earth, and yet all the worst evils of slavery and heathenism are existing amongst ourselves. But no man seems so gifted, or, to speak more properly, so endowed by God, with the spirit of wisdom as to read this fearful riddle truly, which, most sphynx-like, if not read truly, will most surely be the destruction of us all.”

The grand practical direction which Dr Arnold's desires on behalf of our poorer classes, as expressed in the previous extracts, took, was an attempt to bring periodical literature within their reach, and, at the same time, imbue it with a manly, intelligent, and Scriptural spirit. To forward this end was his consuming desire; and for the accomplishment of it he was willing to unite all parties, and risk no inconsiderable outlay. At one time he established a newspaper from his own resources; at another he set on foot a local magazine; and, finally, he strove hard to give a Christian tone to the issues of the Society for Useful Knowledge.

"It has occurred to me, that the circumstance of some of the principal members of the Useful Knowledge Society being now in the Government, is in itself a strong reason why the Society should take a more decided tone on matters of religion. Undoubtedly, their support of that Society, as it now stands, is a matter of deep grief and disappointment to a large proportion of the best men in the kingdom, while it encourages the hopes of some of the very worst. And it would be one of the greatest possible public blessings, if, as they are honest, and fearless, and en

lightened against political corruption, so they would be no less honest, and fearless, and truly wise in labouring to Christianize the people, in spite of the sneers and opposition of those who know full well, that if men do not worship God, they at once, by that very omission, most surely worship the power of evil." I. 307.

And, in another letter, he writes to the same effect.

"I want to get up a real poor man's magazine, which should not bolster up abuses, aad veil iniquities, nor prose to the poor as to children— but should address them in the style of Cobbett, plainly, boldly, and in sincerity-excusing nothing, concealing nothing, and misrepresenting nothing, but speaking the very whole truth in love." I. 294.

Perhaps still more explicit is the following quotation. "Two things press upon me unabatedly-my wish for a Bible, such as I have spoken of, and my wish for something systematic for the instruction of the poor. In my particular case, the stamp duties are an evil; for I still think that a newspaper alone can help to cure the evil which newspapers have done. The events of the day are a definite subject, to which instruction can be attached in the best possible manner." 1. 349.

It is pitiable to think, that, in spite of all his admitted energy and generous sacrifices, Dr Arnold's success in these schemes, for the benefit of our poorer orders, was but partial or temporary, and that in the end they had to be relinquished. Yet we think a reason for this may be assigned with some probability, and one, which if true, ought to lead many of our philanthropists to reconsider and remodel their undertakings. Dr Arnold, with all his excellent intentions, and really Christian desires, viewed men in this instance, as he always was accustomed to do, too much as masses, instead of bearing it in mind, that in all moral renovations, we must, to the uttermost, separate all men from their fellows, and deal with them as single individuals. It was in this manner that Jesus ever looked upon the inhabitants of a fallen world, and the nearer we can approximate to him in our methods of engaging with wickedness and sin, the more likely are we to find that our plans are not without a blessing.

But besides this error in Dr Arnold's schemes, we think that they are fairly liable to an objection still more serious. The truth is, that his aim was to inspire the common people with a taste for knowledge, and, at the same time, in the first instance, to separate that knowledge in a very considerable measure, from distinct and substantial Christian truth. Here was his idea, and it has almost been adopted already as a popular axiom, 'I never wanted articles on religious subjects half so much, as articles on common subjects, written with a decidedly christian tone.' Now, it must be kept in mind, that