THE

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

HE delightful story of "Tom Brown at Rugby," by which Thomas Hughes won a unique and lasting fame, and made every schoolboy his debtor for life, would hardly have been written but for the character given that school by Dr. Thomas Arnold from 1828 to 1842, and the most celebrated teacher of boys the Englishspeaking world has known. A native of the Isle of Wight, and graduate, in 1811, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Mr. Arnold, in 1820, married Miss Mary Penrose, the daughter of a clergyman, and settled as a private tutor at Laleham, a Middlesex hamlet of half-a-thousand souls. Here, on December 24, 1822, his son, Matthew, was born. The father was best known in after years as an essayist, educator, preacher and historian. Yet the passion of poetry was very strong within him and, although he did little if any work in that field, his own poetic spirit, developed in his son, has left us a rich legacy of verse.

It

Laleham was a fit cradle for the infant poet. reposes in picturesque beauty on a green bank of the Thames, opposite that Chertsey whither Cowley fled from the bustle of the little London of his day to enjoy the literary leisure of which cities are the foe. Here, in the quietude of Laleham, the first six years of Matthew Arnold's life were passed. In 1828 his father having been ordained, the removal of the family to Rugby changed its life from rest to action. It was the opposite of Laleham - no dreamy contemplation there, but, instead, the busy routine of the school for boys.

The outward life of Matthew Arnold

at Rugby was that which we read of in Mr.. Hughes's wonderful tale, doubtless somewhat modi. fied by his relationship to the head master. His first poetic triumph worthy of note occurred on his leaving school, when he won the prize poem and was elected to a scholarship at Balliol. These Balliol scholarships always have been hard to win, and at no time were they enjoyed by a more remarkable set of men than in 1840-44. Among them Matthew Arnold easily held his own. Although disappointed of a first-class, he won the coveted Newdigate prize for English verse in 1843, his theme being, "Oliver Cromwell," and was elected Fellow of Oriel College, March 28, 1845 - just thirty years after his father received the same fellowship.

In 1847, Mr. Arnold became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, whom he served until 1851, when he married and was appointed a Lay Inspector of Schools under the Committee of Council on Education. In 1848 the poet published his first collection of verse, "The Strayed Revellers, and Other Poems,” veiling his identity under a modest initial A. Four years later, Empedocles on

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Etna" appeared, but was soon withdrawn from circulation, though afterwards acknowledged and reprinted in "New Poems." About 1853 Mr. Arnold published the first series of his poems, selected from these volumes with fresh additions, and followed it with a second series of a similar character. In these collections the world saw that a new poet had arisen to whom it must listen. He was welcome. The poems were republished in 1856, and Mr. Arnold was elected to the Chair of Poetry at Oxford, following the Rev. Thomas Leigh Claughton, and contesting the election with the Rev. John Ernest Bode, one of the most distinguished members of the University. This professorship Mr. Arnold held for ten years, doing much in poetry and criticism beside discharging his official duties for which, perhaps, no incumbent was ever better qualified. 'Merope," the most classical of all Mr. Arnold's poems, appeared in 1858, but was not successful at the time. "Atlanta in Calydon" followed, creating a stir in the literary world by its force and power, no less than by its violations of some of the fundamental laws of tragedy.

In 1859-60, Mr. Arnold was sent abroad by the Government as an assistant to the commission to inquire into the state of education in France, Germany and Holland, upon which he submitted an elaborate report. The next year he published his lectures on translating Homer, which involved him in a spirited controversy with professor Newman, whose translation Mr. Arnold had sharply criticised. In 1865, his "Essays in Criticism" appeared, after which he again visited the Continent on an errand similar to his first journey. In 1867 he published "New Poems," followed by a volume on Celtic literature. In this year Mr. Arnold relinquished the Chair of Poetry at Oxford, to give himself entirely to the criticism and lectures which, with miscellaneous work, occupied the later years of his life. The degree of Doctor in Laws was conferred upon him by Edinburgh University. in 1869, and by his own college in 1870. In 1876 he was made a Commander of the Crown of Italy in recognition of his services to the young Duke of Genoa, who made one of Mr. Arnold's family while pursuing his studies in England.

Mr. Arnold visited America in 1884, and again two years later. His frank criticisms upon our ways were not relished by many although his strictures were far less severe than those to which he habitually treated his own nation.

On Sunday, April 17, 1888, while walking in Liverpool after church-to which city Mr. Arnold had gone to meet his daughter on her return from America, he was suddenly stricken down by disease, and died. He was interred in the little churchyard at Laleham, amid the peaceful scenes of his early childhood. A. G. B.