LECTURE II.

ON DR. THOMAS ARNOLD.

BY JOSHUA BATES, JR.

OF BOSTON.

MAN is so constituted, as to crave a perfect standard of excellence. In every department of life, he sets before himself a faultless model. The beauideal of the sculptor is perfect. He pictures to himself a human form more symmetrical than is found in actual existence. Excluding every blemish and deformity, and concentrating every charm and beauty of limb and feature, he erects in his imagination an ideal upon which to exercise his art. The hero takes as his guiding star, an imaginary character, who combines all those qualities, which constitute military eminence. The scholar proposes to himself a standard higher than is found in actual life. The good man is not satisfied with a rule of life, which does not demand conformity to the purest virtue, and enjoin every perfection of character. Any ethical rule, that falls short of this, his moral sense condemns,

and he approves of the law of God, because it is a perfect law.

The teacher adopts a high ideal of professional superiority. He forms, in his imagination, an image of a perfect teacher; of one, who, free from every fault and deficiency, possesses in harmonious combination, and in the highest possible degree, all the requisitions of character and scholarship, which qualify for complete success in teaching. This law of the mind, which leads men in all the pursuits of life, to set before themselves an exemplar as an object of imitation, is of great practical benefit. The man, who is satisfied with what he now is, intellectually or morally, will make little effort to improve, while he, who keeps before himself a high standard, will continue to make progress.

A finished, complete and faultless model, alone satisfies the cravings of the heart; yet the impossibility of copying such a pattern, renders one, which may be attained by human powers, needful, and oftentimes more immediately useful.

I know of no way, therefore, in which a teacher may be better qualified for the general duties of his office, or make successful advances towards his ideal of professional perfection, than by studying the character and life of a great master of his art, of acknowledged and conspicuous celebrity. "He, that walketh with wise men, shall be wise;" and that teacher, who, with earnest scrutiny, studies the character of an artist in his profession, seeking to understand the elements of his success, and to catch his spirit, will be, according to the law of assimila

tion, conformed to the pattern he contemplates, and to a degree changed into the same image.

I know not, then, how I may do a better service for the members of the Institute, whom I have the pleasure of addressing at this time, than to endeavor to present a portraiture of the character of that prince of teachers, Dr. Thomas Arnold, late Head Master of the Rugby School, England.

Presuming that most of the teachers, whom I address, have heard of the name of Dr. Arnold, and are more or less acquainted with his history and influence, it will not be necessary for me to give here a detailed account of his outward life and the events in his history; and the more, since his was a life interesting, not from the variety of its incidents or the thrilling nature of its vicissitudes. What renders his life worthy to be enshrined in the memory of every teacher, is, that it is the record of the development of a great mind, of the inner life of a scholar, a theologian, a brilliant historian, an affectionate father, an enthusiastic and celebrated teacher. What he has said of others, is emphatically true of himself. In his inaugural

address, upon entering on the duties of the Professorship of Modern History, in the University of Oxford, he says, in speaking of the true office of biography, "We have another life besides that of outward action, and it is this inward life, which determines the character of the actions and of the And how eagerly do we desire, in those great men, whose actions fill so large a space in history, to

man.

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know not only what they did, but what they were; how much we prize their letters, or their recorded words, and not least, such words as are uttered in their most private moments, which enable us, as it were, to look into the very nature of that mind, whose distant effects we know to be so marvellous."

A brief statement of the events in the outward life of Dr. Arnold, is, therefore, all that is needful, before proceeding to a delineation of those qualities, social, intellectual and moral, which made him the great teacher of his country and the present age.

Dr. THOMAS ARNOLD was born June 13th, 1795, at West Cowes, in the Isle of Wight. In 1807, when twelve years of age, he entered Winchester Classical School. In 1811, in his sixteenth year, he was elected as a scholar. at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1815, he was chosen Fellow of Oriel College, taking there a high rank as a scholar, and gaining, while a member of the college, two of the Chancellor's prizes; one for the best essay in Latin, and another for the best essay in English. In 1818, when twenty-two years of age, he was admitted to Deacon's Orders in the Church of England. The next year he was settled at Laleham, where he remained for nine years, preaching and also having from time to time, in his family, seven or eight young men, as private pupils, in preparation for the Universities. In 1827, he was elected to the Head Mastership of the Foundation School at Rugby. The next year he was admitted to Priest's Orders, and received the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

We may infer from his rapid promotion to posts of honor and responsibility, that he thus early in life, "gave the world assurance of a man.” It was at Rugby that he pursued, during the fifteen years of his mastership, that brilliant course that procured for him so wide a reputation. In 1841, he was offered, by Lord Melbourne, the Regius Professorship of Modern History at Oxford, which he accepted without resigning his Mastership at Rugby, and with the understanding, that his Lectures at Oxford should be given during the vacations of the Rugby school. This was the realization of his brightest hopes, and kindled his enthusiastic spirit to an intenser brightness. But it was destined to be the brief gleaming of a setting sun, for he was permitted to deliver but a single course of eight lectures, when his earthly career was abruptly closed. On Saturday, June 11th, 1842, the last day of the school term, he closed the last recitation of his class by giving out to them, as a theme for composition, to be read at the opening of the next term, the words, "DOMUS ULTIMA."

As if the dark shadow of a coming event was cast before, early on the morning of the next day, the day that completed his forty-seventh year, his useful life was suddenly terminated, by disease of the heart; and from the midst of life's unfinished plan, he was summoned to that "last and narrow house," which had been the subject of his valedictory words to his beloved pupils. His remains were deposited beneath the chancel of Rugby