The Life of Thomas Arnold, D.D.

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was born at Alderley Rectory, Cheshire, on December 13, 1815.  He was educated at Rugby under Arnold, and at Oxford, where Tait, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, was his tutor.  Entering holy orders, he was appointed select preacher in 1845; became Canon of Canterbury in 1851; and in 1863 succeeded Trench as Dean of Westminster.  He died on July 18, 1881, and by Queen Victoria’s commands his remains were laid beside those of his wife, Lady Augusta Bruce, in Henry VII.’s Chapel, Westminster.  Of all his works, perhaps his most important contribution to English literature is the “Life of Arnold,” which was published two years after the death of the famous master of Rugby.  To the task of writing the book Stanley devoted all his energies, steering clear, however, of any attempt to form an opinion of his own upon Arnold’s life and character, while achieving a result that not only assured his own position at Oxford, but brought him well into the front rank of contemporary writers.  The religious animosity at Oxford was uncongenial to Stanley, and it was only the prospect of Dr. Arnold occupying the Chair of Modern History that reconciled him to his surroundings.

I.—­Youth and Early Manhood

Thomas Arnold, seventh child and youngest son of William and Martha Arnold, was born June 13, 1795, at East Cowes, Isle of Wight, where his father was collector of customs.  His early education was undertaken by a sister; and in 1803 he was sent to Warminister School, in Wiltshire.  In 1807 he went to Winchester, where, having entered as a commoner and afterwards become a scholar of the college, he remained till 1811.  In after life he always cherished a strong Wykehamist feeling, and, during his headmastership at Rugby, often recurred to his knowledge there first acquired, of the peculiar constitution of a public school.

He was then, as always, of a shy and retiring disposition; but his manner as a child, and till his entrance at Oxford, was marked by a stiffness and formality, the very reverse of the joyousness and simplicity of his later years.  He was unlike those of his own age, with pursuits peculiar to himself; and the tone and style of his early letters are such as might have been produced by living chiefly with his elders, and reading, or hearing read, books suited to a more advanced age.  Both as boy and young man he was remarkable for a difficulty in early rising amounting almost to a constitutional infirmity; and though in after life this was overcome by habit, he often said that early rising was a daily effort to him.