from the published life of one who is perhaps the very highest authority that could be cited, the late revered Dr. Arnold himself:

66

:

'It is a most touching thing to me," he said once, in the hearing of one of his former pupils, on the mention of some new-comers, "to receive a new fellow from his father, when I think what an influence there is in this place for evil, as well as for good. I do not know anything which affects me more." Again, in a letter to a friend, Dr. Arnold thus writes:" Since I began this letter, I have had some of the troubles of school-keeping, and one of those specimens of the evil of boy-nature, which makes me always unwilling to undergo the responsibility of advising any man to send his son to a public school. There has been a system of persecution carried on by the bad against the good; and then, when a com

plaint was made to me, there came fresh persecution on that very account; and divers instances of boys joining in it out of pure cowardice, both physical and moral, when, if left to themselves, they would have rather shunned it. And the exceedingly small number of boys who can be relied on for active and steady good, on these occasions, and the way in which the decent and respectable of ordinary life, (Carlyle's Shams,') are sure on these occasions to swim with the stream, and take part with the evil,makes me strongly feel exemplified what the Scripture says about the strait gate' and the wide' one,-a view of human nature which, when looking on human life in its full dress of decencies and civilizations, we are apt, I imagine, to find it hard to realize. But here, in the nakedness of boy-nature, one is quite able to understand how there could not

be found so many as even ten righteous in a whole city. And how to meet this evil I really do not know; but to find it thus rife, after I have been [so many] years fighting against it, is so sickening, that it is very hard not to throw up the cards in despair, and upset the table. But then, the stars of nobleness which I see amidst the darkness, in the case of the few good, are so cheering, that one is inclined to stick to the ship again, and have another good try at getting her about." - Life of Dr. Arnold, Vol. I. pp. 176-7.

It is willingly conceded, that boys of equally sterling and uncompromising principle, may, and sometimes do, es cape much of the persecution here described and deplored. Had John been older, in more robust health, and more experienced in the ways of public schools, he could not have stood his

ground more nobly, but he might have maintained it with far less of personal

suffering. stitution; singularly refined in mind, tastes, and feelings; and sensitive almost to a fault, the position in which he found himself may easily be imagined; but let not one needless line be penned respecting what his loving spirit forgave with the most frank and Christian readiness.

Frail and delicate in con

Of his masters at Rugby he ever spoke with high, and grateful, and affectionate esteem, well knowing how gladly they would have remedied the evils, had remedy been practicable; and it is only justice to say, that, much as he suffered from some among his companions (for all were not alike), no thought was entertained of removing him. Indeed, his friends were so fully persuaded that his difficulties would rapidly lessen with

each succeeding half-year, that in a letter written by the Rev. J. Bickersteth after John's death, the following sentence occurs: "I feel confident, that if God had mercifully spared him to us, he would have gone on happily, as well as prosperously, at Rugby." Had life and health continued, he would doubtless have been one of the orna. ments of Rugby to this day.