He is remembered as the friend of Thomson, Mallet, and other literary
celebrities of the time, and as the author of a poem on _The Art of
Preserving Health_, which appeared in 1744, and in which a somewhat
unpromising subject for poetic treatment is gracefully and ingeniously
handled. His other works, consisting of some poems and prose essays, and
a drama, _The Forced Marriage_, are forgotten, with the exception of the
four stanzas at the end of the first part of Thomson's _Castle of
Indolence_, describing the diseases incident to sloth, which he
contributed.
ARNOLD, SIR EDWIN (1832-1904).--Poet, _s._ of a Sussex magistrate, was
_b._ at Gravesend, and _ed._ at King's School, Rochester, London, and
Oxford. Thereafter he was an assistant master at King Edward's School,
Birmingham, and was in 1856 appointed Principal of the Government Deccan
College, Poona. Here he received the bias towards, and gathered material
for, his future works. In 1861 he returned to England and became
connected with _The Daily Telegraph_, of which he was ultimately editor.
The literary task which he set before him was the interpretation in
English verse of the life and philosophy of the East. His chief work with
this object is _The Light of Asia_ (1879), a poem on the life and
teaching of Buddha, which had great popularity, but whose permanent place
in literature must remain very uncertain. In _The Light of the World_
(1891), he attempted, less successfully, a similar treatment of the life
and teaching of Jesus. Other works are _The Song of Songs of India_
(1875), _With Saadi in the Garden_, and _The Tenth Muse_. He travelled
widely in the East, and wrote books on his travels. He was made K.C.I.E.
in 1888.
ARNOLD, MATTHEW (1822-1888).--Poet and critic, _s._ of Dr. A., of Rugby
(_q.v._), was _b._ at Laleham and _ed._ at Rugby, Winchester, and Balliol
Coll., Oxford, becoming a Fellow of Oriel in 1845. Thereafter he was
private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, Lord President of the Council,
through whose influence he was in 1851 appointed an inspector of schools.
Two years before this he had _pub._ his first book of poetry, _The
Strayed Reveller_, which he soon withdrew: some of the poems, however,
including "Mycerinus" and "The Forsaken Merman," were afterwards
republished, and the same applies to his next book, _Empedocles on Etna_
(1852), with "Tristram and Iseult." In 1857 he was appointed to the
Professorship of Poetry at Oxford, which he he
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