trong in character and the stout in heart and hand, a reaction against
Arnold and against Arnold's views, as being opposed to the traditional
notions of the school. This reaction was strengthened by the peculiar nature
of some of these views, such, for instance as those on the subject of the
code of honour. Arnold, although himself a man actuated by a nice sense of
honour, felt it his duty to set himself strongly in words against the code of
honour; it was the constant object of vituperation on his part, even from the
pulpit. His notions on this point, however, never gained ground with his
hearers, who could not be brought to believe that their master (himself as
true a knight errant as ever drew sword or pen,) was serious when he told
them that the spirit of chivalry was "the true Antichrist."

The attempt to introduce a more highly-wrought tone of religious feeling than
was perhaps of wholesome growth in very young minds was, therefore, not
without its drawbacks; the antagonism to some of his own views which it
called forth, combined with the utter disregard to established views which
characterized his own teaching, and which the school caught from him, told
upon the boys' minds. The direct and indirect effect of Arnold's school of
thought may indeed, now, we think, be traced in the general distrust of
hitherto received opinions, which, but little tinged in England it is true
with either licentiousness or irreverence, is nevertheless characteristic of
the present generation.

These effects are also more manifest now that Arnold's personal influence can
no longer be exercised. So long as he was at his post, his earnest
simplicity of character, his purity of life, his intellectual vigour, his
fearless seeking after truth, carried away the sympathies of all who were
brought in contact with him; not one of whom but will say, on looking back to
the impression he left on them, "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there was
no guile!"

Thus the reform introduced into Rugby by Arnold, and indirectly into other
public schools through him, was then very different from that which was
anticipated from him. He did, it will be seen, none of the things he was
expected by his party to do. He strenuously inculcated the views of
Christian doctrine most opposed to those of the Latitudinarian party. {71} He
stoutly adhered to the system of "fagging," as being the best mode of
responsible government for the school "out of school,"