the
case of his master, Wordsworth. A Catholic priest, ministering formerly
in the Roman and now in the English Church, thus describes the help
which he gained from Arnold at a time of distress and transition. "That
I held to any sort of Christianity, and continued to use and enjoy the
Bible, I owe entirely to Matthew Arnold. I began to read him in 1882;
first his prose, and then his verse. For several years I read him over,
and over, and over again with growing delight and profit; until, so far
as I was able, I understood something of his mind and methods. He taught
me how to think, and how to write. He undoubtedly saved me from leaving
the Papal Church a dulled and blank materialist, thoroughly and
violently anti-Christian; and his gentle influence tended me through
the next few years, until I was mellowed for the process of
reconstruction."[56]

This is a fine tribute to all that was best and most characteristic in
his teaching. Beyond doubt, by his insistence on the relation of Letters
to Religion, he helped many young men to read their Bibles with better
understanding and keener appreciation; and enabled them that are without
to enter for the first time into the spirit and attractiveness of the
Christian ideal. Not only so, but men established in age, position, and
orthodoxy, felt and acknowledged his helpfulness. When he delivered an
address on "The Church of England" to a gathering of clergy at Sion
College, he tells us that "Clergyman on clergyman turned on the
Chairman" (who had scented heresy), "and said they agreed with me far
more than with him." A divine so profoundly Evangelical as Bishop
Thorold larded his sermons and charges with extracts from Arnold's prose
and verse. In 1893 Arnold dined with Archbishop Benson, and "thought it
a gratifying marvel, considering what things I have published"; but the
marvel was of such frequent occurrence that it had almost ceased to be
marvellous. That this was so was due, no doubt, in great measure to the
charm of his character and conversation. It was not easy for any one
who knew him to take serious offence at what he wrote. Just as
Coleridge's metaphysics were said by a friend to be "only his fun," so
Arnold's theology was regarded by his admirers as part of his
playfulness. It was difficult to disentangle what he really wished to
teach from his jokes about the hangings of the Celestial
Council-Chamber; "Willesden beyond Trent"; "Change Alley and Alley
Change"; Pro