vice. "The object of systems of morality"thus Arnold himself states the matter, in his essay on Marcus Aurelius-" is to take possession of human life, to save it from being abandoned to passion, or allowed to drift at hazard, to give it happiness by establishing it in the practice of virtue. . . . In its uninspired as well as in its inspired moments, in its days of languor and gloom, as well as in its days of sunshine and energy, human life has thus always a clue to follow, and may always be making way towards its goal."

Of the singularly high quality of Arnold's own ethical teaching, and especially of the moral temper by which that teaching was inspired, it is possible to speak only in terms of the profoundest admiration. The clear sharp ring of the noblest stoical note is heard throughout his verse. Throwing us back everywhere and at all times upon the element of personal character, he raises us above the seemingly fatal influence of chance and circumstance; points within for the ultimate secret of strength and success; and insists that in the performance of duty itself lies our one certain path— not indeed to what the world calls happiness;

1 See, e. g., Self-Dependence, Religious Isolation, Palladium,↳ and the magnificent chant of Empedocles in Empedocles on Etna-one of the noblest pieces of ethical verse to be found in the whole range of English literature, and fully deserving of the praise which Mr. Swinburne has lavished upon it.

to that we can claim no prescriptive right;' but to the fine satisfaction which belongs to the feeling of steady manhood, and our sense of superiority to those environing forces which constantly do battle against the soul. In the passage just above quoted, he lays stress, it will be observed, upon life's uninspired moments, upon the days of languor and gloom through which the strongest must necessarily be called upon to pass. Even then, he asserts, we may still have our clue to follow, may still make headway towards our goal. Truly it is characteristic of the writer of these splendid lines that in the mood of the lowest and most abject despair that anywhere finds expression in his poetry, it is to the same final conception of conduct and duty, to the same central thought of the power and responsibility of the individual, that he still returns, secure of finding there the relief and inspiration which the outer world is no longer able to yield. He has sung for us, in Dover Beach, of the century's collapse of faith, and of the hopelessness and confusion with which his own mind is filled. Does he, therefore, feel impelled to abandon the conflict of life altogether—to submit him1 "Could'st thou, Pausanias, learn

How deep a fault is this;
Could'st thou but once discern

Thou hast no right to bliss,

No title from the gods to welfare and repose," etc.
-Empedocles on Etna, in the chant just referred to.

self to what seems the stronger force of destiny, and so float down the stream of tendency to "dull oblivion" and "the devouring grave?" On the contrary, it is just then that he feels it most imperatively needful for his higher manhood to declare itself :

"Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight
Where ignorant armies clash by night."

Joy and sorrow, light and darkness, belong to the world outside us; but "'t is in ourselves that we are thus or thus."

And yet high, noble, in every way admirable as Arnold's moral temper and teaching alike are, it is more than doubtful whether they could ever be popularized-ever be made of much service to any save a few out of the world's "complaining millions of men." Arnold himself, as it seems to us, has passed judgment on his own ethical position and outlook in the fine sentences in which he discusses the highly emotionalized utterances of Christian morality with the classic stoicism to which confessedly his intellectual indebtedness was so

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great. "The mass of mankind," he writes, " can be carried along a course full of hardship for the natural man, can be borne over the thousand impediments of the narrow way, only by the tide of a joyful and bounding emotion. It is impossible to rise from reading Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius without a sense of constraint and melancholy, without feeling that the burden laid upon man is well-nigh greater than he can bear." And again: "Lead me, Zeus, and Destiny,' says the prayer of Epictetus, 'whithersoever I am appointed to go; I will follow without wavering; even though I turn coward and shrink, I will have to follow all the same.' The fortitude of that is for the strong, for the few; even for them the spiritual atmosphere with which it surrounds them is bleak and gray. But 'Let thy loving spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness';- The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory'; 'Unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings,' says the Old Testament; Born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; ' 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God'; 'Whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world.' says the New. The ray of sunshine is there, the glow of a divine warmth ;-the austerity of the sage

1 Marcus Aurelius (Essays, i., p. 346).

melts away under it, the paralysis of the weak is healed; he who is vivified by it renews his strength; 'all things are possible to him'; 'he is a new creature.'

Now, it is to be feared that in Arnold's poetry "the mass of mankind" can hardly be expected to find the tide of " joyful and bounding emotion," which he tells us is so essential for their welfare and growth. It is impossible to rise from the perusal of his pages without experiencing, as he confessed that he experienced in reading Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius"a sense of constraint and melancholy," a haunting feeling "that the burden laid upon man is well-nigh greater than he can bear." The "ray of sunshine" rarely irradiates his noblest poetry; the "glow of a divine warmth " hardly ever melts "the austerity of the sage." Yet we would not take leave of Arnold with our emphasis upon any of the negative aspects of his work. There are some to-day, there will surely be still more in the future, upon whom his splendid influence must needs make itself felt. To a few at least in each generation, Arnold will seem the ideal teacher-the most helpful, the most beneficent, the most profoundly satisfactory of guides, counsellors, friends. And in an age that is prone to sensationalism, extravagance, wild thinking and wilder acting, in an age that loves quack 1 Marcus Aurelius (Essays, i., p. 347).