In one of the testimonials which accompanied his application to the trustees of Rugby, the writer stated it as his conviction that "if Mr Arnold were elected, he would change the face of education all through the public schools of England." This somewhat hazardous pledge was nobly redeemed. Under Arnold's superintendence the school became not merely a place where a certain amount of classical or general learning was to be obtained, but a sphere of intellectual, moral and religious discipline, where healthy characters were formed, and men were trained for the duties, and struggles and responsibilities of life. His energies were chiefly devoted to the business of the school; but he found time also for much literary work, as well as for an extensive correspondence. Five volumes of sermons, an edition of Thucydides, with English notes and dissertations, a History of Rome in three vols. 8vo, beside numerous articles in reviews, journals, newspapers and encyclopaedias, are extant to attest the untiring activity of his mind, and his patient diligence during this period. His interest also in public matters was incessant, especially ecclesiastical questions, and such as bore upon the social welfare and moral improvement of the masses. In 1841, after fourteen years at Rugby, Dr Arnold was appointed by Lord Melbourne, then prime minister, to the chair of modern history at Oxford. On the 2nd of December 1841 he delivered his inaugural lecture. Seven other lectures were delivered during the first three weeks of the Lent term of 1842. When the midsummer vacation arrived, he was preparing to set out with his family to Fox How in Westmoreland, where he had purchased some property and built a house. But he was suddenly attacked by angina pectoris, and died on Sunday, the 12th of June 1842. His remains were interred on the following Friday in the chancel of Rugby chapel, immediately under the communion table. The great peculiarity and charm of Dr Arnold's nature seemed to lie in the supremacy of the moral and the spiritual element over his whole being. He was not a notable scholar, and he had not much of what is usually called tact in his dealings either with the juvenile or the adult mind. What gave him his power, and secured for him so deeply the respect and veneration of his pupils and acquaintances, was the intensely religious character of his whole life. He seemed ever to act from a severe and lofty estimate of duty. To be just, honest and truthful, he ever held to be the first aim of his being. His _Life_ was written by Dean Stanley (1845).