We who were happy enough to fall under his personal influence can never overstate what we owe to his genius and his sympathy. He showed us the highest ideal of character and conduct. He taught us the science of good citizenship. He so interpreted nature that we knew her as we had never known her before. He was our fascinating and unfailing guide in the tangled paradise of literature. And, while for all this we bless his memory, we claim for him the praise of having enlarged the boundaries of the Christian Kingdom by making the lives of men sweeter, brighter, and more humane. [Footnote 46: A saying attributed to Bishop Wilberforce.] [Footnote 47: See the Introduction to his _Romans_, 3rd edition, 1870.] [Footnote 48: See the Introduction to his _Romans_, 3rd edition, 1870.] [Footnote 49: University and other Sermons, p. 175.] [Footnote 50: W.E. Gladstone: _Later Gleanings_.] [Footnote 51: _Essays in Criticism_. "Pagan and Mediaeval Religious Sentiment."] [Footnote 52: J. Armitage Robinson, D.D., Easter Day, 1903.] [Footnote 53: Edward, 12th Duke of Somerset (1804-1885). Author of _Christian Theology and Modern Scepticism_.] [Footnote 54: _Literature and Dogma_.] [Footnote 55: _Studies Subsidiary to the Works of Bishop Butler_, pt. i. ch. iii.] [Footnote 56: _Rome and Romanizing_. By Arthur Galton.] [Footnote 57: "Spade! with which Wilkinson hath tilled his lands," etc.] [Footnote 58: See p. 61.] _LITERARY LIVES_ Edited by W. ROBERTSON NICOLL * * * * * Matthew Arnold By G.W.E. RUSSELL * * * * * _Extract from Preface:_ "It was Arnold's express wish that he should not be made the subject of a Biography. This rendered it impossible to produce the sort of book by which an eminent man is usually commemorated--at once a history of his life, an estimate of his work, and an analysis of his character and opinions. But, though a biography was forbidden, Arnold's family felt sure he would not have objected to the publication of a selection from his correspondence; and it became my happy task to collect, and in some sense to edit, the two volumes of his letters which were published in 1895. The letters, with all their editorial shortcomings (of which I willingly take my full share), constitute the nearest approach to a narrative of Arnold's life which can, consistently with his wishes, be given to the world; and the ground so covered will not be retraversed here. All that literary criticism can do for the honor of his prose and verse has been done already, conscientiously by Mr. Saintsbury, affectionately and sympathetically by Mr. Paul, and with varying competence and skill by a host of minor critics. But in preparing this book I have been careful not to re-read what more accomplished pens than mine have written, for I wished my judgment to be unbiased by previous verdicts.