Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: vigorous step, his deep ringing, searching voice, his kindling eye, the awful frown which marked his displeasure at wrong-doing, and which struck terror to the heart of boys who knew they had been in fault. His personality, indeed, at first inspired fear, and even dislike among the younger boys, who knew little of him ; but as they rose in the school, and began to attract more of his attention, this feeling gradually changed into reverential affection ; and among many of his own sixth-form boys, the thirty boys who constituted the highest form in the school, and were taught by himself, the feeling came to be one of such entire devotion that they felt they would gladly have laid down their lives for him. CHAPTER IV. SCHOOL-LIFE AT RUGBY. " O strong soul, by what shore Tarriest thou now ? For that force Surely has not been left vain ! Somewhere, surely, afar In the sounding labour-house vast Of being is practised that strength Zealous, beneficent, firm." Rugby Chapel. THE strong personal influence of Dr. Arnold throughout the school, of which I spoke in my last chapter, was not, of course, a thing of sudden growth ; but verysoon after his taking up the reins at Rugby the boys came to feel that they had a strong wise man over them, one who would put down abuses with a firm hand, and whose law there was no disputing or evading. We have seen something of the spirit in which Dr. Arnold anticipated his new work. He had no intention of arbitrarily altering the public-school system at Rugby, but hoped to discover the noble elements in that system, and by God's help to introduce a religious principle into education. This was his most earnest wish, and he prayed God that it might be his constant labour and prayer. If he succeeded, he said it would be a happiness so great that...