his
body burned, and the ashes thrown into the Tiber. The Baptists, I
believe, claim Arnold of Brescia as the forerunner of their sect, and
certain it is that he was of the true Roger Williams type.

Thomas Arnold, too, was filled with a passion for righteousness. His
zeal for the upright, manly life constituted his strength. Of course he
would not have been executed, as was Arnold of Brescia--the times had
changed--he would simply have been shelved, pooh-poohed, deprived of his
living and socially Crapseyized. Death saved him--aged forty-seven--and
his soul goes marching on!

* * * * *

The parents of Thomas Arnold belonged to the great Middle Class--that
class which Disraeli said never did any thinking on its own account, but
to the best of its ability deferred to and imitated the idle rich in
matters of religion, education and politics.

Doctor Johnson maintained that if members of the Middle Class worked
hard and economized, it was in the hope that they might leave money and
name for their children and make them exempt from all useful effort.

"To indict a class," said Burke, "is neither reasonable nor right." But
certain it is that a vast number of fairly intelligent people in England
and elsewhere regard the life of the "aristocracy" as very desirable and
beautiful.

To this end they want their boys to become clergymen, lawyers, doctors
or army officers.

"Only two avenues of honor are open to aspiring youth in England," said
Gladstone--"the Army and the Church."

The father of Thomas Arnold was Collector of Customs at Cowes, Isle of
Wight. Holding this petty office under the Government, with a half-dozen
men at his command, we can easily guess his caliber, habits, belief and
mode of life. He was respectable; and to be respectable, a Collector of
Customs must be punctilious in Church matters, in order to be acceptable
to Church people, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. The parents of
Thomas Arnold very naturally centered their ambitions for him on the
Church, as he was not very strong.

When the child was only six years old, the father died from "spasm of
the heart." At this time the boy had begun to take Latin, and his
education was being looked after by a worthy governess, who daily
drilled his mental processes and took him walking, leading him by the
hand. On Sundays he wore a wide, white collar, shiny boots and a stiff
hat. The governess cautioned him not to soil