matter fully explained to him, and be shown that he should do right
because it is right, and not for fear of punishment.

The Sixth Form was taught to unbend its dignity and enter into
fellowship with its so-called inferiors. To this end Arnold set the
example of playing cricket with the "scrubs."

He never laughed at a poor player nor at a poor scholar. He took dull
pupils into his own house, and insisted that his helpers, the other
teachers, should do the same. He showed the Sixth Form how much better
it was to take the part of the weak, and stop bullying the lower forms,
than to set the example of it in the highest. Before Arnold had been at
Rugby a year, the Sixth Form had resolved itself into a Reception
Committee that greeted all newcomers, got them located, introduced them
to the other boys, showed them the sights, and looked after their wants
like big brothers or foster-fathers.

Christianity to Arnold was human service. In his zeal to serve, to
benefit, to bless, to inspire, he never tired.

Such a disposition as this is contagious. In every big business or
school, there is one man's mental attitude that animates the whole
institution. Everybody partakes of it. When the leader gets melancholia,
the shop has it--the whole place becomes tinted with ultra-marine. The
best helpers begin to get out, and the honeycombing process of
dissolution is on.

A school must have a soul, just as surely as a shop, a bank, a hotel, a
store, a home, or a church has to have. When an institution grows so
great that it has no soul--simply a financial head and a board of
directors--dry-rot sets in and disintegration in a loose wrapper is at
the door.

This explains why the small colleges are the best, when they are: there
is a personality about them, an animating spirit that is pervasive and
preservative.

Thomas Arnold was not a man of vast learning, nor could one truthfully
say he had a surplus of intellect; but he had soul, plus. He never
sought to save himself. He gave himself to the boys of Rugby. His heart
went out to them, he believed in them--and he believed them even when
they lied, and he knew they lied. He knew that humanity was sound at
heart; he believed in the divinity of mankind, and tried hard to forget
the foolish theology that taught otherwise.

Like Thomas Jefferson, who installed the honor system in the University
of Virginia, he trusted young men. He made his appeal to that germ of
goodness which is in