AR´NOLD, Matthew, English critic, essayist, and poet, was born at Laleham, near Staines, 1822, being a son of Dr. Arnold of Rugby. He was educated at Winchester, Rugby, and Oxford, and became a Fellow of Oriel College. He was private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, 1847-51; appointed inspector of schools, 1851; professor of poetry at Oxford, 1858; published _A Strayed Reveller and other poems_, 1848; _Empedocles on Etna_, 1853; _Merope_, 1858; _Essays in Criticism_, 1865; _On the Study of Celtic Literature_, 1867; _Schools and Universities on the Continent_, 1868; _St. Paul and Protestantism_, 1870; _Literature and Dogma_, 1873; _Last Essays on Church and Religion_, 1877; _God and the Bible_, 1878; _Discourses on America_, 1885, &c. He received the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh, and that of D.C.L. from Oxford, and lectured in Britain and in America. He died in 1888. A complete edition of his works in 15 vols. appeared in 1905.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. W. Paul, _Matthew Arnold_ (English Men of Letters Series); G. Saintsbury, _Matthew Arnold_ (Modern English Writers Series); G. W. E. Russell, _Matthew Arnold_ (Literary Lives Series); F. Bickley, _Matthew Arnold and his Poetry_.
AR´NOLD, Thomas, headmaster of Rugby School, and professor of modern history in the University of Oxford, born at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, in 1795, died 1842. He entered Oxford in his sixteenth year, and in 1815 he was elected Fellow of Oriel College, and both in that year and 1817 he obtained the chancellor's prize for Latin and English essays. After taking deacon's orders he settled at Laleham, near Staines, where he employed himself in preparing young men for the universities. In 1828 he was appointed headmaster of Rugby School, and devoted himself to his new duties with the greatest ardour. While giving due prominence to the classics, he deprived them of their exclusiveness by introducing various other branches into his course, and he was particularly careful that the education which he furnished should be in the highest sense moral and Christian. His success was remarkable. Not only did Rugby School become crowded beyond any former precedent, but the superiority of Dr. Arnold's system became so generally recognized that it may be justly said to have done much for the general improvement of the public schools of England. In 1841 he was appointed professor of modern history at Oxford, and delivered his introductory course of lectures with great success. His chief works are his edition of Thucydides, his _History of Rome_ (unhappily left unfinished), and his _Sermons_. There is an admirable memoir of him by A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster (London, 2 vols., 1845).--Cf Lytton Strachey, _Eminent Victorians_.