Arnold drew up
a disquieting scheme for allowing Dissenters into the Church,
though it is true that he did not go quite so far as to
contemplate the admission of Unitarians.
At this time, there was living in a country parish, a young
clergyman of the name of John Keble. He had gone to Oxford at the
age of fifteen, where, after a successful academic career, he had
been made a Fellow of Oriel. He had then returned to his father's
parish and taken up the duties of a curate. He had a thorough
knowledge of the contents of the Prayer-book, the ways of a
Common Room, the conjugations of the Greek Irregular Verbs, and
the small jests of a country parsonage; and the defects of his
experience in other directions were replaced by a zeal and a
piety which were soon to prove themselves equal, and more than
equal, to whatever calls might be made upon them. The
superabundance of his piety overflowed into verse; and the holy
simplicity of the Christian Year carried his name into the
remotest lodging-houses of England.
As for his zeal, however, it needed another outlet. Looking forth
upon the doings of his fellow-men through his rectory windows in
Gloucestershire, Keble felt his whole soul shaken with loathing,
anger, and dread. Infidelity was stalking through the land;
authority was laughed at; the hideous doctrines of Democracy were
being openly preached.
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