He
was, as he constantly declared, a Liberal. In his opinion, by the
very constitution of human nature, the principles of progress and
reform had been those of wisdom and justice in every age of the
world--except one: that which had preceded the fall of man from
Paradise. Had he lived then, Dr. Arnold would have been a
Conservative. As it was, his Liberalism was tempered by an
'abhorrence of the spirit of 1789, of the American War, of the
French Economistes, and of the English Whigs of the latter part
of the seventeenth century'; and he always entertained a profound
respect for the hereditary peerage. It might almost be said, in
fact, that he was an orthodox Liberal. He believed in toleration
too, within limits; that is to say, in the toleration of those
with whom he agreed. 'I would give James Mill as much opportunity
for advocating his opinion,' he said, 'as is consistent with a
voyage to Botany Bay.'
He had become convinced of the duty of sympathising with the
lower orders ever since he had made a serious study of the
Epistle of St. James; but he perceived clearly that the lower
orders fell into two classes, and that it was necessary to
distinguish between them. There were the 'good poor'--and there
were the others. 'I am glad that you have made acquaintance with
some of the good poor,' he wrote to a Cambridge undergraduate.
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