When the physician arrived, he perceived
at once the gravity of the case: it was an attack of angina
pectoris. He began to prepare some laudanum, while Mrs. Arnold
went out to fetch the children. All at once, as the medical man
was bending over his glasses, there was a rattle from the bed; a
convulsive struggle followed; and, when the unhappy woman, with
the children, and all the servants, rushed into the room, Dr.
Arnold had passed from his perplexities forever.
There can be little doubt that what he had achieved justified the
prediction of the Provost of Oriel that he would 'change the face
of education all through the public schools of England'. It is
true that, so far as the actual machinery of education was
concerned, Dr. Arnold not only failed to effect a change, but
deliberately adhered to the old system. The monastic and literary
conceptions of education, which had their roots in the Middle
Ages, and had been accepted and strengthened at the revival of
Learning, he adopted almost without hesitation. Under him, the
public school remained, in essentials, a conventional
establishment, devoted to the teaching of Greek and Latin
grammar. Had he set on foot reforms in these directions, it seems
probable that he might have succeeded in carrying the parents of
England with him. The moment was ripe; there was a general desire
for educational changes; and Dr.
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