Arnold's great reputation could
hardly have been resisted. As it was, he threw the whole weight
of his influence into the opposite scale, and the ancient system
became more firmly established than ever.
The changes which he did effect were of a very different nature.
By introducing morals and religion into his scheme of education,
he altered the whole atmosphere of public-school life.
Henceforward the old rough-and-tumble, which was typified by the
regime of Keate at Eton, became impossible. After Dr. Arnold, no
public school could venture to ignore the virtues of
respectability. Again, by his introduction of the prefectorial
system, Dr. Arnold produced far-reaching effects--effects which
he himself, perhaps, would have found perplexing. In his day,
when the school hours were over, the boys were free to enjoy
themselves as they liked; to bathe, to fish, to ramble for long
afternoons in the country, collecting eggs or gathering flowers.
'The taste of the boys at this period,' writes an old Rugbaean
who had been under Arnold, 'leaned strongly towards flowers'. The
words have an odd look today. 'The modern reader of "Tom Brown's
Schooldays" searches in vain for any reference to compulsory
games, house colours, or cricket averages. In those days, when
boys played games they played them for pleasure; but in those
days the prefectorial system-- the system which hands over the
life of a school to an oligarchy of a dozen youths of seventeen--
was still in its infancy, and had not yet borne its fruit.
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