THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D., LATE HEAD-MASTER OF RUGBY SCHOOL, AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. THE volume of "Arnold's Miscellaneous Works," published in London in June, 1845, having been accurately examined, it was discovered that the London copy was both defective and redundant. The concise Preface itself, by Mr. Stanley, indeed produced a conviction that the volume might be essentially improved. That notice was almost in these words: "This volume consists of a republication of such Miscellaneous writings of Dr. Arnold as appeared to possess any permanent interest, or to illustrate his general views, especially on the subjects of education and of the social and political state of the country. "It has, therefore, seemed best to exclude from it the articles written in the British Critic, 1819-20; that on Niebuhr's History of Rome in the Quarterly Review of 1825; and on "Letters of an Episcopalian," in the Edinburgh Review of 1826; such publications of his later years as had a local or temporary character, as well as the article on "Dr. Hampden" in the Edinburgh Review of 1836; and such of the Essays appended to his edition of Thucydides, 1830-35, as were confined to questions of purely topographical or historical detail. The Essays on Church and State, which were to have appeared in this volume, have now been published, as Appendixes to the Second Edition of the Fragment on the Church. "The contents of this volume express Dr. Arnold's deliberate views on the subjects of which he wrote. At the same time it will be obvious that his language would often have been modified by a change of circumstances, and that expressions are occasionally used, which he would subsequently have cancelled." |