At the height of such a reputation as no other English man ...

At the height of such a reputation as no other English man of emails has enjoyed, he could not face the storm that would have broken on the head of the infidel who questioned the humanity of Peter or the veracity of Moses.' When LyelI, then aged 65, came forward in support of The Origin of Species, Darwin wrote: 'Considering his age, his former views, and his position in society, I think his conduct has been heroic.' Here, not in schism or disendowment, in the rabbling of bishops for their votes, or the burning of their palaces in a riot, lay the danger which only Arnold clearly apprehended.

The union of the Churches was an incidental stage in his programme.

The foundation was a new conception, in which, no doubt, we can detect something of Lessing, something of Coleridge, something of Carlyle, but which in purpose and direction was Arnold's own, of the significance of history as the revelation of God.

The world, as he conceived it, needed new rulers, and the rulers needed a new faith, which was to be found in the historic record, in the Bible, doubtless, most of all, but in the Bible-and here he broke definitely with Oxford and current Protestantism alike-interpreted not by tradition, but by science, scholarship, and, above all, political insight.