122 INDOOR STUDIES 



the unity, transparency, centrality of Arnold's mind, 

 — the piece or discourse is so well cast, it is so homo- 

 geneous, it makes such a clear and distinct im- 

 pression. Morley's vocabulary is the more copious; 

 more matters are touched upon in any given space; 

 he is more fruitful of ideas and suggestions; his 

 ■writings may have a greater political, or religious, 

 or scientiiic value than Arnold's. But in pure lit- 

 erary value they, in my opinion, fall far below. 

 Arnold's work is like cut glass; it is not merely 

 clear, it has a distinction, a prestige, which belongs to 

 it by reason of its delicate individuality of style. 

 The writings of Cardinal Newman have much of the 

 same quality, — the utmost lucidity combined with a 

 fresh, distinct literary flavor. They are pervaded 

 by a sweeter, more winsome spirit than Arnold's; 

 there is none of the scorn, contemptuousness, and 

 superciliousness in them that have given so much 

 offense in Arnold ; and while his style is not so crisp 

 as the latter's, it is perhaps more marvelously flex- 

 ible and magnetic. 



Arnold is, above all things, integral and consec- 

 utive. He seems to have no isolated thoughts, no 

 fragments, nothing that begins and ends in a mere 

 intellectual concretion ; his thoughts are all in the 

 piece and have reference to his work as a whole; 

 they are entirely subordinated to plan, to structure, 

 to total results. He values them, not as ends, but 

 as means. In other words, we do not come upon 

 those passages in his works that are like isolated 

 pools of deep and beautiful meaning, and which 



