Untitled - Electric Scotland

i i 2 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. v.
Tait and Charles John Vaughan, and it was not till after
long
and anxious .debate that the decision was arrived at,
and Tait was elected in Arnold s room. .
To realise the nature of the task to which he was thus
suddenly called, it is only necessary
to read the remarkable
chapter in Stanley s Life of Dr. Arnold, which- describes
the great master s
4
School Life at Rugby. No other
schoolmaster has ever occupied so large a place as
Arnold in the attention of England, and the most self-
confident of men might well have shrunk from exposing
himself to the fierce light which continued to beat upon
the scene of that conspicuous life, and to the necessity of
being judged by the standard which Arnold had created.
On the day before the election Tait writes as follows
in enclosing a testimonial to a friend :
It is quite a delightful interlude for me to have to put forth
any one s merits but my own. As you may suppose,
I feel some
what nervous about the result of to-morrow s election. But the
near approach of the day has brought so vividly before me the
deeply responsible
nature of the office for which I am a candi
date that I shall be able to make up my mind to failure. The
responsibility of such a situation seems to me every day more
awful ; but all situations are responsible just in proportion to
their usefulness, and if it were in my power to keep up that system
which Dr. Arnold has begun, I should certainly think my life
well spent."
The news of his election did not reach him until July
29th, when his diary contains the following :
"Oxford, 29/7* July 1842. A most eventful day. . . . This
day my election at Rugby has dissolved my
direct connection
with Balliol. O Lord, when I look back on the yj years that
have passed since I was elected Fellow, what mercies have I to
thank Thee for! Yet how little
merciful to me, a miserable sinner.
have
. . .
I improved. God, be
When entering on this
new situation, let no worldly thoughts deceive me. The sudden
death of him whom I succeed should be enough to prevent this.