Untitled - Electric Scotland

120 LIFE Ol ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. v.
whom I was about to become a colleague. He said a few
O
words about each, and when I afterwards came to know
them, I found his estimate to have been wonderfully true.
I especially remember the emphasis of admiration with
which he dwelt on the character of Cotton, and on the
way he did his work. Evidently
Dr. Tait s own heart."
he was a master after
Delicate as his position was with regard to the assistant
masters who knew so much more than he could know of
Rugby and its traditions, his relations with them were
from the first of the most cordial kind. An interruption
of this was at one time threatened, when, in the year 1845,
a strong disagreement arose respecting the appointment of
a new master to a particular form. For some days the
resignation of several of the best men of the staff seemed
a combination of firmness
imminent, but it was averted by
and gentleness on Tait s part which, as the correspondence
shows, won the warm appreciation even of those who had
at first felt most aggrieved. On this, as on several other
occasions, he emphatically asserted his view as to the
independent rights, the possession of which he, like Dr.
Arnold, considered essential to the due maintenance of the
Head-master s position. The only entry on the subject in
his journal is as follows :-
"
Saturday ^ $th April 1845. O Lord God, in this great diffi
culty as to the management of the school, grant that I may put
away every thought but how I shall best regulate it as a portion
of Thy Church to Thy glory and the good of souls. Suppress
every angry or proud thought ; may I not seek my own glory.
May I be ready to make any sacrifice myself; but teach me to
be bold in Thy service. May no fear of man compel me to do
what is wrong, no desire of peace lead me to give up principle
but, on the other hand, may I be saved from all harshness or
unkindness, and from any proud continuance in my own deter
minations, because I have once committed myself to them.