It is almost impossible to exaggerate the proneness of the human mind to take miracles as evidence, and to seek for miracles as evidence.

He was the son of Thomas Arnold the famed headmaster of Rugby School and brother to both Tom Arnold literary professor and William Delafield Arnold novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools.