Even in the dark period of the eighteenth century it
recovered sooner than the rest of the University, and one of its sons
records complacently that "scarcely a day passed without my having
added to my stock of knowledge some new fact or idea." A charming
picture of the life of the scholars of Corpus at the beginning of the
last century is given in Stanley's /Life of Arnold/; for the famous
reformer of the English public-school system was at the College
immediately after John Keble, whom he followed as fellow to Oriel, on
the other side of the road. It need hardly be added that in those
days an Oriel Fellowship was the crown of intellectual distinction in
Oxford.
Bishop Foxe had set up his college as a "ladder" by which, "with one
side of it virtue and the other knowledge," men might, while they
"are strangers and pilgrims in this unhappy and dying world," "mount
more easily to heaven." Changing his metaphor he goes on, "We have
founded and raised up in the University of Oxford a hive wherein
scholars, like intelligent bees, may, night and day, build up wax to
the glory of God, and gather honeyed sweets for their own profit and
that of all Christian men.
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