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Jowett and truth. What he wrote 'was much read and pondered by the more intellectual sort of undergraduates'.

From 1860 to 1870 his labours were such as would have overwhelmed any other man. At one time he writes that he is seeing every undergraduate in college once a week ! In the vacations his hours were given to Plato. He had begun with the idea of a commentary on the 'Republic,' a work which he never dropped, though he did not live to finish it. But he soon felt that a complete analysis of all Plato's writings was required if any one wished thoroughly to understand the 'Republic,' and the analysis in time became an analysis and translation. To this must be added the work of the professorship. One who attended his lectures at the time spoke of them as being 'informal, unwritten, and seemingly unpremeditated, but with many a long-remembered gem of expression, or delightfully novel idea, which seemed to be lying in wait whenever, at a loss for a moment in his somewhat hesitating discourse, he opened a book of loose notes' (Life, i. 330).

About 1865 he became, with the support of fellows who had been his pupils, a preponderating influence in the common room of Balliol College. Much time was devoted to the organisation of education in the college and the university. Arrangements were made for inter-collegiate lectures, and Scottish professors were invited to give lectures in the summer term, when their labours in the north were at an end. But his chief object was to lessen the expense of an Oxford career. For this purpose he persuaded the college to found more scholarships and exhibitions, and to establish a hall where, as he hoped, young men would be able to live for little, while enjoying the benefits of the college system. In the end the movement which he supported was carried on a larger scale by the university; the restriction was removed by which students were compelled to reside within the college walls, and non-collegiate students came into being. In the same years a considerable part of the college was rebuilt. Jowett was convinced that 'not a twentieth part of the ability in the country ever comes to the university.' In order to attract men from new classes he persuaded the college to alter the subjects for examination in some of the exhibitions, adding physical science and mathematics to classics.

By his election to the mastership (7 Sept. 1870) Jowett attained the position which he most coveted. He now enjoyed more leisure than hitherto, and he had as much power as the head of a house could have. For some years after his election he was much occupied with the enlargement of the college. A new hall was built (1877), and the old one transformed into a library for the use of the undergraduates. Later on a hope, formed many years before, was realised, and a field for cricket and football was secured for the college. To this, as to everything connected with Balliol, Jowett gave liberally from his private purse, and finally he built at his own expense a house for a tutor adjacent to the field.

Jowett's interests in education were not confined to Oxford. The University College at Bristol owed much to him, he strongly supported the claims of secondary education and university extension, and at the time of his death he was busy with a scheme for bringing the university and the secondary schools together. When it was arranged in 1874-5 that the age of the candidates for the Indian civil service should be fixed at seventeen to nineteen, and that successful candidates should pass two years of probation at a university, Jowett made arrangements to receive a number of candidates at Balliol College, and helped in establishing a school of oriental languages. In the university commission of 1877-81 he was of course greatly interested. He had not much sympathy with research, beyond certain limits, and on the other hand he urged strongly the claims of secondary education in the large towns, a movement in which he thought it would be wise for the university to take a part. The better organisation of the teaching of the non-collegiate students was strongly pressed, and, above all, the retention to a large extent of prize fellowships, on which Jowett placed great value.

In 1871 the translation of Plato appeared in four volumes. This was an event which determined to a great extent the literary work of the rest of Jowett's life not that he 'had done with theology and intended to lead a new life' (, Euthyphro, end), for he was always hoping to return to theology when he could escape from other labours but the translation of Plato had a rapid sale, and it was necessary to revise it for a second edition (5 vols. 1875). Many thoughts which might have appeared in an independent work on theology or morals were now embodied in the introductions to the dialogues. From Plato he was led on to a translation of Thucydides, with notes on the Greek text (2 vols. 1881). From 1882 to 1886 he was vice-chancellor, and carried into the administration of the office the restless