Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/95

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bequest of Cecil Rhodes for education and the promotion of a good understanding between Great Britain and the United States follows very closely upon Mr. Carnegie's endowments of education in Scotland and of research in the United States. These three gifts, each of $10,000,000, are of such magnitude that they not only assure the accomplishment of vast plans for the general good, but also attract public attention and mold opinion in a way that is perhaps as beneficent as the direct results. Mr. Rhodes was misunderstood during his lifetime—he was called the 'Diamond King of South Africa,' a promoter of stock companies and an adventurer. Now his will is misunderstood in some quarters; it is said on the one hand to aim to aggrandize England at the cost of other nations, and, on the other hand, to be chimerical—a chapter from Rousseau's Emile. Rhodes almost ranks with Napoleon and Bismarck in his masterful personality, and in a certain straightforward lack of scrupulousness. While Napoleon subordinated all to his personal ambition and Bismarck was chiefly concerned with the aggrandizement of a dynasty, Rhodes devoted himself to building an empire, including in his projects, as his life in part and his will fully indicate, the welfare first of the British Empire, then of the Anglo-Saxon race, then of the Germanic nations and finally of the whole world. Both in his life and in the provisions of his will he was a dreamer and an idealist. But in his life he proved that he was a seer who could turn his visions into facts, and there is every reason to believe that his plans for the disposition of his fortune will actually accomplish the ends he had in view.

It was certainly a fine dream to bring together at Oxford young men from the colonies, from the United States and from Germany, selected for intellect and character, learning to esteem each other, carrying to all parts of the world common interests and a common culture. It would be intolerable if all our universities were Oxfords, but there is room in the world for one place that shall fully represent the traditional culture of the past, and Oxford possesses a unique fascination that seems to adapt it to the purpose planned. The more Oklahomian the young man sent to Oxford, the more will he profit and the more will Oxford itself profit. The students from the United States who have studied in Germany have brought the two countries close together, and the hundred American boys constantly at Oxford will surely make more intimate and cordial the relations between the two great Anglo-Saxon races.

Oxford is not a university for research, but a place for culture: the boys who are awarded the scholarships should be just from school, as Mr. Rhodes intended. His provisions for selecting them deserve quotation. The qualifications are to be:

First—His literary and scholastic attainments.

Second—His fondness for or success in manly outdoor sports, such as cricket, football, and the like.

Third—His qualities of manhood, such as truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship.

Fourth—His exhibition during school days of moral force of character and