Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 16.pdf/867

 8o6

THE STUDENT ROWS OF OXFORD, WITH SOME HINTS OF THEIR SIGNIFICANCE III. BY Louis C. memorials of by-gone time misses half the THE preceding papers have attempted to wonder of the place; for here, too, is the show two aspects of the long and witchery, the mystery of the future. troubled history of Oxford, how the town Hard it is to read this future, yet now was at war with the gown, and the students and again plans are formed and beginnings were at war with each other, and how be are made of which all men should take note. hind all this contention were the larger And to one such aspect of the future, issues of the little nations, who slowly were being welded together into that greater I vaguely noised abroad and perhaps but vaguely understood, Oxford must now ad nationality which we now call English. dress herself; namely, the proposed knit These brief gleanings from the vast litera ting together of English speaking people ture of Oxford serve to remind us that the through the munificent gift of Cecil John massive walls of the colleges were built, Rhodes. not for academic seclusion as we now under Doubtless our opinion of this bequest, stand it, but for protection from direst peril. and its potency, will depend on our belief They testify, not of the past of romance in that larger movement of which this un in which our fancy wanders at will, but of a dertaking is but a part. But even if we past filled with mortal combat. These quiet have small faith in the many signs that men Oxford streets, these very cloisters which of English lineage tend the world over to allure us with their beauty, have resounded draw together, it surely is permissable in to the cry, "Slay! Slay! Havock and view of past history to say that this meet Havock!" ing of many representatives of many peo At every turn Oxford tells us of that ples appears at least more significant for time happily gone by when there was in the future than did that first gathering of truth "a whole sublunary unseasonablestudents at Oxford long ago seem signifi ness." And yet the memorials of that very cant for the present. And whether or not unseasonableness, things in the doing that we grant to the Rhodes Scholarships the were not then accomplished, are among the likelihood of wide influence in the future, greatest charms of this most alluring of universities. Here may be seen the history we must remember that at least it was th; of the English nation written 'so plain that deliberate aim of the founder to project such men may read. And here, furthermore, are efficiency. It will be to the profit of Eng land and the United States if thoughtful the letters from which future history will spell out new words of civilization. If medi men in both countries clearly understand his purpose. aeval Oxford carried through all her con tentions and trials the promise of the pres Whatever may be the final verdict of his tory on the career of this remarkable man, ent, so none the less surely the Oxford of today contains the possibilities of what in to whom our generation has given so lav the centuries to come shall be realities. ishly of hatred and of love.—and it is quite He who sees in modern Oxford only the too early to judge him impartially—of this