THE RHODES SCHOLARS 69

before them. This point of view was the
historical one. They were, by the Oxford teach-
ing of any subject, impressed with the duty of
examining each question in the light of its origin,
of its subsequent development, and of its whole
further history. . . . Historical thoroughness was
the condition of the scholastic atmosphere, and
might be said to constitute even the method of
study. The history of a subject was made a far
more evident purpose than controls in American
colleges.

" From such a ruling purpose, method and
condition there came to these Scholars a breadth
of mind, a breadth of thinking, a breadth of inter-
pretation of the richest worth. They became
scholars and thinkers, A scholarly maturity
possessed and ruled them. In this breadth they
became intellectually patient. Tolerance was
added to other intellectual and to athletic qualities.
They were made willing to listen to interpretations
and to weigh arguments opposed to their pre-
suppositions. They saw and felt that what we
call the truth has an infinite number of sides.

" With this increasing breadth there went
along a new power of intellectual concentration.
These men found in themselves a quality of being
able to throw all that there was in them of intel-
lectual endowment into the doing of a specific
task. If their thinking became broader, it also
became a thinking to a point and a type of hard
thinking. . . ,