gled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in
temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. We
have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now
finally betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in an
inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years of
noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with
splendid avarice, so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour,
should be the most offending souls alive.... Will you, youths of
England, make your country again a royal throne of kings; a sceptred
isle, for all the world a source of light, a centre of peace; mistress
of Learning and of the Arts; faithful guardian of time-tried principles,
under temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and,
amidst the cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped in
her strange valour, of goodwill towards men? _Vexilla regis prodeunt._
Yes, but of which King? There are two oriflammes; which shall we plant
on the farthest islands--the one that floats in heavenly fire, or that
hangs heavy with foul tissue of terrestrial gold?"

Ruskin's lectures, ostensibly devoted to the Fine Arts, ranged over
every topic in earth and heaven, and were attended by the largest, most
representative, and most responsive audiences which had ever been
gathered in Oxford since Matthew Arnold delivered his Farewell Lecture
on "Culture and its Enemies."

Another of our Professors--J. E. Thorold Rogers--though perhaps scarcely
a celebrity, was well known outside Oxford, partly because he was the
first person to relinquish the clerical character under the Act of 1870,
partly because of his really learned labours in history and economics,
and partly because of his Rabelaisian humour. He was fond of writing
sarcastic epigrams, and of reciting them to his friends, and this habit
produced a characteristic retort from Jowett. Rogers had only an
imperfect sympathy with the historians of the new school, and thus
derided the mutual admiration of Green and Freeman--

"Where, ladling butter from a large tureen,
See blustering Freeman butter blundering Green."

To which Jowett replied, in his quavering treble, "That's a false
antithesis, Rogers. It's quite possible to bluster and blunder, too!"

The mention of Oxford historians reminds me of my friend Professor
Dingo, to whom reference has been made in an earlier chapter.