THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



89 



THE PKOGKESS OF SCIENCE. 



THE WILL OF CECIL RHODES. 



The 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 endow- 

 ments 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 sub- 

 ordinated 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 indi- 

 cate, 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 be- 



lieve 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 intoler- 

 able if all our universities were Ox- 

 fords, 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 coun- 

 tries 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 re- 

 search, 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 



