One century on?
I don't know if this is of any interest - especially to those preparing some
comments for graduation this year,
Adrian Sinfield
William Beveridge starts his autobiography, Power and Influence, by
referring to his graduation in 1901:
'Four years at Oxford left me at twenty-two with no clear idea as to what I
should do next. But of the things said to me by my elders in those years
one thing above all stuck in my mind. "While you are at the University,"
said Edward Caird, Master of Balliol, to me and to others, "your first duty
is self culture, not politics or philanthropy. But when you have performed
that duty and learned all that Oxford can teach you, then one thing that
needs doing by some of you is to go and discover why, with so much wealth in
Britain, there continues to be so much poverty and how poverty can be
cured." Edward Caird, at the close of the nineteenth century, was speaking
under the impact of Charles Booth's revelation of Life and Labour in
London.'
(Lord Beveridge, Power and Influence, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1953, p.
9)
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