ABSTRACT
Ulysses parted from Circe and Calypso willing from them unwilling; some of us part from Oxford under exactly opposite conditions; and in neither case, perhaps, is the lover the most trustworthy historian of the beloved. Oxford, the spiritual Oxford, has certainly gone far and fast since the days when it was still only preparing for flight with the brand-new wings with which the first Commission had furnished it. Nevertheless the Goths were at the gates, and the Colleges generally had already begun hospitably to build lodgings for their entertainment. Oxford does not fling itself in one bold appeal upon you and acknowledge defeat if that fails. A man's own College will generally, but not necessarily, be most prominent in the dreams—for it is the glory of the place that the Collegiate and the University attractions interpenetrate each other and make a sort of community of goods in an Oxford memory.
