The Classics in War-time

Extract

From 29 August to 5 September 1942, some four hundred and fifty persons, members of the Hellenic and Roman Societies and of the Classical Association and their friends, met in conference in Oxford to hear lectures, papers and discussions and to study special exhibitions of classical MSS, rare printed books and photographs and the cream of the Evans bequest of ancient coins. No one could doubt the motive which had brought them there, as they flocked day after day to the Sheldonian Theatre, the Divinity School, Christ Church Chapter House and other University lecture-halls to partake hungrily of the choice and varied fare spread before them. This was no mere gathering of professionals, but a congress of cultivated men and women of many walks in life and of all ages, bound together by devotion to our common heritage and all enjoying something of the very best from scholars of British and other nationalities, each a specialist in his own part of that all-embracing field of humane letters, art and thought which is the Classics. The dynamic, as opposed to static, character of classical studies was stamped upon all the lectures.