WHEN I was invited by the Faculty Board
for Economics and Politics to give the Marshall
lectures for this year I welcomed the chance, I
will not say of returning for a moment to the
limelight -- that is hardly the phrase -- but of
escaping for a moment from that shadowed
land where departed spirits dwell. But it was
difficult to find a fit subject on which to lecture.
For in that land memories fade and powers of
concentration dwindle. Presently, though, I
had an idea. As one of the few survivors of
those whom Marshall actually taught, might I
not act as a liaison officer between him and
you? To me and my contemporaries Marshall
-- you will be familiar with his portrait in the
Library -- was the 'master of those who know'.
From Keynes's admirable memoir of him
and from the reminiscences of Fay and
Benians printed in the Memorials of Alfred
Marshall you can get an idea of the impression
that he made on his pupils. To myself,
who, during ordinary expository lectures, was
usually engaged in composing lengthy English
poems -- unfortunately not as yet given to the
world -- the first experience of Marshall was a

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