13 DECEMBER 1968, page 8

Spectator's Notebook

J. W. M. THOMPSON One of Rousseau's more absurd remarks was that the 'best' state was that in which the citi- zens spent as much time as possible thinking about public matters......

The Past And The Present

LSE ORATION HUGH TREVOR-ROPER A historian, like other men, lives in the present: but his study is of the past; and coming as do from Oxford, where some vestiges of past habits......