28 MARCH 1952, Page 5

Who are the six personalities in history who have done

more than any others to influence the life and thought of the average middle-class intellectual Englishman—and his wife, or the equivalent ? I ask the question because I heard it asked and answered a few days ago by a very eminent historian. His list was—Christ, St. Paul, Pope Gregory the Great (who sent St. Augustine to Britain), Francis of Assisi, Socrates and Aristotle. He would not claim, I think, that the influence was always consciously absorbed, but simply that it was there, working effectively. I can give no undertaking to accommodate alterna- tive lists in this column.