Education: The Soul of All Souls

The world's most worldly ivory tower is tiny All Souls College, the select nook at Oxford University that since 1438 has operated on the theory that men of learning should also be men of influence. All Souls consists of 52 Fellows, ranging from brilliant graduate students who conduct research of "unfathomable depth" for up to 14 years, to the most active leaders of British culture and politics.

All Souls' proudest pursuit is dinner-table conversation; in few other stylized societies, even the cannibalistic, do men so assiduously eat their way to power. On weekends, the talk lures Fellows and former Fellows ("quondams") from...