Editing Cosmo Gordon Lang (section)

===University of Glasgow===

At the university Lang's tutors included some of Scotland's leading academics: the Greek scholar [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb]], the physicist [[Sir William Thomson|William Thomson]] (who was later created Lord Kelvin) and the philosopher [[Edward Caird]]. Long afterwards Lang commented on the inability of some of these eminent figures to handle "the Scottish boors who formed a large part of their classes". Lang was most strongly influenced by Caird, who gave the boy's mind "its first real awakening". Lang recalled how, in a revelation as he was passing through [[Kelvingrove Park]], he expressed aloud his sudden conviction that: "The Universe is one and its Unity and Ultimate Reality is God!"<ref name= Lockhart10/> He acknowledged that his greatest failure at the university was his inability to make any progress in his understanding of mathematics, "to me, then and always, unintelligible".<ref name= Lockhart10>Lockhart, pp. 10–13</ref>

In 1881 Lang made his first trip outside Scotland, to London where he heard the theologian and orator [[Henry Parry Liddon]] preach in [[St Paul's Cathedral]].<ref name= Lockhart19>Lockhart, pp. 19–23</ref> He also heard [[William Ewart Gladstone]] and [[Joseph Chamberlain]] debating in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]].<ref name= Lockhart19/> Later that year he travelled to Cambridge to stay with a friend who was studying there. A visit to [[King's College Chapel]] persuaded Lang that he should study at the college; the following January he sat and passed the entrance examination. When he discovered that as part of his degree studies he would be examined in mathematics, his enthusiasm disappeared. Instead, he applied to [[Balliol College]], Oxford, and was accepted.<ref name= Lockhart19/> In mid-1882 he ended his studies at Glasgow with a [[Master of Arts (Scotland)|Master of Arts]] degree, and was awarded prizes for essays on politics and church history.<ref>Lockhart, p. 14</ref>