The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher — in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular, in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. He must be as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near to earth as a politician.