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Such a vision, such an Orbis Terrarum at the feet of Christ, has no element in common with the material dominance of modern commercial empires. It much more closely resembles certain Utopias of the modern Revolutionary. In its spirit it is not less Latin than the traditional customs of the City-States it would include.
Now, before going on to speak of the education, and the standards of education, which the Civilized World, as I may now call it, has enjoined and requires, I wish to draw your attention, Gentlemen, to the circumstance that this same orbis terrarum, which has been the seat of Civilization, will be found, on the whole, to be the seat also of that supernatural society and system which our Maker has given us directly from Himself, the Christian Polity.
Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam: Profuit invitis te dominante capi; Dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris, Urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat. In this noble apostrophe Rutilius addressed the fading mistress of the world as he passed lingeringly through the Ostian gate.
But it is not worth while to prove what everyone knows; it is enough to say "SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARUM." And of this kind, without exception, are all the criticisms of educated believers, who must, as such, understand the danger of their position.
Yet this, given in their own words, is the impression which Greek made on them. Securus iudicat orbis terrarum; and the verdict here is plain. It is clear that we have in Greek a surviving body of poetry and prose which is of unique interest to any one who cares for literature. I have tried to give a summary answer to the question, What did the Greeks achieve?
Et hoc alto corde considerantes, laudemus, adoremus, glorificemus, et superexaltemus totis viribus Deum, qui nos filios lucis esse voluit, et salutis, nasci, baptizari, educari, erudiri sub sinceritate fidei Christianae, excluso schismate et errore, atque sub instituto sacrosanctae matris Ecclesiae, in qua sola pene ab omni circumferentia orbis terrae fides, quae saluat, et per dilectionem operatur nunc remansit.
Hither, then, as to a sort of ideal land, where all the archetypes of the great and the fair were found in substantial being, and all departments of truth explored, and all diversities of intellectual power exhibited; where taste and philosophy were majestically enthroned as in a royal court; where there was no sovereignty but that of mind, and no nobility but that of genius; where professors were rulers and princes did homage, hither flocked continually from the very corners of the orbis terrarum, the many-tongued generation, just rising or just risen into manhood, in order to gain wisdom.
Now, under the projected pax orbis terrarum all fear of invasion, it is hopefully believed, will be removed; and with the disappearance of this fear should also disappear the drag of national loyalty on the counsels of the underbred.
But this country has done with the Roman Empire, in its spiritual as well as its temporal form. The dimensions of that proud dominion have shrunk with the expansion of knowledge; new worlds have been opened out, geographical and mental, which never owned its sway; the caput orbis has become provincial, and her authority is spurned even within her own borders.
They had risen on the crest of the wave, and with their proud Non sufficit orbis were looking for new worlds to conquer, at a time when the bark of the English water-dogs had scarcely been heard beyond their own fishing-grounds, and the largest merchant vessel sailing from the port of London was scarce bigger than a modern coasting collier.
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