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One cannot tire of repeating the last words of the Chancellor Oxenstiern to his son when starting for the tour through Europe: 'Ito mi fili et inspice quam parva sapientia mundus regitur' ... The Journal continues: March 16th. Dinner at home to the Duc de Broglie, the Dartreys, Mintos, Houghton, and Lady Molesworth. April 1st. Went to Draycott on a visit to the Cowleys.
Decius himself would have chosen a philosopher of older time, but in the words of his own kinsman, Maximus found an appeal more intimate, a closer sympathy, than in ancient teaching. He loved especially the passages of verse; and when the reader came to those lines 'O felix hominum genus, Si vestros animos amor Quo coelum regitur, regat, he raised his hand, smiling with peculiar sweetness.
To note the dubious source, the chance occasion of a grandiose project of world policy, and to see it started on its shuffling course, was a revelation in politics and psychology, and reminded one of the saying mistakenly attributed to the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstjern, "Quam parva sapientia regitur mundus." The wire-pullers were not always the plenipotentiaries.
Oldbuck stood astonished at this last act of temerity, "are you mad, Hector?" he cried, "or have you forgotten what is said by Quintus Curtius, with whom, as a soldier, you must needs be familiar, Nobilis equus umbra quidem virgae regitur; ignavus ne calcari quidem excitari potest; which plainly shows that spurs are useless in every case, and, I may add, dangerous in most."
Never in a long life did he seek to master a lesson so obscure. Mr. Sumner was given to saying after Oxenstiern: "Quantula sapientia mundus regitur!" Oxenstiern talked of a world that wanted wisdom; but Adams found himself seeking education in a world that seemed to him both unwise and ignorant.
The chief among them were: of old, Augustine, the author of the "City of God;" Orosius, the first to condense the annals of the world into the formula, "divina providentia regitur mundus et homo;" Otho of Freysinguen, in his work "De mutatione rerum;" and the author of "Gesta Dei per Francos;" in modern times, Bossuet and his followers.
Our politics are no dirtier or more corrupt than those of our neighbors. The famous Quam parvâ sapientiâ regitur mundus was not said in scorn by the minister of a republic, but in sober sadness by one whose dealings had been lifelong with the courts and statesmen of princes.
If, said Luther, we diligently mark the world and the course thereof, we shall find that it is governed merely by weenings or conceits, Mundus regitur opinionibus. Therefore sophistry, hypocrisy, and tyranny do rule and have the government in the world. The upright, pure, and clear Divine Word must be their handmaid, and be by them controlled; this the world will have.
Oldbuck stood astonished at this last act of temerity, "are you mad, Hector?" he cried, "or have you forgotten what is said by Quintus Curtius, with whom, as a soldier, you must needs be familiar, Nobilis equus umbra quidem virgae regitur; ignavus ne calcari quidem excitari potest; which plainly shows that spurs are useless in every case, and, I may add, dangerous in most."
As we put those details side by side we realise quantula regitur mundus sapientia with how little wisdom do men rule the world. Yet the truth was told us long ago that he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city, and we might have learnt by our experience of the peace that the only conquest that really pays is the conquest of oneself.
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