Note 113 — THE QUESTION OF CASTE.

“I, fili mi, ut videas quantulâ sapientiâ regatur mundus.”—Oxenstiern, to his son, “as he was departing to assist at the congress of statesmen.” (Brougham, Speech in the House of Lords, January 18, 1838: Hansard, 3d Ser., Vol. XL. col. 207.) “The congress of statesmen” alluded to was that convened in 1648 for the negotiation of the Treaty of Westphalia, which terminated the Thirty Years’ War.—It may be remarked that other authorities represent the occasion of this famous saying to have been a letter from the young envoy to his father, while in attendance at the congress, expressing a sense of need of the most mature wisdom for a mission so important and difficult,—the old Chancellor replying in terms variously cited thus:—“Mi fili, parvo mundus regitur intellectu”;—“Nescis, mi fili, quantillâ prudentiâ homines regantur”;—“An nescis, mi fili, quantillâ prudentiâ regatur orbis?”—See Harte, History of Gustavus Adolphus, (London, 1807,) Vol. II. p. 142; Biographie Universelle, (Michaud, Paris, 1822,) art. Oxenstierna, Axel; Boiteau, Les Reines du Nord, in Le Magasin de Librairie, (Charpentier, Paris, 1858,) Tom. I. p. 436.