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School emblem
The School motto reads Moniti Meliora Sequamur or "Having been Advised (or Taught) we follow the Better (or Higher) things".
Details[edit]
The school emblem comprises
- The Mitre: the Ceremonial headdress of a bishop, standing for the close association of this School with the Anglican Church (in the Diocese of Calcutta).
- The Flaming Mountain stands for Jalapahar: The mountain of fire, an extinct volcano on which the School is built. Fire is a symbol both of life and purity.
- The two Hanks Of Cotton commemorate Bishop Cotton, who was responsible for shifting the School from Calcutta to its current location in Jalapahar.[1]
- The Shield is the Shield of Faith: A protection from all evil, as it "quenches the flaming arrows of evil".
- The two Crossed Swords are the Swords of the Spirit of God, which help to fight all evil in us and in the world.
Latin Text[edit]
Inner Ring[edit]
The entire design is surrounded by the Latin words:[2]
SIGIL SCHOLAE SANCTI PAVLI IN MONTE VRENTE JVXTA DARJEELING CONDITAE A.D. MDCCCXLVI
which means
Seal of the school of St. Paul on the burning mountain next to Darjeeling founded in 1846.
Outer Crescent[edit]
Moniti Meliora Sequamur is the school motto. It's a line from the Aeneid, a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. The sentence in its entirety is:[3]
Cedamus Phoebo et moniti meliora sequamur
which means
Let's defer to Apollo and, having been advised, go after better things.
Elaboration[edit]
Our School motto reads "Moniti Meliora Sequamur". It means, "Having been taught (or advised) we follow the better (or the higher) things". This fairly and concisely expresses the purpose of the school.
It is the school’s aim, first of all to teach the boys to distinguish between the important and the trivial, between the permanent and the transitory, between pure gold and that which merely glitters, between the spiritual and the temporal. It is then our endeavor to awaken and to cultivate in the boys an ever-increasing desire to follow these better things, not just because they are better, but because they alone are worth following.
Having being advised let us follow better things. Schoolmasters can teach and advise. But to follow the better things involves unremitting effort and ceaseless work on the part of both the schoolmaster and the scholar. Work for its own sake and the discipline, which strengthens character and which coordinates and gives greater driving power and direction to man's efforts, without these there can be no real following. Work and Discipline.
And so at school we are advised, taught, to think of others and not of yourself; that the school is more important than you or me; that boys who are straightforward, unselfish, ready to serve reliably are the school's greatest need, and that they are the world's greatest need. Some of this teaching we accept and put into practice; some of it we vaguely approve of but will not put into practice. Maybe it is too difficult or it makes us unpopular.
We want other people to be loving and unselfish but we are not prepared to be these things ourselves. We are often like that, all of us. Some of the teaching we definitely resent. We are afraid we may miss some of life's prizes; things that we feel are essential to our happiness. To believe in the spiritual values we say is madness: this is a practical world and we must be practical people; we are not going to be weak and sentimental.
Yet it the spiritual things honesty, love, unselfishness, service, purity, courage, humility, which alone makes for peace and happiness.
Hence these are better, higher, more permanent things, and it is the School’s task - the task of boys as well as staff - to go on teaching them.
And yet the students of today are found so often talking of his rights and demands. That is not following the higher things. If our ambition is to follow the higher things we shall put the demands of others first and our own last.
The purpose of education therefore is to see his duty to his fellow men, to his country and to his God, to infuse him with the desire and energy to fulfill his duty with all his powers; to be acutely conscious of the demands mankind is forever making on him; and to be less and less conscious of what he loves to regard as his own rights. These are the higher things. Resolutely to follow them will alone lead mankind to sanity, happiness and peace.
This is the aim and motto of St Paul's. [4]
References[edit]
- Jump up ↑ In case of confusion between Bishop Foss Westcott and Bishop Cotton, See: History of St. Paul's School, Years 1859 and 1920.
- Jump up ↑ Details on the inner ring taken From reddit.com/r/latin
- Jump up ↑ Details on the Outer Crescent taken From reddit.com/r/latin
- Jump up ↑ Taken from Web Archive's screenshot of the School website captured 21st Feb, 2006
