Groton School Quarterly, Fall 2009

FROM THE EDITOR Mottos and Motives: Cui servire est regnare

R

Vaughn Winchell

ecognizing the reference several articles in this issue of the Quarterly make to Groton’s motto, I spent time with Groton’s archivist, Doug Brown ’57, who unearthed several letters bearing on Rector Endicott Peabody’s selection of the motto. It is in the spirit of Andrew Greene’s ’78 article (see page 62) that I offer what we know about his choice.

It may come as a surprise to some that the school’s present motto is, in fact, its second. Groton’s original motto, “Esse quam videre” (“to be, rather than to seem”) lasted only a few years. Peabody chose the new motto in 1891, after hearing Father Arthur C. A. Hall preach in Chapel on an October Sunday. Father Hall quoted the saying “cui servire est regnare” in his homily, attributing the phrase to St. Augustine.

Peabody was struck by what Father Hall said but, in fact, he must have been very familiar with it as it was part of the first collect in the service of Morning Prayer.

However, in a letter to an alumnus some 40 years later, Peabody recalls telling Father Hall after the service that “we were looking for a new motto and that this would suit us admirably.”

In closing that letter, Peabody relates a humorous story of an “early-comer,” a young Groton Latin student, who had translated “esse quam videre” as “eat what you see,” esse being an alternate form of edere, which means “to eat.” That may have been one of the Rector’s motivations for choosing the new motto, but perhaps he also thought the new phrase captured more specifically what might/should be the result of a Groton education. Interestingly, Peabody’s correspondence indicates he considered “servire est regnare” as the motto, but added the “cui” after consultation with others, an addition that further suggests the Rector’s vision of a laudable outcome of a Groton education. The new motto did not appear in Groton materials until the School introduced its coat of arms in 1902. “Whom to serve is perfect freedom” has become part of the Groton lexicon with the Latin phrasing filling the scroll beneath the shield for the last 107 years.

Amidst the other news of the school, we offer in this issue of the Quarterly snapshots of how the Groton motto lives on in the lives of Grotonians. I hope you will find the issue informative and interesting. I look forward to thoughts, reactions, suggestions and submissions from all who read the Quarterly, in hand or on line.

John M. Niles, Editor Quarterly@groton.org

2 | Quarterly Fall 2009

Groton School Quarterly Fall 2009 | Vol. LXXI, No. 3

Editor John M. Niles Graphic Design Jeanne Abboud Contributing Editors Julia B. Alling Amybeth Babeu Elizabeth Wray Lawrence ’82 Erin E. Lyman John D. MacEachern Melissa J. Ribaudo Rachel S. Silver Photography Cover photo by Arthur Durity All other photography by Arthur Durity unless otherwise noted.

Editorial Offices The Schoolhouse Groton School Groton, MA 01450 Phone: 978-448-7506 E-mail: quarterly@groton.org

Other School Offices Alumni Office 978-448-7520 Admission Office 978- 448-7510 The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the School.

Groton School of Groton, Massachusetts 01450 publishes the Groton School Quarterly three times a year in late summer, winter, and spring, and the Annual Report once a year in the fall.