Proverbs 16:32

Verse Proverbs 16:32. He that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.] It is much easier to subdue an enemy without than one within. There have been many kings who had conquered nations, and yet were slaves to their own passions. Alexander, who conquered the world, was a slave to intemperate anger, and in a fit of it slew Clytus, the best and most intimate of all his friends, and one whom he loved beyond all others.

The spirit of this maxim is so self-evident, that most nations have formed similar proverbs. The classical reader will remember the following in HOR., Odar. lib. ii., Obadiah 1:2:-

Latius regnes, avidum domando

Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis

Gadibus jungas, et uterque Poenus

Serviat uni.

"By virtue's precepts to control

The furious passions of the soul,

Is over wider realms to reign,

Unenvied monarch, than if Spain

You could to distant Libya join,

And both the Carthages were thine."

FRANCIS.

And the following from OVID is not less striking:

--------Fortior est qui se, quam qui fortissima vincit

Moenia, nec virtus altius ire potest.

"He is more of a hero who has conquered himself, than

he who has taken the best fortified city."

Beyond this self-conquest the highest courage can not extend; nor did their philosophy teach any thing more sublime.