For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
Ye see - rather, from the prominence of the verb in the Greek, "see" (imperative) (Vulgate).
Your calling - God's way in calling you; or your external condition (1 Corinthians 7:20).
Not many wise ... are called. Anselm supplies, 'were your callers.' What Paul is dwelling on (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:27-28) is the weakness of the instrumentality employed to convert the world. The English version accords with 1 Corinthians 1:24. 'The whole history of the Church is a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over the lofty, until the emperor himself laid down his crown before the cross of Christ' (Olshausen).
Wise ... after the flesh - the wisdom of this world acquired by human study without the Spirit (contrast Matthew 16:17).