Classic Poem

If good men were only better,
Would the wicked be so bad?
Here's a story with an answer
To that question strange and sad.

Herod, famed among the wicked,
Called the Great with doubtful right,
When a boy of twenty summers
With banditti made a fight.

Hezekiah, their fierce captain,
Captured he and put to death;
Many a follower then compelled he
To resign his evil breath.

It was well done: who but thinks so?
Thought not so the Sanhedrin.
Herod was an Idumean;
So his deed became a sin.

Let him kill his own banditti;
Never dare to deal with theirs.
So they summoned him to meet them
And to settle his affairs.

Scarcely sooner said than done 'twas;
Herod came; they wished him back;
For he came all clad in armor,
With his henchmen at his back.

Cowered the Sanhedrin before him;
Dared not say a single word;
Only Sameas withstood him
With a brave, “Thus saith the Lord.”

Herod listened while the Rabbi
Execrated all his crimes;
Then he vanished. Summers flitted;
Fell the land on evil times;

Antony and Cæsar ploughed it
With the iron share of war;
Tore it with their cruel factions,
Left it many a dreadful scar;

Till, at length, from Rome came Herod,
Sent by Cæsar to be king;
At the gates his legions thundered,
Famine gnawed them from within.

Many months in vain he battered,
But, at last, surrender came;
Then a deed that earned for Herod
Centuries of hateful fame.

Since the Sanhedrin had counselled
Firm resistance to his will,
“Let them perish,” he commanded,
“Let their blood the gutters fill.”

Only one he granted mercy,—
Sameas; the very man
Who had years before withstood him.
Guess the reason if you can.

I have guessed it in the question
Which I venture, strange and sad:
If the good were only better,
Would the wicked be so bad?