Classic Poem

If there be truth in what you sing;
Such godlike virtues in the King:
A minister so filled with zeal,
And wisdom for the common weal:
If he who in the chair presides,
So steadily the senate guides:
If others, whom you make your theme,
Are seconds in this glorious scheme:
If every peer whom you commend,
To worth and learning be a friend:
If this be truth, as you attest,
What land was ever half so blessed?
No falsehood now among the great,
And tradesmen now no longer cheat;
Now, on the bench fair Justice shines,
Her scale to neither side inclines.
Now Pride and Cruelty are flown,
And Mercy here exalts her throne;
For such is good example's power,
It does its office every hour,
Where governors are good and wise;
Or else the truest maxim lies:
For, so we find, all ancient sages
Decree, that ad exemplum regis,
Through all the realm his virtues run,
Ripening and kindling like the sun.
If this be true, then how much more,
When you have named at least a score
Of courtiers, each in their degree
If possible, as good as he.

Or, take it in a different view,
I ask, if what you say be true,
If you affirm, the present age
Deserves your satire's keenest rage:
If that same Universal Passion
With every vice hath filled the nation;
If virtue dares not venture down,
But just a step below the crown:
If clergymen, to show their wit,
Prize classics more than holy writ:
If bankrupts, when they are undone,
Into the senate house can run,
And sell their votes at such a rate,
As will retrieve a lost estate:
If law be such a partial whore,
To spare the rich, and plague the poor;
If these be of all crimes the worst;
What land was ever half so cursed?