and compose his occasional quarrels,
Whom we properly deem to be teachers supreme
in the sphere of Political Morals,
May you win the renown that your efforts should crown
and reward your assiduous labours
In arranging the cares and embarrassed affairs
that afflict your unfortunate neighbours!

Should a potentate go for his national foe,
and, as soon as he's thoroughly licked him,
Should he dare to demand a concession of land
from his prostrate and paralyzed victim,
It is then you arise and his arm you arrest
when his harvest is ripe for the reaping,
And a people oppressed may in confidence rest
when it's safe in Diplomacy's keeping.

It is you who protest in a horrified tone
at a hint of Integrity's danger,
And the victor is shown that a Concert alone
is of Law and of Fate the arranger:
With a warlike display of your fleets in array
and of Maxims (both empty and loaded)
You establish it plain that his notions of gain
are immoral and also exploded!

Let the blasphemous cry that it's done with an eye
to your ultimate personal profit,
That your chivalrous task is but worn as a mask
till occasion allows you to doff it,