But you'll need no spurs or lashes
When temptation beckons you!

Oh, it drew the Roman legions to old Britain's distant
isle,
And it beckoned H. M. Stanley to the sources of the Nile;
It's the one and only reason for the bristling guns at
Gib,
For the skeletons at Khartoum, and the crimes of Tippoo
Tib.
The gentlemen adventurers braved torture for its sake,
It beckoned out the galleons, and filled the hulls of
Drake!
Oh, it sets the sails of commerce, and it whets the edge
of war,
It's the sole excuse for churches, and the only cause of
law!

CHORUS
It is tem-tem-pitation! etc., etc.
No note is there of failure (that's a tune the croakers
sing!)
This song's of youth, and strength, and health, and time
that's on the wing!
Of wealth beyond the hazy blue of far horizons flung--
But never of the folk returning, disillusioned, stung!
It's a tale of gold and ivory, of plunder out of reach,
Of luck that fell to other men, of treasure on the
beach--
A compound, cross-reciprocating two-way double spell,