A Pindaric Poem to the Reverend Doctor Burnet (1689) by Aphra Behn

from Aphra Behn, A Pindaric Poem to the Reverend Doctor Burnet 1689 (more at stuarts-online.com)

’Tis to your pen, great Sir, the nation owes For all the good this mighty change has wrought; ’Twas that the wondrous method did dispose, E’re the vast work was to perfection brought. Oh strange effect of a seraphic quill! That can by unperceptable degrees Change every notion, every principle To any form, its great dictator please. The sword a feeble power, compared to that, And to the nobler pen subordinate; And of less use in bravest turns of state: While that to blood and slaughter has recourse, This conquers hearts with soft prevailing force: So when the wiser Greeks o’recame their foes, It was not by the barbarous force of blows. When a long ten years fatal war had failed, With luckier wisdom they at last assailed, Wisdom and counsel which alone prevailed. Not all their numbers the famed town could win, ’Twas nobler stratagem that let the conqueror in.