Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The Devil always builds a chapel there:[11] And ’twill be found upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation: For ever since he first debauched the mind, He made a perfect conquest of mankind. With uniformity of service, he Reigns with a general aristocracy. No non-conforming sects disturb his reign, For of his yoke there’s very few complain. He knows the genius and the inclination, And matches proper sins for every nation, He needs no standing-army government; He always rules us by our own consent: His laws are easy, and his gentle sway Makes it exceeding pleasant to obey: The list of his vicegerents and commanders, Outdoes your Cæsars or your Alexanders. They never fail of his infernal aid, And he’s as certain ne’er to be betrayed. Through all the world they spread his vast command, And Death’s eternal empire is maintained. They rule so politicly and so well, As if they were Lords Justices of Hell, Duly divided to debauch mankind, And plant infernal dictates in his mind. Pride, the first peer, and president of Hell, To his share Spain, the largest province, fell. The subtile Prince thought fittest to bestow On these the golden mines of Mexico, With all the silver mountains of Peru, Wealth which would in wise hands the world undo: Because he knew their genius was such, Too lazy and too haughty to be rich. So proud a people, so above their fate, That if reduced to beg, they’ll beg in state; Lavish of money to be counted brave, And proudly starve because they scorn to save. Never was nation in the world before So very rich and yet so very poor. Lust chose the torrid zone of Italy, Where blood ferments in rapes and sodomy: Where swelling veins overflow with liquid streams, With heat impregnate from Vesuvian flames: Whose flowing sulphur forms infernal lakes, And human body of the soil partakes. Their nature ever burns with hot desires, Fanned with luxuriant air from subterranean fires; Here, undisturbed in floods of scalding lust, The Infernal King reigns with infernal gust. Drunkenness, the darling favourite of Hell, Chose Germany to rule; and rules so well, No subjects more obsequiously obey, None please so well or are so pleased as they. The cunning artist manages so well, He lets them bow to Heaven and drink to Hell. If but to wine and him they homage pay, He cares not to what deity they pray, What God they worship most, or in what way. Whether by Luther, Calvin, or by Rome They sail for Heaven, by Wine he steers them home. Ungoverned Passion settled first in France, Where mankind lives in haste and thrives by chance; A dancing nation, fickle and untrue, Have oft undone themselves and others too; Prompt the infernal dictates to obey, And in Hell’s favour none more great than they. The Pagan world he blindly leads away, And personally rules with arbitrary sway; The mask thrown off, plain Devil his title stands, And what elsewhere he tempts he there commands.