Dedicatory poem

Summary

Which author's work lends system to the ancient art of ruling,

And gives endurance to the sceptre's sway?

His simply written page has taught great nations,

Giving peace to peoples and to princes, trust.

Public office is defined by the exertions of the private hand;

Behold how one man labours at the public weal,

So well he settles kingdoms, it seems he might have ruled,

Oh how much greater than his station he was!

Houses built upon this concisely written page stand firm,

Nor would such states easily falter at that juncture

When the monarch is removed.

For this page gives laws to peoples and strength to law;

It arms you, Themis, who alone should punish wrong;

You, Regulus, would fear nothing and be no longer feared,

For the power to harm you or to be harmed is now erased.

This page would have succoured infant Rome,

Sufficient for Numa without Egeria's counsel.

And had Sparta, ruled by stern Lycurgus, gleaned wisdom from this same page

She would have stood for as many centuries as she lasted days.

Nor, I tell you, Parthenope, would the fickle masses

So often have changed masters in so few years;

Nor would the infamous Angle so selfishly have defiled the calendar,

Wandering in a thousand aimless alterations.

How well, Lawson, so apt an heir to such a lustrous name,

Do you make laws from your own disinterested wit. […]