This World Would be a Happy World.

THIS world would be a happy world,
Would all men think alike;
Would sects and parties throw away
Their bitterness and spite;
Would they but quit their strife of creeds,
And try which could the best
Diffuse around those noble deeds
By which mankind are blest.

This world would be a happy world
Had kings the power no more
To drench this beauteous earth of ours
In pools of human gore;
Had proud ambition to submit
To arbitration’s rule,
And glory’s gilded toys be thought
The playthings of a fool.

This world would be a happy world
If men were juster grown,
Not seeking to raise up themselves
By crushing others down;
Were all content by honest means
To live and get along,
There’d be an end to fraud and guile,
To villainy and wrong.

This world would be a happy world,
A scene of joy and bliss,
Did generous feeling away mankind.
Free from all selfishness,
Were man to man more firmly bound
By sympathy’s bright chain
O! then our glorious world would be
A paradise again!

John Parker