[Erik Olson]

The reference is so perfectly apt to the circumstance, I doubt he only chanced upon it by a casual perusal of the web or a book of quotes. Shuan said it well. Comey, who is apparently quite familiar with European history, likely has his humanist university education to thank. Besides, I do not think he deserves to be so easily dismissed. It were to be wished historical allusions might be less rare in the national conversation, and that public figures who initiate the discourse might give the public occasion to dispel their ignorance as to it.

You wonder I’ve so little wit
so as to be so often bit—
None better guard against a cheat
than he who is a rogue complete.
You watched the world corrupt so long
the innocent somehow hide wrong,
charge the redeemed each day the same,
reward their good with generous blame;
on tv hear each as a parrot:
dissembled misery, faux merit...
all masks, you name it and they wear it.
But wait, more dirt to go around,
quotes are what groveling cunning found.
No wonder you've so little peace:
in time, doubts overrun, nor cease.

To good feats, give the credit due
and think for once one tells you true.
To spurn lest one get duped unwilled
is like to die lest one be killed.
Suspicion feeds hostilities
which then segment societies.
A fraud rends, too: more than fools’ pain,
helps trust in man go down the drain.
If both keep up, before too long,
Chaos, distrust shall rule the throng;
a banished general confidence
leaves no way for benevolence.

Who knows who’ll rise out of the fetter
of yesterday, tomorrow? Better
to spurn not from default mistrust
lest we knock down when praise was just;
happier to be sometimes cheated
than not to trust with faith defeated;
better to suffer wrong than do it,
accuse not if you just intuit;
and with that, better to suppress
suspicion’s tide than tenderness.