"Compass" as in "compass their ends" -- meaning in context

Anatomy of the sentence:

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing

I know this is the origin of "all that is necessary for evil to triumph, is that good men do nothing", and I know exactly what the latter sentence means. The thing is I don't know how it is relate with the sentence in the title. Can anyone decompose and explain it, especially for the phrase "compass their ends" and the structure "A need nothing more to do than B should do"? Just a simple explanation would be appreciated.

Solution 1:

This is an archaic meaning of compass:

compassed; compassing; compasses Definition of compass (Entry 1 of 3) transitive verb

1: to devise or contrive often with craft or skill : PLOT " … persons … who have compassed my destruction … " — Charles Dickens 2: ENCOMPASS a lake compassed by mountains 3a: BRING ABOUT, ACHIEVE

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compass

"A need nothing more to do than B should do"

I don't think that paraphrase is quite accurate. The phrase "that good men should look on and do nothing" is acting as a noun, so it's more "A needs have nothing more" than "A needs to do nothing more". A need nothing more" is another archaic feature; in modern English, it's more standard to say "Don't need anything more" than to say "Need nothing more". "should" is used to emphasize the subjunctive nature of "look on and do nothing". In phrasing more standard with regard to current norms, it would be "To accomplish their ends, bad men do not need anything more than that good men look on and do nothing".