The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/'What men gain fairly'
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FRAGMENT: 'WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY[1]'
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, P. W, 1839, 2nd ed.]
What men gain fairly—that they should possess,
And children may inherit idleness.
From him who earns it—This is understood;
Private injustice may be general good.
But he who gains by base and armèd wrong. 5
Or guilty fraud, or base compliances.
May be despoiled; even as a stolen dress
Is stripped from a convicted thief, and he
Left in the nakedness of infamy.
And children may inherit idleness.
From him who earns it—This is understood;
Private injustice may be general good.
But he who gains by base and armèd wrong. 5
Or guilty fraud, or base compliances.
May be despoiled; even as a stolen dress
Is stripped from a convicted thief, and he
Left in the nakedness of infamy.
- ↑ Perhaps connected with that immediately preceding (Forman).—Ed.