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1792–1822

FRAGMENT:‘ WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY’.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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 armed wrong, 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.

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FRAGMENT:‘ WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY’. · Percy Bysshe Shelley · Poetry Cove