Fragment: ‘What Men Gain Fairly’
by
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.