The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 7/To A Friend Who Had Been Much Abused in Many Different Libels

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The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7
(c. 1721)
by Jonathan Swift, edited by Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, John Boyle, Patrick Delany, John Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, William Bowyer, John Birch, and George Faulkner

To A Friend, on being libelled

Epigram

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1560522The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7
— To A Friend, on being libelledc. 1721Jonathan Swift

TO A FRIEND,

WHO HAD BEEN MUCH ABUSED IN MANY DIFFERENT LIBELS.

THE greatest monarch may be stabb'd by night,
And fortune help the murderer in his flight;
The vilest ruffian may commit a rape,
Yet safe from injur'd innocence escape;
And Calumny, by working under ground,
Can, unreveng'd, the greatest merit wound.
⁠What's to be done? Shall Wit and Learning choose
To live obscure, and have no fame to lose?
By Censure frighted out of Honour's road,
Nor dare to use the gifts by Heaven bestow'd?
Or fearless enter in through Virtue's gate,
And buy distinction at the dearest rate?