Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/95

Rh For present anger, and for future gold—

And buying others' grief at any price.

And thus once entered into crooked ways,

The early truth, which was thy proper praise,

Did not still walk beside thee—but at times,

And with a breast unknowing its own crimes,

Deceit, averments incompatible,

Equivocations, and the thoughts which dwell

In Janus-spirits—the significant eye

Which learns to lie with silence—the pretext

Of prudence, with advantages annexed—

The acquiescence in all things which tend,

No matter how, to the desired end—

All found a place in thy philosophy.

The means were worthy, and the end is won—

I would not do by thee as thou hast done! September, 1816. [First published, New Monthly Magazine, August, 1832, vol. xxxv. pp. 142, 143.]