The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808), by Daniel Defoe

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808), by Daniel Defoe

An excerpt of Daniel Defoe's satirical poem, "True-born Englishman," in which he exposes the typical motivation behind exposés of political functionaries. At least the public learns what might otherwise be hidden, even if the telling is driven by envy.

"Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place,
And men are always honest in disgrace:
The court preferments make men knaves in course,
But they, who would be in them, would be worse.
'Tis not at foreigners that we repine,
Would foreigners their perquisites resign:
The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in."