Pylos before Pylos, and Pylos still you’ll find;
but it may much better be said against the usurers,
Use before use, and use still more you’ll find.
So that they laugh at those natural philosophers who hold that
nothing can be made of nothing and of that which has no existence;
but with them usury is made and engendered of that which neither is
nor ever was. They think the taking to farm the customs and other
public tributes, which the laws nevertheless permit, to be a shame and
reproach; and yet themselves on the contrary, in opposition to all
the laws in the world, make men pay tribute for what they lend upon
interest; or rather, if truth may be spoken, do in the very letting out
their money to use, basely deceive their debtor. For the poor debtor,
who receives less than he acknowledges in his obligation, is falsely
and dishonestly cheated. And the Persians indeed repute lying to be a
sin only in a second degree, but to be in debt they repute to be in the
first; forasmuch as lying frequently attends those that owe. Now there
are not in the whole world any people who are oftener guilty of lying
than usurers, nor that practise more unfaithfulness in their day-books,
in which they set down that they have delivered such a sum of money
to such a person, to whom they have not given nigh so much. And the
moving cause of their lying is pure avarice, not want or poverty, but
an insatiable desire of always having more, the end of which is neither
pleasurable nor profitable to themselves, but ruinous and destructive
to those whom they injure. For they neither cultivate the lands of
which they deprive their debtors, nor inhabit the houses out of which
they eject them, nor eat at the tables which they take away from
them, nor wear the clothes of which they strip them. But first one is
destroyed, and then a second soon follows, being drawn on and allured
by the former. For the mischief spreads like wildfire, still consuming,
and yet still increasing by the destruction and ruin of those that
fall into it, whom it devours one after another. And the usurer who
maintains this fire, blowing and kindling it to the undoing of so many
people, reaps no other advantage from it but only that he now and then
takes his book of accounts, and reads in it how many poor debtors he
has caused to sell what they had, how many he has dispossessed of their
lands and livings, whence his money came which he is always turning,
winding, and increasing.
6. Think not that I speak this for any ill-will or enmity that I have
borne against usurers;
For never did they drive away
My horses or my kine.[147]
But my only aim is to show those who are so ready to take up money upon
use, how much shame and slavery there is in it, and how it proceeds
only from extreme folly, sloth, and effeminacy of heart. For if thou
hast of thy own, borrow not, since thou hast no need of it; and if thou
hast nothing, borrow not, because thou wilt not have any means to pay.
But let us consider the one and the other apart. The elder Cato said
to a certain old man, who behaved himself ill: My friend, seeing old
age has of itself so many evils, why dost thou go about to add to them
the reproach and shame of wickedness? In like manner may we say to a
man oppressed with poverty: Since poverty has of itself so many and so
great miseries, do not heap upon them the anguishes of borrowing and
being in debt. Take not from poverty the only good thing in which it is
superior to riches, to wit, freedom from pensive care. Otherwise thou
wilt subject thyself to the derision of the common proverb, which says,
A goat I cannot bear away,
Therefore an ox upon me lay.
Thou canst not bear poverty, and yet thou art going to load on thyself
a usurer, which is a burden even to a rich man insupportable.
But you will say perhaps, how then would you have me to live? Is this
a question fit for thee to ask, who hast hands, feet, and a voice, who
in brief art a man, whose property it is to love and be beloved, to do
and receive a courtesy? Canst thou not teach, bring up young children,
be a porter or doorkeeper, travel by sea, serve in a ship? There is in
all these nothing more shameful or odious, than to be dunned with the
importunate clamors of such as are always saying, Pay me, give me my
money.
7. Rutilius that rich Roman, coming one day to Musonius the
philosopher, whispered him thus in his ear: Musonius, Jupiter the
Savior, whom you philosophers profess to imitate and follow, takes not
up money at interest. Musonius smiling presently answered him: Nor yet
does he lend for use. For this Rutilius, who was himself an usurer,
upbraided the other with borrowing upon use. Now what a foolish stoical
arrogance was this. For what need was there of bringing here Jupiter
the Savior, when he might have given him the same admonition by things
that were familiar and before his eyes? Swallows run not themselves
into debt, ants borrow not upon interest; and yet Nature has given
them neither reason, hands, nor art. But she has endued men with such
abundance of understanding, that they maintain not only themselves,
but also horses, dogs, partridges, hares, and jays. Why then dost thou
condemn thyself, as if thou wert less able to persuade than a jay, more
dumb than a partridge, and more ungenerous than a dog, in that thou
couldst not oblige any man to be assistant to thee, either by serving
him, charming him, guarding him, or fighting in his defence? Dost thou
not see how many occasions the land, and how many the sea affords thee
for thy maintenance? Hear also what Crates says:
Here I saw Miccylus the wool to card,
Whilst his wife spun, that they by labor hard
In these hard times might 'scape the hungry jaws
Of famine.
King Antigonus, when he had not for a long time seen Cleanthes the
philosopher, said to him, Dost thou yet, O Cleanthes, continue to
grind? Yes, sir, replied Cleanthes, I still grind, and that I do
to gain my living and not to depart from philosophy. How great and
generous was the courage of this man, who, coming from the mill and
the kneading-trough, did with the same hand which had been employed in
turning the stone and moulding the dough, write of the nature of the
Gods, moon, stars, and sun! And yet we think these to be servile works.
Therefore, forsooth, that we may be free, we take up money at interest,
and to this purpose flatter base and servile persons, wait on them,
treat them, make them presents, and pay them pensions; and this we do,
not being compelled by poverty (for no usurer will lend a poor man
money) but to gratify our prodigality. For if we would be content with
such things as are necessary for human life, usurers would be no less
rare in the world than Centaurs and Gorgons. But luxury and excess, as
it produced goldsmiths, silversmiths, perfumers, and dyers of curious
colors, so has it also brought forth usurers. For we run not into debt
for bread and wine, but for the purchasing of stately seats, numerous
slaves, fine mules, costly banqueting halls, rich tables, and for all
those foolish and superfluous expenses to which we frequently put
ourselves for the exhibiting of plays to the people, or some such vain
ambition, from which we frequently reap no other fruit but ingratitude.
Now he that is once entangled in usury remains a debtor all his life,
not unlike in this to the horse, who, having once taken the bridle
into his mouth and the saddle on his back, receives one rider after
another. Nor is there any means for these debtors to make their escape
into those fair pastures and meadows which once they enjoyed, but they
wander about, like those Daemons mentioned by Empedocles to have been
driven out of heaven by the offended Gods.
By the sky’s force they’re thrust into the main,
Which to the earth soon spews them back again.
Thence to bright Titan’s orb they’re forced to fly,
And Titan soon remits them to the sky.
In like manner do such men fall from the hand of one usurer or banker
to another, sometimes of a Corinthian, sometimes of a Patrian,
sometimes of an Athenian, till, having been deceived and cheated by
all, they finally find themselves dissipated and torn in pieces by
usury. For as he who is fallen into the dirt must either rise up and
get out of it, or else lie still in the place into which he first fell,
for that by tumbling, turning, and rolling about, he does but still
more and more bemire himself; so also those who do but change their
creditor, and cause their names to be transcribed from one usurer’s
book to another’s, do by loading and embroiling themselves with new
usuries become more and more oppressed. Now in this they properly
resemble persons distempered with cholera, who cannot receive any
medicine sufficient to work a perfect cure, but continually vomit
up all that is given them, and so make way for the choleric humor
to gather more and more. For in the same manner these men are not
willing to be cleansed at once, but do with grievous anguish and sorrow
pay their use at every season of the year, and no sooner have they
discharged one, but another drops and stills immediately after, which
causes them both aching hearts and heads; whereas they should have
taken care to get wholly clear, that they might remain free and at
liberty.
8. For I now turn my speech to those who are more wealthy, and withal
more nice and effeminate, and whose discourse is commonly in this
manner: How shall I remain then without servants, without fire, and
without a house or place to which I may repair? Now this is the same
thing as if one who is sick of a dropsy and puffed up as a barrel
should say to a physician: How? Would you have me become slender, lean,
and empty? And why not, provided you thereby get your health? Thus it
is better you should be without servants, than that you should yourself
become a slave; and that you should remain without possessions, than
that you should be made the possession of another. Give ear a little
to the discourse of the two vultures, as it is reported in the fable.
One of them was taken with so strong a fit of vomiting, that he said:
I believe I shall cast up my very bowels. Now to this his companion
answered: What hurt will there be in it? For thou wilt not indeed throw
up thine own entrails, but those of the dead man which we devoured the
other day. So he who is indebted sells not his own inheritance nor his
own house, but that of the usurer who lent him the money, to whom by
the law he has given the right and possession of them. Nay, by Jupiter
(will he say to me); but my father left me this estate. I believe it
well, but he left thee also liberty and a good repute, of which thou
oughtest to make more account and be more careful. He who begat thee
made thy foot and thy hand, and nevertheless, if they happen to be
mortified, thou wilt give money to the chirurgeon to cut them off.
Calypso presented Ulysses with a robe breathing forth the sweet-scented
odor of an immortal body, which she put on him, as a token and memorial
of the love she had borne him. But when his ship was cast away and
himself ready to sink to the bottom, not being able to keep above the
water by reason of his wet robe, which weighed him downwards, he put it
off and threw it away, and having girt his naked breast with a broad
swaddling band,