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
[p. 422]
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,
Swam, gazing on the distant shore.
1
And afterwards, when the danger was over and he seen to
be landed, he wanted neither food nor raiment. And is
it not a true tempest, when the usurer after some time
[p. 423]
comes to assault the miserable debtors with this word Pay?
This having said, the clouds grow thick, the sea
Is troubled, and its raging waves beat high,
Whilst east, south, west winds through the welkin fly.
2
These winds are use, and use upon use, which roll one
after another; and he that is overwhelmed by them and
kept down by their weight cannot serve himself nor make
his escape by swimming, but at last sinks down to the
bottom, where he perishes, carrying with him his friends
who were pledges and sureties for him.
Crates, the Theban philosopher, acted far otherwise;
for owing nothing, and consequently not being pressed for
payment by any creditor, but only tired with the cares and
troubles of housekeeping and the solicitude requisite to
the management of his estate, he left a patrimony of eight
talents' value, and taking only his cloak and wallet, retired to philosophy and poverty. Anaxagoras also forsook
his plentiful and well-stocked pastures. But what need
is there of alleging these examples, seeing that the lyric
poet Philoxenus, being one of those who were sent to people a new city and new land in Sicily, where there fell to
his share a good house and great wealth with which he
might have lived well at his ease, yet seeing that delights,
pleasure, and idleness, without any exercise of good letters,
reigned in those quarters, said: These goods, by all the
Gods, shall not destroy me, but I will rather lose them.
And immediately leaving to others the portion that was
allotted to himself, he again took shipping, and returned to
Athens. Whereas those who are in debt bear and suffer
themselves to be sued, taxed, made slaves of, and cheated
with false money, feeding like King Phineus certain winged
harpies. For these usurers fly to them, and ravish out of
their hands their very food. Neither yet have they patience to stay and expect the season; for they buy their
[p. 424]
debtors' corn before it is ready for harvest, bargain for the
oil before the olives are ripe, and in like manner for their
wines. I will have it, says the usurer, at such a price;
and immediately he gets the writing signed; and yet the
grapes are still hanging on the vine, expecting the rising
of Arcturus.
