Page  394

Plutarch's Morals: Vol. V.

Against running in Debt, or taking up Money upon Usury.

PLATO in his Laws permits not any one to go and draw Water from his Neighbors Well, who has not first digg'd and sunk a Pit in his own Ground, till he is come to a Vein of Clay, and has by his sounding experimented, that the Place will not yield a Spring, because the Clay or Potters Earth, being of its own Nature, fatty, solid, and strong, retains the Moisture, it receives, and will not let it soak or pierce thrô: But it must be lawful for them to take Water from anothers Ground, when there is no Way or Means for them, to find any in their own: for the Law ought to provide for Mens Necessity, but not favor their Laziness. The like Ordinance there should be also concerning Money: That none should be allow'd to borrow upon Usury, nor to go and dive into other Mens Purses, as it were into their Wells and Foun∣tains, before they have first searcht at home, and sound∣ed every Means for the obtaining it, having collected, as it were, and gather'd together all the Gutters and Springs, to try, if they can draw from them, what may suffice to supply their most necessary Occasions. Page  395 But on the contrary many there are, who, to defray their idle Expences, and to satisfy their extravagant and superfluous Delights, make not use of their own, but have recourse to others, running themselves deeply into Debt without any Necessity. Now this may easily be judg'd, if one does but consider, that Usurers do not ordinarily lend to those, which are in Distress; but only to such, as desire to obtain and get somewhat, that is su∣perfluous, and of which they stand not in need: so that the Credit, given by the Lender, is a Testimony, sufficiently proving, that the Borrower has of his own; whereas on the contrary, since he has of his own, he ought to keep himself from bo•rowing.

Why shouldst thou go and make thy Court to a Banker or a Merchant? Borrow from thine own Table. Thou hast Tankards, Dishes, and Basins of Silver: make use of them for thy Necessity, and, when they are gone to supply thy Wants, the pleasant Town of Aulis, or Isle of Tenedos will again refurnish thy Board with fair Vessels of Earth, far more cleanly and neat than those of Silver: for they are not scented with the strong and unpleasant Smell of Usury, which like Rust, daily more and more sullies and tar∣nishes the Lustre of thy Sumptuous Magnificence: they will not be every day putting thee in mind of the Calends, and new Moons, which being of themselves the most holy and sacred Days of the Months, are by reason of Usuries rendred the most odious and accurs'd. For as to those, who choose rather to carry their Goods to the Brokers, and there lay them in pawn for Mo∣ney, taken upon Usury, than to sell them outright, I do not believe, that Jupiter Ctesius himself can pre∣serve them from Beggary. They are asham'd for∣sooth to receive the full Price and Value of their Goods; but they are not asham'd to pay Use for the Money, they have borrow'd on them. And yet the Page  396 great and wise Pericles caus'd that costly Robe of fine Gold, weighing about forty Talents, with which Mi∣nerva's Statue was adorn'd, to be made in such a man∣ner, that he could take it on and off at his Pleasure; To the end, said he, that when we shall stand in need of Money to support the Charges of an expensive War, we may take it, and make use of it on so weighty an Occasion, putting again afterwards in its place ano∣ther of no less Price and Value than the former. Thus ought we in our Affairs, as in a besieged Town, never to admit or receive the hostile Garrison of an Usurer, nor to endure before our Eyes the Delivering up of our Goods into perpetual Servitude; but rather to cut off from our Table, what is neither necessary nor profitable, and in like manner from our Beds, our Couches, and our ordinary Expences, so to keep our selves free and at Liberty, in hopes to restore a∣gain, what we shall have retrench'd, if Fortune shall hereafter smile upon us. The Roman Ladies heretofore willingly parted with their Jewels and Ornaments of Gold for the making a Cup, to be sent as an Offering to the Temple of Apollo Pythius in the City of Delphi. And the Carthaginian Matrons did with their own Hands cut the Hair from their Heads, to make Cords for the managing of their Warlike Engins and Instruments in defence of their besieged City. But we, as if we were asham'd of being able to stand on our own Legs, and without being supported by the Assistance of others, go and enslave our selves by Engagements and Ob∣ligations; whereas it were much better, that re∣straining our Humor, and confining it, to what is profitable for us, we should of our Plate, which we should either melt, or sell, build a Temple of Li∣berty for our selves, our Wives, and our Children.

Page  397

The Goddess Diana in the City of Ephesus gives to such Debtors, as can fly into her Temple, Freedom and Protection against their Creditors: but the Sanctu∣ary of Parsimony and Moderation in Expences, into which no Usurer can enter, to pluck thence, and car∣ry away any Debtor Prisoner, is always open for the Wise, and affords them a long and large Space of joyful and honorable Repose. For as the Prophe∣tess, which gave Oracles in the Temple of the Pythian Apollo about the Time of the Median Wars, answer'd the Athenians, that God had for their Safety given them a Wall of Wood, upon which forsaking their Lands, their City, their Houses, and all their Goods, they had recourse to their Ships for the Preservation of their Liberty: so God gives us a Table of Wood, Vessels of Earth, and Garments of course Cloth, if we de∣sire to live and continue in Freedom:

For how swiftly soever they may run, yet will Usuries overtake them, and outrun them.

Take rather the first Ass, thou shalt meet, or the first Pack-horse, that shall come in thy way, and fly from that cruel and tyrannical Enemy the Usurer, who asks thee not Fire and Water, as heretofore did the barbarous King of Persia, but, which is worse, touches thy Liberty, wounds thy Honor by Proscriptions, and sets thy Goods to Sale by Outcry. If thou payst him not, he troubles thee; if thou hast wherewithal to satisfy him, he will not receive it, unless it be his Plea∣sure. If thou sell'st, he will have thy Goods for no∣thing, or at a very under rate; and if thou wilt not sell, he will force thee to it: If thou suest him, he speaks to thee of an Accommodation; if thou swear'st Page  398 to give him Content, he will domineer over thee: If thou goest to his House, to discourse with him, he shuts his Door against thee; if thou stay'st at home, he is always knocking at thy Door, and will never stir from thee. Of what use to the Athenians was the Decree of Solon, by which he ordain'd, that the Body should not be oblig'd for any publick Debt: for they, who owe, are in Bondage to all Bankers; and not to them alone, (for then there would be no great hurt,) but to their very Slaves, who are proud, insolent, barbarous, and outragious, and in a word exactly such, as Plato de∣scribes the Devils and fiery Executioners to be, who in Hell torment the Souls of the Wicked. For thus do these wretched Usurers make the Court, where Justice is administred, an Hell to the poor Debtors, prey∣ing on some, and gnawing them, Vulture-like, to the very Bones, and

and standing over others, who are, like so many Tan∣taluses, prohibited by them from tasting the Corn and Fruits of their own Ground, and drinking the Wine of their own Vintage. And as King Darius sent to the City of Athens his Lieutenants Datis and Artaphernes with Chains and Cords, to bind the Prisoners, they should take: so these Usurers, bringing into Greece Boxes, full of Schedules, Bills, and Obligatory Con∣tracts, as so many Irons and Fetters for the Shackling of poor Criminals, go thrô the Cities, sowing in them, as they pass, not good and profitable Seed, as did heretofore Triptolemus, when he went thrô all Places, teaching the People to sow Corn; but Roots and Grains of Debts, that produce infinite Labors and intolerable Usuries, of which the End can never be found, and which, eating their way, and spreading their Sprouts Page  399 round about, do in fine make Cities bend under the Burden, till they come to be suffocated. They say, that Hares at the same time suckle one young Leveret, are ready to kinnle and bring forth another, and con∣ceive a third: But the Usuries of these barbarous and wicked Usurers bring forth, before they conceive: for at the very Delivery of their Money they immediatly ask it back, taking it up at the same moment, they lay it down, and letting out that again to Interest, which they take and receive for the Use of what they had lent. 'Tis a Saying among the Messenians: But it may much better be said against the Usurers: So that they laugh at those natural Philosophers, who hold, that Nothing can be made of Nothing, and of that, which has no Existence: for with them Usury is made and engendred 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 them∣selves 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 spo∣ken, 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 the first they repute to be in debt: forasmuch as Lying fre∣quently attends those, that owe. Now there are not in the whole World any People, who are oftner guilty of Page  400 Lying, than Usurers, nor that practice more Unfaithful∣ness in their Day-books, in which they set down, that they have deliver'd 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 al∣ways having more, the End of which is neither pleasura∣ble nor profitable to themselves, but ruinous and de∣structive to those, whom they injure. For they neither cultivate the Lands, of which they deprive their Deb∣tors, 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 destroy'd, and then a second soon follows, being drawn on, and allur'd by the for∣mer. For the Mischief spreads like Wild-fire, still consuming, and yet still increasing by the Destructi∣on and Ruine of those, that fall into it, whom it de∣vours one after another. And the Usurer, who main∣tains 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 Ac∣counts, and reads in it, how many poor Debtors he has caus'd to sell, what they had; how many he has dispossess'd of their Lands and Livings; whence he came, and whither he is gone by always turning, win∣ding and encreasing his Money.

Think not, that I speak this for any Ill Will or En∣mity, that I have sworn against Usurers:

But my only Aim is, to shew 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 Page  401 extream Folly, Sloth, and Effeminacy of Heart. For if thou hast of thine 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 el∣der Cato said to a certain Old Man, who behav'd him∣self ill: My Friend, seeing old Age has of it self so many Evils, why doest thou go about to add to them the Reproach and Shame of Wickedness? In like manner may we say to a Man, oppress'd with Poverty: Since Poverty has of it self 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 thy self to the Derision of the common Proverb, which says: Thou canst not bear Poverty, and yet thou art going to load on thy self an 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 belov'd, to do, and receive a Courtesy? Canst thou not teach Grammar, bring up young Children, be a Porter or Door-keeper, travel by Sea, serve in a Ship? There is in all these nothing more shameful or odious, than to be dunn'd with the importunate Clamors of such, as are always saying: Pay me, give me my Money. Rutilius, that rich Roman, coming one day to Musonius the Phi∣losopher, whisper'd him thus in his ear: Musonius, Jupiter the Saviour, whom you Philosophers profess to imi∣tate Page  402 and follow, takes not up Money at Interest. Masonius, smiling, presently answer'd him: Nor yet does he lend for Ʋse. For this Rutilius, who was himself an Usurer, up∣braided the other with borrowing upon Use: Now what a foolish Stoical Arrogance was this. For what need was there of bringing in here Jupiter the Saviour, 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 Inte∣rest, and yet Nature has given them neither Reason, Hands, nor Art. But she has endu'd Men with such Abundance of Understanding, that they maintain not only themselves, but also Horses, Dogs, Partridges, Hares, and Jays. Why then doest thou condemn thy self, as if thou wert less able to perswade than a Jay, more dumb than a Partridge, and more ungenerous than a Dog, in that thou canst not oblige any Man to be assistant to thee either by serving him, instructing him, delighting him, guarding him, or sighting in his Defence? Doest thou not see, how many occasions the Land, and how many the Sea affords thee for thy Maintenance? Hear also, what Crates says:

King Antigonus, when he had not for a long time seen Cleanthes the Philosopher, said to him: Doest thou yet, ô Cleanthes, continue to grind? Yes Sir, re∣ply'd 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 Page  403 Trough, did with the same Hand, which had been employ'd 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 slatter base and servile Persons, wait on them, treat them, make them Presents, and pay them Pensions, and this we do, not being compell'd 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 produc'd Gold∣smiths, Silversmiths, Perfumers, and Diers 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 Hangings, rich Tables, and for all those foolish and superfluous Expences, to which we frequently put our selves for the exhibiting of Plays to the People, or some such vain Ambiti∣on, from which we frequently reap no other Fruit but Ingratitude. Now he, that is once intangled in Usury remains a Debtor all his Life, not un∣like 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 in∣to those fair Pastures and Meadows, which once they enjoy'd, but they wander about, like those Dae∣mons, mention'd by Empeducles to have been driven out of Heaven by the offended Gods:

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 deceiv'd 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 ly 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 Credi∣tor, and cause their Names to be transcrib'd from one Usurers Book to anothers, do by loading and embroil∣ing themselves with new Usuries, become more and more oppress'd. Now in this they properly resemble Persons, distemper'd with Choler, who will not receive any Medicine, sufficient to work a perfect Cure; but are continually taking away that, which drops from the cholerick Humor, and so make way for it to gather more and more: For in the same manner these Men are not willing to be cleans'd at once, but do with grie∣vous Anguish and Sorrow pay their Use at every Sea∣son of the Year, and no sooner have they discharg'd one, but another drops and stills immediately after, which causes them both aking Hearts and Heads; whereas they should have taken care to get wholly clear, that they might remain free and at Liberty.

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 Page  405 without an House, or Place, to which I may repair? Now this is the same thing, as if one, who is sick of a Drop∣sy, and puff'd up as a Barrel, should say to a Physi∣cian: How? Would you have me become slender, lean and empty? And why not, provided you thereby get your Health? Thus 'tis better, you should be without Ser∣vants, than that you should your self 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 Fables. 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 answer'd: What hurt will there be in it? For thou wilt not indeed throw up thine own Entrals, but those of a deceas'd Person, which we devour'd 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 Mo∣ney, to whom the Law judges the Right and Possessi∣on 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 oughtst 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 mortify'd, thou wilt give Money to the Chirurgion to cut them off. Calypso presented Ʋlysses 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 born 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 weigh'd him downwards, he put it off, and threw it away, and having girt his naked Breast with a certain broad Swadling-band,

And afterwards, when the Danger was over, and he seen to be landed, he wanted neither Food nor Ray∣ment. And is it not a true Tempest, when the Usu∣rer after some time comes to assault the miserable Debtors with this Word Pay?

These Winds are Use, and Use upon Use, which roll one after another; and he, that is overwhelm'd by them, and kept down by their Weight, cannot save 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 press'd for Payment by any Creditor, but only tir'd with the Cares and Troubles of House-keeping, and the Sollicitude, re∣quisite to the Management of his Estate, he left a Patri∣mony of eight Talents Value, and taking only his Cloak and Wallet, retir'd to Philosophy and Poverty. Anax∣agoras also forsook his plentiful and well-stockt Pastures. But what need is there of alledging these Examples? Seeing that Philoxenus a Musician, 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 liv'd well at his Ease, yet seeing, that Delights, Pleasure and Idleness, without any Exercise of good Letters, reign'd in those Quarters, said: These Goods, by all the Gods, shall not de∣stroy Page  407 me; but I will rather lose them: and immediately leaving to others the Portion, that was allotted to him∣self, he again took Shipping, and return'd to Athens. Whereas those, who are in Debt, b•ar and suffer them∣selves to be su'd, tax'd, made Slaves of, and cheated with false Money, feeding with 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 Debtors Corn before it is ready for Har∣vest; bargain for the Oil, before the Olives are ripe, and in like manner for their Wine: I will have it, say• the Usurer, at such a Price, and immediately gets the Writing sign'd; and yet the Grapes are still hanging on the Vine, expecting the Month of September, when the Star Arcturus rises and shews the Vintage.