< Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu
This page has been validated.

OF USURY

187

the verses of other poets; as Plutarch saith of Timoleon's[1] fortune, in respect of that of Agesilaus or Epaminondas.[2] And that this should be, no doubt it is much in a man's self.


XLI. Of Usury.

Many have made witty invectives against Usury.[3] They say that it is a pity the devil should have God's part, which is the tithe. That the usurer is the greatest sabbath-breaker, because his plough goeth every Sunday. That the usurer is the drone that Virgil speaketh of:

Ignavum fucos pecus a præsepibus arcent.[4]

That the usurer breaketh the first law that was made for mankind after the fall, which was, in sudore vultûs tui comedes panem tuum; not, in sudore vultûs alieni.[5] That usurers should have orange-tawny[6] bonnets, because they do judaize. That it

  1. ↑ Timoleon, died 337 or 336 B.C., a celebrated Corinthian general and statesman.
  2. ↑ Epaminondas, 418(?)–362 B.C., Theban general and statesman, victorious but mortally wounded in the battle of Mantinea, 362 B.C.
  3. ↑ Usury formerly meant interest on money only, as in the parable, Luke xix. 23: "Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?" Usury now means an illegal or exorbitant rate of interest for lent money.
  4. ↑ They drive from the hives the drones in lazy swarm. P. Vergili Maronis Georgicon Liber IV. 168.
  5. ↑ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread; not in the sweat of the face of another. Bacon has in mind the curse of Adam after the fall, Genesis iii. 19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return."
  6. ↑ Coryats Crudities, Vol. I. Observations of Venice, pp. 370–372, ed. 1905, records the "orange-tawny bonnets" of the Jews, which
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.