Page:Pleasant art of money-catching (1).pdf/12

 BntBut [sic] before I leave this subject, of shewing the misery of wanting money, it is necessary I should say something of the misery of borrowing money, or running in debt, which is a consequent of wanting money: for he that does not want, has no occasion to borrow, and is, in that respect happy; for being out of debt, he is out of danger, and therefore needs not seek for by-ways, to avoid his creditors. but can walk in the open streets without fear, and whet his knife even at the gates of the prison.

But on the contrary, he that borrows money, has made himself such a slave to his creditors, that he dares hardly say his head is his own, and is afraid that every one he meets is a serjeant or a bailiff, that intends to captivate his outward tabernacle: like the man that in the night-time, having his coat catched by a nail, and so stopped, he presently cried out, "At whose suit?" Supposing it was a serjeant that had arrested him.

INCE money is a thing so necessary and so useful, and the want of a competency of it, makes a man so very miserable, rendering him liable to all the scorn and contempt that an ill-natured world can throw upon him; it seems strange so many should want it, especially those that know the worth of it. And therefore it may be worth our enquiring into the causes from whence this want proceeds: I mean the common and ordinary causes; for there are some causes that are