Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/443

Rh bowels: the other being by, answered in this wise: What harm will come of thy vomiting so long as thou shalt not cast up thine own entrails, but those only of some dead prey which we tare and devoured together but the other day; semblably every one that is indebted selleth not his own land, nor his own house; but indeed the usurer's house and land of whom he hath taken money for interest, considering that by the law the debtor hath made him lord of him and all. Yea, marry, will he say anon; but my father hath left me this piece of land for mine inheritance: I wot well and believe it; so hath thy father left unto thee freedom, good name, and reputation, whereof thou oughtest to make much more account than of land and living. He that begat thee made thy hand and thy foot; and yet if it chance that one of them be mortified, he will give a good fee or a reward to a chirurgeon for to cut it off. Lady Calypso clad Ulysses with a vesture and robe scenting sweet like balm, yielding an odour of a body immortal, which she presented unto him as a gift and memorial of the love that she bare unto him; and thus he did wear for her sake; but after that he suffered shipwreck and was ready to sink, being hardly able to float above water, by reason that the said robe was all drenched and so heavy that it held him down, he did it off and threw it away; and then girding his naked breast underneath with a certain broad fillet or swaddling band, he saved himself by swimming, and recovered the bank: now when he was past this danger and seemed to be landed, he seemed to want neither raiment nor nutriment: and what say you to this? may not this be counted a very tempest, whenas the usurer after a certain time shall come to assail the poor debtors and say unto them: Pay: Which word once said, therewith the clouds above, He gathereth thick, and sea with waves doth move: For why? the winds anon at once from east, From south, from west, do blow and give no rest. And what be these winds and waves? even usuries upon usuries, puffing, blowing, and rolling one after another; and he that is overwhelmed therewith and kept under with their heavy weight, is not able to swim forth and escape, but in the end is driven down and sinketh to the very bottom, where he is drowned and perished together with his friends, who entered into bonds and became sureties and pledges for him.

Crates, the philosopher of Thebes, therefore did very well, Who being in danger and debt to no man, only wearied with the cares and troubles of housekeeping, and the pensive thoughts