Page:Way to wealth, or, Poor Richard's maxims improved.pdf/14

 What would you think of that prince, or of that government, who should issue an edict, forbidding you to dress like a gentleman or gentlewoman, on pain of imprisonnent or servitude? Would you not say, that you were free, have a right to dress as you please, and that such an edict would be a breach of your privileges, and such a government tyrannical? And yet you are about to put yourself under that tyranny, when you run in debt for such dress ! Your creditor has authority, at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty, by confining you in a jail for lite, or by selling you for a servant, if you should not be able to pay him.

When you have got your bargain, you may, perhaps, think little of payment: But "Creditors (poor Richard tells us,) have better memories than debtors;" and, in another place, he says,

The day comes round before you are aware, and the demand is made before you are prepared to satisfy it ; or, if you bear your debt in mind, the term which at first seemed so long, will, as it lessens, appear extremely short ; time will seem to have added wings to his heels as well as his shoulders.

"Those have a short Lent, (saith poor Richard,) who owe money to be paid at Easter." Then since, as he says, “The borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor,"