That we Ought not to Borrow (8)

From now on my words are addressed to those who are more well-to-do and accustomed to a softer way of living, those who say Am I, then, to be without slaves, without hearth and home?, as if a sick man who is swollen up with dropsy should say to his physician Am I, then, to be made thin and empty? Why not, to make you get well? And so you should do without slaves, that you may not be a slave yourself, and without property, that you may not be the property of another. Hear the tale of the vultures: One of them had an attack of vomiting and said he was spewing out bowels, but the other, who was there, said What harm is there in that? For you are not spewing out your own bowels, but those of the corpse we tore to pieces a little while ago. So any man in debt sells, not his own plot of land, nor his own house, but those of his creditor whom by law he has made their owner. Not so, by Zeus, he says; why, my father left me this field. Yes, and your father left you your liberty and your civil rights, which you ought

to value more. So, too, he who begat you made your foot and your hand, but when it is mortified, you pay a surgeon for cutting it off. Calypso clothed Odysseus in her garment, putting fragrant raiment upon him[*] that breathed of her divine person, as a gift and a memento of her love; but when he was capsized and engulfed by the waves and could hardly keep himself up since the garment had become soaked and heavy, he took it off and threw it from him, then, binding a wimple about his naked breast,

Long-shore he swam looking landward,[*]

and when he reached safety he had no lack of garment or food. Well, then, is it not a tempest that arises about debtors when the lender after a while comes up to them saying Pay?

Thus having spoken he gathered the clouds and stirred up the great waters;

East wind and South wind and West with furious blasts raged together,[*]

as interest rolled up upon interest; and the debtor, overwhelmed, continues to clutch them as they weigh him down, for he cannot swim away and escape; no, he sinks down to the bottom and disappears along with the friends who have endorsed his notes. Crates the Theban, when he was not pressed for payment and did not even owe anything, because he disliked the mere administration of property, its cares and distractions, abandoned an estate valued at eight talents and, donning cloak and wallet, took refuge in philosophy and poverty. Anaxagoras also left his land to be grazed over by sheep.[*] But what need is there of mentioning these men, when Philoxenus the lyric poet, who shared in the allotment of lands in a colony in Sicily, which ensured him a livelihood and a household furnished with abundant resources, when he saw that luxury, indulgence in a life of pleasure, and lack of culture were prevalent there, said, By the Gods, these good things shall not make me lose myself; I will rather lose them, and leaving his allotment to others, he sailed away. But people in debt are content to be dunned, mulcted of tribute, enslaved, and cheated; they endure, like Phineus, to feed winged harpies which carry off their food and devour it, buying their grain, not at the proper season, but before it is harvested, and purchasing the oil before the olives have been plucked. And I have wine, says the borrower, at such and such a price, and he gives his note for its value; but the cluster still hangs clinging on the vine and waiting for the rising of Arcturus.