Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
tuum;”[435] not, “in sudore vultûs alieni;”[436] that usurers should
have orange-tawny[437] bonnets, because they do Judaize; that it is
against nature for money to beget money, and the like. I say this only,
that usury is a “concessum propter duritiem cordis;”[438] for, since
there must be borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of heart as
they will not lend freely, usury must be permitted. Some others have
made suspicious and cunning propositions of banks, discovery of men’s
estates, and other inventions; but few have spoken of usury usefully.
It is good to set before us the incommodities and commodities of usury,
that the good may be either weighed out, or culled out; and warily to
provide, that, while we make forth to that which is better, we meet not
with that which is worse.
The discommodities of usury are, first, that it makes fewer merchants;
for were it not for this lazy trade of usury, money would not lie
still, but would, in great part, be employed upon merchandising,
which is the “vena porta”[439] of wealth in a state. The second, that
it makes poor merchants; for as a farmer cannot husband his ground
so well if he sit at a great rent, so the merchant cannot drive his
trade so well if he sit[440] at great usury. The third is incident to
the other two; and that is, the decay of customs of kings, or states,
which ebb or flow with merchandising. The fourth, that it bringeth the
treasure of a realm or state into a few hands; for the usurer being at
certainties, and others at uncertainties, at the end of the game most
of the money will be in the box; and ever a state flourisheth when
wealth is more equally spread. The fifth, that it beats down the price
of land; for the employment of money is chiefly either merchandising or
purchasing, and usury waylays both. The sixth, that it doth dull and
damp all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money
would be stirring, if it were not for this slug. The last, that it is
the canker and ruin of many men’s estates, which, in process of time,
breeds a public poverty.
On the other side, the commodities of usury are, first, that, howsoever
usury in some respect hindereth merchandising, yet in some other
it advanceth it; for it is certain that the greatest part of trade
is driven by young merchants upon borrowing at interest; so as if
the usurer either call in, or keep back his money, there will ensue
presently a great stand of trade. The second is, that, were it not for
this easy borrowing upon interest, men’s necessities would draw upon
them a most sudden undoing, in that they would be forced to sell their
means (be it lands or goods), far under foot; and so, whereas usury
doth but gnaw upon them, bad markets would swallow them quite up. As
for mortgaging or pawning, it will little mend the matter; for either
men will not take pawns without use, or, if they do, they will look
precisely for the forfeiture. I remember a cruel moneyed man in the
country, that would say, “The devil take this usury, it keeps us from
forfeitures of mortgages and bonds.” The third and last is, that it is
a vanity to conceive that there would be ordinary borrowing without
profit; and it is impossible to conceive the number of inconveniences
that will ensue, if borrowing be cramped. Therefore, to speak of the
abolishing of usury is idle; all states have ever had it in one kind
or rate, or other; so as that opinion must be sent to Utopia.[441]
To speak now of the reformation and reglement[442] of usury, how the
discommodities of it may be best avoided, and the commodities retained.
It appears, by the balance of commodities and discommodities of usury,
two things are to be reconciled; the one, that the tooth of usury be
grinded, that it bite not too much; the other, that there be left
open a means to invite moneyed men to lend to the merchants, for the
continuing and quickening of trade. This cannot be done, except you
introduce two several sorts of usury, a less and a greater; for if you
reduce usury to one low rate, it will ease the common borrower, but
the merchant will be to seek for money; and it is to be noted that the
trade of merchandise being the most lucrative, may bear usury at a good
rate; other contracts not so.
To serve both intentions, the way would be briefly thus: that there
be two rates of usury; the one free and general for all; the other
under license only to certain persons, and in certain places of
merchandising. First, therefore, let usury in general be reduced to
five in the hundred, and let that rate be proclaimed to be free and
current; and let the state shut itself out to take any penalty for the
same. This will preserve borrowing from any general stop or dryness;
this will ease infinite borrowers in the country; this will, in good
part, raise the price of land, because land purchased at sixteen years’
purchase will yield six in the hundred, and somewhat more, whereas
this rate of interest yields but five. This, by like reason, will
encourage and edge industrious and profitable improvements, because
many will rather venture in that kind, than take five in the hundred,
especially having been used to greater profit. Secondly, let there be
certain persons licensed to lend to known merchants upon usury, at a
higher rate, and let it be with the cautions following: Let the rate
be, even with the merchant himself, somewhat more easy than that he
used formerly to pay; for, by that means, all borrowers shall have some
ease by this reformation, be he merchant, or whosoever; let it be no
bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money; not
that I altogether mislike banks, but they will hardly be brooked, in
regard of certain suspicions. Let the state be answered[443] some small
matter for the license, and the rest left to the lender; for if the
abatement be but small, it will no whit discourage the lender; for he,
for example, that took before ten or nine in the hundred, will sooner
descend to eight in the hundred, than give over his trade of usury, and
go from certain gains to gains of hazard. Let these licensed lenders
be in number indefinite, but restrained to certain principal cities
and towns of merchandising; for then they will be hardly able to color
other men’s moneys in the country, so as the license of nine will not
suck away the current rate of five; for no man will send his moneys far
off, nor put them into unknown hands.
If it be objected, that this doth in a sort authorize usury, which
before was in some places but permissive; the answer is, that it is
better to mitigate usury by declaration, than to suffer it to rage by
connivance.[444]
XLII.—OF YOUTH AND AGE.
A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no
time; but that happeneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first
cogitations, not so wise as the second; for there is a youth in
thoughts as well as in ages; and yet the invention of young men is
more lively than that of old, and imaginations stream into their minds
better, and, as it were, more divinely. Natures that have much heat,
and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for
action till they have passed the meridian of their years: as it was
with Julius Cæsar and Septimius Severus; of the latter of whom it is
said, “Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus plenam;”[445] and yet
he was the ablest emperor, almost, of all the list; but reposed natures
may do well in youth, as it is seen in Augustus Cæsar, Cosmus Duke of
Florence, Gaston de Foix,[446] and others. On the other side, heat
and vivacity in age is an excellent composition for business. Young
men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for
counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business; for
the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it,
directeth them; but in new things abuseth them. The errors of young
men are the ruin of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to
this, that more might have been done, or sooner.
Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than
they can hold, stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without
consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles
which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which
draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that,
which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them,
like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age
object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too
soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content
themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly, it is good to
compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present,
because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both;
and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men
in age are actors; and, lastly, good for externe accidents, because
authority followeth old men, and favor and popularity youth; but, for
the moral part, perhaps, youth will have the preëminence, as age hath
for the politic. A certain rabbin, upon the text, “Your young men shall
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams,”[447] inferreth
that young men are admitted nearer to God than old, because vision
is a clearer revelation than a dream; and, certainly, the more a man
drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit
rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will
and affections. There be some have an over-early ripeness in their
years, which fadeth betimes; these are, first, such as have brittle
wits, the edge whereof is soon turned; such as was Hermogenes[448] the
rhetorician, whose books are exceedingly subtle; who afterwards waxed
stupid. A second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions,
which have better grace in youth than in age; such as is a fluent and
luxuriant speech, which becomes youth well, but not age; so Tully saith
of Hortensius: “Idem manebat, neque idem decebat.”[449] The third is of
such as take too high a strain at the first, and are magnanimous more
than tract of years can uphold; as was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy
saith, in effect, “Ultima primis cedebant.”[450]
XLIII.—OF BEAUTY.
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best
in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features, and that
hath rather dignity of presence than beauty of aspect; neither is it
always most seen, that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great
virtue; as if nature were rather busy not to err, than in labor to
produce excellency; and therefore they prove accomplished, but not of
great spirit, and study rather behavior than virtue. But this holds
not always; for Augustus Cæsar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of
France, Edward the Fourth of England,[451] Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael
the Sophy of Persia, were all high and great spirits, and yet the most
beautiful men of their times. In beauty, that of favor is more than
that of color; and that of decent and gracious motion, more than that
of favor.[452] That is the best part of beauty, which a picture cannot
express; no, nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent
beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot
tell whether Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more trifler; whereof
the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other,
by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make one excellent.
Such personages, I think, would please nobody but the painter that made
them: not but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was;
but he must do it by a kind of felicity (as a musician that maketh an