t who should issue an edict
forbidding you to dress like a gentleman or gentlewoman, on pain of
imprisonment or servitude? Would you not say that you are 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 such 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 jail for life or to sell 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 says, "creditors are a superstitious set, great observers of set
days and times."

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," disdain the chain,
preserve your freedom, and maintain your independence. Be industrious
and free; be frugal and free. At present, perhaps, you may think
yourself in thriving circumstances, and that you can bear a little
extravagance without injury; but

"For age and want, save while you may;
No morning sun lasts a whole day."

As Poor Richard says, gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever
while you live expense is constant and certain; and "'tis easier to
build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel," as Poor Richard says; so,
"rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt."

"Get what you can, and what you get hold;
'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold,"[420-6]

as Poor Richard says: and when you have got the philosopher's stone,
sure, you will no longer complain of bad times or the difficulty of
paying taxes.

This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom; but, after all, do not
depend too much upon your own industry and frugality and prudence,
though excellent things, for they may all be blasted without the
blessing of Heaven; and therefore ask that blessing humbly, and be not
uncharitable to those