ou give to another power over your
liberty. If you can not pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your
creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will make poor,
pitiful, sneaking excuses, and, by degrees, come to lose your veracity,
and sink into base downright lying; for 'The second vice is lying, the
first is running in debt,' as Poor Richard says; and again, to the same
purpose, 'Lying rides upon debt's back;' whereas a freeborn Englishman
ought not to be ashamed nor afraid to see or speak to any man living.
But poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. 'It is hard
for an empty bag to stand upright.' 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 imprisonment 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 jail for life, 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, as Poor Richard says, 'Creditors
have better memories than debtors; creditors are a superstitious sect,
great observers of 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, who owe money to be paid at Easter.' At present, perhaps, you may
think yourselves 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.'

"Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever, while you live, expense
is constant and certain; and 'It is 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.'

And, when you have got the philosop