from the
Athenian Acropolis, and the Law of Justice thundered even from the
Cretan Sinai; but for _us_, He who said, "I am the Truth," said also, "I
am the Way, and the Life;" and for _us_, He who reasoned of
Righteousness, reasoned also of Temperance and Judgment to come. Is this
the sincere milk of the Word, which takes the hope from the Person of
Christ, and the fear from the charge of His apostle, and forbids to
English heroism the perilous vision of Immortality? God be with you, my
Lord, and exalt your teaching to that quality of Mercy which, distilling
as the rain from Heaven--not strained as through channels from a sullen
reservoir-may soften the hearts of your people to receive the New
Commandment, that they Love one another. So, round the cathedral of your
city, shall the merchant's law be just, and his weights true; the table
of the money-changer not overthrown, and the bench of the money-lender
unbroken.

And to as many as walk according to this rule, Peace shall be on them,
and Mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

* * * * *

173. With the preceding letter must assuredly end--for the present, if
not forever--my own notes on a subject of which my strength no longer
serves me to endure the stress and sorrow; but I may possibly be able to
collect, eventually, into more close form, the already manifold and
sufficient references scattered through _Fors Clavigera_: and perhaps to
reprint for the St. George's Guild the admirable compendium of British
ecclesiastical and lay authority on the subject, collected by John
Blaxton, preacher of God's Word at Osmington in Dorsetshire, printed by
John Norton under the title of "The English Usurer," and sold by Francis
Bowman, in Oxford, 1631. A still more precious record of the fierce
struggle of usury into life among Christians, and of the resistance to
it by Venice and her "Anthony,"[131] will be found in the dialogue
"della Usura," of Messer Speron Sperone (Aldus, in Vinegia, MDXIII.),
followed by the dialogue "del Cathaio," between "Portia, sola, e
fanciulla, fame, e cibo, vita, e morte, di ciascuno che la conosce," and
her lover Moresini, which is the source of all that is loveliest in the
_Merchant of Venice_. Readers who seek more modern and more scientific
instruction may consult the able abstract of the triumph of usury, drawn
up by Dr. Andrew Dickson White, President of Cornell University ("The
Warfare of Science," H. S. King & Co.,