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THE ADVANTAGES OF DEBT.
ÍW iMiiAM MATTHE we i» " JSVGAS LITTEE
* ABIAE," U.S.) !
Among the threadbare themes <
moralists, one of the most hackneyed i
the misery of being in debt. Ever sine
the days of Addison and the Spectator thi
has been a favourite and prolific topic c
periodical essayists and writers on " se]
help ;" and if it be true of human affliction
.. that " they can paint best who feel ther
most/' we cannot doubt the ability of thee
* writers to present the matter in the mos
TÍ vid colours. " I ani astonished," says Si
Richard Steele-whose whole life was a rac
trithbailiffs and catchpolls;and whoexcnaei
himself by vottng in flagrant contradicts
to his professed principles by by saying on
who reproached bim : " Mr. Wbiston, yoi
can walk on foot, but I cannot"-"Ian
astonished that men can be so insensihl
to tiie danger of running into debt
One would think it impossible that j
man who is given to contracting debt
should not know that his créditer ha
jnrom that moment in which he trans
greases payment, so much as that deman<
comas to, in his debtor's honour, liberty
and fortune." " Out of debt," echoes Doug
las Jerrold, with the passionate eloquent
of one tasting for the first time the luxury
lie describes, " and thongh you have t
patch on your knee, a hole in your hat, ano
a crack in your shoe leather, you are stil
the son of liberty, free as the singing
lark above you. Out of debt, and what s
. nourishing sweetness may be found in cold
water ! What toothsomeness in a drj
cruet ! what ambrosial nourishment in a
hard egg ! . . . The debtor, what is he
but a serf, out upon a holiday-a slav« to
be reclaimed at any instant by his owner,
the creditor !"
This, it must be confessed, is well pnt,
and by writers who are entitled to say
esperto crede. But there is another side to
f|ie subject, and it is easy to show that
if debt has its miseries, it has, by
the never-failing law of compensations,
its blessings too, which equal, if they do
not more than counterbalance, them. If
the condition of indebtedness is ono of
.slavery, th« long and splendid roll of men
who have bowed to its yoke shows {hat it
has a strong fascination. Lord Bacon
wrote os The Wisdom of Business, yet ran
desperately in debt. William Pitt had an
income of from £6,000 to £10,000
a year, and died £40,000 in debt.
Sheridan spent the fortunes of two wives,
and was always dodging creditors and
bailiffs. Daniel Webster bad a large pro
. feesional income, yet lived and died amid a
"swarm of debts. Was not Fielding swamped
all his life by debt, and yet did not Lady
Montagu say of him "that he had known
more happy moments than any person on
earth?»
. But not to TOly on great names, wno
does not love to be " an object of interest "
to his fellow men ? And wbat surer or
«asierwayof becoming such than by con-
tracting" little bills" and large in all Quar-
ters? Who is the object of more watchful
attention, of tenderer or more anxious soli
citudo on the-part of his fellow-citizens,
than he whose promises to pay are held year
after year P Whose movements are watched
more closely, whose health is enquired after
with more trembling solicitude, whose
death is mourned over with more poignant
Borrow, than bis who owes many thousands
more than his estate «an pay ? There ie
no man who does not love to hold some
1 place in the memories of his fellow-men,
who does not cling to the pleasing hope
that he will not become entirely "to
dumb forgetfulness a prey" when he
shall have shuffled off lus mortal coil ;
and how can one more effectually guard :
against so painful a result than by leaving ¡
in tiu) hands of his friends and neighbours,
not a worthless lock of hair, bot a more i
precious memorial in the shape of aa un- !
settled bill or note of hand, the interest of i
which will be for ever increasing t The!
sj&emory of such a man will be cherished !
? with the keenest interest ; while he who is !
scrupulous to "pay as he goes "is doomed
to hopeless obscurity while he lives, andi
when he dies is forgotten or thought of
without a pangof regret. "Weare not great
people at all, said Sydney Smith when he
went into a new neighbourhood and it was
{riven out in the local papers that he was a
man of high connections; "we are only
gammon honest people-people that pay
Îur debts." How vivid were Horace
keeley's recollections of poor Foe, whose
- autograph he held on several bits of paper,
compared with his memory of other and
«tren greater poets ?
Í There is another advantage of debt of
¿yen greater moment ; it gives a zest to
&e Which nothing else can impart. The
fian in debt is never tormented with that
uneasy listlessness, that restless craving
-fctho'utan object, that mobility without
an aim, that feeling of idleness, yet of
disquiet, which is know as ennui, Of that
wiretched feeling which led Spinosa to pass
his time in catching spiders and teaching
fthem to fight, and which drove the master
' *rit of antiquity, the Stragirite himself,
en his -wine of life had run to the lees,
die as the f ool dieth, hy his own hands,
the debtor knows nothing. The fire of
áúatence never with him becomes oaky or
fahy; his soul never preys upon himself;
i¿ experiences none of the mysteries that
¿Jeal in upon him whose life ie free from
avjwfr and care. "With the debtor,
life ta fan of meaning and in
gjpPBfr ?e ta8 » continual spur to
«raiSOUB, and the pleasure of faculties
Wm perpetually bu the utretoh. While
fjjbftinmcte of other men are drooping like
»jbiunner hy a flagstaff for want of the wind
*f OBcasion to set them in motion, his is in
fgasaauyoccupied with schemes to silence
Cje importunate demands of creditors and
fa fcaep aheriffs from his door. Whether
«pnring the streetB to borrow money, or
'rained with «ehernes for- earning it, he is
thoroughly engrossed in the passing day,
Ind has not a moment for the torture ©f
Scessiresase, Of the "blue devils"he
mbw? nothing; ne has never to contrive
- ¿apénente forkilUnir time, nor dees lie «ver
think of hanging himself, as many a debt
free man has done, lest he should one day
come to want. Occupied continually with
the care of meeting or dodging obligations
that are falling due, hie "quick thoughts
like lightning are alive ¡ " all his hours are
filled with excitement and action, and if,
as the author of "Festus" says, "He
whose heart beats quickest lives the
longest," then assuredly dees the debtor
Liva in one hoar more than in years do
some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along
their veins.
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