formerly done; if able, they shall be enforced to work. [653]"For I see no
reason" (as [654]he said) "why an epicure or idle drone, a rich glutton, a
usurer, should live at ease, and do nothing, live in honour, in all manner
of pleasures, and oppress others, when as in the meantime a poor labourer,
a smith, a carpenter, an husbandman that hath spent his time in continual
labour, as an ass to carry burdens, to do the commonwealth good, and
without whom we cannot live, shall be left in his old age to beg or starve,
and lead a miserable life worse than a jument." As [655]all conditions
shall be tied to their task, so none shall be overtired, but have their set
times of recreations and holidays, _indulgere genio_, feasts and merry
meetings, even to the meanest artificer, or basest servant, once a week to
sing or dance, (though not all at once) or do whatsoever he shall please;
like [656]that _Saccarum festum_ amongst the Persians, those Saturnals in
Rome, as well as his master. [657]If any be drunk, he shall drink no more
wine or strong drink in a twelvemonth after. A bankrupt shall be [658]
_Catademiatus in Amphitheatro_, publicly shamed, and he that cannot pay his
debts, if by riot or negligence he have been impoverished, shall be for a
twelvemonth imprisoned, if in that space his creditors be not satisfied,
[659]he shall be hanged. He [660]that commits sacrilege shall lose his
hands; he that bears false witness, or is of perjury convicted, shall have
his tongue cut out, except he redeem it with his head. Murder, [661]
adultery, shall be punished by death, [662]but not theft, except it be some
more grievous offence, or notorious offenders: otherwise they shall be
condemned to the galleys, mines, be his slaves whom they have offended,
during their lives. I hate all hereditary slaves, and that _duram Persarum
legem_ as [663]Brisonius calls it; or as [664]Ammianus, _impendio
formidatas et abominandas leges, per quas ob noxam unius, omnis
propinquitas perit_ hard law that wife and children, friends and allies,
should suffer for the father's offence.