The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
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page 142 of 2094 (06%)
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of their age, sex, education, ignorance of trading, know not otherwise how
to employ it; and those so approved, not to let it out apart, but to bring their money to a [678]common bank which shall be allowed in every city, as in Genoa, Geneva, Nuremberg, Venice, at [679]5, 6, 7, not above 8 per centum, as the supervisors, or _aerarii praefecti_ shall think fit. [680]And as it shall not be lawful for each man to be an usurer that will, so shall it not be lawful for all to take up money at use, not to prodigals and spendthrifts, but to merchants, young tradesmen, such as stand in need, or know honestly how to employ it, whose necessity, cause and condition the said supervisors shall approve of. I will have no private monopolies, to enrich one man, and beggar a multitude, [681]multiplicity of offices, of supplying by deputies, weights and measures, the same throughout, and those rectified by the _Primum mobile_ and sun's motion, threescore miles to a degree according to observation, 1000 geometrical paces to a mile, five foot to a pace, twelve inches to a foot, &c. and from measures known it is an easy matter to rectify weights, &c. to cast up all, and resolve bodies by algebra, stereometry. I hate wars if they be not _ad populi salutem_ upon urgent occasion, [682]_odimus accipitrim, quia semper vivit in armis_ [683] offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of. For I do highly magnify that saying of Hannibal to Scipio, in [684]Livy, "It had been a blessed thing for you and us, if God had given that mind to our predecessors, that you had been content with Italy, we with Africa. For neither Sicily nor Sardinia are worth such cost and pains, so many fleets and armies, or so many famous Captains' lives." _Omnia prius tentanda_, fair means shall first be tried. [685]_Peragit tranquilla potestas, Quod violenta nequit_. I will have them proceed with all moderation: but hear you, Fabius my general, not Minutius, _nam [686]qui Consilio nititur plus hostibus nocet, quam qui sini animi ratione, viribus_: And in such wars to |
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