extra liberty or license of a debauch must be repaid by the iron fetters
of headache, and the heavy hand of _ennui_ on the following day: even
the purblind puppy of fashion will tell you, if you make free with your
constitution, you must suffer for it; and this by a species of slavery. To
dance attendance upon a great man for a small appointment, and to _boo_
your way through the world, belongs to the worst of servitude. Congreve
compares a levee at a great man's to a list of duns; and Shenstone still
more ill-naturedly says, "a courtier's dependant is a beggar's dog."

Making free, or taking liberties with your fortune, brings about the
slavery, if not the sin, of poverty; and to take a liberty with the wealth
of another is about as sure a road to slavery as picking pockets is to
house-breaking. Debt is another of those odious badges which mark a man
as a slave, and let him but go on to recovery, that like a snake in the
sunshine, he may be the more effectually scotched and secured. Gay says to
Swift, "I hate to be in debt; for I can't bear to pawn five pounds worth
of my liberty to a tailor or a butcher. I grant you, this is not having
the true spirit of modern nobility; but it is hard to cure the prejudice
of education;" and every man will own that a _greater_ slave-master is not
to be found at Cape Coast than the law's follower, who says, "I 'rest
you;" and then "brings you to all manner of unrest." One of these fellows
is even greater than the sultan of an African tribe in till his glory;
though he neither bears the insignia of rank nor power--none of the little
finery which wins allegiance and honour--yet he constrains you "by
virtue," and brings about a compromise and temporary cessation of your
liberty.

Taking liberties with the pockets or tables of one's relations and
friends, is at best, but a dangerous experiment. It cannot last long
before they beg to be excused the liberty, &c., and like the countryman