reater; and
there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my
soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry."

The usurer hands his goods to another to build the barns and keep for
him, while he is free from its care; and, more, he requires of his
victim not only that he shall preserve, resisting all decay, but that
he shall actually pay him for the privilege.

Had the rich fool not lived in his day, when usury was a crime, but in
this age of folly, he would have apportioned his goods among his
foolisher neighbors upon interest, to keep for him, and then not only
he, for "many years," but his posterity forever, could be at ease,
eating, drinking, and making merry. The silly borrowers would supply
all the needs of his endowed family, for the privilege of caring for
the goods.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE DEBT HABIT.

The debt habit of mind is the disposition or tendency to look to
things we have not as necessary to our success: To yearn for other
opportunities and other means than those we have in our hands: To feel
helpless without them and willing to incur debt to secure them. The
independent, self-reliant disposition takes account of its own powers
and opportunities and means, and plans with these to accomplish the
very most. This old self-reliant, independent spirit, that scorned
debt, has largely passed away. To incur debt is now the common habit
and has become respectable.

All evil-doers encourage and stimulate the particular fashion or habit
or appetite or passion on which they thrive. Usury thrives on debt. If
no one was in debt then usurers would be harmless. It is this debt
habit that gives them the large field for their operations and secures
to them their harvest.

The agreement to pay interest preserves for a time the feeling of
independence that would be wounded by receiving a loan as a favor.
There is usually a feeling of joy and elation in the borrower that
confidence in him is so great, and his credit is so high, that he can
be entrusted with a loan.

By incurring a debt there seems to promise the opening up of
opportunities that have been denied, and a possible field for the
successful exertion of his pent up energies.

The present intended use of the loan, too, seems so attractive and
profitable, and the buoyant, hopeful spirit does not doubt that the
loan can be easily and promptly repaid.

The temptations to debt d