He then goes on to describe a world in which there are no debtors and no
debts. There will be no regular course among the planets, but all will
be in disorder. Jupiter, reckoning himself to be nothing indebted to
Saturn, will go near to thrust him out of his place; Saturn and Mars
will combine to promote the confusion; Mercury, being debtor to no one,
will no longer serve any; Venus, because she shall have lent nothing,
will no longer be venerated. "The moon," he says, "will remain bloody
and obscure. For to what end should the sun impart unto her any of his
light?[253] He owed her nothing. Nor yet will the sun shine upon the
earth, nor the stars send down any good influence,[254] because the
terrestrial globe hath desisted from sending up their wonted nourishment
by vapours and exhalations, wherewith Heraclitus said, the Stoicks
proved, Cicero maintained, they were cherished and alimented.... No rain
will descend upon the earth, nor light shine thereon; no wind will blow
there, nor will there be in it any summer or harvest.... Such a world
without lending will be no better than a dog-kennel, a place of
contention and wrangling.... Men will not then salute one another; it
will be but lost labour to expect aid or succour from any, or to cry
fire, water, murther, for none will put to their helping hand. Why? He
lent no money, there is nothing due to him. Nobody is concerned in his
burning, in his shipwrack, in his ruine, or in his death; and that
because he hitherto hath lent nothing, and would never thereafter have
lent anything. In short, Faith, Hope, and Charity would be quite
banish'd from such a world--for men are born to relieve and assist one
another."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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