For the taking of such recompense we have moreover, the very highest authority in the words of our Saviour, who, in the parable of the talents, censures the slothful servant in these words: “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money at the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own _with Usury_.” Dr. Adam Smith, in his work entitled “Wealth of Nations,” [Vol. 1, p. 429,] published in 1776, and which has been long a text book for political economists, says: “A capital lent at Interest may, in this manner, be considered as an assignment from the lender to the borrower of a certain considerable portion of the annual produce; upon condition that the borrower in return shall, during the continuance of the loan, annually assign to the lender a smaller portion, called the Interest; and at the end of it a portion equally considerable with that which had originally been assigned to him, called the repayment. Though money, either coin, or paper, serves generally as the deed of assignment, both to the smaller and to the more considerable portion, it is of itself altogether different from what is assigned by it.” And again: “As such capitals are commonly lent out, and paid back in money, they constitute what is called the monied interest.” “In some countries the Interest of money has been prohibited by law. But as something can everywhere be made by the use of money, something ought everywhere to be paid for the use of it. This regulation instead of preventing, has been found from experience, to increase the evil of Usury; the debtor being obliged to pay, not only for the use of the money, but for the risk which his creditor runs by accepting a compensation for that use. He is obliged, if one may say so, to insure his creditor from the penalties of Usury.” “In countries where Interest is permitted, the law, in order to prevent the extortion of Usury, generally fixes the highest rate which can be taken without incurring a penalty. This rate ought always to be somewhat above the lowest market price, or the price which is commonly paid for the use of money by those who can give the most undoubted security.” “If this legal rate should be fixed below the lowest market rate, the effects of this fixation must be nearly the same as those of a total prohibition of Interest.” “The creditor will not lend his money for less than the use of it is worth, and the debtor must pay him for the risk which he runs by accepting the full value of that use. If it is fixed precisely at the lowest market price, it ruins, with honest people, who respect the laws of their country, the credit of all those who cannot give the very best security, and obliges them to have recourse to exorbitant usurers.”