On Anger Chapter 33

Circa pecuniam plurimum vociferationis est. Haec fora defetigat, patres liberosque committit, venena miscet, gladios tam percussoribus quam legionibus tradit ; haec est sanguine nostro delibuta ; propter hanc uxorum maritorumque noctes strepunt litibus et tribunalia magistratuum premit turba, reges saeviunt rapiuntque et civitates longo saeculorum labore constructas evertunt, ut aurum argentumque in cinere urbium scrutentur. Libet intueri fiscos in angulo iacentis. Hi sunt propter quos oculi clamore exprimantur, fremitu iudiciorum basilicae resonent, evocati ex longinquis regionibus iudices sedeant iudicaturi, utrius iustior avaritia sit. Quid si ne propter fiscum quidem, sed pugnum aeris aut imputatum a servo denarium senex sine herede moriturus stomacho dirumpitur ? Quid si propter usuram vel milensimam valetudinarius faenerator distortis pedibus et manibus ad computandum non relictis clamat ac per vadimonia asses suos in ipsis morbi accessionibus vindicat ? Si totam mihi ex omnibus metallis, quae cum maxime deprimimus, pecuniam proferas, si in medium proicias quidquid thensauri tegunt, avaritia iterum sub terras referente, quae male egesserat, omnem istam congeriem non putem dignam quae frontem viri boni contrahat. Quanto risu prosequenda sunt quae nobis lacrimas educunt!

The greatest hullabaloo is about money: this it is which wearies out the law-courts, sows strife between father and son, concocts poisons, and gives swords to murderers just as to soldiers: it is stained with our blood: on account of it husbands and wives wrangle all night long, crowds press round the bench of magistrates, kings rage and plunder, and overthrow communities which it has taken the labour of centuries to build, that they may seek for gold and silver in the ashes of their cities. Do you like to look at your money-bags lying in the corner? it is for these that men shout till their eyes start from their heads, that the law-courts ring with the din of trials, and that jurymen brought from great distances sit to decide which man’s covetousness is the more equitable. What shall we say if it be not even for a bag of money, but for a handful of coppers or a shilling scored up by a slave that some old man, soon to die without an heir, bursts with rage? what if it be an invalid money-lender whose feet are distorted by the gout, and who can no longer use his hands to count with, who calls for his interest of one thousandth a month, and by his sureties demands his pence even during the paroxysms of his disease? If you were to bring to me all the money from all our mines, which we are at this moment sinking, if you were to bring to-night all that is concealed in hoards, where avarice returns money to the earth from whence it came, and pity that it ever was dug out - all that mass I should not think worthy to cause a wrinkle on the brow of a good man. What ridicule those things deserve which bring tears into our eyes!

Jetons, je le veux bien, un coup d’œil sur l’obscur recoin où gisent ces trésors. Voilà la cause de ces cris de fureur, de ces yeux sortant de. leurs orbites, de ces hurlements de la chicane dans nos palais judiciaires, où des magistrats, évoqués de si loin, s’en viennent décider, entre deux cupidités, laquelle est plus fondée en droit. Et quand, non pas pour un trésor, mais pour une poignée de menu cuivre, pour un denier que réclame un esclave, ce vieillard qui va mourir sans héritier s’époumonne de colère ! Et quand, pour moins d’un millième pour cent, cet usurier-infirme, aux pieds distordus par la goutte qui ne lui a pas laissé de mains pour prêter serment, s’en va criant et poursuivant par mandataires, au fort même d’un accès, la rentrée de ses as ! En vain tu m’étalerais frappée en monnaie toute cette masse de métaux qu’on tire incessamment des mines , et tu produirais au jour tout ce qu’enfouit de trésors l’avarice qui rend à la terre ce qu’elle lui a mal à propos ravi, cet énorme entassement ne serait pas digne à mes yeux de faire sourciller le sage. Combien on devrait se rire de ce qui nous tire tant de larmes !