23–25
Chrysippus
Assuredly. On none but the wise man does usury sit well, Consider. His is the art of putting two and two together, and usury is the art of putting interest together. The two are evidently connected, and one as much as the other is the prerogative of the true believer; who, not content, like common men, with simple interest, will also take interest upon interest. For interest, as you are probably aware, is of two kinds. There is simple interest, and there is its offspring, compound interest. Hear Syllogism on the subject. ‘If I take simple interest, I shall also take compound. But I shall take simple interest: therefore I shall take compound.’
5
Seventh Dealer
And the same applies to the fees you take from your youthful pupils? None but the true believer sells virtue for a fee?
Chrysippus
Quite right. I take the fee in my pupil’s interest, not because I want it. The world is made up of diffusion and accumulation. I accordingly practise my pupil in the former, and myself in the latter.
Seventh Dealer
But it ought to be the other way. The pupil ought to accumulate, and you, ‘sole millionaire,’ ought to diffuse.
Chrysippus
Ha! you jest with me? Beware of the shaft of insoluble syllogism.
Seventh Dealer
What harm can that do?
5
Chrysippus
It cripples; it ties the tongue, and turns the brain.
It cripples; it ties the tongue, and turns the brain. Nay, I have but to will it, and you are stone this instant.
Seventh Dealer
Stone! You are no Perseus, friend?
Chrysippus
See here. A stone is a body?
Chrysippus
Well, and an animal is a body?
5
Chrysippus
And you are an animal?
Seventh Dealer
I suppose I am.
