TOLEEATIOK IN GEEECE. 25 of servitude and bondage, were restored to at least their freedom. With this, the rich were at first dis- gusted, and the poor dissatisfied ; but in a little while afterwards the ordinance was generally approved. And when Solon was asked by Croesus, king of Lydia, if the laws which he had made for the Athenians were the best that could be given them, he said:
" Yes ; the best tJiey were capable of receiving."
Usury was held, however, in extreme abhorrence ;
but it does not appear that Aristotle's notable doc- trine ever had any influence in Greece, for money rose in value, though it seldom exceeded twelve per cent, in ordinary loans, and eighteen per cent, in commercial affairs ; and this was deemed in most in- ' stances a fair profit. The rate of compensation, how- ever, was, in all cases, measured by the degree of risk which the lender ran of losing his goods ; and where he exacted more than would reasonably re- munerate him for this, he was punished as a thief, compelled to make restitution, and held thenceforth in contempt.
This toleration is more surprising, when we re- member that the Greek Fathers, and all the priest- hood, were particularly bitter in their denunciations of usurers. St. Bazil was the foremost of these crusaders against usurers, and entered with detail and vigor upon the subject. He attempted to excite a disgust of the usurer^ by portraying his lying and hypocrisy in the most exaggerated language. " The griping usurer," said he, " sees, unmoved, his necessi- tous borrower at his feet, condescending to every humiliation, professing everything that is viUifying ;
he feels no compassion for his fellow-creature, though reduced to this abject state of supplication ; he yields not to his humble prayer; he is