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INTE^DO'CO, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Ultra - : 
twelves miles weft of Aquila. 
INTERDU'C A, one of the names of Juno. 
INTERDUC'TUS, /. [Latin.] The fpace left between 
Sentences; a ftop in reading to fetch breath. Scott. 
INTER’EMPTION, / ‘'[from interim), Lat. to kill.] 
,The aft of killing. Bailey. 
To INTEREQ'UITATE, v. n. [from inter, Lat. be¬ 
tween, and equito, to ride.] To ride between. Cole. 
To INTERESS', or Interest', v. a. [interejjer , Fr.] 
To concern; to affect; to give fhare in.—To love our 
native country, and to ftudy its benefit and its glory, to 
be interejfed in its concerns, is natural to all men. Drydcn. 
—Scipio, reftoring the Spanifh bride, gained a great na¬ 
tion to interejl tiiernfelves for Rome againft Carthage. 
Drydcn. 
Our joy, 
Although our laft, not leaft; to whofe young love 
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy 
Strive to be interejl,’d. Shakejpeare. 
INTERESS,/ [the old word for] Intereft: 
But wote thou this, thou hardy Titanefle, 
That not the worth of any living wight 
May challenge ought in heaven’s intercffe. Spcnfer. 
To INTEREST', v. n. To afteft ; to move; to touch 
with paffion ; to gain the affeftions s as, This is an inte- 
rejling ftory. 
INTEREST, / [Lat. interct , Fr.] Concern; advan¬ 
tage; good.—Divifions hinder the common intereft and 
public good. Temple. —There is no man but God hath 
put many things into his poflelTion, to be ufed for the 
common good and interejl. Calamy. — Influence over others. 
—They, who had hitherto preferved them, had now loll 
their interejl. Clarendon. 
Exert, great God, thy int'rejl in the Iky; 
Gain each kind pow’r, each guardian deity. 
That, conquer’d by the public vow, 
They bear the difilial mifehief far away. Prior. 
Share; part in any thing; participation : as, This is a 
matter in which we have interejl. —Endeavour to adjuft 
the degrees of influence, that each caufe might have in 
producing the effect, and the proper agency and interejl of 
each therein. Watts. —Regard to private profit.—Wherever 
interejl or power thinks fit to interfere, it little imports 
what principles the oppofite parties think fit to charge 
upon each other. Swift. — Money paid for ufe ; ufury.— 
It is a fad life we lead, my dear, to be fo teazed ; paying 
interejl for old debts, and ftill contracting new ones. Ar- 
buthnot. 
Did he take interejl? 
--No, not take interejl ; not, as you would fay, 
Direftly, int’rejl. Shakejpeare. 
Any furplus of advantage : 
With all fpeed 
You Ihall have your defires with interejl. Shakejpeare. 
Many good and learned men have in former times 
greatly perplexed themfelves and other people by railing 
doubts about the legality of intereff in foro confcientire. It 
may not be amifs here to inquire upon what grounds this 
matter does really ftand. The enemies to intereft in ge¬ 
neral make no diftinftion between that and ufury, holding 
any increafe of money to be indefenfibly ufurious. And 
this they ground as well on the prohibition of it by the 
law of Mofes among the Jews, (fee the article Jew ;) as 
alfo upon what is laid down by Ariftotle, That money is 
naturally barren ; and to make it breed nroney is prepof- 
terous, and a perverfion of the end of its inftitution, which 
Was only to ferve the purpofes of exchange, and not of 
increafe. Hence the fchool-divines have branded the 
f sraftice of taking intereft, as being contrary to the divine 
aw both natural and revealed; and the canon-law has 
’proferibed the taking any the leaft increafe for the loan of 
money as a mortal fin. But, in anfvver to this, it may 
be obferved, that the Mofaical precept was clearly a po- _ 
litical, and not a moral, precept. It only prohibited the 
Jews from taking ufury from their brethren the Jews ; 
but in exprefs words permitted them to take it of a 
it ranger: which proves that the taking of moderate ufury, 
or a reward for the ufe , for fo the word fignifies, is not 
malvm in fc, lince it was allowed where any but an If- 
raelite was concerned. And as to Ariftotle’s reafon, de¬ 
duced from the natural barrennefs of money, the fame 
may with equal force be alleged of houfes, which never 
breed houfes; and twenty other things, which nobody 
doubts it is lawful to make profit of, by letting them ta 
hire. And, though money was originally ufed only for 
the purpofes of exchange, yet the laws of any ftate may 
be well juftified in permitting it to be turned to the pur¬ 
pofes of profit, if the convenience of fociety (the great 
end for which money was invented) fhall require it. 
And that the allowance of moderate intereft tends greatly 
to the benefit of the public, efpecially in a trading coun¬ 
try, will appear from that generally-acknowledged prin¬ 
ciple, that commerce cannot fubfift without mutual and 
extenfive credit. Unlefs money therefore can be bor¬ 
rowed, trade cannot be carried on: and, if no premium 
were allowed for the hire of money, few perfons would 
care to lend it; or at leaft the eafe of borrowing at a 
fhort warning (which is the life of-commerce) would be 
entirely at an end. Thus, in the dark ages of monkilh 
fuperftition and civil tyranny, when intereft was laid 
under a total interdift, commerce was alfo at its loweft 
ebb, and fell entirely into the hands of the Jews and 
Lombards : but when men’s minds began to be more en¬ 
larged, when true religion and real liberty revived, com¬ 
merce grew again into credit, and again introduced with 
itfelf its infeparable companion, the doftrine of loans 
upon intereft. And, reaily, confidered abltraftedly from 
this its' ufe, fince all other conveniences of life may be 
either bought or hired, but money can only be hired, 
there- feems no greater impropriety in taking a recompenfe 
or price for the hire of this, than of any other conve¬ 
nience. If one borrow iool. to employ in a beneficial 
trade, it is but equitable that the lender Ihould have a 
proportion of the gains. To demand an exorbitant price 
is equally contrary to confcience, for the loan of a horfe 
or the loan of a fum of money: but a reafonable equi¬ 
valent for the temporary inconvenience which the owner 
may feel by the want of it, and for the hazard of his 
lofing it entirely, is not more immoral in one cafe than it 
is in the other. And indeed the abfolute prohibition of 
lending upon any, even moderate, intereft, introduces the 
very inconvenience which it feems meant to remedy. 
The neceffity of individuals will make borrowing una¬ 
voidable. Without fome profit by law, there will be but 
few lenders ; and thofe principally bad men, who will 
break through the law, and take a profit; and then will 
endeavour to indemnify themfelves from the danger of 
the penalty, by making that profit exorbitant. Thus, 
while all degrees of profit were difcountenanced, we find 
more complaints of ufury, and more flagrant inltances of 
oppreffion, than in modern times when money may he 
eafily had at a low intereft. A capital diftinction mult 
therefore be made between a moderate and an exorbitant 
profit; to the former of which we ufually give the name 
of interejl, to the latter the truly-odious appellation of 
ufury. the former is neceffary in every civil ftate, if it 
were but to exclude the latter, which ought never to be 
tolerated in any well-regulated fociety. For, as the whole 
of this matter is well hummed up by Grotius, “ if the 
coinpenlation allowed by law does not exceed the pro- - 
portion of the hazard run, or the want felt, by the loan, 
its allowance is neither repugnant to the revealed nor to 
the natural law: but, if it exceeds thofe bounds, it is then 
oppreffive ufury; and, though the municipal laws may 
give it impunity, they never can make it juft.” 
Th-e 
