See here, 1. How hard-hearted poor people frequently are to one
another, not only not doing such good offices as they might do one to
another, but imposing upon and over-reaching one another. Those who
know by experience the miseries of poverty should be compassionate to
those who suffer the like, but they are inexcusably barbarous if they
be injurious to them. 2. How imperious and griping those commonly are
who, being indigent and necessitous, get into power. If a prince prefer
a poor man, he forgets that ever he was poor, and none shall be so
oppressive to the poor as he, nor squeeze them so cruelly. The hungry
leech and the dry sponge suck most. Set a beggar on horseback, and he
will ride without mercy. He is like a sweeping rain, which washes away
the corn in the ground, and lays and beats out that which has grown, so
that it leaves no food. Princes therefore ought not to put those into
places of trust who are poor, and in debt, and behind-hand in the
world, nor any who make it their main business to enrich themselves.