Laudator Temporis Acti

[Daniel Defoe,] The Anatomy of Exchange-Alley: or, A System of Stock-Jobbing, 2nd ed. (London: E. Smith, 1719), pp. 3-4:

[I]f you talk to them of their Occupation, there is not a Man but will own, 'tis a compleat System of Knavery; that 'tis a Trade founded in Fraud, born of Deceit, and nourished by Trick, Cheat, Wheedle, Forgeries, Falshoods, and all sorts of Delusions; Coining false News, this way good, that way bad, whispering imaginary Terrors, Frights, Hopes, Expectations, and then preying upon the Weakness of those, whose Imaginations they have wrought upon, whom they have either elevated or depress'd.

Id., p. 8:

Is not the whole Doctrine of Stock-jobbing a Science of Fraud? And are not all the Dealers, meer Original Thieves and Pick-Pockets? Nay, do they not own it themselves?

Id., p. 19:

But what Tricking, what Fraud, what laying Plots as deep as Hell, and as far as the ends of the Earth is here? What Cheating of Fathers, and Mothers, and Brothers, gulling Widows, Orphans, couzening the most Wary, and plundering the Unwary? And how much meaner Roberies than these bring the Friendless even to the Gallows every Sessions?