when I look upon the Debtor-side, I find such innumerable Articles, that I want Arithmetick to cast them up; but when I look upon the Creditor-side, I find little more than blank Paper.  Now though I am very well satisfied that it is not in my power to ballance Accounts with my Maker, I am resolved however to turn all my future Endeavours that way.  You must not therefore be surprized, my Friend, if you hear that I am betaking my self to a more thoughtful kind of Life, and if I meet you no more in this Place.

I could not but approve so good a Resolution, notwithstanding the Loss I shall suffer by it.  Sir ANDREW has since explained himself to me more at large in the following Letter, which is just come to my hands.

  Good Mr. SPECTATOR,

’Notwithstanding my Friends at the Club have always rallied me, when I have talked of retiring from Business, and repeated to me one of my own Sayings, That a Merchant has never enough till he has got a little more; I can now inform you, that there is one in the World who thinks he has enough, and is determined to pass the Remainder of his Life in the Enjoyment of what he has.  You know me so well, that I need not tell you, I mean, by the Enjoyment of my Possessions, the making of them useful to the Publick.  As the greatest part of my Estate has been hitherto of an unsteady and volatile nature, either tost upon Seas or fluctuating in Funds; it is now fixed and settled in Substantial Acres and Tenements.  I have removed it from the Uncertainty of Stocks, Winds and Waves, and disposed of it in a considerable Purchase.  This will give me great Opportunity of being charitable in my way, that is, in setting my poor Neighbours to Work, and giving them a comfortable Subsistence out of their own Industry.  My Gardens, my Fish-ponds, my Arable and Pasture Grounds shall be my several Hospitals, or rather Work-houses, in which I propose to maintain a great many indigent Persons, who are now starving in my Neighbourhood.  I have got a fine Spread of improveable Lands, and in my own Thoughts am already plowing up some of them, fencing others; planting Woods, and draining Marshes.  In fine, as I have my share in the Surface of this Island, I am resolved to make it as beautiful a Spot as any in her Majesty’s Dominions; at least there is not an Inch of it which shall not be cultivated to the best Advantage, and do its utmost for its Owner.  As in my Mercantile Employment I so disposed of my Affairs, that from whatever Corner of the Compass the Wind blew, it was bringing home one or other of my Ships; I hope, as a Husbandman, to contrive it so, that not a Shower of Rain, or a Glimpse of Sunshine, shall fall upon my Estate without bettering some part of it, and contributing to the Products of the Season.  You know it has been hitherto my Opinion of Life, that it is thrown away when it is not some way useful to others.  But when I am riding out by my self, in the fresh Air on