People with what must needs make them like themselves worse than they did before they read you?  Had you made it your Business to describe Corinna charming, though inconstant, to find something in human Nature itself to make Zoilus excuse himself for being fond of her; and to make every Man in good Commerce with his own Reflections, you had done something worthy our Applause; but indeed, Sir, we shall not commend you for disapproving us.  I have a great deal more to say to you, but I shall sum it up all in this one Remark, In short, Sir, you do not write like a Gentleman.

  ’I am, SIR,
  Your most humble Servant.’

  Mr.  SPECTATOR,

’The other Day we were several of us at a Tea-Table, and according to Custom and your own Advice had the Spectator read among us:  It was that Paper wherein you are pleased to treat with great Freedom that Character which you call a Woman’s Man.  We gave up all the Kinds you have mentioned, except those who, you say, are our constant Visitants.  I was upon the Occasion commissioned by the Company to write to you and tell you, That we shall not part with the Men we have at present, ’till the Men of Sense think fit to relieve them, and give us their Company in their Stead.  You cannot imagine but that we love to hear Reason and good Sense better than the Ribaldry we are at present entertained with, but we must have Company, and among us very inconsiderable is better than none at all.  We are made for the Cements of Society, and came into the World to create Relations among Mankind; and Solitude is an unnatural Being to us.  If the Men of good Understanding would forget a little of their Severity, they would find their Account in it; and their Wisdom would have a Pleasure in it, to which they are now Strangers.  It is natural among us when Men have a true Relish of our Company and our Value, to say every thing with a better Grace; and there is without designing it something ornamental in what Men utter before Women, which is lost or neglected in Conversations of Men only.  Give me leave to tell you, Sir, it would do you no great Harm if you yourself came a little more into our Company; it would certainly cure you of a certain positive and determining Manner in which you talk sometimes.  In hopes of your Amendment,

  ’I am, SIR,

  ‘Your gentle Reader_.’

  Mr.  SPECTATOR,

’Your professed Regard to the Fair Sex, may perhaps make them value your Admonitions when they will not those of other Men.  I desire you, Sir, to repeat some Lectures upon Subjects which you have now and then in a cursory manner only just touched.  I would have a Spectator wholly writ upon good Breeding:  and after you have asserted that Time and Place are to be very much considered in all our Actions, it will be proper to dwell upon Behaviour at Church.  On Sunday last a grave and reverend Man preached at our Church: