cafe, when I look upon the Debtor fide, I find fuch innumerable Articles, that I want Arithmetick to caft them up; but when I look upon the Creditor-fide, I find little more than blank Paper. Now though I am very well fatisfied that it is not in my power to ballance Accounts with my Maker, I am refolved however to turn all my future Endeavours that way. You must not therefore be furprized, my Friend, if you hear that I am betaking my felf to a more thoughtful kind of Life, and if I meet you no more in this place. I could not but approve fo good a Refolution, notwithstanding the Lofs I fhall fuffer by it. Sir ANDREW has fince explained himself to me more at large in the following Letter, which is juft come to my hands. Good Mr. SPECTATOR, NOTWITHSTANDING Friends at the Club have always rallied me, when I have talked of retiring from Bufinefs, 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 VOL. XIV. N • who who thinks he has enough, and is des termined to pass the Remainder of his Life in the Enjoyment of what he has. You know me fo well, that I need not tell you, I mean, by the En joyment of my Poffeffions, the making of them ufeful to the Publick. As the greatest part of my Eftate has been hitherto of an unfteddy and volatile nature, either toft upon Seas or fluctuating in Funds; it is now fixed and fettled in fubftantial Acres and Tenements. I have removed it from the Uncertainty of Stocks, Winds and Waves, and difpofed of it in a • confiderable Purchase. This will give me great Opportunity of being charitable in my way, that is, in fetting my poor Neighbours to work, and giving them a comfortable Subfiftence out of their own Industry. My Gardens, my Fifh-ponds, my Arable and Pasture Grounds fhall be my several Hofpitals, or rather Work-houses, in which I propofe to maintain a great many indigent Perfons, who are now ftarving in my Neighbourhood: I have got a fine Spread of Improveable Lands, and in my own Thoughts am already plowing up fome of them, A fencing fencing others; planting Woods, and draining Marthes. In fine, as I have my hare in the Surface of this Ifland, I am refolved to make it as beautiful a Spot as any in her Majefty's Dominions; at leaft there is not an Inch of it which fhall not be cultivated to the best advantage, and do its utmoft for its Owner. As in my Mercantile Employment I fo difpofed 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 fo, that not a Shower of Rain, or a Glimpfe of Sunfhine, fhall fall upon my Eftate without bettering fome part of it, and contributing to the Products of the Seafon. You know it has hitherto been my Opinion of Life, that it is thrown away when it is not fome way ufeful to others. But when I am riding out by my felf, in the fresh Air on the open Heath that lyes by my House, I find feveral other Thoughts growing up in me. I am now of Opinion, that a Man of my Age may find Bufinefs enough on himself, by fetting his Mind in order, preparing N 2 it it for another World, and reconciling it to the Thoughts of Death. I muft therefore acquaint you, that befides thofe ufual Methods of Charity, of which I have before fpoken, I am at this very Inftant finding out a convenient Place where I may build an Alms-house, which I intend to endow very handfomly, for a dozen fuperanuated Husbandmen. It will be a great pleasure to me to fay my Prayers twice a day with Men of my own Years, who all of them, as well as my felf, may have their Thoughts taken up how they fhall die, rather than how they fhall live. I remember an • excellent Saying that I learned at School, Finis coronat opus. You know beft whether it be in Virgil or in Horace, it is my Bufinefs to apply it. If your Affairs will permit you to 'take the Country Air with me fome times, you fhall find an Apartment • fitted up for you, and fhall be every 'Day entertained with Beef or Mutton of my own feeding; Fish out of my own Ponds; and Fruit out of my own Gardens. You fhall have free Egrefs and Regrefs about my Houfe, without having any Questions asked |