a Groat, than me with the Indies?  What right has any Man to make Suppositions of things not in his Power, and then declare his Will to the dislike of one that has never offended him?  I assure you these are things worthy your Consideration, and I hope we shall have your Thoughts upon them.  I am, tho’ a Woman justly offended, ready to forgive all this, because I have no Remedy but leaving very agreeable Company sooner than I desire.  This also is an heinous Aggravation of his Offence, that he is inflicting Banishment upon me.  Your printing this Letter may perhaps be an Admonition to reform him:  As soon as it appears I will write my Name at the End of it, and lay it in his Way; the making which just Reprimand, I hope you will put in the Power of,

  SIR,
  Your constant Reader,
  and humble Servant.

T.

[Footnote 1:  Paradise Lost, i. 659-662.]

* * * * *

No. 509.  Tuesday, October 14, 1712.  Steele.

  ‘Hominis frugi et temperantis functus officium.’

  Ter.

The useful Knowledge in the following Letter shall have a Place in my Paper, tho’ there is nothing in it which immediately regards the Polite or the Learned World; I say immediately, for upon Reflection every Man will find there is a remote Influence upon his own Affairs, in the Prosperity or Decay of the Trading Part of Mankind.  My present Correspondent, I believe, was never in Print before; but what he says well deserves a general Attention, tho’ delivered in his own homely Maxims, and a Kind of Proverbial Simplicity; which Sort of Learning has rais’d more Estates than ever were, or will be, from attention to Virgil, Horace, Tully, Seneca, Plutarch, or any of the rest, whom, I dare say, this worthy Citizen would hold to be indeed ingenious, but unprofitable Writers.  But to the Letter.

  Broadstreet, Oct. 10, 1712.

  Mr. WILLIAM SPECTATOR,

  SIR,

’I accuse you of many Discourses on the Subject of Money, which you have heretofore promis’d the Publick, but have not discharg’d your self thereof.  But, forasmuch as you seem to depend upon Advice from others what to do in that Point, have sate down to write you the Needful upon that Subject.  But, before I enter thereupon, I shall take this Opportunity to observe to you, that the thriving frugal Man shews it in every Part of his Expence, Dress, Servants, and House; and I must in the first place, complain to you, as SPECTATOR, that in these Particulars there is at this Time, throughout the City of London, a lamentable Change from that Simplicity of Manners, which is the true Source of Wealth and Prosperity.  I just now said, the Man of Thrift shews Regularity in every thing; but you may, perhaps, laugh that I take Notice of such a Particular as I am going to do, for