It may, perhaps, be inquired by those who are willing rather to cavil than to learn, what is the just measure of frugality? and when expense, not absolutely necessary, degenerates into profusion? To such questions no general answer can be returned; since the liberty of spending, or necessity of parsimony, may be varied without end by different circumstances. It may, however, be laid down as a rule never to be broken, that a _man's voluntary expense should not exceed his revenue_. A maxim so obvious and incontrovertible, that the civil law ranks the prodigal with the madman[46], and debars them equally from the conduct of their own affairs. Another precept arising from the former, and indeed included in it, is yet necessary to be distinctly impressed upon the warm, the fanciful, and the brave; _Let no man anticipate uncertain profits_. Let no man presume to spend upon hopes, to trust his own abilities for means of deliverance from penury, to give a loose to his present desires, and leave the reckoning to fortune or to virtue. To these cautions, which, I suppose, are, at least among the graver part of mankind, undisputed, I will add another, _Let no man squander against his inclination_. With this precept it may be, perhaps, imagined easy to comply; yet if those whom profusion has buried in prisons, or driven into banishment, were examined, it would be found that very few were ruined by their own choice, or purchased pleasure with the loss of their estates; but that they suffered themselves to be borne away by the violence of those with whom they conversed, and yielded reluctantly to a thousand prodigalities, either from a trivial emulation of wealth and spirit, or a mean fear of contempt and ridicule; an emulation for the prize of folly, or the dread of the laugh of fools. I am, Sir, Your humble servant, SOPHRON. [Footnote 46: Institut. i. 23. 3. De furiosis et prodigis.] No. 58. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1750. _----Improbæ_ _Crescunt divitiæ; tamen_ _Curtæ nescio quid semper abest rei._ HOR. Lib. iii. Ode xxiv. 62. But, while in heaps his wicked wealth ascends, He is not of his wish possess'd; There's something wanting still to make him bless'd. FRANCIS.