other merit than that of bringing skirts into disrepute, and changing the full-length of a great coat to the size of a kit-cat.

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Again it must be remarked, for I do not wish to gloss over the little infirmities of our order, that Projectors, like poets, are liable to fall into the bathos, when they attempt too many things, mixing the heroic with the ludicrous, and the grave with the familiar. really whimsical to see a plan for introducing lax principles of religion in the same volume with directions for transplanting hedges; and the same man contriving to make coach-lamps stationary, who had just before written on the perpetual motion. Yet thus it always is with our numerous family; and it must frequently remind the publick of Horace's composition of a man, a horse, a fish, and a woman.

In this versatile humour of " putting our hands to any thing," while some are constructing iron bridges, others are improving green spectacles. While some are forming constitutions for new republics, others are enriching their country in the article of windmills. While some are introducing in new shapes the exploded opinions of old infidels, others are fitting out vessels to go against wind and tide. While some are so aspiring as to

mount

mount to smoaky chimneys, others are bringing down their genius to razor-strops and corkscrews. While some have raised a mighty name by planning revolutions, others have given their nights and days to cart-wheels. While some have plunged into favour with posterity by the depth of a tunnel, others have burst into reputation by the power of steam. Nay, one of my acquaintance, a barrister, remarkable for his skill in cross-questioning witnesses, has half his fees in the construction of pumps; and a very ingenious clergyman, who distinguished himself last year on the question of residence, has done nothing since but make experiments on black-beetles.

spent

It is thus that the name of PROJECTOR is brought into disgrace, and frequently supposed to imply a restlessness of fancy, and a perpetual effort at useless contrivances. But there is certainly nothing in the name itself that will justify all this. If a Projector fails, he but shares the fate of many others who know not that they belong to the same class. If the matter, indeed, were seriously considered, a great portion of mankind who are apt to shrink from that name would find that they have been Projectors the greater part of their lives, but with a strange inversion of purposes,

What,

What, for example, is a man whose fortune has been squandered on dogs, horses, and gaming-houses, but a Projector who has contrived to ruin himself in the shortest possible space of time, and with the least assistance from art or nature? And what is a woman known only in the annals of gaming and adultery, but a machine contrived by fashion to destroy the happiness of a family, and contribute to the disgrace of a sex?

It may now be asked, since I have disowned so many of the name, in what class I desire to be placed, and what is the nature of those projects I intend to deliver through the medium of the Gentleman's Magazine? The question is fair, and shall not be evaded; but, as every future paper will be an answer, it may at present suffice to say negatively, that I have nothing to advance in the arts or sciences properly so called; I have no improvements to offer in botany, chemistry, agriculture, or mechanics; I have made no progress in the discovery of the longitude, and shall not meddle with the lever, the axle, the pulley, or the inclined plane. Yet, that I may not seem wholly inattentive to such objects, it will probably fall in my way to offer some improvements, if not upon wheel-carriages, at least

on

may

on those who use them: and if I have no discoveries to make of intrigues among "the plants," I shall not fail to attend to those which are matured in the hot-houses of dissipation. I likewise take notice of some new-invented wind-mills, of those schemes which depend on vapour, and of those projects of felicity which so frequently end in air. I shall not fail to record the explosions which attend disappointed vanity and perverted talents, and carefully record those variations of atmosphere which at certain seasons render home pernicious. It will perhaps be found that my projects will be as various as my materials; and, what may appear somewhat singular, I shall more frequently refer my readers to improvements that are very old, than to those that are very new. Among the class of Projectors to which I belong, it has been long an error to look forward rather than backward, and to neglect old schemes for new, before the new have been proved, and the old worn out. In mechanics this may be only ridiculous; in morals it has been fatal.

THE PROJECTOR. No 2.

"Verte omnes tete in FACIES; et contrahe quicquid

Sive animis, sive arte vales."

VIRG.

"Get all the HEADS you can, no matter how."

February 1802.

Ir secrecy has its advantages, it has its dis

advantages likewise. If he who determines to carry on his business incog. escapes some dangers to which the profession of Author as well as Projector is exposed, he is at the same time the continual prey of suspicions and fears, and may be said to enjoy the snugness rather than the security of a private station. He is apt to fancy that he is discovered by those who are thinking on other subjects, and his fears induce him to take to himself casual hints and expressions which are not levelled at him. He consequently often endeavours to escape when there is nothing to fly from, and guards anxiously against detection before he has even excited curiosity.

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