morality, which, I am aware, are but awkwardly connected with the disputes of the stable, the kennel, or the brothel. I have more pleasure in celebrating the coolness of that kind of anger which leads a man to the ground, and in praising, not without a respectful mixture of astonishment, the dispassionate resentment, and amicable hatred, with which the parties meet. These are circumstances which, as an impartial writer, I cannot conceal; but on the contrary bid them heartily welcome to all the praise which is due to men who so ingeniously baffle the laws of their country, and so good-humouredly turn into ridicule the old-fashioned qualities of courage and honour. All I wish to hint, for it becomes me not to insist, is, that in these, and all other cases of anger, from a family tiff to a fatal duel, it would be very becoming to exhibit some cause better proportioned to the effect, than what is usually laid before the publick.

ease.

Some of the antients, we read, considered anger as a short madness, and others as a disThese theories were at least rational, and the disorder in either way might be removed. Confinement or reflection will prevent all bad effects in the most inveterate cases;

but the remedy becomes very difficult when it assumes the gracefulness and popularity of a fashion, and is supported by men whose ideas of real honour are as confused as those of any other makers of fashions. It would be agreeable, therefore, if some rules were laid down for quarrelling; we have rules for almost every thing but this; and I cannot see why all should be left to caprice, and nothing of system or science introduced in an affair which is reckoned of so much importance as to justify men in defying the precepts of the living God.

As to the appearances of anger in private society, the subject is so exceedingly copious that I can offer but a very few hints. That it is useful, I am not permitted to deny, because it is sanctioned by universal custom. It is particularly celebrated for its efficacy in promoting the circulation of the blood, and therefore eminently serviceable to persons of a sedentary habit, who sit much at home, or any where else, watching the event of the odd trick. It might be mentioned too, as heightening the complexion, and consequently improving beauty. It were needless to expatiate on its usefulness in such cases as breaking a china bowl, misplacing a cap, or cane, &c. These are extreme instances, and are thought sufficient to

justify a very great portion of wrath. Nor are these so dependant on the scale of income, as the examples alluded to in a former part of this paper. Domestic anger may be traced in courts and alleys as well as in places and squares; and I have been witness to most passionate squabbles between persons who, to my knowledge, could scarcely bear the expence of a very moderate tiff; and I have beheld others fretting and fuming in the cast-off oaths of men of rank, or the second-hand scoldings borrowed from ladies' maids.

For my own part, whoever knows the life which a Projector is doomed to live, must know that anger is a luxury far beyond his pocket. Exposed as we are to the sneers and buffetings of the world, and yet dependant on it for the few comforts we enjoy, it would ill become us by any shew of resentment to provoke those who could in a moment take the very pen out of our hands. This fatal necessity has, in a great measure, enabled me to suppress those risings which other men may indulge as they please. But another consideration has for many years contributed to make me very easy on this score; and, as some of readers may my may be disposed to adopt it, I shall conclude with remarking, that there are very

few things in this world worth quarrelling about; that anger was given for the valuable purposes of preserving from danger, and from vice, by exciting our abhorrence and resentment at its offers, however tempting; that one of the principal means whereby happiness may be promoted, is the cultivation of a benevolent disposition, and a forgiving temper; that silent contempt is the most successful resentment, and abstraction from the company of the unprincipled, the only security.

THE PROJECTOR. N° 31.

"Librorum inopiam quereris. multos habeas, sed quam bonos. est multa degustare."

Non refert quam

Fastidientis stomachi

SENECA, EPIST.

May 1804.

PROJECTORS may be divided into two classes, namely, into those who employ their skill on purposes of utility, and those who devote themselves to the invention of amusement; but

their fate has been very different. Of those who have employed themselves on subjects of real utility, I shall say but little, because egotism does not become me. Of the inventors of amusement, it is frequently complained that they have ever been the greatest favourites with the bulk of mankind, because, it is said, the bulk of mankind had rather be amused than instructed. Yet, as I wish to put the most gentle interpretation on such partialities, and had rather be handed down to posterity as the most eminent Apologist than as the severest Castigator of my own times, I am inclined to think, that the popularity of the authors of amusement does not proceed so much from a principle of injustice, as from an opinion that, as the demand for amusement is urgent and clamorous, amusement may be ranked among the necessaries of life; and those persons are therefore to be praised who can supply it in the greatest quantity. Hence we ought not to repine, if some should prefer the machinery of a poem to that of a manufactory, and pay more attention to the man who diverts their leisure hours, than to him who works their looms. This must ever be the case with those to whom it is more necessary to know how to spin out their time than their cotton, and to whom the