only can afford it." This is a very strange opinion; and I give it as I received it, without pretending to unravel its hidden mystery. One may afford a jaunt, or afford to throw away money, or afford to be idle, or afford to neglect business, at least there is no grammatical impropriety in such expressions; but to afford a disease, to cheapen an illness, or pay handsomely for a plague, are paradoxes far above my limited comprehension. By the history of this disorder, I have now vindicated the age from the imputation of carelessness in the article of health; but justice compels me to say, that there are exceptions, as there are to every other general rule. Some persons give a kind of preference to indisposition, and, though it may appear a quibble, are never so well as when they are not well at all. Undoubtedly, in many cases, diseases have their uses. To some they supply a very fertile source of conversation, and are as productive of debate and discussion as the news of the day. I have known a rheumatism on the shoulder take more time in description than a battle on the Rhine; and some of the best speeches in Parliament have been cut short by the detail of a tooth-ache. Foreign affairs are often obliged to give way to inward complaints; and a colic, well told, has not unfrequently diverted the horrors of intestine war. Elderly ladies are extremely partial to certain disorders, and never visit without a body-full of aches and spasms for the entertainment and edification of the company. To politicians the annals of the cabinet may be valuable, but they are nothing in competition with the histories of the bedchamber. Whoever pays his court to an amateur of pain, must expect to be closeted for an hour or two; and I have a maiden aunt, whom for certain reasons I think proper to visit, who is very picturesque in the description of sickness. In her young days she had a tolerable knack at a bad cold; but her forte at present is the rheumatism, in which she is perhaps rather prolix, but, by frequent repetition, eminently perspicuous. I never leave the good old lady without a deep conviction on my mind of the efficacy of Daffy, and the infallibility of guiacum. There is another class, who cherish disorders by way of excuse for certain omissions; and here the range is considerably extensive, as it takes in all public speakers. Singers generally are attached to colds; and some clergymen, I know not why, are said to be liable once a week to sore throats. Nor are diseases of less importance to tradesmen, some of whom are so ill that they cannot keep an appointment, and others so feeble that they cannot write a draft. I shall not dwell longer on these cases however, as I am not quite certain that they are within the reach of the faculty. All I shall add is, that, if a disorder of this kind be not very painful, it is, in the opinion of the world, A VERY BAD SYMPTOM. THE PROJECTOR. No 6. "Matres Famineum clamorem ad cœli sidera tollunt : VIRG. June 1802. IT will doubtless be accounted a very flattering circumstance, that my fourth paper has procured me the favour of a class of men with whom I have had but few opportunities of becoming acquainted, whom I have hitherto viewed at a respectful distance, and who will yet perhaps be rather the subjects of my contemplation than intimacy; I mean, the men of pleasure about the town, whose employment it is to act up to the principles laid down in the abovementioned paper, who struggle, by repeated projects of unquestionable originality and powerful attraction, to vindicate the ingenuity of our country, and who emulate with success the gaieties and licentiousness of a French metropolis. Those of this class, who have become my correspondents, profess a readiness to confirm what I have, more from speculation than experience, ventured to assert, and to prove that it is not necessary to visit the Continent, if our only object be the pursuit of follies that may contribute either to the waste of time or money. As every man must be naturally pleased to find that his efforts have been successful, and that his endeavours have been understood in their intended meaning, I shall make no apology for inserting the following letter; nor, like some of my too modest Fellow-Projectors, be ashamed of the praise it confers. "TO THE AUTHOR OF THE PROJECTOR. 66 SIR, : "I HAVE read your paper in the April Magazine with more pleasure than I expected to reap from speculations founded on the moral plan and as I perceive that you not only know, but are inclined to apologize for the gay world, I applaud your spirit, and shall be very happy to give you that assistance, of which men like yourself very much stand in need. It has, indeed, always struck me as one of the greatest absurdities in the world, that men professing to be only scholars or moralists, should take upon them to judge of the important concerns of TON and fashion, which must, in the very nature of things, be as much above the comprehension of their minds as beyond the reach of their persons. It is a pretty farce, indeed, to see a fellow who is confined all day amongst a parcel of old books, and who sneaks to bed at eleven o'clock, pretending to write about ‘midnight frolics,' and a world which does not begin to live and move until his faculties are suspended in sleep; a man who has not a second change of raiment, censuring or criticising the |