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 spent half his fees in the construction of pumps; and a very ingenious clergy. man, who distinguished himself last year on the question of residence, has done nothing since but make experiments on black-beetles.

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?

so many

It may now be asked, since I have disowned 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 object it will bably fall in my way to offer s

Yome

pro

improve

ments, if not upon wheel-carriages, at least

on

on those who use them: and if I have no dis

coveries 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 may 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.

je

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.

It may be thought that one who is sensible of all this would be proof against such vain apprehensions and imaginations; but I know by experience that Philosophy is a much better thing to write about than to practise; and, therefore, without boasting of superior resolution and firmness, I must humbly take the liberty to shelter myself under the authority of a learned Divine, who assures his readers, that "the best of men are but men at the best."

A few days ago I met with an incident which certainly tried my courage, and which, I hope it will be allowed, was somewhat disheartening to a PROJECTOR in the commencement of his public labours. As I was walking through the Strand, I happened to overtake a man and woman, evidently of the lower order, in close conversation. What the subject was I had no business to inquire, and no anxiety to discover; and I thought indeed that I had heard quite enough, when, on my passing them, the woman exclaimed, “6 Ay, he had always too many projects in his head to do any good."

Now, although it may be very allowable in my literary friends to give me their advice, caution me against precipitation, and exhort me to weigh well

"Quid