by the Long Parliament, there are many who would think it an excellent bargain. The most learned of our Prelates cannot sometimes stand in competition with Hugh Peters; and those Illustrators will often prefer conspirators to loyal subjects, for no reason that I can conceive, unless that they are ready beheaded to their hand. One of them, as a great favour, shewed me the other day a head of 'Esop of Eton, the drunken, funking, rhyming cobler.' And what do you suppose, Mr. Projector, had he given for this worthy personage? I tremble while I write it but the price of this drunken, funking, rhyming cobler, was three of Queen Mary's Martyrs, two Geneva Reformers, six Oxford Founders, Archbishop Cranmer, and a head that once belonged to Charles I. "Such are some of the practices of this sect. And now I leave it to be determined by your readers, whether they do not deserve to be taken into very serious consideration. I have furnished with the data, and I hope you will make a proper use of them. you "I am, Sir, Your humble servant, ANTI-GUILLOTINE." The length of my correspondent's letter will necessarily prevent my offering many remarks on the subject of it in this paper. The growing evil has not escaped my observation, although, what my correspondent terms a sect and a conspiracy, I am rather inclined to think is a disease; and I freely confess I myself have not been without some smart attacks of it, however I may have endeavoured to keep it down. The disease is very well known, principally under the name of a Granger; it is a vast gathering, and the characteristic symptom is a reluctance in the patient to have it dispersed. I know a very worthy young man who was seized with it a few months ago, and is a deplorable instance of its power. I shall, perhaps, relate his unhappy case in a future paper. THE PROJECTOR. No 3. Ira furor brevis est. Animum rege, qui nisi paret THE HOR. March 1802. HE principal characteristic of the family of the PROJECTORS, to which, however unworthy, I have the honour to belong, is equa lity of temper. Whether this has arisen from philosophy or constitution, whether we have suppressed our angry passions, or were born without them, must be left to conjecture; but, after carefully inspecting our history, I do not find an instance upon record of any of my ancestors having been ruffled by cross accidents, or these little trials of perplexity and vexation which so frequently destroy good-humour. I account it, therefore, a great happiness to be allied to a family of this description: for, after we have made a fair and liberal estimate of all the blessings of life, of rank, title, and wealth, we must at last give the preference to cheerfulness. By what means we have secured this advantage in perpetuity, will probably appear in the course of these lucubrations: in the mean time, however, to prevent erroneous speculations, I desire it may be remembered that the family motto is contentus parvo; that the world has never been very lavish in its honours or rewards; and that Projectors have generally been a despised order of men: and, to make curiosity still more anxious to know how we have contrived to preserve this valuable inheritance, undiminished by extravagance, forfeiture, or mortgage, I must farther add that some of us have been engaged in law-suits, some have lived in a state of dependence, and some have been married. As every man, who possesses any advantage, and is, at the same time, not of a niggardly disposition, naturally desires to impart it to others; so, among the many Projects on which my time has been employed, is to be found the outline of a scheme for the regulation of temper, but I am sorry to add, that after trying numberless experiments, I have not been able to bring it to such perfection as either to justify me in applying for a patent to sell, or encourage me to seek a remuneration for disclosing the secret. Some Projectors, engaged in the same undertaking, have begun by laying it down as a maxim, that a good temper may be acquired against the bent of nature, and accordingly have proposed certain rules to promote equanimity and expel peevishness. But as these rules have been chiefly recommended to the young (who are not, by the bye, the greatest delinquents in this respect,) we cannot always be certain that they have succeeded. There is, at least, an equal chance that they may have been employed on dispositions which did not require their aid, and which they rather encouraged than formed; and thus, as in the case of some medical prescriptions, the reputation of the physician has arisen, not so much from the cure, as the absence of the disease. It ther appears to me extremely doubtful wheany instructions can be given with success for the regulation of the temper in grown gentlemen, or for abating that irritability which appears on sudden and trifling provocations, and puts them out of temper." This last expression, with others in colloquial use, seems to imply that temper is removeable by accident, and returnable by degrees; and it is certain that, from observing the various periods of its duration or absence, we learn to class the |