enough to see farther through such impositions than was intended, and spirit enough to resent them. I would therefore recommend to those geniuses for whom this paper is intended, to consider that there is no business which may not be overstocked; and that the arts by which self-interest is promoted, may be made too cheap. Valuable as impudence is, and surely many gentlemen of figure may cordially subscribe to the services it has rendered them, it is liable to be misunderstood, and to be injured in the handling. It is a much more intricate process to persevere in, than those who practise it seem to be aware. It has its weaknesses; it is liable to sudden disorders, and frequently to be so deranged as to be attended with all the mischiefs of modesty. I was lately told that a gentleman who has the reputation of having been a very skilful practitioner of this article for many years, was lately heard to say, that if he had the world to begin again, he would adopt a course diametrically opposite. Now, there must be something very wrong in the operation, when such is the result. It is to be remarked also, as the principal cause of the failure of impudence, where it does really fail in producing its object, that it was not accompanied with a sufficient quantity of talent. I note this as a warning; and I should ill close this paper of advice to the parties concerned, if I neglected to add, that of all the monstrous coalitions the world has ever seen, that of impudence and ignorance is the most monstrous. It has done more mischief to impudence than all the writings of all the moralists from Solomon to the present day. If continued, it must be the ruin of ambitious quackery; for it tends to make those wise who have been accounted fools, and it deprives us of an admirable apology for imposture and infamy, it being a very common opinion that the greatest rogue upon earth deserves respect, if it can be proved that he has prostituted the finest talents, and perverted the greatest gifts ever given to man. THE PROJECTOR. N° 92. "Mortals, whose pleasures are their only care, COWPER. February 1809, "MR. PROJECTOR, 66 from the that you HOPE I do not very much deviate purpose of your Paper in requesting will now and then bestow a little attention on words as well as things, and give us some rules for speaking as well as thinking on certain subjects. My reason for making this request is, that, in my humble opinion, we are too much influenced by words, and that, in many cases, we can produce no better arguments in favour of our actions, than the repetition of certain words, to which we can with great difficulty affix any meaning, and which seem to have lost their original and obvious meaning, without being able to find another. "Among these I might fairly instance the word honour, which has at least as many meanings as letters, and which, with all these meanings, has departed so widely from its original sense, that it is as often used with a bad as with a good intent, and is consequently as often productive of mischief as of good. It must, for example, have undergone some strange changes in its progress through the world, when it inclines a man to be exceedingly punctual in satisfying a sharper, while he is equally pertinacious in ruining a tradesman; and when a man's honour makes him very nice as to his own feelings with his sex, while he can without the least compunction insult the feelings and destroy the reputation of a helpless female. "If, amidst this confusion of ideas, we pause a little to inquire what honour was, and what it is; to whom shall we apply? But my immediate purpose is not so much to direct your attention to this unfortunate word, which has often been handled by your predecessors, as to hint that if, instead of honour, we were to substitute shame, we should approach a little nearer to that imaginary something which creates coxcombs and quarrels. Yet, even with these helps, we shall perhaps be obliged at last to confess that we have only exchanged one series of inconsistencies for another. If we al low that a nice sense of shame is one of the criteria of a manly spirit, how shall we reconcile this with the well-known fact, that no men take more pains to expose themselves to ridicule than some of those very gentlemen who affect to dread nothing so much? If this were not the case, how comes it that one of the most distinguishing features of their character is, to become the dupes of sharpers and strumpets; sharpers without a grain of understanding to recommend their company, and and strumpets without the least disguise to conceal their avarice and prodigality? Those who are so exceedingly afraid of ridicule, one might suppose, would of all other men be the most careful of doing any thing to incur it; but, in proportion to the high tone of their pretensions to sense, honour, or whatever else they please to call it, is their propensity to become the easy dupes of the most inartful impostors. "But, Mr. PROJECTOR, my immediate purpose was, to suggest to your consideration the confusion lately introduced in our use, or rather abuse, of the words famous, celebrated, and eminent, and notorious, which we seem to consider as synonymous, and apply indiscri |