despised by the great ones of the earth, by the rulers of nations, and the members of councils and of senates? Behold him in his closet dispensing the blame or praise that never dies on those very persons, sometimes with the gravity of historical detail, sometimes with the characteristic justice of biography, and sometimes with the severity of lampoon. It was but a few days ago a Projector complained to me, that he had narrowly escaped being trodden under-foot by the spirited horses which drew Lord's carriage; "and yet," he added, "that man does not recollect that, if he dies before me, I shall write his life!"-It is wonderful, indeed, how little notice is taken of such Projectors, when we consider how much is in their power, and how fond all men who have power are of displaying it. And even their courage towards the living is often formidable. If they decline encountering superior rank and wealth on any other ground, they will meet them undaunted in a news-paper, a poem, or a novel, and give themselves a superiority which cannot be contested but by those who wield an equal pen. Still, however, I am inclined to own that these are only external advantages, and are not to be rated higher than they deserve, nor compared with the ideal satisfactions I have been detailing. Before I conclude my paper, it may be neces sary, for the completion of the subject, to add, that, however highly we estimate the pleasures of Imagination, there are some things which cannot be accomplished by the utmost stretch of fancy. It appears to be perfectly useless on quarter-day, and to have no power whatever in supplying either the kitchen or the wardrobe. It makes no figure upon 'Change, and never was heard of within the walls of the Bank. There are no imaginary three per cents, no ideal dividend-warrants. It will not be listened to at a meeting of creditors, and never was known to supersede a bankruptcy. I do not wish, therefore, to be the encomiast of Imagination without fairly stating its failings; and I would recommend these to the attention of my brother Projectors. Other persons will not need the caution, as they think of nothing else. But yet let it be remembered, that Imagination will moderate the wishes it cannot exclude, and provide ample substitutes for anxious cares and turbulent desires. Those who have learned contentment with simple pleasures, and to delight in the satisfactions which refined society yields at a cheap rate, will think themselves "Supremely blest, if to their portion fall THE PROJECTOR. N° 42. "Qui fit, Mæcenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem Seu ratio dederit, seu fors objecerit, illa Contentus vivat?" HORAT. Sat. March 1805. For Some weeks past, the conversation of the Town, that is, such part of it as could conveniently be spared from political affairs, has turned principally on the fate of the adventurers in the BOYDELL LOTTERY. This, except in the case of the fortunate persons to whose lot the sixty-two high prizes fell, appears to have differed very much from the common issue of lotteries, and has been the subject of much curious speculation, and of some complaint. Few of my readers need be told, that those tickets which, by the scheme of any other lottery, would be termed blanks, were in this entitled to a print, or prints, worth one-third of the original price of the ticket. By this singular arrangement, each purchaser had an opportunity of preserving a memorial of so extraordinary a lottery, and that not only of his individual share, but of the liberality and spirit of the Nation, which stood forward with alacrity, and without importunity, in support and for the honour of a veteran, who had been so eminent a reviver, encourager, and patron of the Arts. Never, certainly, did an opportunity of the kind happen, in which all ranks were more eager to advance their contributions, that it might no longer be said that foreigners only had the spirit to promote national taste. Hence the term "adventurer in the lottery" became for once a term of honour, and a proof of taste. This was, indeed, a lottery to which none of the objections usually advanced against that financial measure could with any propriety be applied. It endangered no man's morals, and encouraged no man's avarice. We have heard of no labourers who have pawned their tools or their cloaths that they might have a chance to possess paintings or prints. No mechanick has starved his children, and no wife has defrauded her husband, to illustrate their hovels with scenes of Shakspeare or of Milton; and no footman has robbed his master, or taken to the highway, that he might decorate his garret with the Houghton Collection, or the Works of Hogarth. Money was so entirely out of consideration, that, except in the solitary instance of the Gallery, it entered into no man's head that he could purchase the means of any gratification but what was connected with taste and liberality. For once, therefore, we have seen a lottery of 22,000 tickets begun and ended without any advantage accruing to pawnbrokers or thieftakers, almost the only persons who are said to be gainers by a mode of raising money to which, upon these accounts, let us hope, Government has recourse rather from necessity than choice. A lottery attended with so many honourable circumstances might well deserve to be handed down to posterity with respect, even if the simple facts now related were all that had rendered the BOYDELL LOTTERY a matter of much conversation for some time past. But this is not all; for it has so happened that this lottery, ori ginally granted by Parliament in support of the Arts, and especially the art of engraving, has turned out to be a vast fund of moral satire and ingenious raillery at the expences of the follies and vices of the times. Of this result the publick, I believe, had no expectation; at least I cannot find that it entered at all into the contemplation even of most liberal purchasers. For my own part, however, being naturally inclined, |