narrowly inspected, they would be found to have fewer consolations.

But as consistency is that feature in their character which I have thought proper to celebrate, it may be necessary to add another particular, in which that consistency will be found to excel all that is attempted of the kind by the rest of the world. Most men who have had the praise of consistency have been discovered varying and changing. Some men are So altered in the course of years, that their friends can with difficulty recognize them. Some have been known to change their character by illness; others from various motives or persuasions; and age very generally age very generally produces new modes of thinking and acting. But nothing of all this is perceptible in the man who "will do any thing for money;" he would be contemptible in his own eyes, if he were to yield to common opinions and persuasions; and as to age, it is well known that he becomes more attached to his favourite system as he grows older, and is never more desirous to accumulate money, than when it becomes unnecessary for all possible wants, and he has, perhaps, lost the very power of counting it.

While the world continues to entertain no very favourable opinion of this class of men, it

may be supposed that they entertain a very good opinion of themselves. But even here, I presume, they act consistently. The man who "will do any thing for money" is not a proud man; he does not boast of what he does; nor will he if he can help it, exhibit the fruits of his doings. The establishment of a propertytax would have been a very fatal measure to men of this description, if their humility had not induced them to be shy of ostentatious disclosures. In truth, there is no ingredient in pride, and no species of that passion, to which the man who "will do any thing for money" can safely lay claim. Poverty, indeed, he will often affect, if it may be called affectation, of which there is some reason to doubt, for there are instances in which the dread of "coming to the parish" has been seriously entertained by men who left enough to have enriched every inhabitant of it. Others, who are perhaps not so far gone, are observed to part with a shilling or a sixpence as if it were the last of their store, and they had no knowledge where to get another. And where this occurs in old age, as is most frequently the case, who will say that the persons I have been describing are not among the most consistent of human beings?

E PROJECTOR. N° 98.

unis, qui est cunctis in mortalibus, sensus."

ARNOBIUS.

August 1809.

1 admirable miscellany of reflexions and sms just published, under the title of nymiana, it is remarked, that "Common se is generally esteemed the most useful d of sense; as, when we hear it said of a rson of parts and learning, but giddy, oughtless, and dissipated, running into debts nd difficulties, and taking no manner of care of his affairs, that he has all sorts of sense but Common Sense." The same Author informs us, that "this Common Sense, or a good understanding, is a Latin phrase as well as an English one;" a circumstance which I quote with some satisfaction, for, in what may be here advanced in favour of Common Sense, I should be sorry to be thought a friend to innovations in morals or language.

Observations similar to the above have been frequently made by other writers; and we

As it may be supposed that persons who "will do any thing for money" are not only the most consistent, but the most successful speculators in wealth, since it is not possible to conceive any impediment that should disturb their progress, I think it necessary to obviate this last opinion. Undoubtedly some are successful; that is, they acquire an almost incredible quantity of what they will do any thing for; but, on the other hand, they are liable to sudden revolutions and reverses; and it has been sometimes doubted, by very shrewd observers, whether, upon the whole, their plan has other merit than that of consistency; and whether, in forming the resolution to "do any thing for money," it would not have been as well to except a few things, which are not very ornamental to a man's character. Be this as it may, it is certain that the conclusions of their lives have not always warranted the mises, nor been accompanied with circumstances strictly consistent; for some have been despised, although they died rich; and others have been pitied, although they were hanged.

any

pre

THE PROJECTOR. No 98.

"Ille communis, qui est cunctis in mortalibus, sensus."

IN

ARNOBIUS.

August 1809.

N an admirable miscellany of reflexions and criticisms just published, under the title of Anonymiana, it is remarked, that "Common Sense is generally esteemed the most useful kind of sense; as, when we hear it said of a person of parts and learning, but giddy, thoughtless, and dissipated, running into debts and difficulties, and taking no manner of care of his affairs, that he has all sorts of sense but Common Sense." The same Author informs us, that "this Common Sense, or a good understanding, is a Latin phrase as well as an English one;" a circumstance which I quote with some satisfaction, for, in what may be here advanced in favour of Common Sense, I should be sorry to be thought a friend to innovations in morals or language.

Observations similar to the above have been frequently made by other writers; and we