"Hence it comes to pass, Mr. PROJECTOR, that my daughters are every month and every week accumulating a library of obsolete musick, which they dare not place on the stand after a six-weeks' wear, without having some very unpleasant insinuations thrown out at the expence of their taste, which they, I am sorry to add, think the heaviest expence of all. At our house in the country, indeed, they will sometimes venture to play a tune which is perhaps half-a-year, or even a whole year old, to please our Vicar. The Vicar is really a very good man, and is reputed to have a very pretty taste in other matters; but, owing to his distance from London, he falls off miserably in this matter, and has often never heard of a new Air until it has sunk in oblivion. Now, Sir, I need not represent to you, that all this conformity to the ruling taste is attended with a very considerable expence, which I have no means of recovering. Old Musick, every shopkeeper tells me, is a mere drug; and no wonder, when it grows old so soon.

"I have troubled you, Sir, with this complaint of mine, because, although common enough, it has not, as far as I know, been represented by any of your predecessors. I must leave it to your better judgment to determine,

whether you can interpose in behalf of parents who are obliged to keep bands of Musick, or whether you will order my petition to speak for itself among the rest of the remonstrances recorded in your Lucubrations.

"I am, Sir,

"Yours, &c.

PARENTALIS.

"P. S. I may briefly notice, that Fashion has extended its perishable influence even to the instruments themselves. I am old enough to remember spinets and harpsichords; but, alas! where are they to be heard, unless in the shops of the old brokers? My daughters began with a common piano, which cost no more than twenty-five guineas next year they were obliged to have one with additional keys, price thirty-five; and soon after I submitted to a Grand, which I had a pennyworth at ninety, it being the property of a lady, who, having married, had no farther occasion for the instrument. For some weeks past, they have been throwing out hints about a Grand upright, with pedal, tambourine, and drum. This has awakened me a little to the main chance; although it is not improbable that they will vail, as, in order to lessen the expence, they seem willing to give up Brighton. These are

pre

I have submitted my Correspondent's letter, agreeably to his desire, but with no very sanguine hopes that a remedy can be provided : perhaps the request of the writer of the following letter may be more easily complied with.

66

66 TO THE AUTHOR OF THE PROJECTOR.

SIR,

"It is generally said, that every country undertands its own language best, and that the natives of any country, however illiterate they may be in other respects, have many advantages over a foreigner, in acquiring the true meaning of their language. But, common as this maxim is, I have some doubts whether it be universal, and liable to no objection; and I have some fears that we are fast hastening to render our language as puzzling to ourselves as to foreigners. I might give you a very considerable list of words to prove this, and to prove the extraordinary and wanton liberties we take with the meaning of them; but I shall, for the present, confine myself to two or three, which occur so frequently, that we cannot go to dinner without them.

"The words I allude to, Sir, are punctually, precisely, and exactly, or, by way of circumlocution, to a minute, which expresses the same meaning; but what that meaning is I have long been at a loss to understand, and you may suppose I despair of finding any explanation, when I defy any man who has ever received a dinner-invitation, to help me through my difficulty. To illustrate the matter, we will suppose that the hour of appointment is five punctually. Now, Sir, I have known, within the short space of a year, that five punctually extended to half-past five, six, half-past six, and so on till eight, every one of which periods I have been repeatedly taught to consider as five punctually, with all its synonyms of precisely, exactly, and to a minute. The consequence of taking such liberties with the plain, obvious, and right-antient meaning of words is, that many choice dishes have been spoilt, many sweet tempers lost, many stout appetites damaged by relaxation, and a good quantity of patience completely worn out. You will, therefore, Mr. PROJECTOR, very much gratify your Readers, if will touch upon the difference between the genuine meaning of words, and the capricious latitude allowed to them, at so important a crisis as the dinner

you

hour; and be pleased also to inform us, by whose authority it is, that the words abovementioned are not to be understood in the letter, but in the spirit; all which tends to the great detriment of the stomach, and to bring clocks and watches into contempt.

By Fancy's dazzling opticks, these behold

The images of some peculiar things

With brighter hues resplendent, and pourtray'd

With features nobler far than e'er adorn'd

Their genuine objects."

AKENSIDE.

August 1808.

ADDISON and others, who have treated on the Pleasures of Imagination, have confined their attention to the regions of Taste, and seem to be of opinion that Fancy is exercised on no other topicks than what administer to our per