making fashions travel with such rapidity as to become almost contemporaneous throughout the whole kingdom, ought not only to be en couraged, but may be extended yet farther. At present we have begun with samples of velvets and silks; from that the transition to caps and bonnets cannot be very difficult; and as articles of household furniture are now most particularly under the dominion of fashion, contrivances may be fallen upon by which persons living at a distance will be preserved from the danger of sitting on a chair that is unfashionable, or sleeping in a bed that has been perhaps a whole month out of vogue. Painting, we know, can represent just what we please; and whether we please to furnish our houses in the Greek, the Gothic, the French, or the Italian manner, I know no utensil of which an artist may not convey a very edifying notion. But I shall not dwell more particularly on this subject, as I am informed that such an extension of the moveables of fashion is actually in contemplation, and some eminent artists are now employed on the attitudes of a party at whist, sketches of the genteelest modes of fainting inside view of an Opera-box, with the newest loll over the front-perspective of the crossings in Bond-street, illustrated by

habits, which formerly could not be contem. plated without the trouble, if it ever was a trouble, of a visit to the Metropolis.

in

It is plain from these circumstances that we live in a Projecting age; and as the business I have had the honour of carrying on is of a somewhat different sort, it would be very wrong me to entertain any jealousy. The world is wide enough for us all; and I cannot perceive that there will be any dangerous interference between us. My readers have been long acquainted with the articles I deal in, and`are in possession of my sample-book; in which, if they should perceive neither kerseymeres nor cambrics, they may occasionally hit upon an article which will suit their taste, without being quite so perishable as the Grecian mantle, or the Merino cap.

THE PROJECTOR. No 91.

"Sordidus et dives, populi contemnere voces

Sic solitus."

Нок.

January 1809.

QUACKERY, which for many years has been confined to medical pretenders, seems now to be practised by pretenders of every other description. Whether this be owing to the success which has attended the cure of diseases by Quacks, or that their mode of address is the best calculated to set off the merits of any kind of pretender, I shall not inquire: but whoever reads the newspapers must be convinced that the venders of pills and drops have of late been robbed of their eloquent addresses, their fine imagery, and their flowers of rhetorick, by a numerous tribe of quack-dealers who profess to dispose of articles of a very different kind. But as, in imitating the antient fraternity of medical practitioners, these new pretenders seem a little deficient in that quality which, of all others, enables them to make an impression on the public mind; I have ventured, in this

paper, with my usual regard for aspiring merit, to offer a few remarks on the subject, tending, I hope, to their lasting advantage. Indeed, I may safely adopt one of their favourite boasts, and assert that all I propose is pro bono pub

lico.

Quackery is of very antient standing; but has certainly suffered no little degradation by being confined to a set of men who profess nothing higher than to cure the disorders of the vulgar, and who insult the delicacy of our senses by bringing the language of the bedroom into our fashionable newspapers. Why this should so long have been the case, is somewhat unaccountable. There is in quackery a principle of action, and a promise of success, which evidently point out to men of a certain degree of discernment that it was intended by nature for a much wider range of operation; and that men of all descriptions, who determine to succeed in the world by qualities in which they are grossly deficient, may have recourse to it as a never-failing recommendation.

There are, however, many matters to be taken into consideration, before a man can set up his stage, and become a successful rival to the manufacturers of pills and boluses. And among those, for I do not mean to enumerate

them all, there is this indispensable conclusion to be drawn, namely, that the bulk of mankind are fools, and that in parting with their money, they have a natural inclination to prefer rogues to honest men, and blockheads to men of learning. From what premises this conclusion is drawn, whether from information or inspection, whether it be acquired by intuition or by actual enumeration, are questions of little importance, provided it be laid down and adhered to as an infallible maxim. But as the bulk of mankind are not the whole, what remain are to be accounted either so inattentive as to be harmless, or so slenderly provided with understanding as to be worked upon by frequent operations, and finally included in the great mass.

It may be said, for I wish to obviate objections as I proceed, that a man may find himself mistaken in this calculation. But this objection is not stronger than be made to any may other scheme. Some will fail, and some succeed; and it is observed that even of those who fail, and who, as the language of your rigid moralists express it, become detected and exposed, there is not one of them who departs from his first way of thinking. He still persists in supposing mankind to be fools; but has now discovered that Fortune, for some