The Projector Author:Alexander Chalmers Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE PROJECTOR. N 2, " Verteomnes tete in Facies ; et contrahe quicquid Sive animis, sive arte vales." Virg. " Get all the Heads you can, no matter how." ... more » February l80£. Ip secrecy has its advantages, it has its disadvantages likewise. If he who determines to carry on his business incog, escapes some dangers to which the profession of Author as well as Projector is exposed, he is at the same time the continual prey of suspicions and fears, and may be said to enjoy the snugness rather than the security of a private station. He is apt to fancy that he is discovered by those who are thinking on other subjects, and his fears induce him to take to himself casual hints and expressions which are not levelled at him. He consequently often endeavours to escape when there is nothing to fly from, and guards anxiously against detection before he has even excited curiosity. chapter{Section 4It may be thought that one who is sensible of all this would be proof against such vain apprehensions and imaginations; but I know by experience that Philosophy is a much better thing to write about than to practise; and, therefore, without boasting of 'superior resolution and firmness, I must humbly take the liberty to shelter myself under the authority of a learned Divine, who assures his readers, that " the best of men are but men at the best." A few days ago I met with an incident which certainly tried my courage, and which, I hope it will be allowed, was somewhat disheartening to a Projector in the commencement of his public labours. As I was walking through the Strand, I happened to overtake a man and woman, evidently of the lower order, in close conversation. What the subject was I had no business to inquire, and no anxiety to discover; and I thought indeed that 1 had heard quite enou...« less