 Projects are yet brought to Perfection; and
in the mean time, the whole Country lies miserably waste, the Houses in Ruins,
and the People without Food or Cloaths. By all which, instead of being
discouraged, they are Fifty Times more violently bent upon prosecuting their
Schemes, driven equally on by Hope and Despair: That, as for himself, being not
of an enterprizing Spirit, he was content to go on in the old Forms; to live in
the Houses his Ancestors had built, and act as they did in every Part of Life
without Innovation. That, some few other Persons of Quality and Gentry had done
the same; but were looked on with an Eye of Contempt and ill Will, as Enemies to
Art, ignorant, and ill Commonwealthsmen, preferring their own Ease and Sloth
before the general Improvement of their Country.
    His Lordship added, that he would not by any further Particulars prevent the
Pleasure I should certainly take in viewing the grand Academy, whither he was
resolved I should go. He only desired me to observe a ruined Building upon the
Side of a Mountain about three Miles distant, of which he gave me this Account.
That he had a very convenient Mill within Half a Mile of his House, turned by a
Current from a large River, and sufficient for his own Family as well as a great
Number of his Tenants. That, about seven Years ago, a Club of those Projectors
came to him with Proposals to destroy this Mill, and build another on the Side
of that Mountain, on the long Ridge whereof a long Canal must be cut for a
Repository of Water, to be conveyed up by Pipes and Engines to supply the Mill:
Because the Wind and Air upon a Height agitated the Water, and thereby made it
fitter for Motion: And because the Water descending down a Declivity would turn
the Mill with half the Current of a River whose Course is more upon a Level. He
said, that being then not very well with the Court, and pressed by many of his
Friends, he complyed with the Proposal; and after employing an Hundred Men for
two Years, the Work miscarryed, the Projectors went off, laying the Blame
intirely upon him; railing at him ever since, and putting others upon the same
Experiment, with equal Assurance of Success, as well as equal Disappointment.
    In a few Days we came back to Town; and his Excellency, considering the bad
Character he had in the Academy, would not go with me himself, but recommended
me to a Friend of his to bear me Company thither. My Lord was pleased
