about to defraud him of the emolument arising and beneficially. Writing on the subject, he says from the legal sale of them; his property inter--"I have told Scotland of improvement in trade, cepted and made away with in the most lawless wealth, and shipping, that shall accrue to them on manner; his Reviews were stolen out of coffee- the happy conclusion of this affair; and I am houses, to prevent them from being read; his pleased doubly with this, that I am likely to be one debts were bought up, that proceedings might be of the first men that shall give them the pleasure instituted against him; and he was even at last of the experiment." On returning to London, at obliged to withhold his name from his works, as the beginning of 1708, he was rewarded with a fixed the only chance of successfully introducing them salary and an appointment under government. In to the public. The published attacks upon him the course of the two succeeding years he several were endless. "Tis really something hard," times visited Scotland, and when the Union was said he on one occasion, "that after all the mortifi-completed, he published in Edinburgh the first cation they think they have put upon a poor abdi- edition of his work on "The Union of Great cated author, in their scurrilous street ribaldry Britain." and bear-garden usage, some in prose, and some in Though De Foe had accepted employment under their terrible lines they call verse, they cannot yet a tory government, he does not appear to have ever be quiet; but whenever anything comes out that rendered the ministry any service in the way of does not please them, I come in for a share of the advocating their expressly tory measures. He not answer, whatever I did in the question. Every- unnaturally abstained from writing against the thing they think an author deserves to be abused cabinet which employed him; but less perhaps for must be mine." 11* He was subjected to a simi- from any sympathy with their general proceedings lar ill-treatment in connection with many of his than from the perception that his former labors had personal transactions. The following statement been imperfectly comprehended, and ungenerously may be given as a curious specimen of the manner received by the party he had designed to benefit. in which his conduct was watched and punished The "popular cause" of the day had become uneven by private individuals. "On board of a faithful to itself. De Foe desired universal toleraship," says he, "I loaded some goods. The tion; but it needed only to raise the absurd cry of master is a whig, of a kind more particular than the "Church in danger!" to divert the people ordinary. He comes to the port, my bill of lading from the pursuit of their personal and proper liberis produced, my title to my goods undisputed; no ties. Any one at all acquainted with the history claim, no pretence-but my goods cannot be found. of the period will remember the disturbances and The ship sailed again, and I am told my goods are intense excitement occasioned by the proceedings carried back; and all the reason given is, that they of Sacheverell, who at one time went about London belong to De Foe, author of the Review, and he with a mob at his heels, demolishing dissenting is turned about, and writes for keeping up public meeting-houses; and, being unwisely brought to credit. Thus, gentlemen, I am ready to be assas- trial by the government, could not be more than sinated, arrested without warrant, robbed and plun- nominally punished, by reason of his popularity, dered by all sides: I can neither trade nor live; and the boundless sympathy which his insensate and what is it all for? Only, as I can yet see, conduct excited in the public. During the early because, there being faults on both sides, I tell part of 1710 the nation was almost wholly occupied both sides of it too plainly." It needed a brave with the political aberrations and ill-judged trial of and steadfast spirit to bear up under long years of this notorious divine. For the time, nothing was treatment such as this; and few things are more so fashionable as discussions on church politics; the honorable to De Foe than the perfect and manly very women and children, and even the desolate patience with which he sustained so many hard-street-gentry, who might have been supposed likely ships and vexatious trials. With a gay but yet to remain neutral in such a matter, arranged and resolute self-possession, he set his face against the paraded themselves in the hostile attitudes of party, slings of fortune, and, like Luther under supernatu- vociferously demanding of their neighbors, and of ral illusion, hurled his ink-stand at the devil! everybody they encountered, "What side, friend, takest thou in this important controversy?" De Foe has given us a felicitous parody of this astonishing state of things, which pleasantly reminds us of Camille Desmoulins' pithy sketches of the movements and debates of the Palais Royal during the earlier days of the first French revolution. He says "The women lay aside their tea and chocolate, leave off visiting after dinner, and, forming themselves into cabals, turn privy-counsellors, and settle the affairs of state. Every lady of quality has her head more particularly full of business than usual; nay, some of the ladies talk of keeping female secretaries, and none will be fit for the office but such as can speak French, Dutch, and Latin. Gallantry and gayety are now laid aside for business; matters of government and affairs of state are become the province of the ladies; and no wonder if they are too much engaged to concern themselves about the common impertinences of life. Indeed, they have hardly leisure to live, little time to eat and sleep, and none at all to say their pray Some time after his release from Newgate, De Foe wrote voluminously on the subject of the Union then pending between England and Scotland, and thus acquired a measure of ministerial favor which led to his employment in the service of the government. His acquirements and general knowledge, in combination with his acuteness and moral probity, seemed to render him well qualified to undertake matters of delicate diplomacy, and he was therefore sent to Scotland to further and facilitate the Union. It appears that his labors in that country obtained for him general approbation. While in Edinburgh, he took occasion to publish a complimentary poem, under the title of Caledonia," in honor of Scotland and the Scottish nation." In his Review, which continued to be regularly published in his absence, he carefully represented the advantages which would succeed to the Union in a favorable, but not delusive light; and he appears to have exercised his influence and performed his mission most judiciously *Preface to an Elegy on the Author of the True-borners. Englishman. + Review, vii. 490. If you turn your eye to the park, the ladies are not there-even the church is thinner than usual, for you know the mode is for privy-councils to meet on Sundays. The very playhouse feels the effects of it, and the great Betterton died a beggar on this account. Nay, the Tatler, the immortal Tatler, the great Bickerstaff himself, was fain to leave off talking to the ladies during the doctor's trial, and turn his sagacious pen to the dark subjects of death and the next world, though he has not yet decided the ancient debate-whether Pluto's regions were, in point of government, a kingdom or a commonwealth."* Under circumstances such as these, though De Foe never altogether abstained from writing, he for a considerable time remained comparatively quiet-deeming it best to restrict himself mainly to observation, and to await the issue of events. "And what if the Pretender should Come? or Some Considerations on the Advantages and Real Consequences of the Pretender's possessing the Crown of Great Britain." In these papers De Foe sought, by a caricatured use of the Jacobite arguments then in vogue, to expose the absurd and dangerous pretensions of that party, and thus to consolidate the interests of the Protestant succession. While ironically urging the people to bring in the Pretender to settle their existing differences, he was in reality ridiculing the folly of such a course of action. Unluckily, neither whig nor tory could understand irony, so that De Foe's pamphlets were collectively construed into a libel against the "glorious constitution," and he was suspected and represented to be in league with the discarded Stuarts. Worse still, a certain stupid patriot of the whig connection-William Benson by namewas so totally blinded and bewildered in the affair, as to institute proceedings against the author, with the view of bringing him to trial for high treason. One morning there enters a sinister-looking mortal with a "judge's warrant," and carries off De Foe a second time into the limbo of Newgate! Harley, however, interferes-assures the queen's majesty that this prosecution has been instigated by prejudice and sheer mistake, and succeeds in presently obtaining the prisoner's release. Such, nevertheless, was the importunity of his enemies, that his ministerial friends considered it advisable to certify his acquittal under cover of a formal royal pardon-a circumstance to which De Foe could never afterwards allude without expressions of How dull it is to pause, to make an end, astonishment, saying sarcastically that he might To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! have been as reasonably accused of being a Mohammedan; and he playfully desired it might be He counts it vile to "store and hoard" himself," engraved upon his tomb, that he was the only while his "gray spirit" is still " yearning in desire Englishman who had been obliged to seek a royal to follow knowledge, like a sinking star, beyond pardon for writing in behalf of the Hanoverian sucthe utmost bound of human thought." Therefore cession." will he quit again his patrimonial dominions, and say to his brave comrades There are men born into the world who cannot rest. They seem to be "driven by the spirit" into wildernesses of strife, difficulty, enterprise, and ceaseless labor. They must do or die. The old Ulysses returns after long years of warfare and adventure from the conquest and desolation of the towers and plains of Troy, and seeks to repose his age on his "still hearth" in Ithaca, and to live in the blameless dispensation of laws befitting to the people over whom he rules. Much has he seen and known" cities of men and manners, climates, councils, governments;" himself "not least, but honored of them all;" yet finds that "all experience is an arch where-through gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades forever and forever when he moves." He cannot rest from travel My purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths So likewise our hardy De Foe, after reposing for All this happened in 1713. On the 1st of August in the following year there were signs of mourning about the royal palace. Queen Anne had given up the ghost, and Elector George of Hanover reigned in her stead. The whigs were now again installed in the administration, and the government of the country went on-as it happened. That seems to be the peculiarity of a whig cabinet. Having been connected with the former ministry, De Foe was entirely discountcnanced, though he, more than any man, had advocated and supported zealously all the most important principles and political doctrines which the He first of all wrote, "A Seasonable Caution whigs pretended to admire. His public career and Warning against the Insinuations of Papists was now drawing to its close. He had been a and Jacobites in favor of the Pretender. London: political writer for more than thirty years; the 1712." But finding that this, although an argu-blossoms of old age were springing about his head; mentative and persuasive pamphlet, did not produce the effect which he desired, he pursued the subject in three other successive publications, all written in that style of keen and subtle irony which he had employed so ingeniously in the "Shortest Way with the Dissenters." The titles of the pamphlets, as remarked by Mr. Wilson, “corresponded with the ruse de guerre which he played off in their contents:" being-1. "An Answer to the Question that Nobody thinks of namely, What if the Queen should die?" 2. "Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover; with an Inquiry how far the Abdication of King James, supposing it to be Legal, ought to affect the Person of the Pretender. Si populus vult decepi decipiatur." 3. * Review, vii. 69. the fires of life, which had long blazed fiercely, were fading at length into quiet embers; and so, with a still regret, but with a spirit resigned to the inevitable, he gradually withdrew from the turbulence of political agitation. His spirit is saddened, but not broken; though forsaken and calumniated, he is not cast down; yet the long years of enmity and persecution, whose progress has marked his brow and surrounded his eyes with wrinkles, have left him little either to hope for or enjoy. With a plaintive complacency he can say— No man has tasted different fortunes more, And thirteen times I have been rich and poor. Pondering over the manifold ill-usage he had received both from enemies and friends, and mindful of the aggravated misconstruction that had been put | he describes, and known intimately every character upon his acts and writings, he determined, as a he delineates. Along with the wonderful reality final labor, to furnish a defence of his life and of the narrative must be taken the appropriate and conduct; and with that intent began to write " An natural reflections by which it is diversified. What Appeal to Honor and Justice." Thereby he a store of worldly prudence-what exquisite illustrusted to justify himself before his candid contem-trations of the mysteries of life and Providenceporaries and posterity; but ere the work was how calm and benign a vindication of the ways of properly completed the wearied and overburthened God to man! Then how fine a revelation have we man was suddenly struck and prostrated by a fit of of the author's sentiments and sympathies-with apoplexy. For a time he lay in helpless stupor, what generous interest and compassion does he look and hovering apparently on the brink of dissolution; upon the varied creeds, systems, and opinions of but eventually his vigorous constitution recovered his fellow-beings, and with what just discernment from the attack, he regained comparative health does he detect some presence of goodness in them and vigor of mind and heart, and came back into the all, thereby teaching us a kindly toleration, and world as from the resurrection of the dead. soliciting us by insinuation to exercise that holy charity which hopeth all things!" Here and Now it was that, quitting the thorny tracks and there too are strains of pathos-gentle and tender encumbered regions of contemporary party inter- as the sighings of a living heart in deep distress, ests, he came forth to entertain society as a popular or as the mournful reverberances of winds dying author for all time. Numerous instructive and away upon the sea. But the grand peculiarity of amusing works sprung rapidly from his pen, which, the work is its immense display of worldly wisdom, like another Aaron's rod, seemed to blossom with its wide and varied representation of the interests, unexpected buds of pleasantness. Among these, motives, rewards, and considerations whereby men in 1719, appeared the first part of the famous are actuated to their welfare or their sorrow-its "Robinson Crusoe," which, notwithstanding De deep and thoughtful lessons of a soul most largely Foe's well-known capacity for producing salable learned in the daily and hourly experiences of and popular books, had to be "carried round the human life. This is a quality in the work which trade" before he could obtain a purchaser for the is rarely noted, inasmuch as few people read it at a copyright. Happy and astonished was the pub-time of life when it would be observable; the lisher when, after selling four editions in as many impressions of the generality are derived from the months, he discovered that he had cleared a thou- throng of interesting incidents, the wild charm of sand pounds by his lucky bargain! The amount the situation, the fascinating and wondrous tale that of the author's remuneration is not known, but took possession of their curiosity when that was the considering the difficulties attending the publication, only faculty they were desirous of gratifying. But it may be reasonably supposed to have been nowise the book is imbued with a deep philosophy of exvery large. The success of the work, however, perience. Rousseau was not beside himself when induced him to produce a continuation, or second he called it "a most excellent treatise on natural part, which was also well received, and obtained education." In the province of common as great a popularity as the first. From that day there are few things wiser than some of De Foe's to the present "Robinson Crusoe" has been a maxims and observations. And none of these are familiar and household book; and it seems no more elaborated, or introduced obtrusively, but arise likely to become obsolete than the use of household naturally out of the story, and are brought in, if not bread, or the faculties of the mind to which it is precisely in the right place, at least exactly where addressed. they would appear, supposing the narrator to have been dealing in actual matter of fact. Then the style of the book, though homely and unpretend sense one of a plain face lighted up with the glow of excellent conversation. Altogether, we cannot wonder at the exceeding popularity of this work, seeing that it is adapted to every understanding, is calculated to excite the dullest curiosity, appeals generously and naturally to the sympathies, and though not devoid of prejudices, nor even of superstitions, is nevertheless, upon the whole, admirably replete with the best instruction, and tends by its pure truthfulness and simplicity to exalt and edify the moral nature, while it seems designed mainly to delight the imagination. If the poet Gray may be excused for his indolent and luxurious desire to be lying continually on sofas, reading "eternal new novels of Crebillon and Marivaux," it seems to our fancy that every schoolboy might be far more reasonably justified in saying, what has doubtless some time been the longing of his soul, "Be it mine to loll forever under shady summer trees, and read everlasting volumes of Robinson Crusoe." We have no space to speak at any length of the great and peculiar merits of this production. The first thing that strikes every reader of discrimina-ing, is really beautiful in its simplicity, reminding tion is the easy matter-of-fact character of the narrative. The whole story reads like a reality. The incidents and adventures are for the most part extraordinary that is to say, are altogether out of the ordinary courses and chances of experience; yet they are so related, so ingeniously and beautifully woven, that the mind feels it difficult to regard them as any way fictitious or imaginary. Such an air of plausibility pervades the story, that you say at once," If this thing were really true in fact, it would be thus, and thus only, represented." Then consider the boundless extent of details, the vast and various knowledge here cunningly but unobtrusively set forth. What insight into the inventive and constructive powers of man-what extensive and accurate geography-what large acquaintance with the manners and customs of savages, seamen, mechanics, husbandmen, merchants, travellers, adventurers-what knowledge of the surface and productions of the earth, the institutions and characteristics of different countries and races of mankind-what inexhaustible and natural invention! From the beginning to the end, the author seems to write of what he knows. He can put a face of fact on the most inconsiderable adventure. You would say he had seen the things which Of De Foe's minor fictions we shall not be able to say much. The most notable are-" The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton"-"The History of Duncan Campbell" -The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders"-" Colonel Jacque"-"The Fortunate Mis tress; or, the Life of Roxana" and "Memoirs | most beautiful and interesting of these popular of a Cavalier." In all these there is the same compositions is the " Journal of the Plague-Year" simplicity of design, the same graphic minuteness, a work which is often received as a veritable the same prompt invention and unvarying attract- history, but which is in fact as much a fiction as iveness-in short, all the qualities that are displayed "Robinson Crusoe" or "Captain Singleton." It in a more prominent degree in the author's most is true that in this touching narrative the author memorable production There is in all the same has contrived to mingle much that is authentic with significant sign of genius-the power of imagining the inventions of his own brain; but it is impossia character within a certain natural range of action ble to distinguish the real from the imaginary; and and existence, and of investing the conception with the whole is such a likeness to the dread original, that breath of life and individuality which it is the" as to confound the sceptic, and encircle him with privilege of genius alone to give. They all, how- enchantments." "So faithful," says one," is the ever, belong obviously to a period less pure in external manners than our own. Some of them contain scenes and descriptions of profligacy and crime which cannot be recommended to indiscriminate perusal; and though De Foe professes to have, and really has, a moral aim in what he writes, yet it is more than doubtful whether the exciting pictures of vice and passion which he represents will not generally prove more attractive to uncultivated fancies than the moralities he would inculcate. One thing, nevertheless, may be said in favor of these works-they do not outrage nature or consistency. De Foe's villains never prosper; they find the whole course and force of the world against them; misery walks behind them like their shadows; and in the end they either die in misery, or are reformed through the discipline of a severe repentance. Vice is exhibited only that it may be detested and avoided. Still, Falstaff's observation about the polluting tendencies of pitch is deserving of remembrance; and those who cannot handle it without danger of defilement, will always do wisest not to meddle with it. portrait of that distressing calamity-so entire its accordance with what has been delivered by other writers-so probable the circumstances of all the stories, and so artless the style in which they are delivered, that it would baffle the ingenuity of any one but De Foe to frame a history with so many attributes of truth upon the basis of fiction."* "Had he not been the author of Robinson Crusoe," says Scott, "De Foe would have deserved immortality for the genius which he has displayed in this work." The whole of De Foe's later writings were exceedingly successful, and enjoyed an extensive circulation. While these were severally proceeding in rapid succession from his pen, he occasionally interrupted them to bring out some temporary pamphlet. In a preface to one such publication he alludes to his growing infirmities and advancing age, but holds himself prepared to devote his still remaining days to the advocacy of the public interests. "I hope," says he, "the reader will excuse the vanity of an officious old man, if, like Cato, I inquire whether or no I can yet do anything for my country?" In all his latter years De Foe appears to have realized a reasonable income by his writings; yet it is melancholy to contemplate him journeying heavily towards the end, tormented with severe diseases, and plundered and abandoned by an ungrateful son, whose despicable worthlessness fulfilled old Jacob's most intolerable apprehensions-hurrying down his father's gray and venerable hairs with sorrow to the grave. He passed out of this earthly existence on the 24th April, 1731, and his remains were interred in the burial-ground of Bun In any notice of De Foe's smaller fictions, the curious" Relation of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal," published in 1705, ought not to be omitted. Could a ghost story, under any circumstances, be true, one could not fail to believe this; it seems as plain and indubitable matter of fact as ever passed before one's eyes. The air of credibility in it is astonishing. As Sir Walter Scott says, "The whole' is so distinctly circumstantial that were it not for the impossibility, or extreme improbability at least, of such an occurrence, the evidence could not but support the story.' One regrets that it should have been published with no worthier in-hill Fields. tention than that of puffing a dull book which the publisher could not sell-"Drelincourt's Book of We have thus briefly traced the life of the Consolations against the Fear of Death." This greatest political pamphleteer, and most ingenious, work is incidentally spoken of approvingly by the ready writer for the million that England has proghost, and the story, as desired, had the effect of duced. We have necessarily left unnoticed an imcreating a large demand for it. The whole thing mense number of his writings; but we have, of course was a bold and indefensible imposition-nevertheless, seen something of the manner of man one of the few transactions of De Foe which we can neither justify nor are careful about excusing, though we do not know that it is a whit more discreditable than any of the innumerable other forms of puffery now regularly practised by people who pass muster for very honorable men. he was. It seems to us that he is of a kind who will bear looking at. A brawny, resolute, substantial Englishman: one who, with right on his side, was afraid of neither man nor devil. Not entirely a pacific man, but rather constitutionally pugnacious; and decidedly given to interfere with anything and everything about him which he might fancy to be going wrong. Judging from these two hundred publications, it would appear that he did not particularly cultivate the ordinarily commendable talent of silence." He had very little talent of that kind. He was a downright noisy man; prompt to controvert, contentious, prone to disputation; a perpetual motion of thoughts and thick-flowing fancies, which he had * De Foe's Life and Times, by Walter Wilson. From Chambers' Journal. neither power nor disposition to suppress, but of which, on the contrary, he must and would deliver himself. But what he had to say was full of sense PHILIP, MY KING. sovereignty." Look at me with thy large brown eyes, Philip, my King! For round thee the purple shadow lies and spirit, and therefore worthy of the saying. "Who bears upon his baby brow the round and top of People listened to him too with more than common attention. There is no doubt that De Foe's influence among the masses was greater than that of any of the political writers of his age. He was the Cobbett of the Revolution. But he was a greater and a better man than Cobbett-a man of firmer principle, and a larger candor and liberality. He is considerately tolerant: he is a lover of fairness-a faithful respecter and adorer of the truth. The views he gives you have been arrived at by just insight, or at any rate by a careful examination of the things and circumstances to which they are related. As a man, he seems to have been eminently sincere in his opinions. Whatsoever he believed,| that he boldly professed, and manifested in his conduct without disguise. There is no trimming to party notions, no adroit subserviency, no cunning dodgery to avoid the censures of such as may think fit to take offence, but a direct and manly expression of all he thinks and feels. Honesty is engrained in his constitution. We have seen how he stood by his obligations in the midst of his misfortunes, and how he strove to realize in his transactions the high integrity which he admired and recommended in his teachings. He is the same man in his life as in his writings. In these he has a keen regard for whatsoever is graphic, interesting, and effective. Though he hopes to instruct, he desires to be entertaining; but in every case he maintains a purpose, and writes for the accomplishment of an end. There are few instances in history of so entire a surrendering of a man's self to popular and public interests. He lives, moves, and has his being in one lifelong effort to advance the public welfare. As a politician, all his aims are honest, liberal and thoroughgoing. In all his endeavors he seeks to advance his object, and not himself; and in this respect he is worthy of universal admiration. How immeasurably superior, in this respect, to many a popular champion of later times! His patriotism and philanthropy are not professional-are not assumed for purposes of vanity or ambition; but they are real and earnest, and he grudges not to suffer penalties on their account. There is in him an admirable self-abandonment-a prodigal generosity, which sacrifices comfort, interest, and reputation for the sake of a cherished cause that has been conscientiously and deliberately embraced. This, indeed, is the sign of a true patriot-that he will give himself and boast nothing of his devotion; counting lightly of all losses and chagrins, and, if needs be, accepting even Danton's reckless and stern alternative" Let my name be blighted, if so only the good cause may prosper!" De Foe evidently blighted name;" but he endured it with a noble patience, and along with it manifold persecutions, exposures in the pillory, and imprisonments-and all for an able and manly advocacy of principles and sentiments whose truth and rightfulness time has since asserted and confirmed. Whoso marcheth in the van of the unborn events, under the contempt and hootings of the faithless, let him courageously hold on along the path of his aspirations lived much under a 66 My faith is large in Time, And that which shapes it to some perfect end. With love's invisible sceptre laden; I am thine Esther, to command Oh, the day when thou goest a-wooing, When those beautiful lips are suing, For we that love, ah! we love so blindly, I gaze from thy sweet mouth up to thy brow, Ay, there lies the spirit, all sleeping now, My Saul, than thy brethren higher and fairer, Philip, my King! A RIVER AT NIGHTFALL. ROWERS, rest! the night is come, Dark against the sky the spars, Oft the tall masts blot the stars. From the darkness closing round; Shining more, and more profound. Doubly seems to increase and run, And illusion none is this, Buried hopes, and fleeting bliss, |