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Transcriber's Note:

    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Archaic
    and variant spellings remain as printed. The oe ligature has been
    transcribed as [oe].




                      THE LIFE
                         OF
                   DANIEL DE FOE.

              BY GEORGE CHALMERS, ESQ.

                 TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
 A LIST OF DE FOE'S WORKS, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY.

                   IN ONE VOLUME.

                       OXFORD:
              PRINTED BY D. A. TALBOYS,
       FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
                        1841.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The ensuing Life was written for amusement, during a period of
convalescence in 1785; and published anonymously by Stockdale, before
The History of the Union, in 1786. As the Author fears no reproach for
such amusement, during such a period, he made no strong objections to
Stockdale's solicitations, that it might be annexed, with the author's
name, to his splendid edition of Robinson Crusoe. The reader will now
have the benefit of a few corrections, with some additions, and a List
of De Foe's Writings.




  THE LIFE OF DE FOE,
          BY
 GEORGE CHALMERS, ESQ.


It is lamented by those who labour the fields of British biography, that
after being entangled in briars they are often rewarded with the scanty
products of barrenness. The lives of literary men are generally passed
in the obscurities of the closet, which conceal even from friendly
inquiries the artifices of study, whereby each may have risen to
eminence. And during the same moment that the diligent biographer sets
out to ask for information, with regard to the origin, the modes of
life, or the various fortunes of writers who have amused or instructed
their country, the housekeeper, the daughter, or grandchild, that knew
connections and traditions, drop into the grave.

These reflections naturally arose from my inquiries about the life of
the author of The History of The Union of Great Britain; and of The
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Whether he were born on the neighbouring
continent, or in this island; in London, or in the country; was equally
uncertain. And whether his name were Foe, or De Foe, was somewhat
doubtful. Like Swift, he had perhaps reasons for concealing what would
have added little to his consequence. It is at length known, with
sufficient certainty, that our author was the son of James Foe, of the
parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, London, citizen and butcher. The
concluding sentiment of The True-born Englishman, we now see, was then
as natural as it will ever be just:--

    Then, let us boast of ancestors no more,
    For, fame of families is all a cheat;
    _'Tis personal virtue only makes us great_.

If we may credit the gazette, Daniel Foe, or De Foe, as he is said by
his enemies to have called himself, that he might not be thought an
Englishman, was born in London[1], about the year 1663. His family were
probably dissenters[2], among whom he received no unlettered education;
at least it is plain, from his various writings, that he was a zealous
defender of their principles, and a strenuous supporter of their
politics, before the liberality of our rulers in church and state had
freed this conduct from danger. He merits the praise which is due to
sincerity in manner of thinking, and to uniformity in habits of acting,
whatever obloquy may have been cast on his name, by attributing writings
to him, which, as they belonged to others, he was studious to disavow.

Our author was educated at a dissenting academy, which was kept at
Newington-green, by Charles Morton. He delights to praise that learned
gentleman[3], whose instructive lessons he probably enjoyed from 1675
to 1680, as a master who taught nothing either in politics, or science,
which was dangerous to monarchial government, or which was improper for
a diligent scholar to know. Being in 1705 accused by Tutchin of
illiterature, De Foe archly acknowledged, "I owe this justice to my
ancient father, who is yet living, and in whose behalf I freely testify,
that if I am a blockhead, it was nobody's fault but my own; he having
spared nothing that might qualify me to match the accurate Dr. B---- or
the learned Tutchin[4]."

De Foe was born a writer, as other men are born generals and statesmen;
and when he was not twenty-one, he published, in 1683, a pamphlet
against a very prevailing sentiment in favour of the Turks, as opposed
to the Austrians; very justly thinking, as he avows in his riper age,
that it was better the popish house of Austria should ruin the
protestants in Hungary, than the infidel house of Ottoman should ruin
both protestants and papists, by overrunning Germany[5]. De Foe was a
man who would fight as well as write for his principles; and before he
was three-and-twenty he appeared in arms for the duke of Monmouth, in
June 1685. Of this exploit he boasts[6] in his latter years, when it was
no longer dangerous to avow his participation in that imprudent
enterprise, with greater men of similar principles.

Having escaped from the dangers of battle, and from the fangs of
Jeffreys, De Foe found complete security in the more gainful pursuits of
peace. Yet he was prompted by his zeal to mingle in the controversies of
the reign of James II. whom he efficaciously opposed, by warning the
dissenters of the secret danger of the insidious tolerance which was
offered by the monarch's bigotry, or by the minister's artifice[7]. When
our author collected his writings, he did not think proper to republish
either his tract against the Turks, or his pamphlet against the king.

De Foe was admitted a liveryman of London on the 26th of January,
1687-8; when, being allowed his freedom by birth, he was received a
member of that eminent corporation. As he had endeavoured to promote the
revolution by his pen and his sword, he had the satisfaction of
partaking, ere long, in the pleasures and advantages of that great
event. During the hilarity of that moment, the lord mayor of London
asked king William to partake of the city feast on the 29th of October,
1689. Every honour was paid the sovereign of the people's choice. A
regiment of volunteers, composed of the chief citizens, and commanded by
the celebrated earl of Peterborough, attended the king and queen from
Whitehall to the Mansion-house. Among these troopers, gallantly mounted,
and richly accoutred, was Daniel De Foe, if we may believe Oldmixon[8].

While our author thus displayed his zeal, and courted notice, he is said
to have acted as a hosier in Freeman's Yard, Cornhill; but the
hosier[9] and the poet are very irreconcilable characters. With the
usual imprudence of superior genius, he was carried by his vivacity into
companies who were gratified by his wit. He spent those hours with a
small society for the cultivation of polite learning, which he ought to
have employed in the calculations of the counting-house; and being
obliged to abscond from his creditors, in 1692, he naturally attributed
those misfortunes to the war, which were probably owing to his own
misconduct[10]. An angry creditor took out a commission of bankruptcy,
which was soon superseded on the petition of those to whom he was most
indebted, who accepted a composition on his single bond. This he
punctually paid by the efforts of unwearied diligence. But some of those
creditors, who had been thus satisfied, falling afterwards into distress
themselves, De Foe voluntarily paid them their whole claims, being then
in rising circumstances from king William's favour[11]. This is such an
example of honesty as it would be unjust to De Foe and to the world to
conceal. Being reproached in 1705 by lord Haversham with mercenariness,
our author feelingly mentions; "How, with a numerous family, and no
helps but his own industry, he had forced his way with undiscouraged
diligence, through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced his debts,
exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than five
thousand pounds[12]." He continued to carry on the pantile works near
Tilbury-fort, though probably with no great success. It was afterwards
sarcastically said, that he did not, like the Egyptians, require bricks
without straw, but, like the Jews, required bricks without paying his
labourers[13]. He was born for other enterprises, which, if they did
not gain him opulence, have conferred a renown that will descend the
stream of time with the language wherein his works are written.

While he was yet under thirty, and had mortified no great man by his
satire, or offended any party by his pamphlets, he had acquired friends
by his powers of pleasing, who did not, with the usual instability of
friendships, desert him amidst his distresses. They offered to settle
him as a factor at Cadiz, where, as a trader, he had some previous
correspondence. In this situation he might have procured business by
his care, and accumulated wealth without a risk; but, as he assures us
in his old age, _Providence, which had other work for him to do, placed
a secret aversion in his mind to quitting England_[14]. He had
confidence enough in his own talents to think, that on this field he
could gather laurels, or at least gain a livelihood.

In a projecting age, as our author denominates king William's reign, he
was himself a projector. While he was yet young, De Foe was prompted by
a vigorous mind to think of many schemes, and to offer, what was most
pleasing to the ruling powers, ways and means for carrying on the war.
He wrote, as he says, many sheets about the coin; he proposed a register
for seamen, long before the act of parliament was thought of; he
projected county banks, and factories for goods; he mentioned a proposal
for a commission of inquiries into bankrupt's estates; he contrived a
pension-office for the relief of the poor[15]. At length, in January
1696-7, he published his Essay upon Projects; which he dedicated to
Dalby Thomas, not as a commissioner of glass duties, under whom he then
served, or as a friend to whom he acknowledges obligations, but as to
the most proper judge on the subject. It is always curious to trace a
thought, in order to see where it first originated, or how it was
afterwards expanded. Among other projects, which show a wide range of
knowledge, he suggests to king William the imitation of Lewis XIV., in
the establishment of a society "for encouraging polite learning, for
refining the English language, and for preventing barbarisms of
manners." Prior offered in 1700 the same project to king William, in his
_Carmen Seculare_; Swift mentioned in 1710 to lord Oxford a proposal for
improving the English tongue; and Tickell flatters himself in his
Prospect of Peace, that "our daring language, shall sport no more in
arbitrary sound." However his projects were taken, certain it is, that
when De Foe ceased to be a trader, he was, by the interposition of Dalby
Thomas probably, appointed, in 1695, accountant to the commissioners for
managing the duties on glass; who, with our author, ceased to act on the
1st of August, 1699, when the tax was suppressed by act of
parliament[16].

From projects of ways and means, De Foe's ardour soon carried him into
the thorny paths of satiric poetry; and his muse produced, in January,
1700-1, The True-born Englishman. Of the origin of this satire, which
was the cause of much good fortune, but of some disasters, he gives
himself the following account: During this time came out an abhorred
pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one Mr. Tutchin, and called The
Foreigners; in which the author, who he was I then knew not, fell
personally upon the king, then upon the Dutch nation, and, after having
reproached his majesty with crimes that his worst enemies could not
think of without horror, he sums up all in the odious name of FOREIGNER.
This filled me with a kind of rage against the book, and gave birth to a
trifle which I never could hope should have met with so general an
acceptation. The sale was prodigious, and probably unexampled; as
Sacheverell's Trial had not then appeared[17]. The True-born Englishman
was answered, paragraph by paragraph, in February, 1700-1, by a writer
who brings haste to apologise for dulness. For this Defence of king
William and the Dutch, which was doubtless circulated by detraction and
by power, De Foe was amply rewarded. "How this poem was the occasion,"
says he, "of my being known to his majesty; how I was afterwards
received by him; how employed abroad; and how, above my capacity of
deserving, rewarded, is no part of the present case[18]." Of the
particulars, which the author thus declined to tell, nothing can now be
told. It is only certain that he was admitted to personal interviews
with the king, who was no reader of poetry; and that for the royal
favours De Foe was always grateful.

When the pen and ink war was raised against a standing army, subsequent
to the peace of Ryswick, our author published An Argument, to prove that
a standing army, with consent of parliament, is not inconsistent with a
free government[19]. "Liberty and property," says he, "are the glorious
attributes of the English nation; and the dearer they are to us, the
less danger we are in of losing them; but I could never yet see it
proved, that the danger of losing them by a small army was such, as we
should expose ourselves to all the world for it. It is not the king of
England alone, but the sword of England in the hand of the king, that
gives laws of peace and war now to Europe; and those who would thus
wrest the sword out of his hand in time of peace, bid the fairest of all
men in the world to renew the war." He who is desirous of reading this
treatise on an interesting topic, will meet with strength of argument,
conveyed in elegant language[20].

When the nation flamed with faction, the grand jury of Kent presented
to the commons, on the 8th of May, 1701, a petition, which desired them,
"to mind the public business more, and their private heats less;" and
which contained a sentiment, that there was a design, as Burnet tells,
other counties and the city of London should equally adopt. Messrs.
Culpeppers, Polhill, Hamilton, and Champneys, who avowed this intrepid
paper, were committed to the Gatehouse, amid the applauses of their
countrymen. It was on this occasion that De Foe's genius dictated a
Remonstrance, which was signed Legion, and which has been recorded in
history for its bold truths and seditious petulance. De Foe's zeal
induced him to assume a woman's dress, while he delivered this factious
paper to Harley, the speaker, as he entered the house of commons[21].
It was then also that our author, who was transported by an equal
attachment to the country and the court, published The Original Power of
the collective Body of the People of England examined and asserted[22].
This timeful treatise he dedicated to king William, in a dignified
strain of nervous eloquence. "It is not the least of the extraordinaries
of your majesty's character," says he, "that, as you are king of your
people, so you are the people's king; a title, which, as it is the most
glorious, so it is the most indisputable." To the lords and commons he
addresses himself in a similar tone: The vindication of the original
right of all men to the government of themselves, he tells them, is so
far from being a derogation from, that it is a confirmation of their
legal authority. Every lover of liberty must be pleased with the perusal
of a treatise, which vies with Mr. Locke's famous tract in powers of
reasoning, and is superior to it in the graces of style.

At a time when "union and charity, the one relating to our civil, and
the other to our religious concerns, were strangers in the land," De Foe
published The Freeholder's Plea against Stock-jobbing Elections of
Parliament men[23]. "It is very rational to suppose," says our author,
"that they who will buy will sell; or, what seems more rational, they
who have bought must sell." This is certainly a persuasive performance,
though we may suppose, that many voters were influenced then by
arguments still more persuasive. And he concludes with a sentiment,
which has not been too often repeated, That nothing can make us
formidable to our neighbours, and maintain the reputation of our nation,
but union among ourselves.

How much soever king William may have been pleased with The True-born
Englishman, or with other services, he was little gratified probably by
our author's Reasons against a War with France. This argument, showing
that the French king's owning the prince of Wales as king of England, is
no sufficient ground of a war, is one of the finest, because it is one
of the most useful, tracts in the English language[24]. After remarking
the universal cry of the people for war, our author declares he is not
against war with France, provided it be on justifiable grounds; but, he
hopes, England will never be so inconsiderable a nation, as to make use
of dishonest pretences to bring to pass any of her designs; and he
wishes that he who desires we should end the war honourably, ought to
desire also that we begin it fairly. "But if we must have a war," our
author hoped, "it might be wholly on the defensive, in Flanders, in
order to carry on hostilities in remote places, where the damage may be
greater, by wounding the Spaniard in some weaker part; so as upon a
peace he shall be glad to quit Flanders for an equivalent." Who at
present does not wish that De Foe's argument had been more studiously
read, and more efficaciously admitted?

A scene of sorrow soon after opened, which probably embittered our
author's future life. The death of king William deprived him of a
protector, who, he says, trusted, esteemed, and much more valued him
than he deserved: and who, as he flattered himself amidst his later
distresses, would never have suffered him to be treated as he had been
in the world. Of that monarch's memory, he says, that he never patiently
heard it abused, nor ever could do so; and in this gratitude to a royal
benefactor there is surely much to praise, but nothing to blame[25].

In the midst of that furious contest of party, civil and religious,
which ensued on the accession of queen Anne, our author was no
unconcerned spectator. He reprinted his Inquiry into the Occasional
Conformity of Dissenters[26], which had been published in 1697, with a
dedication to sir Humphrey Edwin, a lord mayor, who having carried the
regalia to a conventicle, gave rise to some wit in The Tale of a Tub,
and occasioned some clauses in an act of parliament. De Foe now
dedicated his Inquiry to John How, a dissenting minister, of whom
Anthony Wood speaks well. Mr. How did not much care, says Calamy[27],
to enter upon an argument of that nature with one of so warm a temper as
the author of that Inquiry, and contented himself with publishing some
Considerations on the Preface of an Inquiry concerning the Occasional
Conformity of Dissenters. De Foe's pertinacity soon produced a
reply[28]. He outlaughs and outtalks Mr. How, who had provoked his
antagonist's wrath by personal sarcasms, and who now thought it hard
that the old should be shoved off the stage by the young. De Foe
reprobates, with the unforbearance of the times, "this fast and loose
game of religion;" for which he had never met with any considerable
excuse but this, "that this is no conformity in point of religion, but
done as a civil action." He soon after published another Inquiry, in
order to show, that the dissenters are no ways concerned in occasional
conformity. The controversy, which in those days occasioned such
vehement contests between the two houses of parliament, is probably
silenced for ever.

"During the first fury of high-flying," says he, "I fell a sacrifice for
writing against the madness of that high party, and in the service of
the dissenters." He alludes here to The Shortest Way; which he published
towards the end of the year 1702; and which is a piece of exquisite
irony, though there are certainly passages in it that might have shown
considerate men how much the author had been in jest. He complains how
hard it was, that this should not have been perceived by all the town,
and that not one man can see it, either churchman or dissenter. This is
one of the strongest proofs how much the minds of men were inflamed
against each other, and how little the virtues of mutual forbearance
and personal kindness existed amid the clamour of contradiction, which
then shook the kingdom, and gave rise to some of the most remarkable
events in our annals[29]. The commons showed their zeal, however they
may have studied their dignity, by prosecuting[30] several libellists.

During the previous twenty years of his life, De Foe had busied himself
unconsciously in charging a mine, which now blew himself and his family
into the air. He had fought for Monmouth; he had opposed king James; he
had vindicated the Revolution; he had panegyrised king William; he had
defended the rights of the collective body of the people; he had
displeased the treasurer and the general, by objecting to the Flanders'
war; he had bantered sir Edward Seymour, and sir Christopher Musgrave,
the tory leaders of the commons; he had just ridiculed all the
high-fliers in the kingdom; and he was at length obliged to seek for
shelter from the indignation of persons and parties, thus overpowering
and resistless.

A proclamation was issued in January, 1702-3[31], offering a reward of
fifty pounds for discovering his retreat. De Foe was described by the
gazette, "as a middle-sized spare man, about forty years old, of a brown
complexion, and dark brown hair, though he wears a wig, having a hook
nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth."

He soon published An Explanation; though he "wonders to find there
should be any occasion for it." "But since ignorance," says he, "has led
most men to a censure of the book, and some people are like to come
under the displeasure of the government for it; in justice to those who
are in danger to suffer by it; in submission to the parliament and
council, who may be offended at it; and courtesy to all mistaken people,
who, it seems, have not penetrated into the real design, the author
presents the world with the genuine meaning of the paper, which he hopes
may allay the anger of government, or at least satisfy the minds of such
as imagine a design to inflame and divide us[32]". Neither his
submissiveness to the ruling powers, nor his generosity to his printers,
was a sufficient shield from the resentment of his enemies. He was found
guilty of a libel, sentenced to the pillory, and adjudged to be fined
and imprisoned[33]. Thus, as he acknowledges, was he a second time
ruined; and by this affair, as he asserts, he lost above £3,500
sterling, which consisted probably in his brick works, and in the more
abundant product of his pen.

When by these means, immured in Newgate, our author consoled himself
with the animating reflection, that, having meant well, he unjustly
suffered. He had a mind too active to be idle in the solitude of a
prison, which is seldom invaded by visitors. And he wrote a hymn to the
pillory, that--

    Hieroglyphic state machine,
    Contrived to punish fancy in.

In this ode the reader will find satire, pointed by his sufferings;
generous sentiments, arising from his situation; and an unexpected flow
of easy verse. For example:

      The first intent of laws
    Was to correct the effect, and check the cause.
      And all the ends of punishment
    Were only future mischiefs to prevent:
      But justice is inverted, when
    Those engines of the law,
      Instead of pinching vicious men,
    Keep honest ones in awe[34].

He employed this involuntary leisure in correcting for the press a
collection of his writings, which, with several things he had no hand
in, had been already published by a piratical printer. He thought it a
most unaccountable boldness in him to print that particular book called
The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, while he lay under the public
resentment for the same fact. In this collection of 1703, there are
one-and-twenty treatises in poetry and prose, beginning with The
True-born Englishman, and ending with The Shortest Way to Peace and
Union. To this volume there was prefixed the first print of De Foe; to
which was afterwards added, the apt inscription: _Laudatur et
alget_[35].

In the solitariness of a gaol, the energy of De Foe projected the
Review. This is a periodical paper in 4to., which was first published on
the 19th of February, 1703-4; and which was intended to treat of news,
foreign and domestic; of politics, British and European; of trade,
particular and universal. But our author foresaw, from the natural
aversion of the age to any tedious affair, that however profitable, the
world would never read, if it were not diverting. With this design, both
instructive and amusing, he skilfully institutes a Scandal Club, which
discusses questions in divinity, morals, war, trade, language, poetry,
love, marriage, drunkenness, and gaming. Thus, it is easy to see, that
the Review pointed the way to the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians,
which may be allowed, however, to have treated those interesting topics
with more delicacy of humour, more terseness of style, and greater depth
of learning; yet has De Foe many passages, both of prose and poetry,
which, for refinement of wit, neatness of expression, and efficacy of
moral, would do honour to Steele or to Addison. Of all this was Johnson
unconscious, when he speaks of the Tatlers and Spectators as the first
English writers who had undertaken to reform either the savageness of
neglect, or the impertinence of civility; to show when to speak, or to
be silent; how to refuse, or how to comply[36].

In the midst of these labours our author published, in July, 1704, The
Storm; or, a Collection of the most remarkable Casualties, which
happened in the tempest, on the 23rd of November, 1703[37]. In
explaining the natural causes of winds De Foe shows more science, and in
delivering the opinions of the ancients that this island was more
subject to storms than other parts of the world, he displays more
literature than he has been generally supposed to possess. Our author is
moreover entitled to yet higher praise. He seized that awful occasion to
inculcate the fundamental truths of religion; the being of a God, the
superintendency of Providence, the certainty of heaven and hell, the one
to reward, the other to punish.

While, as he tells himself, he lay friendless in the prison of Newgate,
his family ruined, and himself without hopes of deliverance, a message
was brought him from a person of honour, whom till that time he had not
the least knowledge of. This was no less a person than sir Robert
Harley, the speaker of the house of commons. Harley approved probably of
the principles and conduct of De Foe, and doubtless foresaw, that,
during a factious age, such a genius could be converted to many uses.
And he sent a verbal message to the prisoner, desiring to know what he
could do for him. Our author readily wrote the story of the blind man in
the gospel; concluding--_Lord, that I may receive my sight_.

When the high-fliers were driven from the station which enabled them to
inflame rather than conciliate, Harley became secretary of state, in
April, 1704. He had now frequent opportunities of representing the
unmerited sufferings of De Foe to the queen and to the treasurer; yet
our author continued four months longer in gaol. The queen, however,
inquired into his circumstances; and lord Godolphin sent, as he
thankfully acknowledges, a considerable sum to his wife, and to him
money to pay his fine and the expense of his discharge. Here is the
foundation, says he, on which he built his first sense of duty to the
queen, and the indelible bond of gratitude to his first benefactor. "Let
any one say, then," he asks, "what I could have done, less or more than
I have done for such a queen and such a benefactor?" All this he
manfully avowed to the world[38], when queen Anne lay lifeless and cold
as king William, his first patron; and when Oxford, in the vicissitude
of party, had been persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not
conquered, by violence.

Such was the high interposition by which De Foe was relieved from
Newgate, in August, 1704. In order to avoid the town-talk, he retired
immediately to St. Edmund's Bury: but his retreat did not prevent
persecution. Dyer, the newswriter, propagated that De Foe had fled from
justice. Fox, the bookseller, published that he had deserted his
security. Stephen, a state-messenger, everywhere said, that he had a
warrant for seizing him. This I suppose was wit, during the witty age of
Anne. In our duller days of law, such outrages would be referred to the
judgment of a jury. De Foe informed the secretary of state where he was,
and when he would appear; but he was told not to fear, as he had not
transgressed. Notwithstanding this vexation, our author's muse
produced, on the 29th of August, 1704, A Hymn to Victory, when the
successful skill of Marlborough furnished our poets with many occasions
to publish Gazettes in Rhyme[39].

De Foe opened the year 1704-5 with his Double Welcome to the duke of
Marlborough; disclaiming any expectation of place or pension. His
encomiastic strains, I fear, were not heard while he wrote like an
honest Englishman, against the continuance of the war; a war indeed of
personal glory, of national celebration, but of fruitless expense. De
Foe's activity, or his needs, produced in March, 1705, The Consolidator;
or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions, from the World in the Moon. It was
one of De Foe's felicities to catch the 'living manners as they rose,'
or one of his resources, to 'shoot folly as it flew.' In the lunar
language he applies his satiric file to the prominences of every
character: of the poets, from Dryden to Durfy; of the wits, from Addison
to Prior; of the metaphysicians, from Malbranche to Hobbes; of the
freethinkers, from Asgyl to the Tale of a Tub. Our author continually
complains of the ill usage of the world; but with all his acuteness he
did not advert, that he who attacks the world, will be by the world
attacked. He makes the lunar politicians debate the policy of Charles
XII. in pursuing the Saxons and Poles, while the Muscovites ravaged his
own people. I doubt whether it were on this occasion that the Swedish
ambassador was so ill-advised as to complain against De Foe, for merited
ridicule of a futile warfare[40]. They had not then discovered, that the
best defence against the shafts of satire is to let them fly. Our
author's sentiment was expanded by Johnson, in those energetic lines,
which thus conclude the character of the Swedish Charles:

    "Who left the name, at which the world grew pale,
    To point a moral, or adorn a tale."

De Foe was so little disturbed by the appearance of The Moon Calf[41],
or accurate Reflections on the Consolidator, that he plunged into a
controversy with sir Humphrey Mackworth about his bill for employing the
poor. This had been passed by the commons with great applause, but
received by the peers with suitable caution. De Foe, considering this
plausible project as an indigested chaos, represented it, through
several reviews, as a plan which would ruin the industrious, and thereby
augment the poor. Sir Humphrey endeavoured to support his workhouses, in
every parish, with a parochial capital for carrying on parochial
manufacture. This drew from De Foe his admirable treatise, which he
entitled, Giving Alms no Charity. As an English freeholder he claimed it
as a right to address his performance to the house of commons, having a
particular interest in the common good; but considering the persons
before whom he appeared, he laid down his archness, and assumed his
dignity. He maintained, with wonderful knowledge of fact and power of
argument, the following positions: 1st, That there is in England more
labour than hands to perform it; and consequently a want of people, not
of employment: 2ndly, No man in England, of sound limbs and senses, can
be poor merely for want of work: 3rdly, All workhouses for employing the
poor, as now they are employed, serve to the ruin of families and the
increase of the poor: 4thly, It is a regulation of the poor that is
wanted, not a setting them to work. Longer experience shows this to be a
difficult subject, which increases in difficulty with the effluxion of
time[42].

De Foe had scarcely dismissed sir Humphrey, when he introduced lord
Haversham, a peer, who is famous in our story, as a maker and publisher
of speeches. His lordship published his speech on the state of the
nation, in 1705, which was cried about the town with unusual
earnestness. Our author's prudence induced him to give no answer to the
speech; but a pamphlet, which was hawked about the streets and sold for
a penny, our author's shrewdness considered as a challenge to every
reader. He laughed and talked so much, through several Reviews, about
this factious effusion, as to provoke a defence of topics, which his
lordship ought neither to have printed nor spoken. De Foe now published
a Reply to Lord Haversham's Vindication of his Speech. During such
battles the town never fails to cheer the smaller combatant. Our author,
with an allusion to the biography of both, says sarcastically: "But
fate, that makes footballs of men, kicks some up stairs, and some down;
some are advanced without honour, others suppressed without infamy; some
are raised without merit, some are crushed without a crime; and no man
knows by the beginning of things, whether his course shall issue in a
peerage or a pillory[43]."

In the midst of these disputes, either grave or ludicrous, De Foe
published Advice to all Parties. He strenuously recommends that
moderation and forbearance, which his opponents often remarked he was
not so prone to practise as to preach. While he thus gave advice to all
parties, he conveyed many salutary lessons to the dissenters, whom he
was zealous to defend. In the Review, dated the 25th of December, 1705,
he conjures them for God's sake, if not for their own sake, to be
content. "Are there a few things more you could wish were done for you?
resolve these wishes into two conclusions: 1st, Wait till Providence, if
it shall be for your good, shall bring them to pass; 2ndly, Compare the
present with the past circumstances, and you cannot repine without the
highest ingratitude both to God and man."

De Foe found leisure, notwithstanding all those labours, perhaps a
necessity, to publish in 1705, A Second Volume of the Writings of the
Author of the True-born Englishman. The same reasons which formerly
induced him to collect some loose pieces; held good, says he, for
proceeding to a second volume, "that if I do not, somebody else will do
it for me." He laments the scandalous liberty of the press; whereby
piratic printers deprive an author of the native product of his own
thought, and the purity of his own style. It is said, though perhaps
without authority, that the vigorous remonstrances of De Foe procured
the Act[44] for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the copies of
printed books in the authors or their assigns. The vanity of an
administration, which affected to patronise the learned, concurring,
with the mutual interest of bookmakers and booksellers, produced this
salutary law, that our author alone had called for without success. De
Foe's writings, thus collected into volumes, were soon a third time
printed, with the addition of a key. The satire being now pointed by the
specification of characters, and obscurities being illuminated by the
annexation of circumstances, a numerous class of readers were induced,
by their zeal of party, or desire of scandal, to look for gratification
from our author's treatises. He is studious to complain, "that his
writings had been most neglected of them, who at the same time have
owned them useful." The second volume of 1705, containing eighteen
treatises in prose and rhyme, begins with A New Discovery of an old
Intrigue, and ends with Royal Religion[45].

The year 1705 was a year of disquiet to De Foe, not so much from the
oppressions of state as from the persecutions of party. When his
business, of whatever nature, led him to Exeter, and other western
towns, in August, September, and October, 1705, a project was formed to
send him as a soldier to the army, at a time when footmen were taken
from the coaches as recruits; but conscious of his being a freeholder of
England, and a liveryman of London, he knew that such characters could
not be violated, in this nation, with impunity. When some of the western
justices, of more zeal of party than sense of duty, heard from his
opponents of De Foe's journey, they determined to apprehend him as a
vagabond: but our author, who, among other qualities, had personal
courage in a high degree, reflected, that to face danger is most
effectually to prevent it. In his absence, real suits were commenced
against him for fictitious debts: but De Foe advertised, that genuine
claims he would fairly satisfy. If all these uncommon circumstances had
not been published in the Review, we should not have seen this striking
picture of savage manners. So much more free are we at present, that the
editor of a newspaper, however obnoxious to any party, may travel
peaceably about his affairs over England, without fear of interruption.
Were a justice of peace, from whatever motive, to offer him any
obstruction, such a magistrate would be overwhelmed by the public
indignation, and punished by the higher guardians of our quiet and our
laws.[46]

De Foe began the year 1706 with A Hymn to Peace[47]; occasioned by the
two houses of parliament joining in one address to the queen. On the 4th
of May he published An Essay at removing National Prejudices against an
Union with Scotland. A few weeks after, he gave the world a second
essay, to soften rancour and defeat perversity. But the time was now
come when he was to perform what he had often promised: and his
fruitfulness produced, in July, 1736, _Jure Divino_, a satire against
Tyranny and Passive Obedience, which had been delayed for fear, as he
declares, of parliamentary censure. Of this poem, it cannot be said, as
of Thomson's Liberty, that it was written to prove what no man ever
denied. This satire, says the preface, had never been published, though
some of it has been a long time in being, had not the world seemed to be
going mad a second time with the error of passive obedience, and
non-resistance. "And because some men require," says he, "more explicit
answers, I declare my belief, that a monarchy, according to the present
constitution, limited by parliament, and dependent upon law, is not only
the best government in the world, but also the best for this nation in
particular, most suitable to the genius of the people, and the
circumstances of the whole body." Dryden had given an example, a few
years before, of argumentative poetry, in his Hind and Panther; by which
he endeavoured to defend the tenets of the church of Rome. Our author
now reasoned in rhyme, through twelve books, in defence of every man's
birthright by nature, when all sorts of liberty were run down and
opposed. His purpose is doubtless honester than Dryden's; and his
argument being in support of the better cause, is perhaps superior in
strength: but in the _Jure Divino_ we look in vain for

    The varying verse, the full-resounding line,
    The long majestic march, and energy divine.[48]

Our author was soon after engaged in more important, because much more
useful, business. Lord Godolphin, who knew how to discriminate
characters, determined to employ him on an errand, "which," as he says,
"was far from being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to
perform." By his lordship he was carried to the queen, who said to him,
while he kissed her hand[49], "that she had such satisfaction in his
former services, that she had again appointed him for another affair,
which was something nice, but the treasurer would tell him the rest." In
three days he was sent to Scotland. His knowledge of commerce and
revenue, his powers of insinuation, and above all, his readiness of pen,
were deemed of no small utility in promoting the Union. He arrived at
Edinburgh, in October, 1706. And we shall find him no inconsiderable
actor in the performance of that greatest of all good works. He attended
the committees of parliament, for whose use he made several of the
calculations[50] on the subject of trade and taxes. He complains[51],
however, that when afterwards some clamour was raised upon the
inequality of the proportions, and the contrivers began to be blamed,
and a little threatened _a-la-mob_, then it was D. F.[52] made it all,
and he was to be stoned for it. He endeavoured to confute[53] all that
was published by Webster and Hodges, and the other writers in Scotland
against the Union: and he had his share of danger, since, as he says,
he was watched by the mob; had his chamber windows insulted; but by the
prudence of his friends, and God's providence, he escaped[54]. In the
midst of this great scene of business and tumult, he collected the
documents which he afterwards published for the instruction of
posterity, with regard to one of the most difficult, and, at the same
time, the most fortunate transactions in our annals.

During all those labours and risks, De Foe published, in December, 1706,
Caledonia, a poem, in honour of the Scots nation[55]. This poetic
essay, which was intended to rescue Scotland from slander in opinion,
Caledonia herself bade him dedicate to the duke of Queensbury. Besides
other benefactions, the commissioner gave the author, whom he calls
Daniel De Foe, esquire, an exclusive privilege to sell his encomiastic
strains for seven years, within the country of his celebration. Amidst
our author's busy occupations at Edinburgh, he was anxious to assure the
world, that wherever the writer may be, the Reviews are written with his
own hand; no person having, or ever had, any concern in writing them,
but the known author, D. F. On the 16th of January, the act of Union was
passed by the Scots parliament; and De Foe returned to London, in
February, 1706-7. While he thus acted importantly at Edinburgh, he
formed connections with considerable persons, who were proud of his
future correspondence, and profited from his political interests[56].

How our author was rewarded by the ministers who derived a benefit from
those services, and from that danger, as he does not tell, cannot now be
known. Before his departure for Scotland, indeed, lord Godolphin, as he
acknowledges[57], obtained for him the continuance of an appointment,
which her majesty, by the interposition of his first benefactor, had
been pleased to make him, in consideration of a former service, in a
foreign country, wherein he run as much risk as a grenadier on the
counterscarp. As he was too prudent to disclose his secret services,
they must at present remain undiscovered. Yet is there reason to think
that he had a pension rather than an office, since his name is not in
the red book of the queen; and he solemnly avers, in his Appeal, that he
had not interest enough with lord Oxford to procure him the arrears due
to him in the time of the former ministry. This appointment, whatever it
were, he is studious to tell, he originally owed to Harley; he, however,
thankfully acknowledges, that lord Godolphin continued his favour to him
after the unhappy breach that separated his first benefactor from the
minister, who continued in power till August, 1710.

The nation, which was filled with combustible matter, burst into flame
the moment of that memorable separation, in 1707. In the midst of this
conflagration our author was not inactive. He waited on Harley after he
had been driven from power, who generously advised him to continue his
services to the queen, which he supposed would have no relation to
personal differences among statesmen. Godolphin received him with equal
kindness, by saying, I always think a man honest till I find to the
contrary. And if we may credit De Foe's asseverations, in the presence
of those who could have convicted him of falsehood, he for three years
held no correspondence with his principal benefactor, which the great
man never took ill of him.

As early as February 1706-7, De Foe avowed his purpose to publish the
History of the Union, which he had ably assisted to accomplish. This
design he executed in 1709, though he was engaged in other lucubrations,
and gave the world a Review three times a week. His history seems to
have been little noticed when it first appeared; for, as the preface
states, it had many difficulties in the way; many factions to encounter,
and parties to please. Yet it was republished in 1712; and a third time
in 1786, when a similar union had become the topic of public debate and
private conversation[58]. The subject of this work is the completion of
a measure, which was carried into effect, notwithstanding obstructions
apparently insurmountable, and tumults approaching to rebellion, and
which has produced the ends designed, beyond expectation, whether we
consider its influence on the government, or its operation on the
governed. The minuteness with which he describes what he saw and heard
on the turbulent stage, where he acted a conspicuous part, is extremely
interesting to us, who wish to know what actually passed, however this
circumstantiality may have disgusted contemporaneous readers. History is
chiefly valuable as it transmits a faithful copy of the manners and
sentiments of every age. This narrative of De Foe is a drama, in which
he introduces the highest peers and the lowest peasants, speaking and
acting, according as they were each actuated by their characteristic
passions; and while the man of taste is amused by his manner, the man of
business may draw instruction from the documents, which are appended to
the end, and interspersed in every page. This publication had alone
preserved his name, had his Crusoe pleased us less.

De Foe published in 1709, what indeed required less effort of the
intellect or the hand, The History of Addresses; with no design, he
says, and as we may believe, to disturb the public peace, but to compare
the present tempers of men with the past, in order to discover who had
altered for the better, and who for the worse. He gave a second volume
of Addresses in 1711, with remarks serious and comical[59]. His purpose
plainly was to abate, by ridicule, the public fervour with regard to
Sacheverell, who, by I know not what fatality, or folly, gave rise to
eventful changes. De Foe evinces, by these timeful publications, that
amidst all that enthusiasm and tumult, he preserved his senses, and
adhered to his principles.

When, by such imprudence as the world had never seen before, Godolphin
was in his turn expelled, in August, 1710, our author waited on the
ex-minister; who obligingly said to him, That he had the same good-will,
but not the same power to assist him; and Godolphin told him, what was
of more real use--to receive the queen's commands from her confidential
servants, when he saw things settled. It naturally occurred to De Foe,
that it was his duty to go along with the ministers, while, as he says,
they did not break in on the constitution. And who can blame a very
subordinate officer, (if indeed he held an office,) who had a wife and
six children to maintain with very precarious means? He was thus, says
he, cast back providentially on his first benefactor, who laid his case
before her majesty, whereby he preserved his interest, without any
engagement. On that memorable change De Foe however somewhat changed
his tone. The method I shall take, says he[60], in talking of the public
affairs, shall for the future be, though with the same design to support
truth, yet with more caution of embroiling myself with a party who have
no mercy, and who have no sense of service.

De Foe now lived at Newington, in comfortable circumstances, publishing
the Reviews, and sending out such tracts, as either gratified his
prejudices, or supplied his needs. During that contentious period he
naturally gave and received many wounds; and he prudently entered into a
truce with Mr. J. Dyer, who was engaged in similar occupations, that,
however they might clash in party, they may write without personal
reflections, and thus differ still, and yet preserve the Christian and
the gentleman[61]. But between professed controvertists such a treaty
could only be persevered in with Punic faith.

While thus occupied, De Foe was not forgotten by the city of Edinburgh,
with the usual ingratitude of public bodies. On the first of February,
1710-11, that corporation, remembering his Caledonia, empowered him to
publish the Edinburgh Courant, in the room of Adam Booge[62], though I
suspect that he did not continue long to edify the Edinburgh citizens by
his weekly lucubrations. He had then much to think of, and much to do at
a distance: and he soon after gave some support to lord Oxford's
South-sea project, by publishing An Essay on the South-sea Trade, with
an inquiry into the reasons of the present complaint against the
settlement of the South-sea company[63]. In the same year he published
An Essay at a plain Exposition of that difficult phrase--A GOOD PEACE.
He obviously intended to abate the national ardour for war, and to
incite a national desire of quiet[64].

The ministers, by the course of events, were engaged ere long in one of
the hardest tasks which can be assigned to British statesmen--the
re-establishment of tranquillity after a glorious war. The treaty at
Utrecht furnishes a memorable example of this. The furious debates which
ensued within the walls of parliament and without, are sufficiently
remembered. About this time, says Boyer, in May, 1713, a paper,
entitled, Mercator, or Commerce Retrieved, was published on Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Saturdays[65]. This was first fathered on Arthur Moore,
assisted by Dr. D'Avenant; but the latter solemnly denied it: and it
soon after appeared to be the production of Daniel De Foe, an
ambidextrous hireling, who for this dirty work received a large weekly
allowance from the treasury. That he wrote in the Mercator De Foe
admits; but he expressly denies "that he either was the author of it,
had the property of it, the printing of it, the profit of it, or had the
power to put anything into it, if he would." And, by his Appeal, he
affirms before God and the world, "that he never had any payment, or
reward, for writing any part of it." Yet, that he was ready to defend
those papers of the Mercator which were really his, if men would answer
with arguments, rather than abuse; though not those things which he had
never written, but for which he had received such usage. He adds, with
the noble spirit of a true-born Englishman, "The press was open to me as
well as to others: and how, or when I lost my English liberty of
speaking my mind, I know not: neither how my speaking my opinions,
without fee or reward, could authorise any one to call me villain,
rascal, traitor, and such opprobrious names."

Of the imputed connection with his first benefactor, Harley, during that
memorable period, our author speaks with equal firmness, at a moment
when firmness was necessary. "I solemnly protest," says he, by his
Appeal, "in the presence of Him who shall judge us all, that I have
received no instructions, orders, or directions for writing anything, or
materials from lord Oxford, since lord Godolphin was treasurer, or that
I have ever shown to lord Oxford anything I had written or printed." He
challenges the world to prove the contrary; and he affirms, that he
always capitulated for liberty to speak according to his own judgment of
things. As to consideration, pension, or reward, he declares most
solemnly that he had none, except his old appointment made him long
before by lord Godolphin. What is extremely probable we may easily
credit, without such strong asseverations. However lord Oxford may have
been gratified by the voluntary writings of De Foe, he had doubtless
other persons who shared his confidence, and wrote his Examiners[66].

But De Foe published that which by no means promoted lord Oxford's
views, and which, therefore, gained little of his favour. Our author
wrote against the peace of Utrecht, because he approved of it as little
as he had done the treaty at Gertruydenburgh, under very different
influences a few years before. The peace _he_ was for, as he himself
says, was such as should neither have given the Spanish monarchy to the
house of Bourbon, nor to the house of Austria; but that this bone of
contention should have been so broken to pieces, as that it should not
have been dangerous to Europe; and that England and Holland should have
so strengthened themselves, by sharing its commerce, as should have made
them no more afraid of France, or the emperor; and that all that we
should conquer in the Spanish West Indies should be our own. But it is
equally true, he affirms, that when the peace was established, "I
thought our business was to make the best of it; and rather to inquire
what improvements could be made of it, than to be continually exclaiming
against those who procured it."

He manfully avowed his opinion in 1715, when it was both disgraceful and
dangerous, that the ninth article of the treaty of commerce[67] was
calculated for the advantage of our trade; "Let who will make it, that,"
says he, "is nothing to me. My reasons are, because it tied up the
French to open the door to our manufactures, at a certain duty of
importation there, and left the parliament of Britain at liberty to shut
theirs out, by as high duties as they pleased here, there being no
limitation upon us, as to duties on French goods, but that other nations
should pay the same. While the French were thus bound, and the British
free, I always thought we must be in a condition to trade to advantage,
or it must be our own fault: this was my opinion, and is so still; and I
would engage to maintain it against any man, on a public stage, before a
jury of fifty merchants, and venture my life upon the cause, if I were
assured of fair play in the dispute. But, that it was my opinion, we
might carry on a trade with France to our great advantage, and that we
ought for that reason to trade with them, appears in the third, fourth,
fifth, and sixth volumes of the Reviews, above nine years before The
Mercator was thought of." Experience has decided in favour of De Foe
against his opponents, with regard both to the theory and the practice
of commerce.

In May, 1713, our author relinquished the Review, after nine years'
continuance[68]: in Newgate it began, and in Newgate it ended. Whether
we consider the frequency of the publication, or the power of his
disquisitions, the pertinacity of his opponents, or the address of his
defences, amid other studies, without assistance, this must be allowed
to be such a work, as few of our writers have equalled. Yet, of this
great performance, said Gay, "The poor Review is quite exhausted, and
grown so very contemptible, that though he has provoked all his brothers
of the quill, none will enter into a controversy with him. The fellow,
who had excellent natural parts, but wanted a small foundation of
learning, is a lively instance of those wits, who, as an ingenious
author says, will endure but one skimming[69]." Poor Gay had learned
this cant in the Scriblerus Club, who thought themselves the wisest, the
wittiest, and virtuousest men that ever were, or ever would be. But of
all their works, which of them have been so often skimmed, or yielded
such cream, as Robinson Crusoe, The Family Instructor, or Religious
Courtship? Some of their writings may indeed be allowed to have uncommon
merit; yet, let them not arrogate exclusive excellence, or claim
appropriate praise.

When De Foe relinquished the Review, he began to write A General History
of Trade, which he proposed to publish in monthly numbers. The first
number appeared on the first of August, 1713. His great design was to
show the reader, "What the whole world is at this time employed in as to
trade." But his more immediate end was, to rectify the mistake we are
fallen into as to commerce, and to inform those who are willing to
inquire into the truth. In the execution of this arduous undertaking, he
avows his intention of speaking what reason dictates and fact justifies,
however he may clash with the popular opinions of some people in trade.
He could not however wholly abstract himself from the passing scene.
When his second number appeared, on the 15th of August, 1713, he gave a
discourse on the harbour of Dunkirk; wherein he insists, that the port
ought to be destroyed, if it must remain with France[70]; but, if it
were added to England, or made a free port, it would be for the good of
mankind to have a safe harbour in such dangerous seas. This History of
Trade, which exhibits the ingenuity, the strength, and the piety of De
Foe, extended only to two numbers. The agitations of the times carried
him to other literary pursuits; and the factiousness of the times
constrained him to attend to personal security.

"While I spoke of things thus," says our author, "I bore infinite
reproaches, as the defender of the peace, by pamphlets, which I had no
hand in." He appears to have been silenced by noise, obloquy, and
insult; and finding himself in this manner treated, he declined writing
at all, as he assures us; and for great part of a year never set pen to
paper, except in the Reviews. "After this," continues he, "I was a long
time absent in the north of England," though we may easily infer, for a
very different reason than that of the famous retirement of Swift, upon
the final breach between Oxford and Bolingbroke.

The place of his retreat is now known to have been Halifax, or the
borders of Lancashire[71]. And observing here, as he himself relates,
the insolence of the Jacobite party, and how they insinuated the
Pretender's rights into the common people. "I set pen to paper again, by
writing A Seasonable Caution; and, to open the eyes of the poor ignorant
country people, I gave away this all over the kingdom, as gain was not
intended." With the same laudable purpose he wrote three other
pamphlets; the first, What if the Pretender should come; the second,
Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover; the third, What
if the Queen should die? "Nothing could be more plain," says he, "than
that the titles of these were amusements[72], in order to put the books
into the hands of those people who had been deluded by the Jacobites."
These petty volumes were so much approved by the zealous friends of the
protestant succession, that they were diligent to disperse them through
the most distant counties. And De Foe protests, that had the elector of
Hanover given him a thousand pounds, he could not have served him more
effectually, than by writing these three treatises.

The reader will learn, with surprise and indignation, that for these
writings De Foe was arrested, obliged to give eight hundred pounds bail,
contrary to the Bill of Rights, and prosecuted by information, during
Trinity term, 1713. This groundless prosecution was instituted by the
absurd zeal of William Benson, who afterwards became ridiculously
famous for literary exploits, which justly raised him to the honours of
the Dunciad. Our author attributes this prosecution to the malice of his
enemies, who were numerous and powerful. No inconsiderable people were
heard to say, that they knew the books were against the Pretender, but
that De Foe had disobliged them in other things, and they resolved to
take this advantage to punish him. This story is the more credible, as
he had procured evidence to prove the fact, had the trial proceeded. He
was prompted by consciousness of innocence to defend himself in the
Review during the prosecution, which offended the judges, who, being
somewhat infected with the violent spirit of the times, committed him to
Newgate, in Easter term, 1713. He was, however, soon released, on making
a proper submission. But it was happy for De Foe that his first
benefactor was still in power, who procured him the queen's pardon, in
November[73], 1713. This act of liberal justice was produced by the
party-writers[74] of those black and bitter days, as an additional proof
of Lord Oxford's attachment to the abdicated family, while De Foe was
said to be convicted of absolute jacobitism, contrary to the tenor of
his life, and the purpose of his writings. He himself said sarcastically
that they might as well have made him a Mahometan. On his tombstone it
might have been engraved, that he was the only Englishman who had been
obliged to ask a royal pardon, for writing in favour of the Hanover
succession.

"By this time," says Boyer, in October, 1714, "the treasonable design
to bring in the pretender was manifested to the world by the agent of
one of the late managers, De Foe, in his History of the White Staff. The
Detection of the Secret History of the White Staff, which was soon
published, confidently tells, that it was written by De Foe; as is to be
seen by his abundance of words, his false thoughts, and his false
English[75]." We now know that there was at that epoch, no plot in
favour of the pretender, except in the assertions of those who wished to
promote their interest by exhibiting their zeal. And I have shown, that
De Foe had done more to keep out the pretender, than the political
tribe, who profited from his zeal, yet detracted from his fame[76].

"No sooner, was the queen dead," says he, "and the king, as right
required, proclaimed, but the rage of men increased upon me to that
degree, that their threats were such as I am unable to express. Though I
have written nothing since the queen's death; yet, a great many things
are called by my name, and I bear the answerers' insults. I have not
seen or spoken with the earl of Oxford," continues he, "since the king's
landing, but once; yet he bears the reproach of my writing for him, and
I the rage of men for doing it." De Foe appears indeed to have been, at
that noisy period, stunned by factious clamour, and overborne, though
not silenced, by unmerited obloquy. He probably lost his original
appointment, when his first benefactor was finally expelled. Instead of
meeting with reward for his zealous services in support of the
protestant succession, he was, on the accession of George I.,
discountenanced by those who had derived a benefit from his active
exertions. And of Addison, who was now exalted into office, and enjoyed
literary patronage, our author had said in his Double Welcome to the
Duke of Marlborough, with less poetry than truth:

    Mæcenas has his modern fancy strung,
    And fix'd his pension first, or he had never sung.

While thus insulted by enemies, and discountenanced by power, De Foe
published his Appeal to Honour and Justice, in 1715; being a true
Account of his Conduct in Public Affairs. As a motive for this intrepid
measure, he affectingly says, that "by the hints of mortality and the
infirmities of a life of sorrow and fatigue, I have reason to think,
that I am very near to the great ocean of eternity, and the time may not
be long ere I embark on the last voyage: wherefore I think I should even
accounts with this world before I go, that no slanders may lie against
my heirs, to disturb them in the peaceable possession of their father's
inheritance, his character." It is a circumstance perhaps unexampled in
the life of any other writer, that before he could finish his Appeal, he
was struck with apoplexy. After languishing more than six weeks, neither
able to go on, nor likely to recover, his friends thought fit to delay
the publication no longer. "It is the opinion of most who know him,"
says Baker, the publisher, "that the treatment which he here complains
of, and others of which he would have spoken, have been the cause of
this disaster." When the ardent mind of De Foe reflected on what he had
done, and what he had suffered, how he had been rewarded and persecuted,
his heart melted in despair. His spirit, like a candle struggling in the
socket, blazed and sunk, and blazed and sunk, till it disappeared in
darkness.

While his strength remained, he expostulated with his adversaries in the
following terms of great manliness, and instructive intelligence:--"It
has been the disaster of all parties in this nation, to be very hot in
their turn, and as often as they have been so, I have differed with them
all, and shall do so. I will repeat some of the occasions on the Whig
side, because from that quarter the accusation of my turning about
comes.

"The first time I had the misfortune to differ with my friends, was
about the year 1683, when the Turks were besieging Vienna, and the whigs
in England, generally speaking, were for the Turks' taking it; which I,
having read the history of the cruelty and perfidious dealings of the
Turks in their wars, and how they had rooted out the name of the
Christian religion in above three score and ten kingdoms, could by no
means agree with: and though then but a young man, and a younger
author, I opposed it, and wrote against it, which was taken very
unkindly indeed.

"The next time I differed with my friends, was when king James was
wheedling the dissenters to take off the penal laws and test, which I
could by no means come into. I told the dissenters, I had rather the
Church of England should pull our clothes off by fines and forfeitures,
than the papists should fall both upon the church and the dissenters,
and pull our skins off by fire and fagot.

"The next difference I had with good men, was about the scandalous
practice of occasional conformity, in which I had the misfortune to make
many honest men angry, rather because I had the better of the argument,
than because they disliked what I said.

"And now I have lived to see the dissenters themselves very quiet; if
not very well pleased with an act of parliament to prevent it. Their
friends indeed laid it on; they would be friends indeed, if they would
talk of taking it off again.

"Again, I had a breach with honest men for their maltreating king
William, of which I say nothing; because I think they are now opening
their eyes, and making what amends they can to his memory.

"The fifth difference I had with them was about the treaty of partition,
in which many honest men were mistaken, and in which I told them plainly
then, that they would at last end the war upon worse terms; and so it is
my opinion they would have done, though the treaty of Gertruydenburgh
had taken place.

"The sixth time I differed with them, was when the old whigs fell out
with the modern whigs; and when the duke of Marlborough and my lord
Godolphin were used by the Observator in a manner worse, I confess, for
the time it lasted, than ever they were used since; nay, though it were
by Abel and the Examiner. But the success failed. In this dispute my
lord Godolphin did me the honour to tell me I had served him and his
grace also, both faithfully and successfully. But his lordship is dead,
and I have now no testimony of it, but what is to be found in the
Observator, where I am plentifully abused for being an enemy to my
country, by acting in the interest of my lord Godolphin and the duke of
Marlborough. What weathercock can turn with such tempers as these?

"I am now in the seventh breach with them, and my crime now is, that I
will not believe and say the same things of the queen and the late
treasurer, which I could not believe before of my lord Godolphin and the
duke of Marlborough, and which in truth I cannot believe, and therefore
could not say it of either of them; and which, if I had believed, yet I
ought not to have been the man that should have said it, for the reasons
aforesaid.

"In such turns of tempers and times a man must have been tenfold a Vicar
of Bray, or it is impossible but he must one time or other be out with
everybody. This is my present condition; and for this I am reviled with
having abandoned my principles, turned jacobite, and what not: God judge
between me and these men! Would they come to any particulars with me,
what real guilt I may have, I would freely acknowledge; and if they
would produce any evidence of the bribes, the pensions, and the rewards
I have taken, I would declare honestly whether they were true or no. If
they would give a list of the books which they charge me with, and the
reasons why they lay them at my door, I would acknowledge any mistake,
own what I have done, and let them know what I have not done. But these
men neither show mercy, nor leave room for repentance; in which they act
not only unlike their Maker, but contrary to his express commands[77]."

With the same independence of spirit, but with greater modesty of
manner, our author openly disapproved of the intemperance which was
adopted by government in 1714, contrary to the original purpose of
George I. "It is and ever was my opinion," says De Foe in his Appeal,
"that moderation is the only virtue by which the tranquillity of this
nation can be preserved; and even the king himself, (I believe his
majesty will allow me that freedom,) can only be happy in the enjoyment
of the crown, by a moderate administration: if he should be obliged,
contrary to his known disposition, to join with intemperate councils, if
it does not lessen his security, I am persuaded it will lessen his
satisfaction. To attain at the happy calm, which is the consideration
that should move us all, (and he would merit to be called the nation's
physician, who could prescribe the specific for it,) I think I may be
allowed to say, a conquest of parties will never do it, a balance of
parties may." Such was the political testament of De Foe; which it had
been happy for Britain, had it been as faithfully executed as it was
wisely made!

The year 1715 may be regarded as the period of our author's political
life. Faction henceforth found other advocates, and parties procured
other writers to propagate their falsehoods. Yet when a cry was raised
against foreigners, on the accession of George I. The True-born
Englishman was revived, rather by Roberts, the bookseller, than by De
Foe the author[78]. But the persecutions of party did not cease when De
Foe ceased to be a party-writer. He was insulted by Boyer, in April,
1716, as the author of The Triennial Act impartially stated: "but
whatever was offered," says Boyer, "against the septennial bill, was
fully confuted by the ingenious and judicious Joseph Addison, esquire.
Whether De Foe wrote in defence of the people's rights, or in support of
the law's authority, he is to be censured: whether Addison defended the
septennial bill, or the peerage bill, he is to be praised. With the same
misconception of the fact, and malignity of spirit, Toland reviled[79]
De Foe for writing an answer to The State of Anatomy, in 1717. The time
however will at last come, when the world will judge of men from their
actions rather than pretensions."

The death of Anne, and the accession of George I. seem to have convinced
De Foe of the vanity of party-writing. And from this eventful epoch, he
appears to have studied how to meliorate rather than to harden the
heart; how to regulate, more than to vitiate, the practice of life.

Early in 1715 he published The Family Instructor, in three parts: 1st,
relating to fathers and children; 2nd, to masters and servants; 3rd, to
husbands and wives. He carefully concealed his authorship, lest the good
effects of his labour should be obstructed by the great imperfections of
the writer. The world was then too busy to look immediately into the
work. The bookseller soon procured a recommendatory letter from the Rev.
Samuel Wright, a well-known preacher in the Blackfriars. It was praised
from the pulpit and the press: and the utility of the end, with the
attractiveness of the execution, gave it, at length, a general
reception[80]. The author's first design was to write a dramatic poem;
but the subject was too solemn, and the text too copious, to admit of
restraint, or to allow excursions. His purpose was to divert and
instruct, at the same moment; and by giving it a dramatic form, it has
been called by some a religious play. De Foe at last says with his usual
archness: As to its being called a play, be it called so, if they
please: it must be confessed, some parts of it are too much acted in
many families among us. The author wishes, that either all our plays
were as useful for the improvement and entertainment of the world, or
that they were less encouraged. There is, I think, some mysticism in the
preface, which, it were to be desired, a judicious hand would expunge,
when The Family Instructor shall be again reprinted; for, reprinted it
will be, while our language endures; at least, while wise men shall
continue to consider the influences of religion and the practice of
morals as of the greatest use to society[81].

De Foe afterwards added a second volume, in two parts; 1st, relating to
Family Breaches; 2ndly, to the great Mistake of mixing the Passions in
the managing of Children. He considered it, indeed, as a bold adventure
to write a second volume of anything; there being a general opinion
among modern readers, that second parts never come up to the spirit of
the first. He quotes Mr. Milton, for differing from the world upon the
question, and for affirming with regard to his own great performances,
That the people had a general sense of the loss of Paradise, but not an
equal gust for regaining it. Of De Foe's second volume, it will be
easily allowed, that it is as instructive and pleasing as the first. His
Religious Courtship, which he published in 1722, may properly be
considered as a third volume: for the design is equally moral, the
manner is equally attractive, and it may in the same manner be called a
religious play[82].

But the time at length came, when De Foe was to deliver to the world the
most popular of all his performances. In April, 1719, he published the
well-known Life and surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe[83]. The
reception was immediate and universal; and Tayler, who purchased the
manuscript after every bookseller had refused it, is said to have gained
a thousand pounds. If it be inquired by what charm it is that these
surprising Adventures should have instantly pleased, and always pleased,
it will be found, that few books have ever so naturally mingled
amusement with instruction. The attention is fixed, either by the
simplicity of the narration, or by the variety of the incidents; the
heart is amended by a vindication of the ways of God to man: and the
understanding is informed by various examples, how much utility ought to
be preferred to ornament: the young are instructed, while the old are
amused.

Robinson Crusoe had scarcely drawn his canoe ashore, when he was
attacked by his old enemies, the savages. He was assailed first by The
Life and strange Adventures of Mr. D---- De F--, of London, Hosier, who
has lived above Fifty Years by himself in the Kingdoms of North and
South Britain. In a dull dialogue between De Foe, Crusoe, and his man
Friday, our author's life is lampooned, and his misfortunes ridiculed.
But he who had been struck by apoplexy, and who was now discountenanced
by power, was no fit object of an Englishman's satire. Our author
declares, when he was himself a writer of satiric poetry, "that he never
reproached any man for his private infirmities, for having his house
burnt, his ships cast away, or his family ruined; nor had he ever
lampooned any one, because he could not pay his debts, or differed in
judgment from him." Pope has been justly censured for pursuing a vein
of satire extremely dissimilar. And Pope placed De Foe with Tutchin, in
The Dunciad, when our author's infirmities were greater and his comfort
less. He was again assaulted in 1719, by An Epistle to D---- De F--, the
reputed Author of Robinson Crusoe. "Mr. Foe," says the letter-writer, "I
have perused your pleasant story of Robinson Crusoe; and if the faults
of it had extended no further than the frequent solecisms and
incorrectness of style, improbabilities, and sometimes impossibilities,
I had not given you the trouble of this epistle." "Yet," said Johnson to
Piozzi, "was there ever anything written by mere man that was wished
longer by its readers, except Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the
Pilgrim's Progress[84]?" This epistolary critic, who renewed his angry
attack when the second volume appeared, has all the dulness, without the
acumen, of Dennis, and all his malignity, without his purpose of
reformation. The Life of Crusoe has passed through innumerable editions,
and has been translated into foreign languages, while the criticism sunk
into oblivion.

De Foe set the critics at defiance while he had the people on his side.
As a commercial legislator he knew, that it is rapid sale that is the
great incentive: and, in August, 1719, he published a second volume of
Surprising Adventures, with similar success[85]. In hope of profit and
of praise, he produced in August, 1720, Serious Reflections during the
Life of Robinson Crusoe, with his Vision of the Angelic World. He
acknowledges that the present work is not merely the product of the two
first volumes, but the two first may rather be called the product of
this: the fable is always made for the moral, not the moral for the
fable. He, however, did not advert, that instruction must be insinuated
rather than enforced. That this third volume has more morality than
fable, is the cause I fear, that it has never been read with the same
avidity as the former two, or spoken of with the same approbation. We
all prefer amusement to instruction; and he who would inculcate useful
truths, must study to amuse, or he will offer his lessons to an
auditory, neither numerous, nor attentive.

The tongue of detraction is seldom at rest. It has often been repeated
that De Foe had surreptitiously appropriated the papers of Alexander
Selkirk, a Scotch mariner, who having lived solitary on the isle of
Juan Fernandez, four years and four months, was relieved on the 2nd of
February, 1708-9, by captain Woodes Rogers, in his cruising voyage round
the world. But let no one draw inferences till the fact be first
ascertained. The adventures of Selkirk had been thrown into the air, in
1712, for literary hawks to devour[86]; and De Foe may have catched a
common prey, which he converted to the uses of his intellect, and
distributed for the purposes of his interest[87]. Thus he may have
fairly acquired the fundamental incident of Crusoe's life; but, he did
not borrow the various events, the useful moralities, or the engaging
style. Few men could write such a poem; and few Selkirks could imitate
so pathetic an original. It was the happiness of De Foe, that as many
writers have succeeded in relating enterprises by land, he excelled in
narrating adventures by sea, with such felicities of language, such
attractive varieties, such insinuative instruction, as have seldom been
equalled, but never surpassed[88].

While De Foe in this manner busied himself in writing adventures which
have charmed every reader, a rhyming fit returned on him. He published
in 1720, The complete Art of Painting, which he did into English from
the French of Du Fresnoy. Dryden had given, in 1695, a translation of Du
Fresnoy's poem, which has been esteemed for its knowledge of the sister
arts. What could tempt De Foe to this undertaking it is not easy to
discover, unless we may suppose that he hoped to gain a few guineas,
without much labour of the head or hand. Dryden has been justly praised
for relinquishing vicious habits of composition, and adopting better
models for his muse. De Foe, after he had seen the correctness, and
heard the music of Pope, remained unambitious of accurate rhymes, and
regardless of sweeter numbers. His politics and his poetry, for which he
was long famous among biographers, would not have preserved his name
beyond the fleeting day; yet I suspect that, in imitation of Milton, he
would have preferred his Jure Divino to his Robinson Crusoe.

De Foe lived not then, however, in pecuniary distress; for his genius
and his industry were to him the mines of Potosi: and in 1722, he
obtained from the corporation of Colchester, though my inquiries have
not discovered by what interposition, a ninety-nine years' lease of
Kingswood-heath, at a yearly rent of a hundred and twenty pounds, with a
fine of five hundred pounds[89]. This transaction seems to evince a
degree of wealth much above want, though the assignment of his lease not
long after to Walter Bernard equally proves, that he could not easily
hold what he had thus obtained. Kingswood-heath is now worth 300_l._ a
year, and is advertised for sale by Bennet, the present possessor.

Whatever may have been his opulence, our author did not waste his
subsequent life in unprofitable idleness. No one can be idly employed
who endeavours to make his fellow subjects better citizens and wiser
men. This will sufficiently appear if we consider his future labours,
under the distinct heads of voyages; fictitious biography; moralities,
either grave or ludicrous; domestic travels; and tracts on trade.

The success of Crusoe induced De Foe to publish, in 1720, The Life and
Piracies of Captain Singleton, though not with similar success; the plan
is narrower, and the performance is less amusing. In 1725, he gave A
New Voyage Round the World, by a Course never sailed before. Most
voyagers have had this misfortune, that whatever success they had in the
adventure, they had very little in the narration; they are indeed full
of the incidents of sailing, but they have nothing of story for the use
of readers who never intend to brave the dangers of the sea. These
faults De Foe is studious to avoid in his new voyage. He spreads before
his readers such adventures as no writer of a real voyage can hope to
imitate, if we except the teller of Anson's tale. In the life of Crusoe
we are gratified by continually imagining that the fiction is a fact; in
the Voyage Round the World we are pleased by constantly perceiving that
the fact is a fiction, which, by uncommon skill, is made more
interesting than a genuine voyage.

Of fictitious biography it is equally true, that by matchless art it may
be made more instructive than a real life. Few of our writers have
excelled De Foe in this kind of biographical narration, the great
qualities of which are, to attract by the diversity of circumstances,
and to instruct by the usefulness of examples.

He published, in 1720, The History of Duncan Campbell. Of a person who
was born deaf and dumb, but who himself taught the deaf and dumb to
understand, it is easy to see that the life would be extraordinary. It
will be found, that the author has intermixed some disquisitions of
learning, and has contrived that the merriest passages shall end with
some edifying moral[90]. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
were made to gratify the world, in 1721. De Foe was aware, that in
relating a vicious life, it was necessary to make the best use of a bad
story; and he artfully endeavours, that the reader shall be more pleased
with the moral than the fable; with the application than the relation;
with the end of the writer than the adventures of the person. There was
published in 1721, a work of a similar tendency, The Life of Colonel
Jack, who was born a gentleman but was bred a pickpocket. Our author is
studious to convert his various adventures into a delightful field,
where the reader might gather herbs, wholesome and medicinal, without
the incommodation of plants, poisonous or noxious. In 1724 appeared The
Life of Roxana. Scenes of crimes can scarcely be represented in such a
manner, says De Foe, but some make a criminal use of them; but when vice
is painted in its low-prized colours, it is not to make people love what
from the frightfulness of the figures they ought necessarily to hate.
Yet, I am not convinced, that the world has been made much wiser, or
better, by the perusal of these lives; they may have diverted the lower
orders, but I doubt if they have much improved them; if however they
have not made them better, they have not left them worse. But they do
not exhibit many scenes which are welcome to cultivated minds. Of a very
different quality are the Memoirs of a Cavalier, during the civil wars
in England, which seem to have been published without a date. This is a
romance the likest to truth that ever was written[91]. It is a narrative
of great events, which is drawn with such simplicity, and enlivened
with such reflections, as to inform the ignorant and entertain the wise.

The moralities of De Foe, whether published in single volumes, or
interspersed through many passages, must at last give him a superiority
over the crowd of his contemporaries[92]. The approbation which has been
long given to his Family Instructor, and his Religious Courtship, seem
to contain the favourable decision of his countrymen[93]. But there are
still other performances of this nature, which are now to be mentioned,
of not inferior merit.

De Foe published, in 1722, A Journal of the Plague in 1665. The author's
artifice consists in fixing the reader's attention by the deep distress
of fellow-men; and, by recalling the reader's recollection to striking
examples of mortality, he endeavours to inculcate the uncertainty of
life, and the usefulness of reformation. In 1724, De Foe published The
great Law of Subordination. This is an admirable commentary on the
Unsufferable Behaviour of Servants. Yet, though he interest by his mode,
inform by his facts, and convince by his argument, he fails at last, by
expecting from law what must proceed from manners[94]. Our author gave
The Political History of the Devil, in 1726. The matter and the mode
conjoin to make this a charming performance. He engages poetry and
prose, reasoning and wit, persuasion and ridicule, on the side of
religion and morals, with wonderful efficacy. De Foe wrote A System of
Magic in 1726[95]. This may be properly regarded as a supplement to the
History of the Devil. His end and his execution are exactly the same.
He could see no great harm in the present pretenders to magic, if the
poor people would but keep their money in their pockets; and that they
should have their pockets picked by such an unperforming, unmeaning,
ignorant crew as these are, is the only magic De Foe could see in the
whole science. But the reader will discover in our author's system,
extensive erudition, salutary remark, and useful satire. De Foe
published in 1727, his Treatise on the Use and Abuse of the
Marriage-Bed. The author had begun this performance thirty years before;
he delayed the publication, though it had been long finished, in hopes
of reformation. But being now grown old, and out of the reach of
scandal, and despairing of amendment from a vicious age, he thought
proper to close his days with this satire. He appealed to that judge,
before whom he expected soon to appear, that as he had done it with an
upright intention, so he had used his utmost endeavour to perform it in
a manner which was the least liable to reflection, and the most
answerable to the end of it--the reformation of the guilty. After such
an appeal, and such asseverations, I will only remark, that this is an
excellent book with an improper title-page.

We are now to consider our author's Tours. He published his Travels
through England, in 1724 and 1725; and through Scotland, in 1727. De Foe
was not one of those travellers who seldom quit the banks of the Thames.
He had made wide excursions over all those countries, with observant
eyes and a vigorous intellect. The great artifice of these volumes
consists in the frequent mention of such men and things, as are always
welcome to the reader's mind[96].

De Foe's Commercial Tracts are to be reviewed lastly. Whether his fancy
gradually failed, as age hastily advanced, I am unable to tell. He
certainly began, in 1726, to employ his pen more frequently on the real
business of common life. He published, in 1727, The Complete English
Tradesman; directing him in the several parts of trade. A second volume
soon after followed, which was addressed chiefly to the more experienced
and more opulent traders. In these treatises the tradesman found many
directions of business, and many lessons of prudence[97]. De Foe was not
one of those writers, who consider private vices as public benefits: God
forbid, he exclaims, that I should be understood to prompt the vices of
the age, in order to promote any practice of traffic: trade need not be
destroyed though vice were mortally wounded. With this salutary spirit
he published, in 1728, A Plan of the English Commerce[98]. This seems to
be the conclusion of what he had begun in 1713. In 1728, Gee printed
his Trade and Navigation considered. De Foe insisted, that our industry,
our commerce, our opulence, and our people, had increased and were
increasing. Gee represented that our manufactures had received mortal
stabs; that our poor were destitute, and our country miserable. De Foe
maintained the truth, which experience has taught to unwilling auditors.
Gee asserted the falsehood, without knowing the fact: yet Gee is quoted,
while De Foe with all his knowledge of the subject, as a commercial
writer, is almost forgotten. The reason may be found perhaps in the
characteristic remark with which he opens his plan: Trade, like
religion, is what everybody talks of, but few understand.

When curiosity has contemplated such copiousness, such variety, and such
excellence, it naturally inquires which was the last of De Foe's
performances? Were we to determine from the date of the title page, the
Plan of Commerce must be admitted to be his last. But if we must judge
from his prefatory declaration, in The Abuse of the Marriage-Bed, where
he talks of closing his days with this satire, which he was so far from
seeing cause of being ashamed of, that he hoped he should not be ashamed
of it where he was going to account for it, we must finally decide, that
our author closed his career "with this upright intention for the good
of mankind[99]."

De Foe, after those innumerable labours, which I have thus endeavoured
to recall to the public recollection, died in April, 1731, within the
parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, London, at an age, if he were born
in 1663, when it was time to prepare for his last voyage. He left a
widow, Susannah, who did not long survive him, and six sons and
daughters, whom he boasts of having educated as well as his
circumstances would admit. His son Daniel is said to have emigrated to
Carolina; of Benjamin, his second son, no account can be given[100].
His youngest daughter Sophia, married Mr. Henry Baker, a person more
respectable as a philosopher than a poet, who died in 1774, at the age
of seventy. His daughter Maria married one Langley; but Hannah and
Henrietta probably remained unmarried, since they were heiresses only of
a name, which did not recommend them. With regard to

    Norton, from Daniel and Ostræa sprung[101],
    Bless'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue,

it is only said that he was a wretched writer in the Flying Post, and
the author of Alderman Barber's Life. De Foe probably died insolvent;
for letters of administration on his goods and chattels were granted to
Mary Brooke, widow, a creditrix, in September, 1733, after summoning in
official form the next of kin to appear[102]. John Dunton[103], who
personally knew our author, describes him, in 1705, as a man of good
parts and clear sense; of a conversation, ingenious and brisk; of a
spirit, enterprising and bold, but of little prudence; with good nature
and real honesty. Of his petty habits, little now can be told, more than
he has thus confessed himself[104]: "God, I thank thee, I am not a
drunkard, or a swearer, or a whoremaster, or a busybody, or idle, or
revengeful; and though this be true, and I challenge all the world to
prove the contrary, yet, I must own, I see small satisfaction in all the
negatives of common virtues; for though I have not been guilty of any of
these vices, nor of many more, I have nothing to infer from thence, but
_Te Deum laudamus_." He says himself:

    Confession will anticipate reproach,
    He that reviles us then, reviles too much;
    All satire ceases when the men repent,
    'Tis cruelty to lash the penitent.

When De Foe had arrived at sixty-five, while he was encumbered with a
family, and, I fear, pinched with penury, Pope, endeavoured, by repeated
strokes, to bring his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. This he did
without propriety, and, as far as appears, without provocation; for our
author is not in the black list of scribblers, who by attempting to
lessen the poet's fame, incited the satirist's indignation. The offence
and the fate of Bentley and De Foe were nearly alike. Bentley would not
allow the translation to be Homer: De Foe had endeavoured to bring
Milton into vogue seven years ere the Paradise Lost and Chevy Chase had
been criticised in the Spectators by Addison. Our author had said in
More Reformation,

    Let this describe the nation's character,
    One man reads Milton, forty ----.
    The case is plain, the temper of the time,
    One wrote the lewd, the other the sublime.

An enraged poet alone could have thrust into the Dunciad, Bentley, a
profound scholar, Cibber, a brilliant wit, and De Foe, a happy genius.
This was the consequence of exalting satire as the test of truth; while
truth ought to have been enthroned the test of satire. Yet, it ought not
to be forgotten, that De Foe has some sarcasm, in his System of Magic,
on the _sylphs_ and _gnomes_, which Pope may have deemed a daring
invasion of his Rosicrucian territories.

De Foe has not yet outlived his century, though he have outlived most of
his contemporaries. Yet the time is come, when he must be acknowledged
as one of the ablest, as he is one of the most captivating, writers, of
which this island can boast. Before he can be admitted to this
pre-eminence, he must be considered distinctly, as a poet, as a
novelist, as a polemic, as a commercial writer, and as a grave
historian.

As a poet, we must look to the end of his effusions rather than to his
execution, ere we can allow him considerable praise. To mollify national
animosities, or to vindicate national rights, are certainly noble
objects, which merit the vigour and imagination of Milton, or the flow
and precision of Pope; but our author's energy runs into harshness, and
his sweetness is to be tasted in his prose more than in his poesy. If
we regard the Adventures of Crusoe, like The Adventures of Telemachus,
as a poem, his moral, his incidents, and his language, must lift him
high on the poet's scale. His professed poems, whether we contemplate
the propriety of sentiment, or the suavity of numbers, may indeed,
without much loss of pleasure or instruction, be resigned to those, who,
in imitation of Pope, poach in the fields of obsolete poetry for
brilliant thoughts, felicities of phrase, or for happy rhymes.

As a novelist, every one will place him in the foremost rank, who
considers his originality, his performance, and his purpose. The Ship of
Fools had indeed been launched in early times; but, who like De Foe, had
ever carried his reader to sea, in order to mend the heart, and regulate
the practice of life, by showing his readers the effect of adversity, or
how they might equally be called to sustain his hero's trials, as they
sailed round the world. But, without attractions, neither the
originality, nor the end, can have any salutary consequence. This he had
foreseen; and for this he has provided, by giving his adventures in a
style so pleasing, because it is simple, and so interesting, because it
is particular, that every one fancies he could write a similar language.
It was, then, idle in Boyer formerly, or in Smollett lately, to speak of
De Foe as a party writer, in little estimation. The writings of no
author since have run through more numerous editions. And he whose works
have pleased generally and pleased long, must be deemed a writer of no
small estimation; the people's verdict being the proper test of what
they are the proper judges.

As a polemic, I fear we must regard our author with less kindness,
though it must be recollected, that he lived during a contentious
period, when two parties distracted the nation, and writers indulged in
great asperities. But, in opposition to reproach, let it ever be
remembered, that he defended freedom, without anarchy; that he supported
toleration, without libertinism; that he pleaded for moderation even
amidst violence. With acuteness of intellect, with keenness of wit, with
archness of diction, and pertinacity of design; it must be allowed that
nature had qualified, in a high degree, De Foe for a disputant. His
polemical treatises, whatever might have been their attractions once,
may now be delivered without reserve to those who delight in polemical
reading. De Foe, it must be allowed, was a party writer: But, were not
Swift and Prior, Steel and Addison, Halifax and Bolingbroke, party
writers? De Foe, being a party writer upon settled principles, did not
change with the change of parties: Addison and Steel, Prior and Swift,
connected as they were with persons, changed their note as persons were
elevated or depressed.

As a commercial writer, De Foe is fairly entitled to stand in the
foremost rank among his contemporaries, whatever may be their
performances or their fame. Little would be his praise, to say of him,
that he wrote on commercial legislation like Addison, who when he
touches on trade, sinks into imbecility, without knowledge of fact, or
power of argument[105]. The distinguishing characteristics of De Foe, as
a commercial disquisitor, are originality and depth. He has many
sentiments with regard to traffic, which are scattered through his
Reviews, and which I never read in any other book. His Giving Alms no
Charity, is a capital performance, with the exception of one or two
thoughts about the abridgment of labour by machinery, which are either
half formed or half expressed. Were we to compare De Foe with D'Avenant,
it would be found, that D'Avenant has more detail from official
documents; that De Foe has more fact from wider inquiry. D'Avenant is
more apt to consider laws in their particular application; De Foe more
frequently investigates commercial legislation in its general effects.
From the publications of D'Avenant it is sufficiently clear, that he was
not very regardful of means, or very attentive to consequences; De Foe
is more correct in his motives, and more salutary in his ends. But, as a
commercial prophet, De Foe must yield the palm to Child; who foreseeing
from experience that men's conduct must finally be directed by their
principles, foretold the colonial revolt: De Foe, allowing his
prejudices to obscure his sagacity, reprobated that suggestion, because
he deemed interest a more strenuous prompter than enthusiasm. Were we
however to form an opinion, not from special passages, but from whole
performances, we must incline to De Foe, when compared with the ablest
contemporary: we must allow him the preference, on recollection, that
when he writes on commerce he seldom fails to insinuate some axiom of
morals, or to inculcate some precept of religion.

As an historian, it will be found, that our author had few equals in the
English language, when he wrote. His Memoirs of a Cavalier show how well
he could execute the lighter narratives. His History of the Union
evinces that he was equal to the higher department of historic
composition. This is an account of a single event, difficult indeed in
its execution, but beneficial certainly in its consequences. With
extraordinary skill and information, our author relates, not only the
event, but the transactions which preceded, and the effects which
followed. He is at once learned and intelligent. Considering the
factiousness of the age, his candour is admirable. His moderation is
exemplary. And if he spoke of James I. as a tyrant, he only exercised
the prerogative, which our historians formerly enjoyed, of casting
obloquy on an unfortunate race, in order to supply deficience of
knowledge, of elegance, and of style. In this instance De Foe allowed
his prejudice to overpower his philosophy. If the language of his
narrative want the dignity of the great historians of the current times,
it has greater facility; if it be not always grammatical, it is
generally precise; and if it be thought defective in strength, it must
be allowed to excel in sweetness.

Such then are the pretensions of De Foe to be acknowledged as one of the
ablest and most useful writers of our island. He who still doubts may
perhaps satisfy his greatest doubts, by perusing the chronological
catalogue of our author's works, which I have compiled, in order to
gratify the public curiosity; and which, for the greater distinctness, I
have divided into two heads: 1st, Those writings that I think are
certainly De Foe's; 2ndly, Those writings that are said to be his. As I
do not pretend to perfect accuracy, it would be a favour to the world
and to me, if any one, of more knowledge and leisure than I possess,
would point out mistakes for the purpose of amendment. The zealous
interposition of Mr. Lockyer Davis, and the liberal spirit of the
Stationers' company, procured me the perusal of the register of books,
which have been entered at Stationers'-hall. I was surprised and
disappointed to find so few of De Foe's writings entered as property,
and his name never mentioned as an author or a man.

END OF MR. CHALMERS'S LIFE.

       *       *       *       *       *

In presenting to the public so complete an edition of the works of De
Foe, the publishers feel that they are engaged in a truly national
undertaking, interesting to all ranks of Englishmen, but peculiarly to
the middle classes. De Foe was essentially a practical author, not only
as regards his style, but his turn of mind, his choice of subjects, and
his mode of handling them. He wrote voluminously, upon all kinds of
subjects and for all ranks of men: and by some of his works he has
continued from that time to this, to please all classes and ages of
people in all the countries of Europe. For many years he took an active
part in the political controversies of that troubled time, which were so
much embittered by the factious excitement arising from the expulsion of
the Stuart dynasty, and placing William III. on the throne; and during
the long period of his life in which he engaged in political warfare, he
consistently and constantly maintained the principles of the revolution.
Many of his pamphlets being directed to passing topics have ceased to
possess that general and enduring interest which attaches to his other
works, but they are full of manly sentiments, expressed in a plain,
racy, English style, and well deserve the attentive perusal of all who
may wish thoroughly to understand that period of our history which
elapsed between the accession of William III. and the death of queen
Anne. His History of the Union is a standard work, and peculiarly
valuable as the production of a man who took an active part in the great
national event which it commemorates.

Essentially practical, as we have observed, in his mind, De Foe was ever
anxious to give useful instructions to his countrymen, for the
regulation of their conduct in their homes and their pursuits in life,
and embodied the results of an experienced and sagacious mind in the
Family Instructor, the Religious Courtship, and the Complete English
Tradesman. This last work is one which no young man entering into
business should be without. It is an invaluable manual, full of the
lessons of instructed prudence and good sense. Even his admirable
romances, too, are written in the same spirit. They were not composed in
his youth, in the heyday of his imagination, merely to gratify an idle
curiosity in the reader, but in the evening of his life when his
judgment was matured, and his experience at the full. Some of them were
written to show the bitter fruits of a life of vice; and others to
display in a vivid manner the importance of self-reliance, based on its
proper foundation, a sincere and Christian trust in Providence, under
all circumstances; with the inestimable value of a practical education,
and a thorough acquaintance with the arts of life, and what too many
persons are foolishly apt to despise as common things. That these were
the paramount objects De Foe had in view is evident not only from a
perusal of these valuable works, but from his own strongly asserted
statements in his prefaces both to Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe. In
the former, he says, "as the whole relation is usefully garbled of all
the levity and looseness that was in it, so it is applied with the
utmost care to virtuous and religious uses. None can, without being
guilty of manifest injustice, cast any reproach upon it, or upon our
design in publishing it. The advocates of the stage have in all ages
made this the great argument, to persuade people that their plays are
useful, and that they ought to be allowed in the most civilized, and in
the most religious government; namely, that they are applied to virtuous
purposes, and that, by the most lively representations, they fail not
to recommend virtue and generous principles, and to discourage and
expose all sorts of vice and corruption of manners; and were it true
that they did so, and that they constantly adhered to that rule, as the
test of their acting on the theatre, much might be said in their favour.

"Throughout the infinite variety of this book, this fundamental is most
strictly adhered to; there is not a wicked action in any part of it, but
it is first or last rendered unhappy or unfortunate; there is not a
superlative villain brought upon the stage, but he is either brought to
an unhappy end, or brought to be a penitent; there is not an ill thing
mentioned but it is condemned, even in the relation; nor a virtuous just
thing but it carries its praise along with it. What can more exactly
answer the rule laid down, to recommend even those representations of
things which have so many other just objections lying against them;
namely, of example of bad company, obscene language, and the like." And
in the preface to Robinson Crusoe he states his object to be "a
religious application of events to the uses to which wise men always
apply them, viz., to the instruction of others by this example, and to
justify and honour the wisdom of Providence in all the variety of our
circumstances, let them happen how they will."

The extreme popularity of this justly celebrated work proves the success
with which De Foe's labours were crowned. It is a book essentially
English, one of which an Englishman only would have conceived the
design, and which probably only an Englishman would have been able to
execute. The idea of an inhabitant of a solitary island, "far in the
melancholy main," subsisting in comparative comfort, might be expected
from one of that nautical people whose flag has not only 'braved a
thousand years the battle and the breeze,' but floated in triumph on
every sea, and waved in the winds of every clime. From such a people the
author might expect readers, and he has had them by thousands of every
class and of every age. The interest, however, of the story has not
confined the reputation and popularity of Robinson Crusoe to this
country, but has made it the universal favourite of Europe. The great
characteristics of this remarkable book are the vividness with which the
imaginary scenes are depicted, so as to make it impossible for the
reader to doubt their reality, and the just importance which is given to
the knowledge of what a great man called "doing common things in a
common way." For his power of imparting reality to his fictions De Foe
indeed stands highly distinguished among authors. Dr. Johnson mistook
the Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton, for a real history; and lord
Chatham fell into a similar mistake about the Memoirs of a Cavalier
during the civil wars in England. Dr. Mead quoted the History of the
Plague as an authentic detail by an eyewitness. And this quality marks
the different fictions, Moll Flanders, &c., which the publishers have
collected and reprinted in the present edition. These remarkable tales,
it is true, describe the career of loose and immoral characters, but
only in a way to disgust and deter. There is never any impropriety in
the descriptions of events, however degrading; the nature of De Foe was
abhorrent from indecency: but the heroes and heroines, who tell their
own stories, instead of dwelling with unction or satisfaction on their
past lives, only narrate particular incidents to express their sincere
disgust at them, and repentance for the future, and to warn others from
a life so fruitful of bitter results. Whilst De Foe was so cruelly and
unjustly imprisoned in Newgate for defending the Hanoverian succession!
(strange perversion of party spirit!) he employed his active mind in
acquiring information relative to its unhappy and guilty inmates; and
deeply convinced that mankind would be benefited by an exposure of the
sorrow and distresses that invariably accompany and follow a life of
crime, he embodied the results of his experience in fictions which we
agree with him in thinking to be as useful as they are vivid. Mr.
Alexander Chalmers, in his sketch of De Foe[106], says, "these lives are
too gross for improvement"; we cannot agree with this opinion of the
learned biographer. We hold, that novels, written like De Foe's, not on
the base principle of making a market by pandering to the worst passions
of the multitude, but where all indecency of expression or even of
suggestion, is carefully avoided, and vice is only described as
entailing misery, are instructive and beneficial to the people.

The style of De Foe is plain and homely, but expressive, direct, and
manly. It may be described as thoroughly English. It reflected the
character of his mind, and bespoke the man of firm resolve, and unshaken
integrity.

His principles were those of a sincere dissenter, of the whig school. He
joined most heartily in the Revolution of 1688, and continued a
steadfast friend to its principles and its hero. To William III. De Foe
was devotedly attached; and after the death of that great king,
vindicated his memory from the poisonous shafts of malice and slander.
He was the champion of civil and religious liberty, which he evidently
valued as the most precious of earthly things. Of that cause he
continued the unflinching advocate, and may be regarded as the most
efficient of that day which the press could boast. Through good report
and evil report, under the smiles of sovereigns or incarcerated in
Newgate, in prosperity or poverty, stung by the malevolence of faction,
or by filial ingratitude, in health or in sickness, in gladness or in
sorrow, De Foe held by the same sheet anchor of principle, remained
incorruptible in his love of liberty, and died as he had lived
throughout a long and eventful career, what he so justly felt himself, a
"True-born Englishman," and to use his own admirable expression in
Robinson Crusoe, a "broadhearted man." Honoured be his memory!

The first attempt to do justice to the merits of De Foe, and to rescue
the main events of his useful and laborious life from oblivion, was made
by the late Mr. George Chalmers, of the Board of Trade, whose biography
the present publishers now reprint. Since that period, gentlemen of
learning and ability have followed his steps. Dr. Towers, in the
Biographia Britannica, has sketched the life of De Foe, and Mr.
Alexander Chalmers, in the Biographical Dictionary, has also done
justice to his memory. Sir Walter Scott gave the aid of his great name
to the same object, by publishing an edition of De Foe. Mr. Walter
Wilson, of the Middle Temple, has published lately a long and detailed
Life of De Foe, which is by far the most complete yet compiled, and
should be consulted by every student desirous of becoming thoroughly
acquainted with the events of his chequered career. The present edition
of his works will supply a desideratum in English literature, and enable
his countrymen to possess, at a small cost, the various productions of
his versatile genius, and be instructed by one of the most deservedly
popular and really useful authors that has ever adorned the country.

We subjoin the able critiques on De Foe, by the late Charles Lamb, a man
exactly qualified to appreciate him, by a writer in the Retrospective
Review, and by sir Walter Scott. For the first, the world is indebted to
Mr. Wilson[107]. "It has happened not seldom that one work of some
author has so transcendently surpassed in execution the rest of his
compositions, that the world has agreed to pass a sentence of dismissal
upon the latter, and to consign them to total neglect and oblivion. It
has done wisely in this, not to suffer the contemplation of excellences
of a lower standard to abate or stand in the way of the pleasure it has
agreed to receive from the masterpiece.

"Again, it has happened, that from no inferior merit of execution in the
rest, but from superior good fortune in the choice of its subject, some
single work shall have been suffered to eclipse and cast into shade the
deserts of its less fortunate brethren. This has been done with more or
less injustice in the case of the popular allegory of Bunyan, in which
the beautiful and scriptural image of a pilgrim or wayfarer (we are all
such upon earth!) addressing itself intelligibly and feelingly to the
bosoms of all, has silenced and made almost to be forgotten, the more
awful and scarcely less tender beauties of the Holy War made by Shaddai
upon Diabolus, of the same author, a romance less happy in its subject,
but surely well worthy of a secondary immortality. But in no instance
has this excluding partiality been exerted with more unfairness than
against what may be termed the secondary novels or romances of De Foe.

"While all ages and descriptions of people hang delighted over the
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, and shall continue to do so, we trust,
while the world lasts, how few, comparatively, will bear to be told
that there exist other fictitious narratives by the same author, four of
them at least of no inferior interest, except what results from a less
felicitous choice of situation. Roxana, Singleton, Moll Flanders,
Colonel Jack--are all genuine offspring of the same father. They bear
the veritable impress of De Foe. An unpractised midwife that would not
swear to the nose, lip, forehead, and age of every one of them! They
are, in their way, as full of incident, and some of them are every bit
as romantic; only they want the uninhabited island, and the charm that
has bewitched the world, of the striking solitary situation.

"But are there no solitudes out of the cave and the desert? or cannot
the heart in the midst of crowds feel frightfully alone? Singleton, on
the world of waters, prowling about with pirates less merciful than the
creatures of any prowling wilderness; is he not alone, with the faces of
men about him, but without a guide that can conduct him through the mist
of educational and habitual ignorance; or a fellow heart that can
interpret to him the new-born yearnings and aspirations of unpractised
penitence? or when the boy, Colonel Jack, in the loneliness of the
heart, (the worst solitude,) goes to hide his ill-purchased treasure in
the hollow tree by night, and miraculously loses, and miraculously finds
it again; whom hath he there to sympathise with him? or of what sort are
his associates?

"The narrative manner of De Foe has a naturalness about it, beyond that
of any novel or romance writer. His fictions have all the air of true
stories. It is impossible to believe while you are reading them, that a
real person is not narrating to you everywhere nothing but what really
happened to himself. To this, the extreme homeliness of their style
mainly contributes. We use the word in its best and heartiest
sense,--that which comes home to the reader. The narrators everywhere
are chosen from low life, or have had their origin in it; therefore they
tell their own tales, (Mr. Coleridge has anticipated us in this remark,)
as persons in their degree are observed to do, with infinite repetition,
and an overacted exactness, lest the hearer should not have minded, or
have forgotten some things that had been told before. Hence the emphatic
sentences, marked in the good old (but deserted) Italic type; and hence,
too, the frequent interposition of the reminding old colloquial
parenthesis, 'I say,' 'mind,' and the like, when the story-teller
repeats what to a practised reader might appear to have been
sufficiently insisted upon before. What pirates, what thieves, and what
harlots, are the thief, the harlot, and the pirate of De Foe? We would
not hesitate to say, that in no other book of fiction, where the lives
of such characters are described, is guilt and delinquency made less
seductive, or the suffering made more closely to follow the commission,
or the penitence more earnest or bleeding, or the intervening flashes of
religious visitation, upon the rude and uninstructed soul, more
meltingly or fearfully painted. They, in this, come near to the
tenderness of Bunyan; while the lively pictures and incidents in them,
as in Hogarth, or in Fielding, tend to diminish that fastidiousness to
the concerns and pursuits of common life, which an unrestrained passion
for the ideal and the sentimental is in danger of producing."

The writer in the Retrospective Review observes: "We avail ourselves
with some satisfaction of an opportunity of introducing to our readers
an old and valued acquaintance, as one whom they may have had the
misfortune to lose sight of, amidst the perplexities of life and the
competition of more obtrusive candidates for their notice. For our own
part, surrounded as we are by the bustle and cares of middle age, the
mere mention of our author's name falls upon us as cool and refreshing
as a drop of rain in the hot and parched midday; for it never fails to
bring along with it the recollection of the morning of our life, those
green and pleasant years, when the solitary inhabitant of the desert
island was perpetually mingling with the day-dreams of our imagination.

"After a vain attempt to apply to De Foe those laws of criticism which
hold in ordinary cases, we are compelled to regard him as a phenomenon,
and to consider his genius as something rare and curious, which it is
impossible to assign to any class whatever. Throughout the ample stores
of fiction, in which our literature abounds more than that of any other
people, there are no works which at all resemble his, either in the
design or execution. Without any precursor in the strange and unwonted
path he chose, and without a follower, he spun his web of coarse but
original materials, which no mortal had ever thought of using before;
and when he had done it, seems as though he had snapped the thread, and
conveyed it beyond the reach of imitation. To have a numerous train of
followers is usually considered as adding to the reputation of the
writer; we deem it a circumstance of peculiar honour to De Foe that he
had none; for, in general, they are the faults of a great author, the
parts where he exaggerates truth, or deviates from propriety, that
become the prey of the imitator. Whenever he has stolen a 'grace beyond
the reach of art,' whenever the vigour and freshness of nature are
apparent, there he is inaccessible to imitation. The fugitive charms
which are thus imparted, the volatile and subtle spirit which gives life
and animation to the work, baffle and elude the grasp of mere imitative
genius. In the fictions of De Foe we meet with nothing that is
artificial, or that does not breathe the breath of life. The ingenuity
which could counterfeit works of a more elaborate kind, and much more
highly as well as curiously wrought, could make nothing of a simplicity
so naked, and a manner so perfectly natural. The most consummate art was
unable to follow where no vestiges of art were to be seen, for either
none has been employed, or its traces are concealed as carefully as the
Indian hides his footsteps from the observation of his pursuers; since
to the critical eye, nothing is visible but the easy unconstraint of
nature, and the fearlessness of truth. Besides, it must be allowed, that
the temptation to imitate was as small as the difficulties were many and
great; for whilst he transcribed from the volume of life with a fidelity
and closeness that have never been equalled, with a singularly mortified
taste, he chose the plainest and least inviting pages of the whole book.
Those who would imitate De Foe must copy from nature herself; and
instead of dressing her out to advantage, content themselves with
delineating some of her simplest and homeliest features. His language is
always that of the plain and unlettered person he professes himself;
homely in phraseology, in expression rude and inartificial; yet like
that of one who has received a distinct impression of objects which he
has seen, it is often forcible, happy, and strongly descriptive.
Generally speaking, in other fictitious narratives, a tendency to
moralise out of reason or in a vein too elevated for the character
assumed, or a continued effort to be uniformly wise, or elaborately
witty, is almost sure to unmask the impostor, and expose the dreaming
pedant at his desk; or, if these characteristic marks be wanting, either
the narrative is inconsistent with itself, or it contradicts some known
and established fact, or there is some anachronism, or other overt act
against truth is committed, which critical sagacity seldom fails to
detect and punish. But our author is never caught tripping in this way;
he moralises to be sure, as much or more than most writers, but then his
reflections are always in the right vein; he never steps from behind the
curtain to figure away himself upon the stage. Either a vigilance that
was perpetually on the watch preserved him from error, or he went right
by mere instinct; or he so identified himself with his imaginary hero
that he became in fancy the very individual he was creating, and was
therefore necessarily always in character. But whatever vigilance he
used, he has always the art to appear perfectly unconcerned; there is
none of the constraint that usually accompanies a painful effort to
support imposture; his hero is not stiff and awkward like a puppet,
which has no voluntary motion, but moves freely and carelessly along the
stage; talks to us in an honest, open, confidential sort of way; lays
his inmost thoughts and feelings open before us, as before a confessor,
without caution and subterfuge; and by never asking our belief, never
seeming conscious of a possibility of its being denied, fairly compels
us to grant it.

"The grand secret of his art, however, if art it can be called, and were
not rather an instinct, consists doubtless in the astonishing minuteness
of the details, and the circumstantial particularity with which
everything is laid before us. It is by this, perhaps more than anything
else, that fictitious narratives are distinguishable from the genuine
memoirs of those who have been eyewitnesses of what they relate. The
parts in the one case may be as probable as in the other, the
descriptions as vivid and striking, the style as natural and
unconstrained; still there is an indefinable something which seems to be
wanting to the former, though we may not have remarked its presence in
the latter. Some unimportant particular, some minute circumstances,
which none but he who had seen it with his own eyes would have thought
of remarking, will always serve, like the scarcely discernible lines on
a genuine note, to distinguish between the true and the counterfeit. The
eye of the imagination, however strong and piercing, cannot always
pervade the whole scene, and see everything distinctly; the more
prominent features, indeed, it may develope with the clearness and
accuracy of an almost unclouded vision, but all besides is either
obscured with mist, or lost in impenetrable shade; and he who paints
from the ideal must consequently either leave these parts unfinished, or
spread his colours at random. It is the singular merit of De Foe to have
overcome this difficulty, and to have communicated to his fictitious
narratives every characteristic mark by which we distinguish between
real and pretended adventures. The whole scene lay expanded before him
in the fulness of light and life, and, down to the minutest particular,
everything is delineated with truth and accuracy. It is not necessary
that we should have the light fall advantageously, or wink with our
eyes, in order to make the delusion complete, by hiding the defects and
softening down the harsh lines of the representation; the most
penetrating gaze, aided by the strongest light, cannot detect the
imposition, or distinguish between the shade and the substance. Writers
of fiction may, in general, be said rather to shadow forth than fully to
delineate their visions, either because they flit away too early, or are
never seen with sufficient distinctness; like the first discoverers of
countries, they trace out a few promontories on their chart, and give a
faint outline of something indistinctly seen. In the solitude of his
closet, De Foe could travel round the world in idea, seeing everything
with the distinctness of natural vision, and noting everything with the
minuteness of the most accurate observer. His chart presents us not
merely with the bold headland, shooting forth into the deep, or the
clearly defined mountain that rises into middle air behind; we have the
whole coast fully and fairly traced out, with the soundings of every
bay, the direction of every current, and the quarter of every wind that
blows."

Sir Walter Scott says, "The fertility of De Foe was astonishing. He
wrote on all occasions and on all subjects, and seemingly had little
time for preparation on the subject in hand, but treated it from the
stores which his memory retained of early reading, and such hints as he
caught up in society, not one of which seems to have been lost upon him.
His language is genuine English, often simple, even unto vulgarity, but
always so distinctly impressive, that its very vulgarity has an efficacy
in giving an air of truth or probability to the facts or sentiments it
conveys. Exclusive of politics, De Foe's studies led chiefly to those
popular narratives which are the amusement of children and the lower
classes; those accounts of travellers who have visited remote countries;
of voyagers who have made discoveries of new lands and strange nations;
of pirates and buccaneers who have acquired great wealth by their
desperate adventures on the ocean. There is reason to believe, from a
passage in his Review, that he was acquainted with Dampier, a mariner,
whose scientific skill in his profession, and power of literary
composition were at that time rarely found in that profession,
especially among those rough sons of the ocean who acknowledged no peace
beyond the line, and had as natural an enmity to a South American
Spaniard as a greyhound to a hare, and who, though distinguished by the
somewhat milder term of buccaneer, were little better than absolute
pirates. The English government, it is well known, were not, however,
very active in destroying this class of adventurers, while they confined
their depredations to the Dutch and Spaniards, and indeed seldom
disturbed them if they returned from the roving life and sat down to
enjoy their ill-gotten gains. The courage of these men, the wonderful
risks they incurred, their hairbreadth escapes, the romantic countries
through which they travelled, seemed to have had infinite charms for De
Foe. All his works on this topic are entertaining in the highest degree,
and remarkable for the accuracy with which he personates the character
of a buccaneering adventurer. De Foe's general acquaintance with
nautical affairs has not been doubted, as he is said never to misapply
the various sea phrases, or display an ignorance unbecoming the
character under which he wrote. He appears also to have been familiar
with foreign countries, their produce, their manners, and government,
and whatever rendered it easy or difficult to enter into trade with
them. We may therefore conclude that Purchas's Pilgrims, Hakluyt's
Voyages, and the other ancient authorities, had been curiously examined
by him, as well as those of his friend Dampier, of Wafer, and others,
who had been in the South Seas, whether as privateers, or, as it was
then called, 'upon the account.'

"Shylock observes, that there are land thieves and water thieves; and as
De Foe was familiar with the latter, so he was not without some
knowledge of the practices and devices of the former. We are afraid we
must impute to his long imprisonment the opportunity of becoming
acquainted with the secrets of thieves and mendicants, their acts of
plunder, concealment, and escape. But whatever way he acquired his
knowledge of low life, De Foe certainly possessed it in the most
extensive sense, and applied it in the composition of several works of
fiction in the style termed by the Spaniards _Gusto Picaresco_, of which
no man was ever a greater master. This class of fictitious narration may
be termed the Romance of Roguery, the subjects being the adventures of
thieves, rogues, vagabonds, swindlers, viragoes, and courtezans. The
strange and blackguard scenes which De Foe describes, are fit to be
compared to the Gipsy Boys of Murillo, which are so justly admired as
being, in truth of conception and spirit of execution, the very
_chef-d'[oe]uvre_ of art, however low and loathsome the originals from
which they were taken.

"A third species of composition, to which the author's active and
vigorous genius was peculiarly adapted, was the account of great
national convulsions, whether by war, or by the pestilence, or the
tempest. These are tales which are sure when even moderately well told,
to arrest the attention, and which, narrated with that impression of
reality which De Foe knew so well how to convey, make the hair bristle
and the skin creep. In this manner he has written the Memoirs of a
Cavalier, which have been often read and quoted as the real production
of a real personage. Born himself almost immediately after the
Restoration, De Foe must have known many of those who had been engaged
in the civil turmoils of 1642-6, to which the period of these memoirs
refers. He must have lived among them at the age when boys, such as we
conceive De Foe must necessarily have been, cling to the knees of those
who can tell them of the darings, the dangers of their youth, at a
period when their own passions and views of pressing forward in life
have not begun to operate upon their minds, and while they are still
pleased to listen to the adventures which others have encountered on
that stage which they themselves have not yet entered upon. The Memoirs
of a Cavalier have certainly been enriched by some such anecdotes as
were likely to fire De Foe's active and powerful imagination, and hint
to him in what colours the subject ought to be treated. The contrast,
for instance, between the soldiers of the celebrated Tilly and those of
the illustrious Gustavus Adolphus, almost seems too minutely drawn to
have been executed from anything short of oracular testimony. But De
Foe's genius has shown, in this and other instances, how completely he
could assume the character he describes.

"Another species of composition, for which this multifarious author
showed a strong predilection, was that upon, theurgy, magic,
ghost-seeing, witchcraft, and the occult sciences. De Foe dwells on such
subjects with so much unction as to leave little doubt that he was to a
certain point a believer in something resembling an immediate
communication between the inhabitants of this world and of that which we
shall in future inhabit. He is particularly strong on the subject of
secret forebodings, mysterious impressions, bodements of good or evil,
which arise in our own mind, but which yet seem impressed there by some
external agent, and not to arise from the course of our natural
reflections. * * * The general charm attached to the romances of De Foe
is chiefly to be ascribed to the unequalled dexterity with which he has
given an appearance of REALITY to the incidents which he narrates. Even
De Foe's deficiencies in style, his homeliness of language, his
rusticity of thought, expressive of what is called the Crassa Minerva,
seem to claim credit for him as one who speaks the truth, the rather
that we suppose he wants the skill to conceal or disguise it. It is
greatly to be doubted whether De Foe could have changed his colloquial,
circuitous, and periphrastic style for any other, more coarse or more
elegant. We have little doubt it was connected with his nature, and the
particular turn of his thoughts and ordinary expressions, and that he
did not succeed so much by writing in an assumed manner, as by giving
full scope to his own. The air of writing with all the plausibility of
truth must, in almost every case, have its own peculiar value; as we
admire the paintings of some Flemish artists, where though the subjects
drawn are mean and disagreeable, and such as in nature we would not wish
to study or look close upon, yet the skill with which they are
represented by the painter gives an interest to the imitation upon
canvass which the original entirely wants. But, on the other hand, when
the power of exact and circumstantial delineation is applied to objects
which we are anxiously desirous to see in their proper shape and
colours, we have a double source of pleasure, both in the art of the
painter, and in the interest which we take in the subject represented.
Thus the style of probability with which De Foe invested his narrative
was perhaps ill-bestowed, or rather wasted, upon some of the works which
he thought proper to produce; but, on the other hand, the same talent
throws an air of truth about the delightful history of Robinson Crusoe,
which we never could have believed it possible to have united with so
extraordinary a situation as is assigned to the hero. All the usual
scaffolding and machinery employed in composing fictitious history are
carefully discarded. The early incidents of the tale, which in ordinary
works of invention are usually thrown out as pegs to hang the
conclusion upon, are in this work only touched, and suffered to drop out
of sight. Robinson, for example, never hears anything more of his elder
brother, who enters Lockhart's dragoons in the beginning of the work,
and who, in any common romance, would certainly have appeared before the
conclusion. We lose sight at once and for ever of the interesting Xury;
and the whole earlier adventures of our voyager vanish, not to be
recalled to our recollection by the subsequent course of the story. His
father, the good old merchant of Hull; all the other persons who have
been originally active in the drama, vanish from the scene, and appear
not again. This is not the case in the ordinary romance, where the
author, however luxuriant his invention, does not willingly quit
possession of the creatures of his imagination till they have rendered
him some services upon the scene; whereas in common life it rarely
happens that our early acquaintances exercise much influence upon the
fortunes of our future life."

       *       *       *       *       *

The popularity of De Foe as a writer, added to the circumstance that
most of his writings appeared anonymously, have been the occasion of
many works being attributed to him with which he had no concern; some in
fact that are known as the works of other writers, and some that are
altogether different, not only from his style of writing, but opposed to
the principles which he advocated; and others which by no possibility he
could have written, inasmuch as they relate to events and persons
subsequent to his decease. In the following list care has been taken,
so far as possible, to include such works only as are undoubtedly from
his pen. It is proper to mention, however, that it does not include the
whole of what might by a minute and careful investigation be
satisfactorily identified to him, and that such examination would
probably displace some of those here inserted, and add others not herein
mentioned. In his Appeal to Honour and Justice, he alludes to some of
his early works, without giving the exact titles by which they can be
distinguished. The present list commences with the first work positively
known to be his production.




          A LIST
            OF
      DE FOE'S WORKS,
 ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY.


 1. An Essay upon Projects. London: printed by R. R., for Thomas
    Cockeril, at the corner of Warwick-lane, near Paternoster-row.
    1697. 8vo. pp. 350.

 2. An Enquiry into the occasional Conformity of Dissenters in Cases of
    Preferment: with a Preface to the Lord Mayor, occasioned by his
    carrying the Sword to a Conventicle. London: printed An. Dom. 1697.
    4to. pp. 28.

 3. Some Reflections on a Pamphlet lately published, entituled 'An
    Argument, showing that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a free
    Government, and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the
    English Monarchy. London: published for E. Whitlock, near
    Stationers'-hall. 1697. 4to. pp. 28.

 4. An Argument, showing that a Standing Army, with Consent of
    Parliament, is not inconsistent with a free Government, and
    absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy.
    2. Chronic. ix. 25. London: printed for E. Whitlock, near
    Stationers'-hall. 1698. 4to. pp. 26.

 5. The Character of Dr. Annesley, by way of Elegy. 1697.

 6. A new Discovery of an old Intrigue, a Satyr: levelled at Treachery
    and Ambition. Calculated to the Nativity of the Rapparee Plot, and
    the Modesty of the Jacobite Clergy: designed by way of conviction to
    the CXVII Petitioners, and for the Benefit of those that study the
    City Mathematics. London. 1697.

 7. The Poor Man's Plea, in relation to all the Proclamations,
    Declarations, Acts of Parliament, &c., which have been, or shall be
    made, or published, for a Reformation of Manners, and suppressing
    Immorality in the Nation. London: printed in the year 1698. 4to. pp.
    31.

 8. The Pacificator: a Poem. London: printed and are to be sold by J.
    Nutt, near Stationers'-hall. 1700. Folio.

 9. The two Great Questions considered:--1. What the French King will do
    with respect to the Spanish Monarchy? 2. What Measures the English
    ought to take? London: printed by R. T. for R. Baldwin, at the
    Bedford Arms, in Warwick-lane. 1700. 4to. pp. 28.

 10. The two Great Questions further considered: with some Reply to the
    Remarks. _Non licet hominem muliebriter rixare._ London. 1700. 4to.

 11. The Danger of the Protestant Religion from the present prospect of
    a Religious War in Europe. London. 1700. 4to.

 12. Six Distinguishing Characters of a Parliament Man. London. 1701.
    4to.

 13. The Freeholders' Plea against Stock-jobbing Elections of Parliament
    Men. London: printed in the year 1701. 4to. pp. 27.

 14. The Villany of Stock-jobbers detected, and the Causes of the late
    Run upon the Bank and Bankers discovered and considered. London:
    printed in the year 1701. 4to. pp. 26.

 15. The True-Born Englishman: a Satyr. 'Statuimus pacem, et
    securitatem, et concordiam, judicium et justiciam, inter Anglos et
    Normandos, Francos, et Britones Walliæ et Cornubiæ, Pictos et Scotos
    Albaniæ, similiter inter Francos et Insulares Provincias et Patrias
    quæ pertinent ad coronam nostram et inter omnes nobis subjectos,
    firmiter et inviolabiliter observari.' Charta Regis Wilhelmi
    Conquisitoris de pace publicâ. Cap. 1. London. 1701. 4to. pp. 60.

 16. The Succession to the Crown of England considered. London: printed
    in the year 1701. 4to. pp. 38.

 17. A Memorial from the Gentlemen Freeholders and Inhabitants of the
    Counties of ----, in behalf of themselves and many Thousands of the
    good People of England. London. 1701.

 18. History of the Kentish Petition. London. 1701. 4to.

 19. The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England
    examined and asserted. With a double Dedication to the King, and to
    the Parliament. London. 1701. Folio.

This tract was reprinted in 1769, by R. Baldwin in Paternoster-row, with
a Dedication "To the Lord Mayor (Beckford), the Aldermen, and Commons of
the City of London;" and again, in 1790, by Mr. J. Walker, in his
Selections from the Writings of De Foe.

 20. The Present State of Jacobitism considered, in Two Queries:--1.
    What Measures the French King will take with respect to the Person
    and Title of the P. P. of Wales? 2. What the Jacobites in England
    ought to do on the same Account? London. 1701. 4to. pp. 22.

 21. Reasons against a War with France: or, an Argument, showing that
    the French King's owning the Prince of Wales as King of England,
    Scotland, and Ireland, is no sufficient Ground of a War. London:
    printed in the year 1701. 4to. pp. 30.

 22. A Letter to Mr. How, by way of Reply to his Considerations of the
    Preface to an Enquiry into the occasional Conformity of Dissenters.
    London. 1701. 4to.

 23. Legion's New Paper; being a second Memorial to the Gentlemen of a
    late House of Commons. With Legion's humble Address to his Majesty.
    London: printed and sold by the Booksellers of London and
    Westminster. 1702. 4to. pp. 20.

 24. The Mock Mourners: a Satyr, by way of Elegy on King William. By the
    Author of 'The True-Born Englishman.' London: printed in the year
    1702. 4to.

Reprinted in 'Poems on Affairs of State.'

 25. The Spanish Descent; a Poem. London. 1702. 4to.

 26. A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty; or, Whiggish Loyalty
    and Church Loyalty compared. Printed in the year 1702. 4to.

 27. An Enquiry into occasional Conformity, showing that the Dissenters
    are no ways concerned in it. London. 1702. 4to.

 28. Reformation of Manners; a Satyr, 'Væ vobis hypocritæ.' Printed in
    the year 1702. 4to. pp. 64.

 29. The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; or, Proposals for the
    Establishment of the Church. London: printed in the year 1702. 4to.
    pp. 29.

 30. A Brief Explanation of a late Pamphlet, entituled, 'The Shortest
    Way with the Dissenters.' London: printed in the year 1703. 4to.

 31. A Hymn to the Pillory. London: printed in the year 1703. 4to. pp.
    24.

 32. More Reformation, a Satyr upon Himself. By the Author of 'The
    True-Born Englishman.' London: printed in the year 1703. 4to. pp.
    52.

 33. The Shortest Way to Peace and Union. By the Author of 'The Shortest
    Way with the Dissenters.' London: printed in the year 1703. 4to. pp.
    26.

 34. A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of 'The True-Born
    Englishman.' Corrected by Himself. London: printed and are to be
    sold by most Booksellers in London and Westminster. 1703. 8vo. pp.
    465.

The following pieces are contained in it:--1. The True-Born Englishman.
2. The Mock Mourners. 3. Reformation of Manners. 4. Character of Dr.
Annesley. 5. The Spanish Descent. 6. Original Power of the People of
England. 7. The Freeholders' Plea against Stock-jobbing Elections of
Parliament Men. 8. Reasons against a War with France. 9. An Argument,
showing that a Standing Army, with Consent of Parliament, is not
inconsistent with a Free Government, &c. 10. The Danger of the
Protestant Religion from the present Prospect of a Religious War in
Europe. 11. The Villany of Stock-jobbers detected. 12. Six
Distinguishing Characters of a Parliament Man. 13. Poor Man's Plea. 14.
Enquiry into occasional Conformity; with a Preface to Mr. How. 15.
Letter to Mr. How. 16. Two Great Questions considered. 17. Two Great
Questions further considered. 18. Enquiry into Occasional Conformity,
showing that the Dissenters are noways concerned in it. 19. A New Test
of the Church of England's Loyalty. 20. The Shortest Way with the
Dissenters. 21. A brief Explanation of a late Pamphlet, entituled, 'The
Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' 22. The Shortest Way to Peace and
Union. A second edition of this volume, with some additions, was printed
in 1705.

 35. King William's Affection to the Church of England examined.
    London: printed in the year 1703. 4to. pp. 26.

 36. The Sincerity of the Dissenters vindicated from the Scandal of
    occasional Conformity; with some Considerations on a late Book,
    entituled 'Moderation a Virtue.' London: printed in the year 1703.
    4to. pp. 27.

 37. A Challenge of Peace, addressed to the whole nation: with an
    Inquiry into the Ways and Means of bringing it to pass. London:
    printed in the year 1703. pp. 24.

 38. Peace without Union. By way of reply to sir H. M----'s Peace at
    Home. London: printed in the year 1703. 4to.

 39. Original Right; or the Reasonableness of Appeals to the People.
    Being an Answer to the first chapter in Dr. Davenant's Essays,
    entituled, 'Peace at Home and War Abroad'. Printed and sold by R.
    Baldwin, near the Oxford Arms in Warwick-lane. London: 1704. 4to.
    pp. 30.

 40. Dissenter's Answer to the High Church Challenge. London: printed in
    the year 1704. 4to. pp. 55.

 41. The Christianity of the High Church considered. Dedicated to a
    Noble Peer. London: printed in the year 1704. 4to. pp. 20.

 42. Royal Religion; being some Inquiry after the Piety of Princes, with
    remarks on a book, entituled, A Form of Prayers used by king
    William. London: printed in the year 1704. 4to. pp. 27.

 43. Essay upon the Regulation of the Press. London: 1704.

 44. The Liberty of Episcopal Dissenters in Scotland truly stated.
    London: printed in the year 1704.

 45. The Parallel, or Persecution of Protestants the Shortest Way to
    prevent the Growth of Popery in Ireland. London: 1704.

 46. A serious Inquiry into this grand Question, whether a Law to
    prevent the occasional Conformity of Dissenters would not be
    inconsistent with the Act of Toleration, and a Breach of the Queen's
    Promise? London: 1704. 4to.

 47. More Short Ways with the Dissenters. London: 1704. 4to. pp. 24.

 48. The Dissenters Misrepresented and Represented. London: 1704. 4to.

 49. The Protestant Jesuit Unmasked; in answer to the Two Parts of
    Cassandra; wherein the author and his libels are laid open, with the
    true reason why he would have the Dissenters humbled. London: 1704.

 50. A new Test of the Church of England's Honesty. London: 1704. 4to.
    pp. 24.

 51. The Storm; or a Collection of the most remarkable Casualties and
    Disasters which happened in the late dreadful Tempest, both by Sea
    and Land. _The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet._ Nehemiah i. 3. London:
    printed for S. Sawbridge, in Little Britain, and sold by J. Nutt,
    near Stationers'-hall. 1704. 8vo. pp. 272.

Later editions are entituled: A Collection of the most remarkable
Casualties and Disasters which happened in the late dreadful Tempest,
both by Sea and Land, on Friday, November 26th, 1703. To which are added
several very surprising deliverances; the natural causes and origin of
winds; of the opinion of the ancients that this island was more subject
to storms than any other part of the world. With several other curious
observations upon the storm. The whole divided into chapters, under
proper heads. The Second Edition. London: printed for Geo. Sawbridge, at
the Three Golden Fleur-de-Lis, in Little Britain, and J. Nutt, in the
Savoy. Price, bound, 3s. 6d. The matter in both editions is precisely
the same.

 52. Elegy on the author of The True-Born Englishman. With an essay on
    the late Storm. By the author of the Hymn to the Pillory. London:
    1704. 4to. pp. 56.

 53. A Hymn to Victory. London: printed for J. Nutt, near
    Stationers'-hall, 1704. 4to. pp. 52.

 54. An Inquiry into the Case of Mr. Asgill's General Translation;
    showing that it is not a nearer Way to Heaven than the Grave. By the
    Author of The True-Born Englishman. _And for this cause God shall
    send them strong delusions._ 2 Thess. ii. 11. London: printed and
    sold by J. Nutt, near Stationers'-hall. 1704. 8vo. pp. 48.

 55. Giving Alms no Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the
    Nation. Being an Essay upon this great Question, whether Workhouses,
    Corporations, and Houses of Correction for Employing the Poor, as
    now practised in England, or Parish-stocks, as proposed in a late
    pamphlet, entituled A Bill for the Better Relief, Employment, and
    Settlement of the Poor, &c., are not mischievous to the Nation;
    tending to the Destruction of our Trade, and to increase the Number
    and Misery of the Poor. Addressed to the Parliament of England.
    London: printed and sold by the Booksellers of London and
    Westminster. 1704. 8vo. pp. 28.

 56. A Review of the Affairs of France, and of all Europe, as influenced
    by that nation; being Historical Observations on the Public
    Transactions of the World, purged from the Errors and Partiality of
    Newswriters and petty Statesmen of all sides. With an entertaining
    Part in every Sheet, being Advice from the Scandal Club to the
    curious Inquirers; in Answer to Letters sent them for that purpose.
    London: printed in the year 1705. 4to. pp. 456.

 57. The Double Welcome to the Duke of Marlborough. By the Author of The
    True-Born Englishman. London: printed for Benjamin Bragge, in Ave
    Maria lane, Ludgate-street. 1705. 4to.

 58. Party Tyranny; or, an Occasional Bill in Miniature; as now
    practised in Carolina. Humbly offered to the Consideration of both
    Houses of Parliament. London: printed in the year 1705. 4to. pp. 30.

 59. Advice to all Parties. By the Author of The True-Born Englishman.
    London: printed and are to be sold by Benj. Bragge, at the Blue
    Ball, in Ave Maria lane. 1705. Price 6d. 4to. pp. 24.

 60. Writings of the Author of The True-Born Englishman (a second Volume
    of); some whereof never before published. Corrected and enlarged by
    the Author. 1705. The following are the pieces in this Volume:--1. A
    New Discovery of an old Intrigue. 2. More Reformation. 3. An Elegy
    on the Author of The True-Born Englishman. 4. The Storm, an Essay.
    5. A Hymn to the Pillory. 6. A Hymn to Victory. 7. The Pacificator.
    8. The Double Welcome to the Duke of Marlborough. 9. The Dissenter's
    Answer to the High Church Challenge. 10. A Challenge of Peace to
    the whole Nation. 11. Peace without Union. 12. More Short Ways. 13.
    A new Test of the Church of England's Honesty. 14. A Serious
    Inquiry. 15. The Dissenter Misrepresented, and Represented. 16. The
    Parallel. 17. Giving Alms no Charity. 18. Royal Religion.

A third edition, or perhaps the remainder of the impressions of the
first, was published in 1710, with the addition of a key to many of the
names. They were sold by John Morphew, near Stationers'-hall, price 12s.

    61. The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the
    World in the Moon. Translated from the Lunar language, by the Author
    of The True-Born Englishman. London: printed and are to be sold by
    Benjamin Bragge, at the Blue Ball, in Ave Maria lane. 1705. 8vo. pp.
    360.

    62. The Experiment; or, the Shortest Way with the Dissenters
    Exemplified. Being the Case of Mr. Abraham Gill, a Dissenting
    Minister of the Isle of Ely; and a full account of his being sent
    for a soldier, by Mr. Fern (an ecclesiastical Justice of the Peace)
    and other Conspirators. To the eternal Honour of the Temper and
    Moderation of High Church Principles. Humbly dedicated to the Queen.
    London: printed and sold by B. Bragge, at the Blue Ball, in Ave
    Maria lane. 1705. 4to. pp. 58.

The remaining copies of this tract were sent forth in 1707, with the
following new title: The Modesty and Sincerity of those worthy
Gentlemen, commonly called High Churchmen, Exemplified in a Modern
Instance. Most humbly dedicated to her Majesty, and her High Court of
Parliament. London: printed and sold by B. Bragge, in Paternoster-row.
1707.

 63. The Dyet of Poland; a Satyr. Printed at Dantzick in the year 1705.
    4to. pp. 60.

 64. High Church Legion; or, the Memorial Examined; being a new Test of
    Moderation, as it is recommended to all that love the Church of
    England and the Constitution. London: printed in the year 1705. 4to.
    pp. 21.

 65. A Declaration without Doors. By the Author of The True-Born
    Englishman. Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster. 1705.
    4to.

 66. An Answer to Lord Haversham's Speech. London. 1705. 4to.

 67. A Reply to a Pamphlet called The Lord Haversham's Vindication of
    his Speech, &c. By the Author of the Review. London: printed in the
    year 1706. 4to. pp. 32.

 68. A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal, the next day
    after her death, to one Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury, the 8th of
    September, 1705. Which Apparition recommends the Perusal of
    Drelincourt's Book of Consolations against the Fear of Death.
    London. 1705. 4to.

 69. A Review of the Affairs of France; with Observations on
    Transactions at Home. Vol. II. London: printed in the year 1705.
    4to. pp. 558.

 70. Hymn to Peace; occasioned by the Two Houses joining in one Address
    to the Queen. By the Author of The True-Born Englishman. London:
    printed for John Nutt, near Stationers'-hall. 1706. 4to. pp. 60.

 71. Remarks on the Bill to prevent Frauds committed by Bankrupts; with
    Observations on the Effect it may have upon Trade. London: printed
    in the year 1706. 4to. pp. 29.

 72. A Preface to a New Edition of Delaune's Plea for the
    Nonconformists. London. 1706.

 73. A Sermon preached by Mr. Daniel De Foe, on the Fitting-up of Dr.
    Burgess's late Meeting-house. Taken from his Review of Thursday,
    20th of June, 1706. 4to.

 74. Jure Divino; a Satyr, in 12 Books. By the Author of The True-Born
    Englishman. 'O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
    numina.' London: printed in the year 1706. Folio, pp. 346. Preface,
    xxviii.

 75. The Advantages of the Act of Security, compared with those of the
    intended Union; founded on the Revolution Principles. By D. De Foe.
    London. 1706. 4to.

 76. An Essay at Removing National Prejudices against a Union with
    Scotland. To be continued during the Treaty here. London and
    Edinburgh: printed in the year 1706. 4to. pp. 30.

 77. ---- Part II.

 78. ---- III.

 79. ---- IV.; with some Reply to Mr. H--dges, and some Authors who have
    printed their Objections against a Union with England. 4to. 1706.

 80. ---- Part V. 1706.

 81. ---- VI. 1707.

 82. Caledonia; a Poem in Honour of Scotland and the Scots Nation. In
    Three Parts. Edinburgh: printed by the Heirs and Successors of
    Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. An.
    Dom. 1706. Folio, pp. 60.

An 8vo. edition of this work was printed in London in the following
year, and another in 1748.

 83. The Dissenters in England Vindicated from some Reflections in a
    late Pamphlet, called, 'Lawful Prejudices,' &c. London. 1707.

 84. The Dissenters Vindicated; or a Short View of the Present State of
    the Protestant Religion in Britain, as it is now professed in the
    Episcopal Church of England, the Presbyterian Church in Scotland,
    and the Dissenters in both. In answer to some Reflections in Mr.
    Webster's Two Books published in Scotland. London: printed in the
    year 1707. 8vo. pp. 48.

 85. A Voice from the South; or, an Address from some Protestant
    Dissenters in England to the Kirk of Scotland. 1707. 4to.

 86. Two Great Questions considered with regard to the Union. 1707.

 87. The Quaker's Sermon on the Union. Being the only Sermon preached by
    that sort of People on that Subject. London. 1707.

 88. A Review of the State of the English Nation, Vol. III. London:
    printed in the year 1706. 4to. pp. 688.

 89. The Union Proverb.

    If Skiddaw has a cap,
    Scruffel wots full well of that.

    Setting forth--1. The Necessity of Uniting. 2. The good Consequences
    of Uniting. 3. The Happy Union of England and Scotland, in case of a
    Foreign Invasion. 'Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cantum.' 4to.
    1708.

 90. A Review of the State of the British Nation. Vol. IV. London:
    printed in the year 1708. 4to. pp. 700.

 91. The Scots Narrative examined; or, the Case of the Episcopal
    Ministers in Scotland stated, and the late treatment of them in the
    City of Edinburgh inquired into. With a brief Examination into the
    Reasonableness of the grievous Complaint of Persecution in Scotland,
    and a Defence of the Magistrates of Edinburgh in their Proceedings
    there. Being some Remarks on a late Pamphlet, entituled 'A Narrative
    of the late Treatment of the Episcopal Ministers within the City of
    Edinburgh,' &c. London: printed in the year 1709. 4to. pp. 41.
    Postscript x.

 92. The History of the Union of Great Britain. Edinburgh: printed by
    the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Queen's
    Most Excellent Majesty. An. Dom. 1709. Folio, pp. 685. Preface
    xxxii.

Reprinted in 1712, and again in 1786.

 93. An Answer to a Paper concerning Mr. De Foe, against the History of
    the Union. Edinburgh. 1709. 4to.

A single sheet.

 94. A Reproof to Mr. Clark, and a brief Vindication of Mr. De Foe.
    Edinburgh. 1709.

A single sheet.

 95. A Review of the State of the British Nation. Vol. V. London:
    printed in the year 1709. 4to. pp. 632.

 96. A Letter from Captain Tom to the Mob now raised by Dr. Sacheverell.
    London: J. Baker. 1710.

 97. Instructions from Rome, in favour of the Pretender. Inscribed to
    the most elevated Don Sacheverellio, and his brother Don Higginisco;
    and which all Perkinites, Nonjurors, High-fliers, Popish Desirers,
    Wooden-shoe Admirers, and absolute Non-resistance Drivers, are
    obliged to pursue and maintain, under pain of his Unholiness's
    Damnation, in order to carry on their intended Subversion of a
    Government fixed upon Revolution Principles. London: J. Baker.
    Registered in the Stationers'-hall Book. 1710. 8vo.

 98. A Review of the British Nation. Vol. VI. London: printed in the
    year 1710. 4to. pp. 600.

 99. An Essay upon Public Credit. Being an Inquiry how the Public Credit
    came to depend upon the Change of the Ministry, or the Dissolutions
    of Parliaments; and whether it does so, or no? With an Argument
    proving that the Public Credit may be upheld and maintained in this
    Nation, and perhaps brought to a greater height than it ever yet
    arrived at, though all the changes or dissolutions already made,
    pretended to, and now discoursed of, should come to pass in the
    world. London. 1710. 8vo.

 100. An Essay upon Loans; or an Argument, proving that substantial
    Funds, settled by Parliament, with the Encouragement of Interests,
    and the Advances of prompt Payment usually allowed, will bring in
    Loans of Money to the Exchequer, in spite of all the Conspiracies of
    Parties to the contrary; while a just, honourable, and punctual
    Performance on the part of the Government, supports the Credit of
    the Nation. By the Author of the 'Essay on Credit.' London. 1710.
    8vo. pp. 27.

 101. A New Test of the Sense of the Nation. Being a modest Comparison
    between the Addresses to the late King James and those to her
    present Majesty, in order to observe how far the Sense of the Nation
    may be judged of by either of them. London: printed in the year
    1710. 8vo. pp. 91.

 102. A Word against a New Election; that the People of England may see
    the happy Difference between English Liberty and French Slavery, and
    may consider well before they make the Exchange. Printed in the year
    1710. 8vo. pp. 23.

 103. A Review of the State of the British Nation; Vol. VII. London:
    printed in the year 1711. 4to. pp. 620.

 104. An Essay on the South Sea Trade; with an Inquiry into the Grounds
    and Reasons of the present Dislike and Complaints against the
    Settlement of a South Sea Company. By the Author of the 'Review.'
    London. 1710. 8vo.

 105. Eleven Opinions about Mr. H--y; with Observations. London: printed
    for J. Baker. 1711. 8vo. pp. 89.

 106. An Essay at a Plain Exposition of that difficult phrase: 'A Good
    Peace.' Printed for J. Baker. 1711. 8vo. pp. 52.

 107. The Felonious Treaty; or, an Inquiry into the Reasons which moved
    his late Majesty king William, of glorious Memory, to enter into a
    Treaty at two several times with the King of France for the
    Partition of the Spanish Monarchy. With an Essay proving that it was
    always the Sense, both of king William and of all the Confederates,
    and even of the Grand Alliance itself, that the Spanish Monarchy
    should never be united in the Person of the Emperor. By the Author
    of the 'Review.' London: printed and sold by J. Baker. 1711. Price
    6d. 8vo. pp. 48.

 108. An Essay on the History of Parties and Persecution in Britain:
    beginning with a brief Account of the Test Act, and an Historical
    Inquiry into the Reasons, the Original, and the Consequences of the
    occasional Conformity of Dissenters; with some Remarks on the
    several Attempts already made and now making for an Occasional Bill;
    inquiring how far the same may be esteemed a Preservation to the
    Church, or an Injury to the Dissenters. London: printed for J.
    Baker. 1711. 8vo. pp. 48.

 109. The Conduct of Parties in England, more especially of those Whigs
    who now appear against the New Ministry and a Treaty of Peace.
    Printed in the year 1712. 8vo. pp. 62.

 110. The present State of Parties in Great Britain, particularly an
    Inquiry into the State of the Dissenters in England, and the
    Presbyterians in Scotland; their Religious and Political Interest
    considered, as it respects their Circumstances before and since the
    late Acts against occasional Conformity in England; and for
    Toleration of Common Prayer in Scotland. 1712. London: printed and
    sold by J. Baker, in Paternoster-row. Price 5s. 8vo. pp. 352.

 111. A Review of the State of the British Nation. Vol. VIII. London:
    printed in the year 1712. 4to. pp. 848.

 112. A Seasonable Caution and Warning against the Insinuations of
    Papists and Jacobites in favour of the Pretender. London: 1712. 8vo.

 113. An Answer to the Question that Nobody thinks of, viz., But what if
    the Queen should die? London: printed for J. Baker. 1713. 8vo. pp.
    44.

 114. 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.' London: printed for J. Baker. 1713. 8vo. pp.
    45.

 115. And what if the Pretender should come? or, some Considerations of
    the Advantages and real Consequences of the Pretender's possessing
    the Crown of Great Britain. London: printed for J. Baker. 1713. 8vo.

 116. A Review of the State of the British Nation. Vol. IX. London:
    printed in the year 1713.

 117. An Essay on the Treaty of Commerce with France; with necessary
    Expositions. Prov. xviii. 12. London: printed for J. Baker. 1713.
    8vo. pp. 44.

 118. A General History of Trade; and especially considered as it
    respects the British Commerce, as well at Home as to all Parts of
    the World; with Essays upon the Improvement of our Trade in
    particular. To be continued monthly. 1st August, 1713. 8vo. Price
    6d. J. Baker.

 119. A General History of Trade; and especially considered as it
    respects the British Commerce, as well at Home as to all Parts of
    the World: with a Discourse of the Use of Harbours and Roads for
    Shipping, as it relates particularly to the filling up the Harbour
    of Dunkirk. This for the month of July. 15th August, 1713. 8vo.
    Price 6d.

 120. Whigs turned Tories; and Hanoverian Tories, from their avowed
    Principles, proved Whigs; or, each side in the other mistaken; being
    a plain Proof that each Party deny that Charge which the others
    bring against them; and that neither side will disown those which
    the others profess; with an earnest Exhortation to all Whigs, as
    well as Hanoverian Tories, to lay aside those uncharitable Heats
    among such Protestants, and seriously to consider, and effectually
    to provide against those Jacobite, Popish, and Conforming Tories,
    whose principal Ground of Hope to ruin all sincere Protestants, is
    from those unchristian and violent Feuds among ourselves. London:
    printed for J. Baker. 1713. 8vo.

 121. A Letter to the Dissenters. London: sold by John Morphew, near
    Stationers'-hall. 1714. Price 6d. 8vo.

 122. The Remedy worse than the Disease; or, Reasons against passing the
    Bill for preventing the Growth of Schism; to which is added, a brief
    Discourse on Toleration and Persecution, showing their unavoidable
    effects, good or bad; and proving that neither Diversity of
    Religion, nor Diversity in the same Religion, are dangerous, much
    less inconsistent with good Government; in a Letter to a Noble Earl.
    'Hæc sunt enim fundamenta firmissima nostræ libertatis, sui quemque
    juris et retinendi et dimittendi esse dominum.' Cicer. in Orat. pro
    Balbo. London: printed for J. Baker. 1714. 8vo. pp. 48.

 123. Advice to the People of Great Britain with respect to Two
    important Points of their future Conduct. 1. What they ought to
    expect from the King. 2. How they ought to behave to him. London:
    printed for J. Baker, in Paternoster-row. 1714. Price 6d.

 124. The Secret History of the White Staff; being an Account of Affairs
    under the Conduct of several late Ministers, and of what might
    probably have happened, if her Majesty had not died. London: J.
    Baker. 1714. 8vo. pp. 71.

 125. The Secret History of the White Staff; being an Account of Affairs
    under the Conduct of several late Ministers, and of what might
    probably have happened, if her Majesty had not died. London: J.
    Baker. Part II. 1714.

 126. ---- Part III. 1715.

 127. A Reply to a traitorous Libel, entituled 'English Advice to the
    Freeholders of Great Britain.' London: printed for J. Baker. 1715.
    8vo. pp. 40.

 128. A Hymn to the Mob. London: printed and sold by S. Popping, in
    Paternoster-row. 1715. 8vo. pp. 40.

 129. Appeal to Honour and Justice, though it be of his worst Enemies;
    by Daniel De Foe; being a true Account of his Conduct in Public
    Affairs. Jeremiah xvii. 18. London: printed for J. Baker. 1715. 8vo.
    pp. 58.

 130. The Family Instructor; in Three Parts; with a Recommendatory
    Letter by the Rev. S. Wright. London: sold by Emanuel Matthews, at
    the Bible, in Paternoster-row; and John Button, in
    Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 1715. 12mo. pp. 444.

 131. A Friendly Epistle by way of Reproof, from one of the People
    called Quakers, to Thomas Bradbury, a Dealer in many Words. London:
    printed and sold by S. Keimer, at the Printing Press, in
    Paternoster-row. 1715. 8vo. pp. 39.

 132. A Sharp Rebuke from one of the People called Quakers, to Henry
    Sacheverell, the High Priest of Andrew's, Holborn. By the same
    Friend that wrote to Thomas Bradbury. London: S. Keimer. 1715. 8vo.
    pp. 35.

 133. A Seasonable Expostulation with, and Friendly Reproof unto, James
    Butler, who, by the Men of this World, is styled Duke of O--d,
    relating to the Tumults of the People. By the same Friend that wrote
    to Thomas Bradbury, the Dealer in many Words, and Henry Sacheverell,
    the High Priest of Andrew's, Holborn. London: S. Keimer. 1715. 8vo.
    pp. 31.

 134. Some Account of the Two Nights' Court at Greenwich; wherein may be
    seen the Reason, Rise, and Progress of the late unnatural Rebellion
    against his Sacred Majesty King George, and his Government. London:
    printed for J. Baker. 1716. 8vo. pp. 72.

 135. Memoirs of the Church of Scotland. In Four Periods. 1. The Church
    in her Infant State, from the Reformation to the Queen Mary's
    Abdication. 2. The Church in its Growing State, from the Abdication
    to the Restoration. 3. The Church in its Persecuted State, from the
    Restoration to the Revolution. 4. The Church in its Present State,
    from the Revolution to the Union. With an Appendix of some
    Transactions since the Union. London: printed for Emanuel Matthews,
    at the Bible, and T. Warner, at the Black Boy, both in
    Paternoster-row. 1717. 8vo. pp. 438.

 136. The Family Instructor; in Two Parts. 1. Relating to Family
    Breaches, and their obstructing Religious Duties. 2. To the great
    Mistake of mixing the Passions in the managing and correcting of
    Children. With a great Variety of Cases relating to setting ill
    Examples to Children and Servants. Vol. II. London: printed for
    Emanuel Matthews, at the Bible, in Paternoster-row. 1718. 12mo. pp.
    404.

 137. Memoirs of the Life and eminent Conduct of that Learned and
    Reverend Divine Daniel Williams, D.D. With some Account of his
    Scheme for the vigorous Propagation of Religion, as well in England
    as in Scotland, and in several other Parts of the World. Addressed
    to Mr. Pierce. London: printed for E. Curll, at the Dial and Bible,
    against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-street. 1718. Price 2s. 6d.
    bound. 8vo. pp. 86.

 138. A Letter to the Dissenters. London: printed for J. Roberts, in
    Warwick-lane. 1719. Price 6d. pp. 27.

 139. A curious Oration delivered by Father Andrews, concerning the
    present great Quarrels that divide the Clergy of France. Translated
    from the French. By D. De F--e. London. 1719. 8vo.

 140. The Life, and strange surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of
    York, mariner; who lived Eight-and-twenty Years all alone in an
    uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the
    great River Oroonoque, having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck,
    wherein all the men perished but himself. With an Account how he was
    at last strangely delivered by Pirates. Written by Himself. London:
    printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship, in Paternoster-row. 1719. 8vo.
    pp. 364.

 141. The further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, being the second and
    last Part of his Life; and the strange surprising Accounts of his
    Travels round Three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself. To which
    is added a Map of the World, in which is delineated the Voyages of
    Robinson Crusoe. London: printed for W. Taylor. 1719. 8vo. pp. 373.

 142. The Dumb Philosopher; or, Great Britain's Wonder. Containing.--I.
    A Faithful and very surprising Account of Dickory Cronke, a Tinner's
    Son, in the County of Cornwall, who was born Dumb, and continued so
    for fifty-eight years; and how some days before he died he came to
    his Speech; with Memoirs of his Life and the Manner of his Death.
    II. A Declaration of his Faith and Principles in Religion, with a
    Collection of Select Meditations composed in his Retirement. III.
    His Prophetical Observations upon the Affairs of Europe, more
    particularly of Great Britain, from 1720 to 1729. The whole
    extracted from his Original Papers, and confirmed by unquestionable
    authority. To which is annexed his Elegy, written by a young Cornish
    Gentleman of Exeter College, in Oxford; with an Epitaph by another
    hand. 'Non quis, sed quid?' London: printed by Thomas Bickerton, at
    the Crown, in Paternoster-row. 1719. Price 1s. 8vo. pp. 64.

 143. The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies of the famous Captain
    Singleton, containing an Account of his being set on Shore in the
    Island of Madagascar, his Settlement there, with a Description of
    the Place and Inhabitants; of his Passage from thence in a Paraquay
    to the Main Land of Africa, with an Account of the Customs and
    Manners of the People, his great Deliverances from the barbarous
    Natives and wild Beasts; of his meeting with an Englishman, a
    Citizen of London, among the Indians; the great Riches he acquired,
    and his Voyage home to England; as also Captain Singleton's Return
    to Sea, with an Account of his many Adventures and Pyracies with the
    famous Captain Avery and others. 8vo. London: printed for J.
    Brotherton, at the Black Bull, in Cornhill; T. Graves, in St.
    James's-street; A. Dodd, at the Peacock, without Temple Bar; and T.
    Warner, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster-row. 1720. 8vo. pp. 360.

 144. Serious Reflections during the Life and surprising Adventures of
    Robinson Crusoe. With his Vision of the Angelic World. Written by
    Himself. London: printed for W. Taylor. 1722. 8vo. pp. 354.

 145. The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, a
    Gentleman who, though Deaf and Dumb, writes down any Stranger's Name
    at first sight, with their future Contingencies of Fortune. Now
    living in Exeter-court, over against the Savoy, in the Strand.
    London: printed for E. Curll, and sold by W. Meers, &c. 1720. 8vo.
    pp. 320.

 146. The Complete Art of Painting, a Poem; translated from the French
    of M. Du Fresnoy. By D. F., Gentleman. London: printed for T.
    Warner. 1720. Price 1s. 8vo. pp. 54.

 147. Christian Conversation; in Six Dialogues. 1. Between a doubting
    Christian and one more confirmed, about Assurance. 2. Between the
    same Persons, about Mortification. 3. Between Eutocus and Fidelius,
    about Natural Things Spiritualized. 4. Between Simplicius and
    Conscius, about Union. 5. Between Thlipsius and Melaudius about
    Afflictions. 6. Between Athanasius and Bioes, about Death. By a
    Private Gentleman. London: printed for W. Taylor. 1720. 8vo.

 148. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, who was
    born in Newgate, and during a Life of continued Variety of Three
    Score Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Years a Whore, Five
    Times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Years a
    Thief, Eight Years a Transported Felon to Virginia; at last grew
    rich, lived honest, and died a Penitent. Written from her own
    Memorandums. London: printed for and sold by W. Chetwood, at Cato's
    Head, in Russell-street, Covent-garden; and T. Edlin, at the
    Prince's Arms, over against Exeter Change, in the Strand. 1722.

 149. The Memoirs of a Cavalier; or, a Military Journal of the Wars in
    Germany and the Wars in England from the Year 1632 to the Year 1648.
    Written above Three Score Years ago by an English Gentleman, who
    served first in the Army of Gustavus Adolphus, the glorious King of
    Sweden, till his Death; and after that in the royal Army of King
    Charles the First, from the beginning of the Rebellion to the end of
    that War. London: printed for A. Bell, at the Cross Keys, in
    Cornhill; J. Osborn, at the Oxford Arms, in Lombard-street; W.
    Taylor, at the Ship and Swan; and T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in
    Paternoster-row.

 150. The History of the most remarkable Life and extraordinary
    Adventures of the truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, vulgarly called
    Colonel Jack, who was born a Gentleman, put Apprentice to a
    Pickpocket, flourished Six-and-twenty Years as a Thief, and was then
    kidnapped to Virginia; came back a Merchant, was five times married
    to four Whores, went into the Wars, behaved bravely, got Preferment,
    was made Colonel of a Regiment; returned again to England, followed
    the Fortunes of the Chevalier de St. George, was taken at the
    Preston Rebellion; received his Pardon from the late King, is now at
    the Head of his Regiment, in the Service of the Czarina, fighting
    against the Turks, completing a Life of Wonders, and resolves to die
    a General. London: printed for J. Brotherton. 1722.

 151. A Journal of the Plague Year; being Observations or Memorials of
    the most remarkable Occurrences, as well Public as Private, which
    happened in London during the last great Visitation in 1665. Written
    by a Citizen who continued all the while in London: never made
    public before. London: printed for E. Nutt, at the Royal Exchange;
    J. Roberts, in Warwick-lane; A. Dodd, without Temple Bar; and J.
    Graves, in St. James's-street. 1722. 8vo. pp. 287.

The first edition. The second, published by F. and J. Noble, in 1754, is
called 'The History of the Great Plague in London in the Year 1665;'
containing Observations, &c. To which is added 'A Journal of the Plague
at Marseilles in the Year 1720.' 8vo. The latter piece forms no part of
De Foe's publication.

 152. Religious Courtship: being Historical Discourses on the Necessity
    of marrying Religious Husbands and Wives only; as also of Husbands
    and Wives being of the same Opinions in Religion with one another.
    With an Appendix, of the Necessity of taking none but Religious
    Servants, and a Proposal for the better managing of Servants.
    London: printed for E. Matthews, at the Bible, and A. Bettersworth,
    at the Red Lion, in Paternoster-row; J. Brotherton and W. Meadows,
    in Cornhill. 1722. 8vo. pp. 358.

 153. The Fortunate Mistress; or, A History of the Life and vast Variety
    of Fortunes of Mademoiselle De Beleau, afterwards called the
    Countess De Wintelsheim, in Germany; being the Person known by the
    name of the Lady Roxana in the time of Charles II. London: printed
    for T. Warner, at the Black Boy in Paternoster-row; W. Meadows, at
    the Angel in Cornhill; W. Pepper, at the Crown in Maiden-lane,
    Covent-garden; S. Harding, at the Post House in St. Martin's-lane;
    and T. Edin, at the Prince's Arms against Exeter Change, in the
    Strand. 1724.

 154. A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, divided into
    Circuits or Journies. Giving a Particular and Diverting Account of
    whatever is Curious and worth Observation, viz.: 1. A Description of
    the principal Cities and Towns, their Situation, Magnitude,
    Government, and Commerce. 2. The Customs, Manners, Speech, as also
    the Exercises, Diversions, and Employment of the Poor. 3. The
    Produce and Improvement of the Lands, the Trade and Manufactures. 4.
    The Sea-ports and Fortifications, the Course of Rivers, and the
    Inland Navigation. 5. The public Edifices, Seats, and Palaces of the
    Nobility and Gentry: with useful Observations upon the whole.
    Particularly fitted for the reading of such as desire to travel
    over the Island. By a Gentleman. London: printed and sold by G.
    Strahan, in Cornhill; W. Mears, at the Lamb, without Temple Bar; R.
    Francklin, under Tom's Coffee-house, Covent-garden; T. Chapman, at
    the Angel in Pall Mall; R. Stagg, in Westminster Hall; and J.
    Graves, in St. James's-street. 1724.

All the subsequent editions vary considerably from the original. This
work is frequently confounded with John Macky's 'Journey through
England, in Familiar Letters from a gentleman here to his Friend abroad.
1722.'

 155. The Great Law of Subordination Considered; or, the Insolence and
    unsufferable Behaviour of Servants in England, duly inquired into.
    Illustrated with a great variety of Examples, historical Cases, and
    remarkable Stories of the Behaviour of some particular Servants,
    suited to all the several Arguments made use of as they go on. In
    Ten Familiar Letters; together with a Conclusion, being an earnest
    and moving Remonstrance to the Housekeepers and Heads of Families
    in Great Britain, pressing them not to cease using their utmost
    Interest (especially at this Juncture) to obtain sufficient Laws
    for the effectual Regulations of the Manners and Behaviour of their
    Servants. As also, a Proposal, containing such Heads, or
    Constitutions, as would effectually answer this great end, and
    bring Servants of every Class to a just, and yet not a grievous
    Regulation. London: sold by S. Harding, at the Post House, in St.
    Martin's-lane, and other Booksellers. 1724. 8vo. pp. 302.

 156. A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, divided into
    Circuits or Journies. Giving a Particular and Diverting Account of
    whatever is curious and worth Observation, viz.: 1. A Description
    of the principal Cities and Towns, their Situation, Magnitude,
    Government, and Commerce. 2. The Customs, Manners, Speech, as also
    the Exercises, Diversions, and Employment of the Poor. 3. The
    Produce and Improvement of the Lands, the Trade and Manufactures. 4.
    The Sea-ports and Fortifications, the Course of Rivers, and the
    Inland Navigation. 5. The public Edifices, Seats, and Palaces of the
    Nobility and Gentry; with useful Observations upon the whole.
    Particularly fitted for the reading of such as desire to travel over
    the Island. With a Map of England and Wales by Mr. Moll. Vol. 2. By
    a Gentleman. London: printed and sold by G. Strahan, in Cornhill; W.
    Mears, at the Lamb, without Temple Bar; R. Francklin, under Tom's
    Coffee-house, Covent-garden; S. Chapman and J. Jackson, in Pall
    Mall; R. Stagg, in Westminster Hall. 1725.

 157. Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business; or, Private Abuses
    public Grievances. Exemplified in the Pride, Insolence, and
    exorbitant Wages of our Women-Servants, Footmen, &c. With a Proposal
    for Amendment of the same, as also, for the clearing the Streets of
    those Vermin called Shoe Cleaners, and substituting in their stead
    many Thousands of industrious Poor now ready to starve. With divers
    other Hints of great Use to the Public. Humbly submitted to the
    Consideration of our Legislature, and the careful Perusal of all
    Masters and Mistresses of Families. By Andrew Moreton, Esq. London:
    printed for W. Meadows, in Cornhill; and sold by T. Warner,
    Paternoster-row; A. Dodd, without Temple Bar; and E. Nutt, at the
    Royal Exchange. 1725. 8vo. pp. 36.

 158. Mere Nature Delineated; or, a Body without a Soul. Being
    Observations upon 'The Young Forester,' lately brought to town from
    Germany: with suitable Applications. Also a brief Dissertation upon
    the Usefulness and Necessity of Fools, whether political or natural.
    London: printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster-row.
    1726. Price 1s. 6d. 8vo. pp. 123.

 159. A New Voyage round the World, by a Course never sailed before.
    Being a Voyage undertaken by some Merchants, who afterwards proposed
    the setting up an East India Company in Flanders. London: printed
    for and sold by A. Bettesworth, at the Red Lion, in Paternoster-row;
    and W. Mears, at the Lamb, without Temple Bar. 1725.

 160. An Essay upon Literature; or, An Inquiry into the Antiquity and
    Origin of Letters; proving that the Two Tables, written by the
    finger of God in Mount Sinai, was the first writing in the world;
    and that all other Alphabets derive from the Hebrew. With a short
    View of the Methods made use of by the Ancients to supply the Want
    of Letters before, and impose the Use of them after they were known.
    London: printed for Thomas Bowles, Printseller, next to the Chapter
    House, St. Paul's Church-yard; John Clark, Bookseller, under the
    Piazza, Royal Exchange; and John Bowles, Printseller, over against
    the Stocks Market. 1726. 8vo. pp. 127.

 161. The Political History of the Devil, as well Ancient as Modern: in
    two Parts. Part I. Containing a state of the Devil's Circumstances,
    and the various turns of his Affairs, from his Expulsion out of
    Heaven to the Creation of Man; with Remarks on the several Mistakes
    concerning the Reason and Manner of his Fall. Also, his Proceedings
    with Mankind ever since Adam, to the first Planting of the Christian
    Religion in the World. Part II. Containing his more Private Conduct,
    down to the present Time; his Government, his Appearance, his Manner
    of Working, and the Tools he works with.

    Bad as he is, the devil may be abused,
    Be falsely charged and causelessly accused;
    When men unwilling to be blamed alone,
    Shift all the crimes on him which are their own.

    London: printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy in Paternoster-row.
    1726. 8vo. pp. 408.

In the second edition, published in the same year, it is called 'The
History of the Devil,' &c., but in the subsequent editions the original
title is restored. A third edition was called for in 1734; a fourth in
1739; another in 1770; and since then it has been frequently reprinted
both in London and the country.

 162. The History of the Principal Discoveries and Improvements in the
    several Arts and Sciences; particularly the great branches of
    Commerce, Navigation, and Plantation, in all parts of the known
    World. London: printed for W. Mears, at the Lamb; F. Clay, at the
    Bible; and D. Browne, at the Black Swan, without Temple Bar. 1727.

 163. A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, divided into
    Circuits or Journies. Giving a Particular and Diverting Account of
    whatever is curious and worth Observation, viz.: 1. A Description of
    the principal Cities and Towns, their Situation, Magnitude,
    Government, and Commerce. 2. The Customs, Manners, Speech, as also
    the Exercises, Diversions, and Employment of the Poor. 3. The
    Produce and Improvement of the Lands, the Trade and Manufactures. 4.
    The Sea-ports and Fortifications, the Course of Rivers, and the
    Inland Navigation. 5. The public Edifices, Seats, and Palaces of the
    Nobility and Gentry: with useful Observations upon the whole.
    Particularly fitted for the reading of such as desire to travel over
    the Island. Vol. 3. Which completes the work, and contains a Tour
    through Scotland, &c. With a Map of Scotland by Mr. Mole. By a
    Gentleman. London: printed and sold by G. Strahan, in Cornhill; W.
    Mears, at the Lamb, without Temple Bar; and R. Stagg in Westminster
    Hall. 1727.

 164. A System of Magic; or, A History of the Black Art. Being an
    Historical Account of Mankind's most early Dealings with the Devil,
    and how the Acquaintance on both sides first began.

    Our magic now commands the troops of hell,
    The devil himself submits to charm and spell.
    The conjuror in his orders and his rounds,
    Just whistles up his spirits, as men do hounds;
    The obsequious devil obeys the sorcerer's skill,
    The mill turns round the horse, that first turns round the mill.

    London: printed and sold by J. Roberts, in Warwick-lane. 1727. 8vo.
    pp. 403.

 165. An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions. Being an
    Account of what they are, and are not. As also, how we may
    distinguish between the Apparitions of Good and Evil Spirits, and
    how we ought to behave to them. With a great Variety of Surprising
    and Diverting Examples, never published before.

    By death transported to the eternal shore,
    Souls so removed revisit us no more;
    Engrossed with joys of a superior kind,
    They leave the trifling thoughts of life behind.

    London: printed and sold by J. Roberts, in Warwick-lane. 1727. 8vo.
    pp. 395.

This work was issued for the third time, in 1738, with the following
title: 'The Secrets of the Invisible World Disclosed; or, An Universal
History of Apparitions, Sacred and Profane, under all Denominations,
whether Angelical, Diabolical, or Human Souls departed, showing--1.
Their various Returns to this World; with some Rules to know, by their
Manner of Appearing, if they are Good or Evil ones. 2. The Differences
of the Apparitions of Ancient and Modern Times; and an Inquiry into the
Spiritual Doctrine of Spirits. 3. The many Species of Apparitions, their
real Existence and Operations by Divine Appointment. 4. The nature of
seeing Ghosts before and after Death; and how we should behave towards
them. 5. The Effects of Fancy, Vapours, Dreams, Hyppo, and of real and
imaginary Appearances. 6. A Collection of the most Authentic Relations
of Apparitions, particularly that surprising one attested by the learned
Dr. Scott. By Andrew Moreton, Esq. London: printed and sold by J.
Roberts, in Warwick-lane.' 8vo. pp. 395. It has since been reprinted in
a smaller size.

 166. The Protestant Monastery; or, a Complaint against the Brutality
    of the present Age, particularly the Pertness and Insolence of our
    Youth to aged Persons. With a Caution to People in Years how they
    give the Staff out of their own Hands, and leave themselves at the
    Mercy of others; concluding with a Proposal for erecting a
    Protestant Monastery, where Persons of small Fortunes may end their
    Days in Plenty, Ease, and Credit, without burthening their
    Relations, or accepting Public Charities. By Andrew Moreton, Esq.,
    Author of 'Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business.' London:
    printed for W. Meadows, at the Angel, in Cornhill; and other
    Booksellers. 1727. 8vo. pp. 31.

 167. Parochial Tyranny; or, the Housekeeper's Complaint against the
    insupportable Exactions and partial Assessments of Select Vestries,
    &c., with a plain Detection of many Abuses committed in the
    Distribution of Public Charities: together with a practicable
    Proposal for Amendment of the same, which will not only take off
    great part of the Parish Taxes now subsisting, but ease Parishioners
    from serving troublesome offices, or paying exorbitant Fines. By
    Andrew Moreton, Esq. London: printed for W. Meadows, at the Angel,
    in Cornhill; and other Booksellers, 8vo.

 168. A New Family Instructor. In Familiar Discourses between a Father
    and his Children, on the most Essential Points of the Christian
    Religion. In Two Parts. Part I. Containing a Father's Instructions
    to his Son upon his going to Travel into Popish Countries; and to
    the rest of his Children on his Son's turning Papist; confirming
    them in the Protestant Religion, against the Absurdities of Popery.
    Part II. Instructions against the Three Grand Errors of the Times;
    viz.: 1. Asserting the Divine Authority of the Scripture against the
    Deists. 2. Proofs that the Messias is already come, &c.; against the
    Atheists and Jews. 3. Asserting the Divinity of Jesus Christ, that
    He was really the same with the Messias, and that Messias was to be
    really God; against our modern heretics. With a Poem on the Divine
    Nature of Jesus Christ; in Blank Verse. By the Author of 'The Family
    Instructor.' London: printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in
    Paternoster-row. 1727. 8vo. pp. 384.

A second edition, with a varying title, was published in 1732, by C.
Rivington and T. Warner. It is there called 'A New Family Instructor:
containing a Brief and Clear Defence of the Christian Religion in
general, against the Errors of the Atheists, Jews, Deists, and Sceptics:
and of the Protestant Religion in particular, against the Superstitions
of the Church of Rome. In Familiar Discourses between a Father and his
Children. In Two Parts, &c.

 169. A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed;
    showing, 1. The Nature of Matrimony, its sacred Original, and the
    true Meaning of its Institution. 2. The gross Abuse of Matrimonial
    Chastity, from the wrong Notions which have possessed the World,
    degenerating even to Whoredom. 3. The Diabolical Practice of
    attempting to prevent Child-bearing by Physical Preparations. 4.
    The fatal Consequences of clandestine or forced Marriages, through
    the Persuasion, Interest, or Influence of Parents and Relations, to
    wed the Person they have no Love for, but often an Aversion to. 5.
    Of unequal Matches as in the Disproportion of Age; and how such
    many ways occasion a Matrimonial Whoredom. 6. How married Persons
    may be guilty of Conjugal Lewdness, and that a Man may, in effect,
    make a Whore of his own Wife. Also many other Particulars of Family
    concern. London: printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in
    Paternoster-row. 1727. Price 5s. 8vo. pp. 406.

This work was at first called 'Conjugal Lewdness; or, Matrimonial
Whoredom;' but this title being considered offensive to delicacy, the
author immediately cancelled it, and substituted the above title.

 170. The Complete English Tradesman: in Familiar Letters, directing
    him in all the several Parts and Professions of Trade; viz.: 1. Of
    acquainting him with the Business during his Apprenticeship. 2. Of
    Writing to Correspondents in a Trading Style. 3. Of Diligence and
    Application, as the Life of all Business. 4. Cautions against
    Over-trading. 5. Of the ordinary Occasions of a Tradesman's Ruin;
    such as Expensive Living, too early Marrying, Innocent Diversions,
    too much Credit, being above Business, Dangerous Partnerships, &c.
    6. Directions in several Distresses of a Tradesman, when he comes
    to fail. 7. Of Tradesmen compounding with other Tradesmen, and why
    they are so particularly severe upon one another. 8. Of Tradesmen
    ruining one another by Rumours and Scandal. 9. Of the customary
    Frauds of Trade, and particularly of Trading Lies. 10. Of Credit,
    and how it is only to be supported by Honesty. 11. Of Punctual
    Paying Bills, and thereby Maintaining Credit. 12. Of the Dignity
    and Honour of Trade in England more than in other Countries. To
    which is added, a Supplement; containing, 1. A Warning against
    Tradesmen's borrowing Money upon Interest. 2. A Caution against
    that destructive Practice of Drawing and Remitting, as also
    Discounting Promissory Bills, merely for a Supply of Cash. 3.
    Directions for the Tradesman's Accounts, with brief, but plain
    Examples and Specimens for Bookkeeping. 4. Of keeping a Duplicate
    or Pocket Ledger, in case of Fire. London: printed for C.
    Rivington, at the Bible and Crown, St. Paul's Church-yard. 1727.
    8vo. pp. 474.

 171. The Complete English Tradesman, Vol. II. In Two Parts. Part I.
    Directed chiefly to the more experienced Tradesman; with Cautions
    and Advices to them after they are thriven, and suppose to be grown
    rich, viz., 1. Against running out of their Business into needless
    Projects and dangerous Adventures, no Tradesman being above
    Disaster. 2. Against Oppressing one another by Engrossing,
    Underselling, Combinations in Trade, &c. 3. Advices, that when he
    leaves off Business, he should part Friends with the World; the
    great Advantages of it; with a Word of the scandalous Character of a
    Purse-proud Tradesman. 4. Against being Litigious and Vexatious, and
    apt to go to Law for Trifles; with some Reasons why Tradesmen's
    Differences should, if possible, be all ended by Arbitration. Part
    II. Being useful generals in Trade, describing the Principles and
    Foundation of the Home Trade of Great Britain; with large Tables of
    our Manufactures, Calculations of the Product, Shipping, Carriage of
    Goods by Land, Importation from Abroad, Consumption at Home, &c., by
    all which the infinite number of our Tradesmen are employed, and the
    general Wealth of the Nation raised and increased. The whole
    calculated for the Use of all our Inland Tradesmen, as well in the
    City as in the Country. London: Charles Rivington. 1727. 8vo. pp.
    474.

 172. A Plan of the English Commerce. Being a Complete Prospect of the
    Trade of this Nation, as well the Home Trade as the Foreign. In
    Three Parts: 1. Containing a View of the present Magnitude of the
    English Trade as it respects the Exportation of our own Growth and
    Manufacture. 2. The Importation of Merchant Goods from Abroad. 3.
    The prodigious Consumption of both at Home. Part II. Containing an
    Answer to that great and important Question now depending, whether
    our Trade, and especially our Manufactures, are in a declining
    Condition, or no? Part III. Containing several Proposals, entirely
    new, for Extending and Improving our Trade, and Promoting the
    Consumption of our Manufactures in Countries wherewith we have
    hitherto had no Commerce. Humbly offered to the Consideration of
    King and Parliament. London: printed for Charles Rivington. 1728.
    8vo. pp. 368.

To the second edition in 1730, were added 'An Appendix, containing a
View of the Increase of Commerce, not only of England, but of all the
Trading Nations of Europe since the Peace with Spain.' A third edition
in 8vo. was printed by Rivington in 1737; in which it is called, by
mistake, the _second_.

 173. Augusta Triumphans: or, the Way to make London the most
    Flourishing City in the Universe. 1. By establishing a University,
    where Gentlemen may have an Academical Education, under the Eye of
    their Friends. 2. To prevent much, &c., by an Hospital for
    Foundlings. 3. By suppressing pretended Mad-Houses, where many of
    the Fair Sex are unjustly Confined, while their Husbands keep
    Mistresses, &c., and many Widows are locked up for the sake of
    their Jointures. 4. To save our Children from Destruction, by
    clearing the Streets of Impudent Strumpets, suppressing
    Gambling-Tables, and Sunday Debauches. 5. To avoid the expensive
    Importation of Foreign Musicians, by forming an Academy of our own.
    6. To save our Lower Class of People from utter Ruin, and render
    them useful, by preventing the immoderate use of Geneva; with a
    frank Exposure of many other common Abuses, and incontestible Rules
    for Amendment. Concluding with an effectual Method to prevent
    Street Robberies; and a Letter to Colonel Robinson, on account of
    the Orphan's Tax. London: printed for J. Roberts and other
    Booksellers. 1728. 8vo. pp. 63.

 174. Second Thoughts are Best; or, a further Improvement of a late
    Scheme to prevent Street Robberies. By which our Streets will be so
    strongly guarded, and so gloriously illuminated, that any part of
    London will be as safe and pleasant at Midnight as at Noonday, and
    Burglary totally impracticable. With some Thoughts for suppressing
    Robberies in all the Public Roads of England, &c. Humbly offered for
    the Good of his Country, submitted to the Consideration of
    Parliament, and dedicated to his Sacred Majesty King George II. By
    Andrew Moreton, Esq. London: printed for W. Meadows, at the Angel,
    in Cornhill, and sold by J. Roberts, in Warwick-lane. 1729. Price
    6d. 8vo. pp. 24.

Besides the above, De Foe left behind him, prepared for the press, a
work on the 'Conduct of a Gentleman,' which is now in the possession of
Dawson Turner, Esq., of Yarmouth.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is at last discovered, by searching the chamberlain's books,
which have since been burnt, that our author was the son of James Foe,
of the parish of Cripplegate, London, citizen and butcher; who was
himself the son of Daniel Foe, of Elton, in the county of Northampton,
yeoman; and who obtained his freedom by serving his apprenticeship with
John Levit, citizen and butcher. Daniel Foe, the son of James, was
admitted to his freedom by birth, on the 26th of January, 1687-8. I was
led to these discoveries by observing that De Foe had voted at an
election for a representative of London; whence I inferred, that he must
have been a citizen either by birth or service. But in the parish books
I could find no notice of his baptism; as his parents were dissenters.

[2] In his preface to More Reformation, De Foe complains, that some
dissenters had reproached him, as if he had said, "that the gallows and
the galleys ought to be the penalty of going to the conventicle;
forgetting, that I must design to have my father, my wife, six innocent
children, and myself, put into the same condition. To such dissenters I
can only regret," says he, "that when I had drawn the picture, I did
not, like the Dutchman with his man and bear, write under them, This is
the man; and this is the bear." De Foe expressly admits that he was a
dissenter, though no independent-fifth-monarchy man, or leveller. [De
Foe, Works, edit. 1703. p. 326-448.] His grandfather, however, seems to
have been of different feelings, as he kept a pack of hounds. From this
fact it is inferred by his learned and laborious biographer Mr. Walter
Wilson, that he was of the royal party, as the puritans did not indulge
in that amusement; and also that he moved in a respectable station of
life. De Foe himself thus alludes to his grandfather [Review, vol. vii.
preface], "I remember my grandfather had a huntsman that used the same
familiarity with his dogs, and he had his Roundhead and his Cavalier,
his Goring and his Waller, and all the generals of both armies were
hounds in his pack, till the times turning, the old gentleman was fain
to scatter the pack and make them up of more doglike surnames." It seems
also probable, that the property to which De Foe alludes as possessed by
himself, was inherited from this grandfather. "I have both a native and
an acquired right of election in more than one place in Britain, and as
such am a part of the body that honourable house (of commons)
represents, and from hence I believe may claim a right in due manner to
represent, complain, address, or petition them." [Review, vol. vi. p.
477.] Mr. Wilson corrects the mistake of Mr. Chalmers and other
biographers, as to the date of De Foe's birth, which really took place
in 1661, and not as stated by them in 1663.--ED.

[3] Works, 3rd. edit. vol. ii. p. 276. He was placed there when about
fourteen years old, and appears to have been educated to his own
satisfaction in afterlife. He described it as an academy where all the
lectures, whether in philosophy or divinity, were given in English, and
where consequently "though the scholars were not destitute of the
languages, yet it is observed of them that they were by this made
masters of the English tongue, and more of them excelled in that
particular than of any school at that time." Certainly no man ever
better understood how to use plain, racy, thorough English style, than
De Foe. But still he was not deficient in learning. He boldly asserts
himself on this point, in the passage from which Mr. Chalmers has made
an extract in the text: "I have no concern to tell Dr. Browne I can read
English, nor to tell Mr. Tutchin, I understand Latin; _non ita Latinus,
sum ut Latine loqui_. I easily acknowledge myself blockhead enough to
have lost the fluency of expression in the Latin, and so far trade has
been a prejudice to me, and yet I think I owe this justice to my ancient
father, still living (1705), and in whose behalf I freely testify, that
if I am a blockhead, it was nobody's fault but my own; he having spared
nothing in my education that might qualify me to match the accurate Dr.
Browne, or the learned Observator. As to Mr. Tutchin, I never gave him
the least affront; I have, even after base usage, in vain invited him to
peace; in answer to which he returns unmannerly insults, calumnies, and
reproach. As to my little learning, and his great capacity, I freely
challenge him to translate with me any Latin, French, and Italian
author, and after that, to retranslate them crossways, for 20_l._ each
book; and by this he shall have an opportunity to show the world how
much De Foe, the hosier, is inferior in learning to Mr. Tutchin, the
gentleman." [Review vol. ii. p. 149.] He also vindicated Mr. Morton's
academy from the charge made against it by the Rev. Samuel Wesley,
father of the celebrated founder of Methodism, that antimonarchical and
unconstitutional doctrines were taught there. De Foe especially denies
this. His domestic education seems to have been according to the system
then pursued by the strict and pious dissenters. He mentions that he
began the task performed by many others of that then persecuted body, of
copying the Bible in shorthand, and that he finished the Pentateuch.
[Review vol. vi. p. 573.] He was intended for the ministry; but for what
reason he relinquished that profession is not known. "It was his
disaster," he says, "first, to be set apart for, and then to be set
apart from, the honour of that sacred employ."--ED.

[4] Review, vol. ii. p. 150.

[5] Appeal, p. 51. This was not the first occasion of his appearing in
print. His earliest effort as an author was an answer to Roger
L'Estrange's Guide to the Inferior Clergy, and was intituled, _Speculum
Crape Gownorum_; or, A Looking-glass for the Young Academicks, new
Foyl'd, with Reflections on some of the late high-flown Sermons; to
which is added, An Essay towards a Sermon of the newest fashion. By a
Guide to the Inferior Clergy. _Ridentem discere verum, quis vitat?_ It
was published in 1682. This work, as might be anticipated, was a satiric
attack on the clergy of that day.

De Foe's object in the pamphlet mentioned in the text, was to assert the
policy of defending the house of Austria, then closely and vigorously
attacked by the Turks. The "prevailing sentiment," referred to by Mr.
Chalmers, was a dissatisfaction with the emperor for his cruel
persecution of the protestants in Hungary; and which carried the
national feeling so far as to make any assistance rendered to the
emperor, even against the threatening Turks, extremely unpopular. De
Foe, then very young, took the field on the weaker side, and strenuously
maintained the danger to Christendom arising from the Mahommedan power
being allowed to enter Vienna. Happily, the courage of John Sobieski,
king of Poland, prevented that, once imminent, danger. De Foe, in a late
period of his life, thus refers to his conduct on this occasion. "The
first time I had the misfortune to differ from my friends, was about the
year 1683, when the Turks were besieging Vienna, and the whigs in
England, generally speaking, were for the Turks taking it; whilst I,
having read the history of the cruelty and perfidious dealings of the
Turks in their wars, and how they had rooted out the name of the
Christian religion in above threescore and ten kingdoms, could by no
means agree with, and though then but a young man and a young author, I
opposed it and wrote against it, which was taken very unkind indeed."
[Vide Appeal to Honour and Justice.]--ED.

[6] Appeal.

[7] The title of De Foe's pamphlet, or pamphlets, on this subject, does
not seem to be known, but he more than once in afterlife proudly refers
to his efforts on that important matter. "The next time I differed with
my friends, was when king James was wheedling the dissenters to take off
the penal laws and test, which I could by no means come into. And as in
the first I used to say, I had rather the popish house of Austria should
ruin the protestants in Hungary, than that the infidel house of Ottoman
should ruin both protestant and papist, by overrunning Germany, so in
the other I told the dissenters I had rather the Church of England
should pull our clothes off by fines and forfeitures, than that the
papists should fall both upon the church and the dissenters, and pull
our skins off by fire and fagot." [Appeal to Honour and Justice.] And
again: "I never would have had the dissenters to join with king James,
to take off the penal laws and test. No; no: I thank God I was of age
then to bear my testimony against it, and to affront some who were of a
different opinion." [Review, vol. viii. p. 694.]--ED.

[8] History, vol. ii. p. 37. The following is the passage in Oldmixon:
"Their majesties, attended by their royal highnesses and a numerous
train of nobility and gentry, went first to a balcony prepared for them
at the Angel in Cheapside, to see the show; which for the great number
of liverymen, the full appearance of the militia, and the artillery
company, the rich adornments of the pageants, and the splendour and good
order of the whole proceedings, outdid all that had been seen before, on
that occasion; and what deserved to be particularly remembered, says a
reverend historian, was a royal regiment of volunteer horse, made up of
the chief citizens, who being gallantly mounted and richly accoutred,
were led by the earl of Monmouth, now earl of Peterborough, and attended
there majesties from Whitehall. Among these troopers, who were for the
most part dissenters, was Daniel De Foe, at that time a hosier in
Freeman's Yard, Cornhill." [History of England, vol. iii. p. 36.]

[9] Being reproached by Tutchin, in his Observator, with having been
bred an apprentice to a hosier, De Foe asserts, in May, 1705, that he
never was a hosier, or an apprentice, but admits that he had been a
trader. [Review, vol. ii. p. 149.] Oldmixon, who never speaks favourably
of De Foe, allows that he had never been a merchant, otherwise than
peddling a little to Portugal. [Hist. vol. ii. p. 519.] But, peddling to
Portugal makes a trader.

[10] These views of Mr. Chalmers seem confirmed by De Foe's own severe
comments on the distraction caused to tradesmen by an over-indulgence in
literary pursuits. In his Complete Tradesman, one of the most valuable
practical books that was ever published, and which should be the manual
of every young man beginning business, he says, "a wit turned tradesman!
no apron-strings will hold him; it is in vain to lock him behind the
counter, he is gone in a moment. Instead of journal and ledger, he runs
away to his Virgil and Horace; his journal entries are all Pindarics,
and his ledger is all heroics. He is truly dramatic from one end to the
other through the whole scene of his trade; and as the first part is all
comedy, so the two last acts are always made up with tragedy; a statute
of bankrupt is his _exeunt omnes_, and he generally repeats the epilogue
in the Fleet prison or the Mint." [See ante, vol. xvii.] He is also very
severe against tradesmen who are led away into expensive pleasures and
idle company. But Mr. Wilson vindicates De Foe, in some degree, by
showing from his own statements that he had been the victim of the fraud
of others, as well as of his own imprudent habits. In one of the
Reviews, [vol. iii. p. 70.] he says, that "nothing was more frequent
than for a man in full credit to buy all the goods he could lay his
hands on, and carry them directly from the house he bought them at into
the Fryars, and then send for his creditors, and laugh at them, insult
them, showing them their own goods untouched, offer them a trifle in
satisfaction, and if they refuse it, bid them defiance. I cannot refrain
vouching this of my own knowledge, _since I have more than many times
been served so myself_." Certainly under such a monstrous system of
abuse, an honest tradesman must have been at great disadvantage.--ED.

[11] The Mercator, No. 101.

[12] Reply to Lord Haversham's Vindication.

[13] Mr. Wilson has some valuable observations on this subject, which
justice to the memory of De Foe requires us to transcribe. "The failure
of this speculation seems to have been owing rather to the want of
encouragement upon the part of the public, than to any imprudence in the
projector. Pantiles had been hitherto a Dutch manufacture, and were
brought in large quantities to England. To supersede the necessity of
their importation, and to provide a new channel for the employment of
labour, the works at Tilbury were laudably erected; and De Foe tells us
that he employed a hundred poor labourers in the undertaking. The
capital embarked in the concern must also have been considerable; for he
informs us that his own loss by its failure was no less a sum than three
thousand pounds. But besides so serious a misfortune to himself, it was
no less so to the public; not only by the failure of an ingenious
manufacture, but for the sake of the numerous families supported by it,
who were now turned adrift in the world, or thrown upon some other
branch of trade. De Foe continued the pantile works it is believed until
the year 1703, when he was prosecuted by the government for a libel, and
being deprived of his liberty the undertaking soon came to an end." Mr.
Wilson adds an extract from one of the Reviews, (March, 1705,) in which
De Foe indignantly refers to this undertaking and its calamitous issue.
"Nor should the author of this paper boast in vain, if he tells the
world that he himself, before violence, injury, and barbarous treatment
destroyed him and his undertaking, employed a hundred poor people in
making pantiles in England, a manufacture always bought in Holland; and
thus he pursued this principle with his utmost zeal for the good of
England; and those gentlemen who so easily persecuted him for saying
what all the world since owns to be true, and which he has since a
hundred times offered to prove, were particularly serviceable to the
nation, in turning that hundred of poor people and their families a
begging for work, and forcing them to turn other poor families out of
work to make room for them, besides three thousand pounds damage to the
author of this, which he has paid for this little experience."--ED.

[14] The sentence in italics is part of the passage in De Foe's Appeal
to Honour and Justice, (in which he gives a summary of his life, and
vindicates his conduct throughout it,) which particularly refers to this
period. We give the whole. "Misfortunes in business having unhinged me
from matters of trade; it was about the year 1694, when I was invited by
some merchants with whom I had corresponded abroad, and some also at
home, to settle at Cadiz, in Spain; and that with the offer of very good
commissions. But Providence, which had other work for me to do, placed a
secret aversion in my mind to quitting England upon any account, and
made me refuse the best offers of that kind, to be concerned with some
eminent persons at home, in proposing ways and means to the government
for raising money to supply the occasions of the war, then newly begun."
[Vide Appeal to Honour and Justice.]

[15] Besides the topics mentioned by Mr. Chalmers, De Foe suggests
various improvements in road-making, and an asylum for idiots. He also
warmly advocates a great improvement in the system of education, and
especially of females. Before the publication of the next work mentioned
by Mr. Chalmers, De Foe took part in a controversy then very warmly
agitated, viz., of Occasional Conformity. The Dissenters differed on
this subject; one party being willing to comply outwardly with the
ceremonies of the church, when in certain offices, and the other party
objecting to that compliance as a sinful and dastardly desertion from
their principles of dissent. De Foe adopted the latter view, and, in
1697, maintained it with his accustomed warmth, in An Inquiry into the
Occasional Conformity of Dissenters in Parliament. He also vigorously
took the field against the vices and social abuses of the times; and, in
1698, published The Poor Man's Plea in relation to all the
Proclamations, Declarations, Acts of Parliament, &c., which have been or
shall be made or published, for a Reformation of Manners, and
suppressing Immorality in the Nation.--ED.

[16] 10 and 11 Wm. III. ch. 18.

[17] De Foe says himself, that he had published nine editions fairly
printed upon good paper, and sold at the price of one shilling, and that
it had been printed twelve times by other persons without his
concurrence. We must presume it to have produced a great effect. De Foe
himself says, many years afterwards, "National mistakes, vulgar errors,
and even a general practice, have been reformed by a just satire. None
of our countrymen have been known to boast of being true-born
Englishmen, or so much as to use the word as a title or appellation,
ever since a late satire upon that national folly was published, though
almost thirty years ago. Nothing was more frequent in our mouths before
that, nothing so universally blushed and laughed at since. The time I
believe is yet to come for any author to print it, or any man of sense
to speak of it in earnest; whereas before you had it in the best
writers, and in the most florid speeches before the most august
assemblies, upon the most solemn occasions." [Use and Abuse of the
Marriage Bed, p. 400.] The object of the poem is thus stated by the
author in the preface: "The intent of the satire is pointed at the
vanity of those who talk of their antiquity, and value themselves upon
their pedigree, and being true-born; whereas it is impossible we should
be true-born; and if we could, should have lost by the bargain. These
sort of people who call themselves true-born, and tell long stories of
their families, and like a nobleman of Venice, think a foreigner ought
not to walk on the same side of the street with them, are owned to be
meant in this satire. What they would infer from their long original, I
know not, nor is it easy to make out, whether they are the better or the
worse for their ancestors. Our English nation may value themselves for
their wit, wealth, and courage, and I believe few nations will dispute
it with them; but for long originals and ancient true-born families, I
would advise them to waive the discourse. A true Englishman is one who
deserves a character, and I have nowhere lessened him that I know
of."--ED.

[18] p. 13. We add the remaining part of this passage, which is
extracted by Mr. Chalmers from the Appeal to Honour and Justice; "And is
only mentioned here as I take all occasions to do, for the expressing
the honour I ever preserved for the immortal and glorious memory of that
greatest and best of princes, and whom it was my honour and advantage to
call master as well as sovereign, whose goodness to me I never forget,
and whose memory I never patiently heard abused, and never can do so;
and who, had he lived, would never have suffered me to be treated as I
have been in this world."--ED.

[19] This pamphlet was published before the poem of the True-born
Englishman, viz., in 1698, and was an answer to one by Mr. Trenchard,
"showing that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government,
and absolutely destructive to the constitution of the English monarchy."
It is supposed that De Foe wrote another pamphlet on this subject,
entituled, Some Reflections on a pamphlet lately published, entituled,
&c. (Mr. Trenchard's pamphlet.) 1697. But there is great doubt as to
this work being De Foe's.--ED.

[20] Subsequently to the publication of the pamphlet referred to in the
text, in the year 1700, the indefatigable De Foe was again in the
political arena. The Spanish king had just died, bequeathing the crown
to the duke of Anjou, grandson of Lewis XIV. and Europe was anxiously
awaiting the French monarch's decision. He subsequently broke through
the partition treaty, and placed his grandson on the throne of Spain. In
the meanwhile, however De Foe published, a pamphlet, entituled, The Two
Great Questions Considered: 1. What the French king will do with respect
to the Spanish monarchy? 2. What measures the English ought to take. In
the same year, he published The Danger of the Protestant Religion, from
the present Prospect of a Religious War in Europe. His object is to
point out the powerful front presented by the popish party, and to warn
and arouse England to the danger and defence of protestantism.--ED.

[21] Mr. Polhill, of Cheapstead-place, in Kent, whose father, Mr. David
Polhill, was committed to the Gatehouse, and thereby gained great
popularity, was so good as to communicate to me the curious anecdote of
De Foe's dressing himself in women's clothes, and presenting the Legion
paper to the speaker. De Foe says himself in his Original Power of the
People, p. 24: "this is evident from the tenor and yet undiscovered
original of the Legion paper; the contents of which had so much plain
truth of fact; and which I could give a better history of, if it were
needful." When De Foe republished his works, in 1703, he thought it
prudent to expunge this passage, that too plainly pointed out the real
history of the Legion paper, which is not mentioned by the Commons
Journals. Mr. Wilson thinks Mr. Chalmers mistaken in supposing that De
Foe delivered the petition disguised as a woman. He says, "such a report
was certainly current at the time, but the true history of it seems to
be that which is related in the history of the Kentish petition; it was
said it was delivered to the speaker by a woman, but I have been
informed since, that it was a mistake, and it was delivered by the very
person who wrote it, guarded by about sixteen gentlemen of quality, who
if any notice had been taken of him, were ready to have carried him off
by force." The Remonstration is too long a paper to be here reprinted,
but the general tone and object of it will be gathered by the
conclusion. "We do hereby claim and declare:--

"1. That it is the undoubted right of the people of England, in case
their representatives in parliament do not proceed according to their
duty, and the people's interest, to inform them of their dislike, disown
their actions, and direct them to such things as they think fit, either
by petition, address, proposal, memorial, or any other peaceable way.

"2. That the house of commons, separately, and otherwise than by bill
legally passed into an act, have no legal power to suspend or dispense
with the laws of the land, any more than the king has by his
prerogative.

"3. That the house of commons has no legal power to imprison any person,
or commit them to custody of sergeants, or otherwise, (their own members
excepted,) but ought to address the king, to cause any person, on good
grounds, to be apprehended, which person so apprehended, ought to have
the benefit of the Habeas Corpus act, and be fairly brought to trial by
due course of law.

"4. That, if the house of commons, in breach of the laws and liberties
of the people, do betray the trust reposed in them, and act negligently,
or arbitrarily and illegally, it is the undoubted right of the people of
England, to call them to an account for the same, and by convention,
assembly, or force, may proceed against them as traitors and betrayers
of their country.

"These things we think proper to declare, as the unquestionable right of
the people of England, whom you serve, and in pursuance of that right,
(avoiding the ceremony of petitioning our inferiors, for such you are by
your present circumstances, as the person sent is less than the sender,)
we do publicly protest against all your aforesaid illegal actions, and
in the name of ourselves, and of all the good people of England, do
require and demand:--

"1. That all the public just debts of the nation be forthwith paid and
discharged.

"2. That all persons illegally imprisoned, as aforesaid, be either
immediately discharged, or admitted to bail, as by law they ought to be;
and the liberty of the subject recognised and restored.

"3. That John Home, aforesaid, be obliged to ask his majesty's pardon
for his vile reflections, or be immediately expelled the house.

"4. That the growing power of France be taken into consideration; the
succession of the emperor to the crown of Spain supported; our
protestant neighbours protected, as the interest of England and the
protestant religion requires.

"5. That the French king be obliged to quit Flanders, or his majesty be
addressed to declare war against him.

"6. That suitable supplies be granted to his majesty for the putting all
these necessary things in execution, and that care be taken that such
taxes as are raised, may be more equally assessed and collected, and
scandalous deficiences prevented.

"7. That the thanks of this house may be given to those gentlemen who so
gallantly appeared in the behalf of their country with the Kentish
petition, and have been so scandalously used for it.

"Thus, gentlemen, you have your duty laid before you, which it is hoped
you will think of; but if you continue to neglect it, you may expect to
be treated according to the resentment of an injured nation; for
Englishmen are no more to be slaves to parliaments, than to kings.

"Our name is Legion, and we are Many."

De Foe seems to have written a History of the Kentish Petition. And in
the following year, 1702, he is supposed to have written Legion's
Newspaper; being a Second Memorial to the Gentlemen of the late House of
Commons.--ED.

[22] This pamphlet was in reply to sir Humphrey Mackworth's Vindication
of the Rights of the Commons of England; and recent events, arising out
of Stockdale's proceedings against Mr. Hansard for publishing a report
of the house of commons, have made both sir Humphrey's and De Foe's
pamphlets extremely interesting to the political world. De Foe maintains
four general propositions as the foundation of his argument.

"1. That all government is instituted for the protection of the
governed.

"2. That its constituent members, whether king, lords, or commons, if
they invert the great end of their institution, the public good, cease
to be; and power retreats to its original.

"3. That no collective or representative body of men whatever, in
matters of politics or religion, have been infallible.

"4. That reason is the test and touchstone of laws, which cease to be
binding, and become void, when contradictory to reason." He also
maintains that no power has a right to dispense with the laws, and
deduces that when such a right is assumed by either of the three powers,
the constitution suffers a convulsion, and is dissolved of course. This
tract has had considerable reputation. Mr. Wilson tells us, "that during
the contest between the house of commons and the celebrated Mr. Wilkes,
who was refused his seat, although repeatedly returned by his
constituents, it was judged seasonable to reprint this work. It was
accordingly published in 8vo. in 1769, by R. Baldwin, accompanied by
some distinguished characters of a parliament man, by the same author,
and is stated in the title-page to be the third edition. Prefixed to the
work is a spirited dedication to the right honourable the lord mayor,
the aldermen, and commons, of the city of London." [The dedication,
amongst other things, states, "the reprinting of this excellent piece of
the celebrated Daniel De Foe, who seems to have understood as well as
any man the civil constitution of the kingdom, wherein the nature of our
own constitution is set in the clearest light, upon self-evident
principles, and the original power of the collective body of the people
asserted, seemed to be altogether seasonable and fitting. It is with
propriety addressed to the body of men which has always stood, like Mars
in the gap, against all encroachments on the liberties of the people,
and to which the nation hitherto owes its freedom and prosperity," &c.]
The chief magistrate at that time was the patriotic alderman Beckford,
who has a noble statue erected by his fellow-citizens in their
Guildhall, to commemorate his worth. De Foe's work was reprinted, for
the fourth time, at the logographic press, and included in the
"Selection" from his writings published by the late Mr. John Walker, in
1790. [Life of De Foe, vol. i. p. 436.]

[23] This pamphlet was published before the events mentioned in the
preceding paragraph of the text. It was preceded by another pamphlet of
our indefatigable author, entituled, Six Distinguishing Characters of a
Parliament man. As the pamphlets of De Foe illustrate not only the
character of the author, but the spirit of the times, we give a summary
of the 'Distinguishing characteristics' of the member of the house,
desired by De Foe. 1. He must be a thorough partisan of the revolution,
neither papist nor Jacobite. 2. A man of religion, of orthodox
principles, and moral practice. 3. "A parliament man," says the sensible
and experienced author, "ought to be a man of general knowledge,
acquainted with the true interest of his country as to trade, liberties,
laws, and common circumstances, especially of that part of it for which
he serves. He ought to know how to deliver his mind with freedom and
boldness, and pertinently to the case; to understand when our liberties
are encroached upon, and be able to defend them: and to distinguish
between a prince, who is faithful to liberty, and the interest of his
country, and one whose business it is to invade both liberty and
property." 4. He should be a man in years. 5. And of thorough honesty.
6. And of morals. This pamphlet was followed by the one mentioned in the
text, and that again almost immediately by The Villany of Stock-jobbers
detected; and the Cause of the late Run upon the Banks and Bankers
discovered and considered.--ED.

[24] The author of De Foe's life in the Biographia Britannica, Dr.
Towers, says, "in this piece De Foe wrote against the views and conduct
of the court, and against what then seemed to be the prevailing
sentiment of the nation. He appears however to have been perfectly
right, to have exhibited on this occasion great political discernment,
and to have been influenced by no motives but those of public spirit."
Many opponents entered the field against De Foe upon this subject.--ED.

[25] De Foe frequently vindicates the memory of William III., but more
especially in his Reviews. In 1702, he published The Mock Mourners, a
satire by way of elegy on king William. By the author of the True-born
Englishman. De Foe's summary of William III.'s character in the reviews
is as follows:--

"It may, perhaps, be thought by some people a digression too remote from
my present pursuit, when I launch out into the crimes of a party; but,
if I am carried into extremes when the memory of king William is
touched, I am altogether careless of making an excuse; and I acknowledge
myself less master of my temper in that case, than in anything I can be
touched in besides. The memory of that glorious monarch is so dear, and
so valuable in the hearts of all true protestants, that have a sense
both of what they escaped and what they enjoy by his hand, that it is
difficult to retain any charity for their principles that can forget the
obligation. His name is a word of congratulation; and 'The immortal
memory of king William,' will be a health, as long as drinking healths
is suffered in this part of the world.

"Let the ungrateful wretch that forgets what God wrought by his hand,
look back upon popery coming in like a flood; property trampled
underfoot; all sorts of cruelties and butcheries in practice in
Scotland, and approaching in England! Let him review the insolence of
the soldiery, the inveteracy of the court party, the tyranny, perjury,
and avarice of governors; and at the foot of the account let him write,
Delivered by king William. Then let him look back on the prince: How
great, how splendid, how happy, how rich, how easy, and how justly
valued by friends and enemies! He lived before in the field glorious,
feared by enemies of his country, loved by the soldiery, having a vast
inheritance of his own, governor of a rich state, blessed with the best
of consorts, and as far as this life could give, completely happy.
Compare this with the gaudy crown we gave him. Had a visible scheme been
laid with it, of all the uneasinesses, dangers, crosses,
disappointments, and dark prospects which that prince found with it, no
wise man would have taken it off the dunghill, or come out of gaol to be
master of it.

"Unhappy Englishmen! Is this the man you reproach? Had he any failing
but that he bare too much with the most barbarous usage in the world?
Had he not the most merit and the worst treatment that ever king in
England met with?

"Who can hear men tell us, they helped to make him king, and were not
considered for it? You helped to make him king! Pray what merit do you
plead, and from whom was the debt? You helped to make him king? That is,
you helped to save your country, and ruin him; you helped to recover
your own liberties and those of your posterity, as you ought to have
been blasted from heaven if you had not, and now you claim rewards from
him! I will tell you how he rewarded you fully: he rewarded you by
sacrificing his peace, his comfort, his fortune, and his country, to
support you. He died a thousand times in the chagrin, vexation, and
perplexity he had from the unkindness and treachery of his friends, and
the numberless hazards of the field against the enemy. And yet all would
not satisfy a craving generation, an insatiable party, who thought all
the taxes raised for the war, given, not to the nation, but to the king,
and endeavoured to blot the best character in the world with the crimes
of those whom they themselves recommended him to trust." [Review, 1707,
vol. iv. p. 77.]

[26] See note [15], p. 11-12.

[27] Life of Mr. John How, p. 210.

[28] A Letter to Mr. How, by way of Reply to his Considerations, &c.
1701.

[29] De Foe afterwards described the effect produced by this book. "The
soberer churchmen, whose principles were founded on charity, and who had
their eye upon the laws and constitution of their country, as that to
which their own liberties were annexed, though they still believed the
book to be written by a high-churchman, yet openly exclaimed against the
proposal, condemned the warmth that appeared in the clergy against their
brethren, and openly professed that such a man as Sacheverell and his
brethren would blow up the foundations of the church. But either side
had scarce time to discover their sentiments, when the book appeared to
have been written by a dissenter; that it was designed in derision of
the standard held up by Sacheverell and others; that it was a satire
upon the fury of the churchmen, and a plot to make the rest discover
themselves. Nothing was more strange than to see the effect upon the
whole nation which this little book, a contemptible pamphlet of but
three sheets of paper, had, and in so short a time too. The most
forward, hot, and furious, as well among the clergy as others, blushed
when they reflected how far they had applauded the book; raged that such
an abuse should be put upon the church; and as they were obliged to damn
the book, so they were strangely hampered between the doing so, and
pursuing the rage at the dissenters. The greater part, the better to
qualify themselves to condemn the author, came earnestly in to condemn
the principle; for it was impossible to do one without the other. They
laboured incessantly, both in print and in pulpit, to prove that this
was a horrible slander upon the church. But this still answered the
author's end the more; for they could never clear the church of the
slander, without openly condemning the practice; nor could they possibly
condemn the practice without censuring those clergymen who had gone such
a length already as to say the same thing in print. Nor could all their
rage at the author of that book contribute anything to clear them, but
still made the better side the worse. It was plain they had owned the
doctrine, had preached up the necessity of expelling and rooting out the
dissenters in their sermons and printed pamphlets; that it was evident
they had applauded the book itself, till they knew the author; and there
was no other way to prevent the odium falling on the whole body of the
church of England, but by giving up the authors of those mad principles,
and openly professing moderate principles themselves." [Present State of
Parties, p. 18.]

[30] On the 25th of February, 1702-3, a complaint was made in the house
of commons, of a book entituled The Shortest Way with the Dissenters:
and the folios 11-18 and 26 being read, resolved, That this book, being
full of false and scandalous reflections on this parliament, and tending
to promote sedition, be burnt by the hands of the common hangman,
to-morrow, in New Palace-yard. 14 Jour. p. 207.

[31] He who is desirous of reading the proclamation, may be gratified by
the following copy from the London gazette, No. 3879:--

 "St. James's, Jan. 10th, 1702-3.

"Whereas Daniel De Foe, _alias_ De Fooe, is charged with writing a
scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entituled The Shortest Way with the
Dissenters: he is a middle-sized spare man, about forty years old, of a
brown complexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a
hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth;
was born in London, and for many years was a hose-factor, in
Freeman's-yard, in Cornhill, and now is owner of the brick and pantile
Works near Tilbury-fort, in Essex: whoever shall discover the said
Daniel De Foe to one of her majesty's principal secretaries of state, or
any of her majesty's justices of peace, so as he may be apprehended,
shall have a reward of fifty pounds, which her majesty has ordered
immediately to be paid upon such discovery."

[32] The next paragraph of the passage further explains De Foe's object.
"The 'Sermon preached at Oxford,' the 'New Association,' the 'Poetical
Observator,' with numberless others, have said the same things in terms
very little darker; and this book stands fair to let these gentlemen
know, that what they design can no further take with mankind, than as
their real meaning stands disguised by artifice of words; but that, when
the persecution and destruction of the dissenters, the very thing they
drive at, is put into plain English, the whole nation will start other
notions, and condemn the author to be hanged for his impudence. He
humbly hopes, he shall find no harder treatment for plain English
without design, than those gentlemen for their plain design, in duller
and darker English. The meaning then of the paper is, in short, to tell
these gentlemen that it is nonsense to go round about and tell us of the
crimes of the dissenters, to prepare the world to believe they are not
fit to live in a human society; that they are enemies to the government
and the laws, to the queen, and the public peace, and the like; the
shortest way and the soonest, would be to tell us plainly, that they
would have them all hanged, banished, and destroyed."

[33] At his trial he was treated by the then attorney-general, sir Simon
Harcourt, in the style of sir Edward Coke. He complained himself
bitterly of the conduct of his own counsel. He was sentenced to pay a
fine of two hundred marks to the queen, to stand three times in the
pillory, be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure, and find sureties
for his good behaviour during seven years! Well may the learned and
candid biographer, in the Biographia Britannia, exclaim, "The very
infamous sentence reflected much more dishonour upon the court by which
it was pronounced, than upon De Foe upon whom it was inflicted." But
when he stood in the pillory, instead of suffering an ignominious
punishment, he appears rather to have enjoyed a striking triumph. He
says, "The people, who were expected to treat him very ill, on the
contrary, pitied him, and wished those who set him there were placed in
his room, and expressed their affections by loud shouts and acclamations
when he was taken down." [Consolidator.]

[34] The Hymn was published in 1703, and ran rapidly through several
editions. In 1702, before his prosecution, he published a satiric poem
on the vices of the age, entitled "Reformation of Manners." During his
imprisonment, he continued the subject in another poem, entituled, "More
Reformation. A Satire upon himself."--ED.

[35] The collection contains the following pieces: 1. The True-born
Englishman. 2. The Mock Mourners. 3. Reformation of Manners. 4.
Character of Dr. Annesley. 5. The Spanish Descent. 6. Original Power of
the People of England. 7. The Freeholders' Plea. 8. Reasons against a
War with France. 9. Argument on a Standing Army. 10. Danger of the
Protestant Religion. 11. Villany of Stock-jobbers. 12. Six
Distinguishing Characters of a Parliament Man. 13. Poor Man's Plea. 14.
Inquiry into Occasional Conformity; with a Preface to Mr. How. 15.
Letter to Mr. How, by way of Reply to his Considerations on the Preface.
16. Two Great Questions considered. 17. Two Great Questions further
considered. 18. Inquiry into Occasional Conformity. 19. New Test of the
Church of England's Loyalty. 20. Shortest Way with the Dissenters. 21.
Brief Explanation of the Shortest Way. 22. Shortest Way to Peace and
Union. In the year 1705, another and fuller edition of his works was
published. In 1703, and before the publication of the Review, next
referred to by Mr. Chalmers, De Foe wrote More Short Ways with the
Dissenters, a pamphlet chiefly intended to vindicate the system of
education then pursued among the dissenters, and which had been impugned
for its alleged disloyalty by the Rev. Samuel Wesley. It was in this
work that De Foe so generously alluded to his old master, Mr. Morton, in
the passage we have referred to, supra, p. 3, note [2]. During his
confinement he engaged with his usual warmth in the controversies of
that time. The old dispute of Occasional Conformity still occupied him.
He replied to Mr. Owen's pamphlet, Moderation a Virtue, &c., in The
Sincerity of the Dissenters vindicated from the Scandal of Occasional
Conformity; with some Considerations on a late book, entituled,
Moderation a Virtue. 1703. Several other controvertists took the field.
In the course of the same year, anxious to put an end if possible to the
furious disputes between the church and dissenters, he published, A
Challenge of Peace, addressed to the whole Nation, with an Inquiry into
Ways and Means of bringing it to pass; and afterwards replied to sir
Humphrey Mackworth's Peace at Home, in a pamphlet entituled, Peace
without Union. He also reasserted the great principles advocated in his
former work on the Original Power of the People, in another published in
1704, which he called Original Right: or the Reasonableness of Appeals
to the People: being an Answer to the First Chapter in Dr. Davenant's
Essays, entituled, Peace at Home and War Abroad. In this same year,
1704, he had again to vindicate the dissenters, which he did in his
pamphlet, The Dissenters' Answer to the High Church Challenge; and
honoured the memory of his royal benefactor, William III., by bearing
his testimony to his religious principles, which he did in a pamphlet
entitled, Royal Religion. He also maintained the claims of the Scotch
dissenters, in a pamphlet called The Liberty of Episcopal Dissenters in
Scotland truly stated, 1703. And he had to wield his unwearied pen on
behalf of the Irish dissenters, against a bill introduced avowedly to
prevent the growth of popery, in which were contained some stringent
provisions against the protestant dissenters. De Foe ironically headed
his pamphlet, The Parallel: or Persecution of Protestants the Shortest
Way to prevent the Growth of Popery in Ireland. 1704.--ED.

[36] Mr. Wilson observes of the Review, "That it did not outlive its
day, may be attributed to the great proportion of temporary matter with
which it abounded. There are to be found in its pages, however, many
instructive pieces of a moral and political nature, besides others
devoted to amusement, and also some useful historical documents. A
complete copy of the work is not known to be in existence. It deserves
to be remarked that De Foe was the sole writer of the nine quarto
volumes that compose the work, a prodigious undertaking for one man,
especially when we consider his other numerous engagements of a literary
nature." Mr. Wilson then refers to an able eulogium by Dr. Drake.
[Essays on the Tatler, vol. i. p. 23.] "Contemporary with Leslies'
Remains, came forward, under a periodical dress, and of a kind far
superior to anything which had hitherto appeared, the Review of Daniel
De Foe, a man of undoubted genius, and who, deviating from the
accustomed route, had chalked out a new path for himself. The chief
topics were as usual, news foreign and domestic, and politics; to these,
however, were added the various concerns of trade; and to render the
undertaking more palatable and popular, he with much judgment instituted
what he termed, perhaps with no great propriety, a 'Scandal Club,' and
whose amusement it was to agitate questions in divinity, morals, war,
language, poetry, love, marriage, &c. The introduction of this club, and
the subjects of its discussion, it is obvious approximated the Review
much nearer than any preceding work to our first classical model." The
first number of the Review was published Feb. 19th, 1704, as A Weekly
Review of the Affairs of France, purged from the Errors and Partiality
of Newswriters and Petty Statesmen of all sides. It was at first a
weekly publication, but afterwards came out twice a week, as it was
changed to half a sheet from a whole one. The price was one penny. Mr.
Wilson, in his valuable Life of De Foe, gives long extracts from the
Review, a work, he observes, now very difficult to be met with. "A
considerable portion of the first volume," observes that gentleman, "is
devoted to foreign politics, more particularly the power and grandeur of
the French monarchy, for the reduction of which within reasonable limits
the principal nations of Europe were then embroiled in an expensive war.
In estimating the powers and resources of France, which had attained
their summit under Louis XIV., he was anxious to guard his countrymen
against the folly of despising such an enemy." Mr. Wilson then gives
copious and interesting extracts from the Review, to which we must refer
the reader to his able biography, [vol. ii. ch. 10.] The volume closed
in one hundred and two numbers, in February, 1705, and had the following
title prefixed: A Review of the Affairs of France, and of all Europe, as
influenced by that Nation: being Historical Observations on the Public
Transactions of the World; purged from the Errors and Partiality of
Newswriters and Petty Statesmen of all sides. With an Entertaining Part
in every sheet; being Advice from the Scandal Club to the Curious
Inquirers, in answer to Letters sent them for that purpose.

[37] The following is the account of this storm by a contemporary
historian:--

"About the middle of the night, a violent wind arose, which blew down
the steeples of churches, tore off the tiles, and rolled up the leads of
houses, tossing them through the air to great distances, rooted up the
largest trees, or broke them off short, carried hayricks and stacks of
corn to great heights, scattered them abroad, and beat down the chimneys
in divers places, to the destruction of many people in the towns. The
ships which lay in the mouth of the Thames and other parts, were driven
foul of one another. The sailors, not knowing what to avoid, or which
way to steer, abandoned themselves to despair, expecting every moment to
be their last. Some ships having broke their cables, and lost their
anchors, drove before the wind, without helm or steerage, and either
dashed one another to pieces, or were swallowed up in the raging deep.
Some were driven out to sea, without any rigging; and others run upon
the sands, rocks, and shores. The admiral was driven to sea without mast
or anchor, from the Downs, and lost together with his ship; and other
ships which had been in his squadron were driven to the coast of Holland
in five hours' time, with their masts broken, without any art or
direction, and others to other places. The watch-towers, with the
watchmen, were overthrown together; and the destruction which this storm
occasioned was long remembered with awe and horror. In the space of one
tempestuous night, a gallant English fleet was reduced to nothing: and
it is incredible what a dismal appearance there was at London and other
towns. The mathematicians observed that the force of this tempest did
not extend further south than the river Loire, in France, nor further
north than the river Trent, in England." [Cunningham, vol. i. p. 356.]

[38] By his Appeal, in 1715.

[39] Before the publication of this Hymn, he published a poem on
himself, An Elegy on the Author of the True-born Englishman. In the
preface to this poem he bitterly complains of the slanders to which he
was constantly subject. He might have reflected, however, that such a
fate was unavoidable to a political writer in those factious times; and
that the more independent the author, the more likely he was to be
exposed to the double shafts of partisan malice.--ED.

[40] It was _not_ on this occasion, but for one of the Reviews published
in 1707, in which, he criticises the apparent supineness of Charles
XII.--ED.

[41] The title of a pamphlet published by a Dr. Browne.

[42] The recent discussion of the Poor Law Amendment Act has thrown much
additional light on this question. During this year, in addition to the
works mentioned by Mr. Chalmers, De Foe advocated the rights of
Dissenters in the colony of Carolina, in America, where they had been
hardly treated; first deprived of a seat in the house of assembly, and
then subjected to stringent laws. De Foe, while their affairs were being
made matter of discussion in parliament, published Party Tyranny; or an
Occasional Bill in Miniature, as now practised in Carolina. Humbly
offered to the Consideration of both Houses of Parliament.--ED.

[43] The motion of lord Haversham in the house of lords, was to request
the queen to invite over the presumptive heir to the crown, which would
have produced the mischief of two rival courts. De Foe in this pamphlet
gives us one of those passages so extremely interesting, being a sketch
of his own life by himself. "If I were to run through the black list of
the encouragements I have met with in the world, while I have embarked
myself in the raging sea of the nation's troubles, this vindication
would be ashamed to call them encouragements. How, in pursuit of peace,
I have brought myself into innumerable broils; how many, exasperated by
the sting of truth, have vowed my destruction; and how many ways
attempted it; how I stand alone in the world, abandoned by those very
people that own I have done them service; how I am sold and betrayed by
friends, abused and cheated by barbarous and unnatural relations, sued
for other men's debts, and stripped naked by public injustice, of what
should have enabled me to pay my own; how, with a numerous family, and
with no helps but my own industry, I have forced my way with
undiscouraged diligence, through a sea of debt and misfortune, and
reduced them, exclusive of composition, from seventeen to less than five
thousand pounds; how, in gaols, in retreats, in all manner of
extremities, I have supported myself without the assistance of friends
or relations; how I still live without this Vindicator's suggested
methods, and am so far from making my fortune by this way of
_scribbling_, that no man more desires a limitation and regulation of
the press than myself; especially that speeches in parliament might not
be printed without order of parliament, and poor authors betrayed to
engage with men too powerful for them in more forcible arguments than
those of reason. A man ought not to be afraid at any time to be mean to
be honest. Pardon me, therefore, with some warmth, to say, that neither
the Vindicator, nor all his informers, can, with their utmost inquiry,
make it appear that I am, or ever was, mercenary. And as there is a
justice due from all men, of what dignity or quality soever, the wrong
done me in this can be vindicated by nothing but proving the fact, which
I am a most humble petitioner that he would be pleased to do, or else
give me leave to speak of it in such terms as so great an injury
demands. No, my lord, pardon my freedom, I contemn and abhor everything
and every man that can be taxed with that name, let his dignity be what
it will. I was ever true to one principle; I never betrayed my master or
my friend; I always espoused the cause of truth and liberty, was ever on
one side, and that side was ever right. I have lived to be ruined for
it; and I lived to see it triumph over tyranny, party-rage, and
persecution principles, and am sorry to see any man abandon it. I thank
God this world cannot bid a price sufficient to bribe me. It is the
principle I ever lived by, and shall espouse while I live, that a man
ought to die rather than betray his friend, his cause, or his
master."--ED.

[44] 9 Anne, c. 19.

[45] The pieces in this volume are: 1. New Discovery of an Old Intrigue.
2. More Reformation. 3. Elegy on the Author of the True-born Englishman.
4. The Storm: an Essay. 5. A Hymn to the Pillory. 6. Hymn to Victory. 7.
The Pacificator. 8. The Double Welcome to the Duke of Marlborough. 9.
Dissenters' Answer to the High Church Challenge. 10. A Challenge of
Peace to the whole Nation. 11. Peace without Union. 12. More Short Ways.
13. New Test of the Church of England's Honesty. 14. Serious Inquiry.
15. The Dissenters Misrepresented. 16. The Parallel. 17. Giving Alms no
Charity. 18. Royal Religion.

[46] In the year 1705, he also published a satirical poem, entituled,
The Dyet of Poland: printed at Dantzick. He sketches the leading
politicians of the day under Polish names; William III. being
represented as Sobieski. He also published A True Relation, of the
Apparition of one Mrs. Veal, the next day after her death, to one Mrs.
Bargrave, at Canterbury, the 8th of Sept. 1705, which Apparition
recommends the perusal of Drelincourt's Book of Consolation against the
Fear of Death. This work it is said was written by De Foe to make
Drelincourt's sell, which was before a heavy book in the market, and of
course produced the desired effect. The future author of Robinson Crusoe
may be distinctly seen in this work. Sir Walter Scott considered it one
of his happiest efforts, and marked with the distinct impress of De Foe.
He observes "that De Foe has put in force within those few pages,
peculiar specimens of his art of recommending the most improbable
narrative by his specious and serious mode of telling it. Whoever will
read it as told by De Foe himself, will agree that could the thing have
happened in reality, so it would have been told. In short, 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." In this year the second volume of the
Review was completed. The early part of it refers to matters of trade,
which he says he had intended to write more fully upon, but was diverted
by domestic affairs; and that his labours in behalf of peace had given
great satisfaction.--ED.

[47] Published the 10th of January, 1705-6. In May, 1706, he published a
poem on the duke of Marlborough's great victory, entituled, On the Fight
of Ramillies.

[48] It was partly republished in 1821, by Mr. Hone; who says in the
preface, "De Foe was the ablest politician of his day, an energetic
writer, and, better than all, an honest man; but not much of a poet. The
Jure Divino is defective in argument and versification. It is likewise
disfigured by injudicious repetitions; a large portion is directed to
the politics of the time, and it is otherwise unfit for republication
entire; but it abounds with energetic thoughts, forcible touches, and
happy illustrations."--ED.

[49] Appeal, p. 16.

[50] See his History of the Union, p. 401.

[51] Ibid. p. 379.

[52] Daniel De Foe. He had two names through life; and even when letters
of administration were granted on his personal estate, some time after
his death, _De_ Foe is added with an _otherwise_. We might thence infer
that his father's name was _Foe_, if we had not now better evidence of
the fact.

[53] Ibid. p. 223.

[54] History of the Union, p. 239.

[55] Dr. Towers says, [_Biograph. Brit._] "In this poem De Foe
celebrates the courage of the Scots, and enumerates some of their
military exploits. He endeavours to prove that the situation of Scotland
rendered it well adapted for trade; he speaks honourably of the
abilities of the inhabitants; he commends them for their learning, and
their attention to religion; and he hints at the advantages which they
might derive from a union with England. But though De Foe's poem was a
panegyric upon Scotland and Scotsmen, it did not wholly consist of
commendation. He takes notice of the evils that the common people
suffered from their vassalage to their chiefs, and from their ignorance
of the blessings of liberty. He also censures the Scots for not
improving the natural advantages which their country possessed, and for
neglecting their fishery; and he gives them some excellent advice." In
1707, he published a tract called, A Voice from the South; or an Address
from some Protestant Dissenters in England to the Kirk of Scotland; the
object being, as the title implies, to reconcile the presbyterians to
the Union, then on the eve of completion.

He also in that year published a third volume of the Review, in which he
dwelt very much upon matters connected with trade. One passage relative
to the poor and their management, shows that he was far beyond his age
on that point, as on most others. "Perhaps he may give some needful
hints as to the state of our poor, in which his judgment may differ from
that of others, but he must be plain: and while he is no enemy to
charity-hospitals and workhouses, he thinks that methods to keep our
poor out of them, far exceed, both in prudence and charity, all the
settlements and endeavours in the world to maintain them there. As to
censure, he expects it. He writes to serve the world, not to please it.
A few wise, calm, disinterested men, he always had the good hap to
please and satisfy. By their judgment he desires still to be determined;
and if he has any pride, it is that he may be approved by such. To the
rest, he sedately says, their censure deserves no notice." In 1708 he
published a fourth volume of the Review, in which he discusses the Union
at great length. He also discusses the war, the policy of the Swedes,
&c.; the insurrection in Hungary, the revolution in Naples. The great
principles of liberty are here, as they always were by De Foe,
maintained with energy and warmth; but De Foe's mind was essentially
practical, and therefore moderate. In the following fine passage he
displays his principle of action. "In all my writings, as well as in
this paper, it has been my endeavour, and ever shall be, I hope, to
steer the middle way between all our extremes, and while I am applauding
the lustre of moderation, to practise it myself." He foresees, however,
the fate of impartiality in the contests of faction. "If I might give a
short hint to an impartial writer, it should be to tell him his fate. If
he resolves to venture up the dangerous precipice of telling unbiassed
truths, let him proclaim war with mankind, _a la mode le pais de Pole_,
neither to give nor take quarter. If he tells the crimes of great men,
they fall upon him with the iron hands of the law; if he tells their
virtues, when they have any, then the mob attacks him with slander. But
if he regards truth, let him expect martyrdom on both sides, and then he
may go on fearless; and this is the course I take myself." [vol. iv. p.
593.]

In 1708, prince George of Denmark, consort of queen Anne, died; and De
Foe described his character in one of the Reviews. The recent
circumstances in our own day, so analogous to that of prince George and
the queen, make De Foe's sketch one of great interest. "Death has made a
very deep incision in the public tranquillity, in the person of the
prince of Denmark. His royal highness was a great and good man, a friend
to England and her interest, and true and hearty in the cause of
liberty.... If I had a design to run through the character of the
prince, I would observe upon the excellency of his temper, the calmness
of his passions, and the sedateness of his judgment, which commanded
respect from the whole nation in a manner peculiar to himself; so that
every party, however jarring and opposite, paid him their homage,
although nothing was more averse to his temper than the divisions which
unhappily agitate the nation. Nor can it be doubted that his highness
derived peculiar satisfaction from his not interfering in public affairs
more than his exalted station obliged him, since he saw it was
impossible to do so without committing himself to a party, which he was
always averse to. He sincerely lamented our divisions, but never
encouraged or approved them. By his steady conduct, joined with a
general courtesy to all sorts of people, he acquired the esteem and love
of all parties, and that more than any person of his degree that ever
went before him. I need not note how next to impossible it is in this
divided nation, for the most consummate prudence to steer through the
variety of interests and gain an universal good opinion, or indeed avoid
universal censure. How the prince attained that great point I shall not
attempt to examine; but this I think ought to be recorded to posterity,
that one man in Britain was found, of whom no man spoke evil,--and _this
was he_!" [vol. iv. p. 409.]--ED.

[56] Lord Buchan was so obliging as to communicate the subjoined extract
of a letter to his lordship's grandfather, the earl of Buchan, from De
Foe, dated the 29th of May, 1711:--"The person, with whom I endeavoured
to plant the interest of your lordship's friend, has been strangely
taken up, since I had that occasion; viz., first, in suffering the
operation of the surgeons to heal the wound of the assassin; and since,
in accumulating honours from parliament, the queen, and the people. On
Thursday evening her majesty created him earl Mortimer, earl of Oxford,
and lord Harley of Wigmore: and we expect that to-morrow in council he
will have the white staff given him by the queen, and be declared lord
high treasurer. I wrote this yesterday; and this day, May the 29th, he
is made lord high treasurer of Great Britain, and carried the white
staff before the queen this morning to chapel."

[57] Appeal, p. 16.

[58] With the present Life of De Foe, by Mr. Chalmers, prefixed. In this
year he closed the fifth volume of the Review. He goes at great length
into the affairs of Scotland, especially religious. For the freedom of
his remarks in protesting against innovations upon the Scotch
establishment, the Review was prosecuted by the grand jury, but the
prosecution was soon stopped. He also contended vigorously against
licensing the press, and for the Copyright Bill, which subsequently
passed. He attacked Dr. Sacheverell for his celebrated sermon on the 5th
of November, at St. Paul's. And he published a sixth volume of the
Review. He there exposed stock-jobbing;--he refers to his frequently
repeated anticipations of the eventual defeat of Charles XII. in
relation to the battle of Pultowa; and he pays great attention, as
before, to Scotch affairs.--ED.

[59] Mr. Chalmers here seems to be mistaken. De Foe wrote neither of
these works. The first Mr. Wilson tells us was written by Oldmixon. De
Foe, indeed, in order to expose the folly of the high tory party, who
had procured several addresses to the queen, and which were published by
them as an indication, "that the sense of the nation is express for the
doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, and for her majesty's
hereditary title to the throne of her ancestors," published a counter
manifesto, A New Test of the Sense of the Nation: being a modest
Comparison between the Addresses to the late King James and those to her
present Majesty. In order to show how far the sense of the nation may be
judged of by either of them. 1710. His object is of course to expose the
folly of supposing that the addresses represented the real feeling of
the country. In a strain of great irony, he says; "The practice of
addressing has cheated many already; a jest that was put upon Richard
Cromwell, and yet they deprived him three weeks afterwards. It was a
second time put upon king James II. and they all flew in his face a year
after. And I could give some instances of the little value that has been
put upon it since, even such as one would think the very people
themselves expect,--that for time to come addressing should pass for
nothing with their princes."--ED.

[60] Review, vol. vii. No. 95.

[61] The following letter to Mr. J. Dyer, in Shoe-lane, who was then
employed by the leaders of the tories, in circulating news and
insinuations through the country, will show the literary manners of
those times, and convey some anecdotes, which are nowhere else
preserved. The original letter is in the Museum, Harl. MSS. No. 7001.
fol. 269.

Mr. Dyer,

I have your letter. I am rather glad to find you put it upon the trial
who was aggressor, than justify a thing which I am sure you cannot
approve; and in this I assure you I am far from injuring you, and refer
you to the time when long since you had wrote I was fled from justice:
one Sammon being taken up for printing a libel, and I being then on a
journey, nor the least charge against me for being concerned in it by
anybody but your letter:--also many unkind personal reflections on me in
your letter, when I was in Scotland, on the affair of the Union, and I
assure you, when my paper had not in the least mentioned you, and those
I refer to time and date for the proof of.

I mention this only in defence of my last letter, in which I said no
more of it than to let you see I did not merit such treatment, and could
nevertheless be content to render any service to you, though I thought
myself hardly used.

But to state the matter fairly between you and I [me], a writing for
different interests, and so possibly coming under an unavoidable
necessity of jarring in several cases: I am ready to make a fair truce
of honour with you, viz., that if what either party are doing, or
saying, that may clash with the party we are for, and urge us to speak,
it shall be done without naming either's name, and without personal
reflections; and thus we may differ still, and yet preserve both the
Christian and the gentleman.

This I think is an offer may satisfy you. I have not been desirous of
giving just offence to you, neither would I to any man, however I may
differ from him; and I see no reason why I should affront a man's
person, because I do not join with him in principle. I please myself
with being the first proposer of so fair a treaty with you, because I
believe, as you cannot deny its being very honourable, so it is not less
so in coming first from me, who I believe could convince you of my
having been the first and most ill-treated--for further proof of which I
refer you to your letters, at the time I was threatened by the envoy of
the king of Sweden.

However, Mr. Dyer, this is a method which may end what is past, and
prevent what is future; and if refused, the future part I am sure cannot
lie at my door.

As to your letter, your proposal is so agreeable to me, that truly
without it I could not have taken the thing at all; for it would have
been a trouble intolerable, both to you as well as me, to take your
letter every post, first from you, and then send it to the post-house.

Your method of sending to the black box, is just what I designed to
propose, and Mr. Shaw will doubtless take it of you: if you think it
needful for me to speak to him it shall be done--what I want to know is
only the charge, and that you will order it constantly to be sent, upon
hinting whereof I shall send you the names. Wishing you success in all
things (your opinions of government excepted.)

                                I am,
                                  Your humble servant,
                                                  DE FOE.
 Newington, June 17th,
         1710.

[62] Arnott's Edinburgh. The second newspaper ever published in
Scotland. During this period he published the seventh volume of the
Review, which is chiefly occupied by home affairs.

[63] De Foe had, many years before Harley proposed it in parliament,
suggested an establishment of a South-sea trade, not only for commercial
advantage, but as an effectual mode of crippling Spain and France. "I
had the honour to lay a proposal before his late majesty king William,
in the beginning of this war, for carrying the war, not into Old Spain,
but into America: which proposal his majesty approved of, and fully
proposed to put it in execution, had not death, to our unspeakable
grief, prevented him. And yet I would have my readers distinguish with
me, that there is always a manifest difference between carrying on a war
with America and settling a trade there; and I shall not fail to speak
distinctly to this difference in its turn." He then points out the
circumstances of the trade, and distinctly warns his countrymen against
those rash and extravagant speculations which they unfortunately
persisted to indulge in, and which caused the ruin of so many persons.
"I am far from designing to discourage this new undertaking, which I
profess to believe a very happy one; but to correct these wild notions,
it seems needful to ascertain what we are to understand by a trade to
the South Seas, and what not; that in the first place our enemies may
not make a wrong improvement of it, our friends in Spain may not take
umbrage at it, and our people at home may not grow big with wild
expectations, which might end in chagrin and disappointment. There is
room enough on the western coast of America for us to establish a
flourishing trade without encroaching upon the Spaniards. The industry
and enterprise of the English in such a situation would open a wide door
for the consumption of our manufactures, and bring a vast revenue of
wealth to our own country." [Review, vol. viii. p. 165. 274.] They are
the same views substantially as those he afterwards maintained in the
pamphlet mentioned by Mr. Chalmers in the text.--ED.

[64] He also vindicated the memory of William III., who had been
fiercely attacked for the Partition Treaty, by a pamphlet rather long
and quaint--The Felonious Treaty: or, an Inquiry into the Reasons which
moved his late Majesty King William, of Glorious Memory, to enter into a
Treaty at ten several times, with the King of France, for the Partition
of the Spanish Monarchy. With an Essay, proving that it was always the
sense both of King William and of all the Confederates, and even of the
Grand Alliance itself, that the Spanish Monarchy should never be united
in the Person of the Emperor. 1711. In the year 1712, he vigorously
attacked the persecuting bill introduced by lord Nottingham, by which
dissenters were to be excluded from civil employments, and persons in
office were forbidden to attend dissenting places of worship, under
severe penalties. De Foe not only kept up a galling fire in his Reviews,
but published a pamphlet on the subject, entituled, An Essay on the
History of Parties and Persecution in Britain: beginning with a brief
Account of the Test Act, and an Historical Inquiry into the Reasons, the
Original, and the Consequences of the Occasional Conformity of the
Dissenters: with some Remarks on the recent attempts already made and
now making for an Occasional Bill: inquiring how far the same may be
esteemed a Preservative of the Church, or an Injury to the Dissenters.
He seems to have renewed the attack not only against that measure, but
also against a similar bill introduced to authorise the use of the
liturgy in Scotland, in a pamphlet which Mr. Wilson says bears undoubted
evidence of being De Foe's, although never inserted in any list of his
writings, entituled, The Present State of Parties in Great Britain:
particularly an Inquiry into the State of the Dissenters in England, and
the Presbyterians in Scotland: their religious and politic Interest
considered, as it respects their Circumstances before and since the late
Acts against Occasional Conformity in England, and for Toleration of
Common Prayer in Scotland. In this work he goes into a lengthened
history of the dissenters, and strongly recommends union amongst all
bodies of them. He also in this year vigorously opposed the tax upon
newspapers, which was enforced in 1712. The eighth volume of the Review
closed in July, 1712. Trade and war are the main subjects discussed in
it.--ED.

[65] The first Mercator was published on the 26th of May, 1713; the last
on the 20th of July, 1714: and they were written by William Brown and
his assistants, with great knowledge, great strength, and great
sweetness, considering how much party then embittered every composition.
The British Merchant, which opposed the Mercator, and which was compiled
by Henry Martyn and his associates, has fewer facts, less argument, and
more factiousness. It began on the 1st of August, 1713, and ended the
27th of July, 1714. I have spoken of both from my own convictions,
without regarding the declamations which have continued to pervert the
public opinion from that epoch to the present times. De Foe was struck
at in the third number of the British Merchant, and plainly mentioned in
the fourth. Mr. Daniel Foe may change his name from Review to Mercator,
from Mercator to any other title, yet still his singular genius shall be
distinguished by his inimitable way of writing. Thus personal sarcasm
was introduced to supply deficience of facts, or weakness of reasoning.
When Charles King republished The British Merchant in volumes, among
various changes, he expunged, with other personalities, the name of De
Foe.

[66] It is now sufficiently known, that Lord Oxford had relinquished the
Treaty of Commerce to its fate, before it was finally debated in
parliament. See much curious matter on this subject in Macpherson's
State Papers, vol. ii. p. 421-23. It is there said, that he gave up the
commercial treaty, in compliment to sir Thomas Hanmer, as he would by no
means be an occasion of a breach among friends. The treasurer had other
reasons: the treaty had been made by Bolingbroke, whom he did not love;
the lords Anglesea and Abingdon had made extravagant demands for their
support; and, like a wise man, he thought it idle to drive a nail that
would not go. Yet lord Halifax boasted to the Hanoverian minister, that
he alone had been the occasion of the treaty being rejected. [Same
papers, p. 509-47.]

[67] He attacked it first in 1713, in An Essay on the Treaty of Commerce
with France, with necessary Expositions.

[68] It closed May, 1713, with the ninth volume.

[69] State of Wit, 1711, which is reprinted in the Supplement to Swift's
Works.

[70] It _was_ ordered to be destroyed.

[71] The late History of Halifax relates, that Daniel De Foe, being
forced to abscond, on account of his political writings, resided at
Halifax, in the Back-lane, at the sign of the Rose and Crown, being
known to Dr. Nettleton, the physician, and the Rev. Mr. Priestley,
minister of a dissenting congregation there. Mr. Watson is mistaken when
he supposes that De Foe wrote his Jure Divino here, which had been
published previously in 1706; and he is equally mistaken, when he says,
that De Foe had made an improper use of the papers of Selkirk, whose
story had been often published.

[72] The pamphlets mentioned in the text were filled with palpable
banter. He recommends the Pretender by saying, That the prince would
confer on every one the privilege of wearing wooden shoes, and at the
same time ease the nobility and gentry of the hazard and expense of
winter journeys to parliament.

[73] The pardon is dated on the 13th of November, 1713, and is signed by
Bolingbroke. See it set out verbatim. Appeal to Honour and Justice.

[74] See Boyer's Political State, Oldmixon's History, &c.

[75] It is universally said by the sellers and buyers of old books, that
John, duke of Argyle, was the real author of The Secret History of the
White Staff. His grace, indeed, is not in the Catalogue of Royal and
Noble Authors. Whether the duke wrote this petty pamphlet may be
doubted; but there can be no doubt that De Foe was not the author: for
he solemnly asserts by his Appeal, in 1715, That he had written nothing
since the queen's death. The internal evidence is stronger than this
positive assertion.

[76] In the year 1714, De Foe pleaded the cause of religious liberty in
his most effective manner. He was roused to action by the bill then
passing parliament, "to prevent the growth of schism," which was of
course only another name for intolerance. By this bill, all
schoolmasters were required to be licensed by the bishop, and have a
certificate of conformity from the minister of his parish! De Foe of
course could not be silent on such an occasion, and he published The
Remedy worse than the Disease: or Reasons against passing the Bill for
preventing the Growth of Schism; to which is added, a Brief Discourse of
Toleration and Persecution, showing their unavoidable effects, good or
bad, and proving that neither Diversity of Religion, nor Diversity in
the same Religion, are dangerous, much less inconsistent with good
Government. In a Letter to a noble Earl. _Hæc sunt enim fundamenta
firmissima nostræ libertatis, sui quemque juris et retinendi et
dimittendi esse dominum._ Cic. in Orat. pro Balbo. 1714.

[77] The most solemn asseverations, and the most unanswerable arguments
of our author, were not, after all, believed. When Charles King
republished The British Merchant, in 1721, he without a scruple
attributed The Mercator to a hireling writer of a weekly paper called
the Review. And Anderson, at a still later period, goes further in his
Chronology of Commerce, and names De Foe, as the hireling writer of the
Mercator, and other papers in favour of the French treaty of trade. We
can now judge with the impartiality of arbitrators: on the one hand,
there are the living challenge, and the death-bed declaration of De Foe;
on the other, the mere surmise and unauthorised assertion of King,
Anderson, and others, who detract from their own veracity by their own
factiousness, or foolery. It is surely time to free ourselves from
prejudices of every kind, and to disregard the sound of names as much as
the falsehoods of party.

[78] It was entered at Stationers'-hall, for J. Roberts, the 18th of
February, 1715-16.

[79] 2nd Mem. p. 27, &c.

[80] The family of George I. had been instructed by the copy of this
book, which is in the Museum. It would seem from the title-page and Mr.
Wright's letter being printed on a different paper from the work itself,
that both were added after the first publication. The Family Instructor
and Mr. Wright's letter were entered at Stationers'-hall, for Emanuel
Mathews, on the 31st of March, 1715.

[81] When Mr. Chalmers wrote, it had been reprinted at least seventeen
times. It is a work which has had great circulation.

[82] Mr. Wilson considers that De Foe, in the year 1717, published the
Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, in Four Periods: with an Appendix of
some Transactions since the Union. [Life of De Foe, vol. iii. p. 418.]
And also the Life of Dr. Daniel Williams, the eminent presbyterian
divine, founder of the well-known dissenters' library, in
Redcross-street. [Ib. p. 423.]

[83] The title was, The Life and strange surprising Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, who lived eight-and-twenty Years all
alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the mouth
of the great River Oroonoque, having been cast on shore by Shipwreck,
wherein all the men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at
last strangely delivered by Pirates. Written by Himself.

[84] "No fiction in any language," said Dr. Blair in his elegant
Lectures on Rhetoric, "was ever better supported than the Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe. While it is carried on with that appearance of truth
and simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the imagination of all
readers, it suggests at the same time very useful instruction, by
showing how much the native power of man may be exerted for surmounting
the difficulties of any external situation." "Robinson Crusoe," said
Marmontel, "is the first book I ever read with exquisite pleasure; and I
believe every boy in Europe might say the same thing." In his Emile,
Rousseau says, "Since we must have books, this is one, which, in my
opinion, is a most excellent treatise on natural education. This is the
first my Emilias shall read; his whole library shall long consist of
this work only, which shall preserve an eminent rank to the very last.
It shall be the text to which all our conversations on natural science
are to serve only as a comment. It shall be a guide during our progress
to maturity of judgment; and so long as our taste is not adulterated,
the perusal of this book will afford us pleasure. And what surprising
book is this? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny? Is it Buffon? No, it is
Robinson Crusoe." In this judgment Dr. Beattie concurred.--ED.

[85] The title was, The further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; being the
second and last Part of his Life, and the strange surprising Accounts of
his Travels round three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself. To which
is added, a Map of the World, in which is delineated the Voyages of
Robinson Crusoe. 1719.

[86] The whole story of Selkirk is told in Woodes Rogers' voyage, which
he published in 1712, from p. 125 to 131, inclusive: whence it appears
that Selkirk had preserved no pen, ink, or paper, and had lost his
language; so that he had no journal or papers, which he could
communicate, or by others could be stolen. There is an account of
Selkirk in The Englishman, No. 26, written by Steele. The particular
manner how Alexander Selkirk lived four years and four months, in the
isle of Juan Fernandez, is related in captain Cooks's voyage into the
South Sea, which was published in 1712. And Selkirk's tale was told in
the Memoirs of Literature, vol. v. p. 118: so that the world was fully
possessed of Selkirk's story, in 1712, seven years prior to the
publication of Crusoe's Adventures. Nor were his adventures singular;
for, Ringrose mentions in his account of captain Sharp's voyage, a
person who had escaped singly from a ship that had been wrecked on Juan
Fernandez, and who lived alone five years before he was relieved: and
Dampier mentions a Mosquito indian, who having been accidentally left on
this island, subsisted three years solitarily, till that voyager carried
him off. From which of these De Foe borrowed his great incident, it is
not easy to discover. In the preface to The Serious Reflections, he
indeed says, "That there is a man alive and well known, the actions of
whose life are the just subject of these volumes, and to whom the most
part of the story directly alludes." This turns the scale in favour of
Selkirk. Nor, was the name of Crusoe wholly fictitious; for, among De
Foe's contemporaries, John Dunton speaks of Timothy Crusoe, who was
called the Golden Preacher, and was so great a textuary, that he could
pray two hours together in scripture language; but, he was not arrived
at perfection, as appeared by his sloth in tying the conjugal knot; yet
his repentance was sincere and public, and I fear not but he is now a
glorified saint in heaven. [Life and Errors, p. 461.] The whole story of
Selkirk, as told by Rogers, is reprinted in the present edition. Rob.
Crusoe, vol. i. p. xxiii.

[87] Dr. Towers agrees with Mr. Chalmers. [Biog. Brit.] "The fact
appears to have been that the charge against De Foe of having taken his
work from Selkirk's manuscripts, or from communication of any kind made
by Selkirk, is wholly groundless, and of which he himself never heard;
for we do not find that the least hint of any such accusation against
him was ever published during his lifetime." And Mr. D'Israeli [Curios.
of Literat. vol. iii. p. 285.] considers the point settled in favour of
De Foe, by captain Burney's Voyages and Discoveries.

[88] It has been frequently imitated, but never with success.

[89] Morant's Colchester, p. 134.

[90] Before the History of Duncan Campbell, De Foe published similar
work, called The Dumb Philosopher, or Great Britain's Wonder.
Containing, 1. A faithful and very surprising account how Dickory
Cronke, a tinner's son, in the county of Cornwall, who was born dumb and
continued so for fifty-eight years, and how some days before he died he
came to his speech; with memoirs of his life and the manner of his
death, &c. This is a curious pamphlet.

[91] Lord Chatham is said to have long considered it a genuine history.
In 1726 De Foe published a similar book, The Military Memoirs of Captain
George Carleton. From the Dutch war, 1672, in which he served, to the
conclusion of the peace at Utrecht, 1713, &c. 1728. This work was a
great favourite with Dr. Johnson.

[92] Mr. Wilson quotes this passage from Mr. Chalmers,
and refers to another work published by De Foe, in
1720, not mentioned in the text; Christian Conversation,
in six dialogues, about Assurance--Mortification--Natural
Things--Spiritualized--Union--Afflictions--Death.

[93] These admirable works are reprinted in the present edition.

[94] He also published, Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business; or
Private Abuses, Public Grievances. Exemplified in the pride, insolence,
and exorbitant wages of our women-servants, footmen, &c. 1725.

[95] And also, in 1727, An Essay on the History and Reality of
Apparitions, being an account of what they are, and what they are not.
As also how we may distinguish between the Apparitions of Good and Evil
Spirits, and how we ought to behave to them. With a great variety of
surprising and diverting examples, never published before. These three
works of De Foe are reprinted in the present edition. In 1726 he also
published an Essay upon Literature, or An Inquiry into the Antiquity and
Original of Letters, &c., and An Account of Peter the wild Boy, then
lately discovered in one of the German forests. This latter work is
entituled Mere Nature Delineated; or, A Body Without a Soul. Being
Observations upon the young Forester lately brought to Town from
Germany. With suitable applications. Also a Brief Dissertation upon the
usefulness and necessity of Fools, whether political or natural. In the
year 1727, in addition to the work mentioned by Mr. Chalmers, De Foe
published The Protestant Monastery; or, A Complaint against the
Brutality of the present Age, particularly the Pertness and Insolence of
our Youth to Aged Persons, with a Caution to People in years how they
give the staff out of their own hands, and leave themselves at the mercy
of others. Concluding with a Proposal for erecting a Protestant
Monastery, where persons of small fortunes may end their days in plenty,
ease, and credit, without burdening their relations, or accepting public
charities, And Parochial Tyranny; or, The Housekeeper's Complaint
against the insupportable Exactions and partial Assessments of Select
Vestries, &c., with a Plain Detection of many Abuses committed in the
distribution of public charities. Together with a practicable proposal
for amending the same, which will not only take off great part of the
parish taxes now subsisting, but ease parishioners from serving
troublesome offices, or paying exorbitant fines. Both these works are
published under the assumed name of Andrew Moreton, esq. The last was
quoted by Mr. (now sir John) Hobhouse when bringing in his bill for the
regulation of parish select vestries into the house of commons, in April
1829. (Hansard, Parl. Deb. vol. xxi. p. 898.)

[96] He says, "The preparations for this work have been suitable to my
earnest concern for its usefulness. Seventeen very large circuits, or
journeys, have been taken through divers parts separately, and three
general tours over almost the whole English part of the island; in all
which the author has not been wanting to treasure up just remarks upon
particular places and things. Besides these several journeys in England,
he has also lived some time in Scotland, and has travelled critically
over great part of it: he has viewed the north part of England, and the
south part of Scotland, five several times over; all which is hinted
here, to let the readers know what reason they have to be satisfied with
the authority of the relation."

The first of these Tours was published in 1724, under the title of, A
Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, divided into Circuits
and Journeys. Giving a particular and diverting Account of whatever is
Curious and worth Observation, viz., I. A Description of the principal
Cities and Towns; their Situations, Magnitude, Government, and Commerce.
II. The Customs, Manners, Spirit; as also, the Exercises, Diversions,
and Employment of the People. III. The Produce and Improvement of the
Lands, the Trade and Manufactures. IV. The Sea-ports and Fortifications,
the course of Rivers, and Inland Navigation. V. The Public Edifices,
Seats, and Palaces of the Nobility and Gentry. With useful Observations
on the whole. Particularly fitted for the reading of such as desire to
travel over the island. By a Gentleman.

The favourable reception of this volume, encouraged the author to follow
it by a second in the next year, with a similar title, and the addition
of a map of South Britain, by Herman Moll, the geographer. A third
volume, the same also in title, was added in 1727, containing the
northern counties of England, and the south of Scotland; and this
completes the work. The useful information contained in these volumes,
is conveyed in the familiar form of letters. In commending the work to
the notice of the public, he says, "I have endeavoured that these
letters shall not be a journal of trifles. If it is on that account too
grave for some people, I hope it will not for others. I have studied the
advancement and increase of knowledge for those that read, and shall be
as glad to make them wise, as to make them merry; yet I hope they will
not find the story so ill told, or so dull, as to tire them so soon, or
so barren as to put them to sleep over it. The observations here made,
as they principally regard the present state of things, so, as near as
can be, they are adapted to the present state of the times."

[97] This highly useful book is reprinted in the present edition, and
should be in the hands of every young tradesman.

[98] The title is as follows: A Plan of the English Commerce. Being a
complete Prospect of the Trade of this Nation, as well the Home Trade as
the Foreign. In three parts. I. Containing a View of the present
Magnitude of the English Trade, as it respects, 1. The Exportation of
our own Growth and Manufacture. 2. The Importation of Merchant Goods
from Abroad. 3. The prodigious Consumption of both at Home. Part II.
Containing an Answer to that great and important Question now depending,
whether our Trade, and especially our Manufactures, are in a declining
condition or no? Part III. Containing several Proposals entirely new,
for extending and improving our Trade, and promoting the Consumption of
our Manufactures in Countries wherewith we have hitherto had no
Commerce. Humbly offered to the Consideration of King and Parliament.

[99] He appears to have published two or three works after the Plan of
English Commerce, under the assumed name of Andrew Moreton. The first a
very remarkable work for the suggestions it contains in anticipation of
another age. Augusta Triumphans; or, The Way to make London the most
flourishing City in the Universe. I. By establishing an University,
where Gentlemen may have Academical Education under the Eye of their
Friends. II. To prevent much Murder, &c., by an Hospital for Foundlings.
III. By suppressing pretended Madhouses, where many of the Fair Sex are
unjustly confined, while their Husbands keep Mistresses, &c., and many
Widows are locked up for the sake of their Jointure. IV. To save our
Youth from Destruction, by clearing our Streets of impudent Strumpets,
suppressing Gaming Tables, and Sunday Debauches. V. To avoid the
expensive Importation of Foreign Musicians, by forming an Academy of our
own. VI. To save our lower Class of People from utter Ruin, and render
them useful, by preventing the immoderate Use of Geneva. With a frank
exposure of many other common Abuses, and incontestible Rules for
Amendment. Concluding with an effectual Method to prevent Street
Robberies. And a Letter to Col. Robinson, on Account of the Orphans'
Tax.

The second pamphlet, published in 1729, is entituled, Second Thoughts
are Best; or a further Improvement of a late Scheme to prevent Street
Robberies. In which our Streets will be so strongly guarded, and so
gloriously illuminated, that any part of London will be as safe and
pleasant at Midnight as at Noonday; and Burglary totally impracticable.
With some Thoughts for suppressing Robberies in all the public Roads of
England, &c. Humbly offered for the Good of his Country, submitted to
the consideration of the Parliament, and dedicated to his sacred Majesty
King George II. By Andrew Moreton, Esq.

Mr. Wilson has given the analysis of what must be considered the last
literary effort of De Foe. The MS. work is in the possession of the Rev.
Henry De Foe Baker, by whose kindness Mr. Wilson was permitted to
examine it. [See Life of De Foe, vol. iii. p. 599.] The analysis is as
follows:

The Complete Gentleman, containing useful Observations on the general
Neglect of Education of English Gentlemen, with the Reason and Remedies.
The apparent Differences between a Well-born and Well-bred Gentleman.
And Instructions how Gentlemen may recover a Deficiency of their Latin,
and be Men of Learning without the Pedantry of Schools.

Chap. I. Of the gentlemen born, in the common acceptation of the word,
and as the gentry amongst us are pleased to understand it. Chap. II.
Some examples from history, and from good information, of the want of
care taken in the education of princes, and children of the nobility in
former times, as well in this nation as in foreign countries, and how
fatal the effects of it have been in their future conduct; with some few
examples of the contrary also. Chap. III. Examples of the different
educations of princes and persons of rank from the beginning of the
sixteenth century, viz., from the reign of Henry VIII. inclusive. With
observations down to the present time, on the happiness of those reigns
in general, when the princes have been educated in principles of honour
and virtue; and something of the contrary. Chap. IV. Of royal education.
Chap. V. The head of this chapter is erased. Chap. VI. Of the G----; of
himself, his family, and fortune.

Part the Second. Chap. I. Of the fund for increase of our nobility and
gentry in England: being the beginning of those we call bred gentlemen:
with some account of difference. Chap. II. There is no head to this
chapter. Chap. III. Of the general ignorance of the English gentry, and
the true cause of it in the manner of their introduction into life.
Chap. IV. Of what may be the unhappy cause of the general defect in the
education of our gentry; with a rational proposal for preventing those
consequences.

[100] His latter days were stung by the base ingratitude and unfilial
and unbrotherly conduct of his son, to whom, in a touching letter to Mr.
Baker, he says he transferred his property, with the duty of maintaining
his mother and sisters, and that he positively squandered it upon
himself! Mr. Wilson has obtained permission from the great great
grandson of Mr. Baker, the gentleman mentioned in the text, to publish
the letter from De Foe to his ancestor. It gives a most distressing
picture of the sorrows amid which his useful life closed; but as it is
the duty of history faithfully and not fancifully to relate the lives of
illustrious men, and the constant exposure of the world's ingratitude to
its best benefactors, may in time shame it to a better feeling, we leave
the true but mournful tale to speak its own lesson: and however
agreeable it might have been to show the author of Robinson Crusoe
gradually quitting the world he had spent his useful life to improve and
delight, in the quiet and repose which might seem the harbinger of the
peace he anticipated in a brighter, we must take leave of him, while in
misery and in anger, surrounded by clouds and darkness, and stung by the
worst of sorrows.

"Dear Mr. Baker,

"I have your very kind and affectionate letter of the 1st: but not come
to my hand till the 16th; where it had been delayed I know not. As your
kind manner, and kinder thought, from which it flows, (for I take all
you say to be as I always believed you to be, sincere and
Nathaniel-like, without guile) was a particular satisfaction to me; so
the stop of a letter, however it happened, deprived me of that cordial
too many days, considering how much I stood in need of it, to support a
mind sinking under the weight of an affliction too heavy for my
strength, and looking on myself as abandoned of every comfort, every
friend, and every relation, except such only as are able to give me no
assistance.

"I was sorry you should say at the beginning of your letter, you were
debarred seeing me; depend upon my sincerity for this, I am far from
debarring you. On the contrary, it would be a greater comfort to me than
any I now enjoy, that I could have your agreeable visits with safety,
and could see both you and my dearest Sophia, could it be without giving
her the grief of seeing her father _in tenebris_, and under the load of
insupportable sorrows. I am sorry I must open my griefs so far as to
tell her, it is not the blow I received from a wicked, perjured, and
contemptible enemy, that has broken in upon my spirit; which she well
knows has carried me on through greater disasters than these. But it has
been the injustice, unkindness, and, I must say, inhuman dealing of my
own son, which has both ruined my family, and, in a word, has broken my
heart; and as I am at this time under a weight of very heavy illness,
which I think will be a fever, I take this occasion to vent my grief in
the breasts who I know will make a prudent use of it, and tell you that
nothing but this has conquered me, or could conquer me. _Et tu! Brute._
I depended upon him, I trusted him, I gave up my two dear unprovided
children into his hands; but he had no compassion, and suffered them and
their poor dying mother to beg their bread at his door, and to crave, as
if it were an alms, what he is bound under hand and seal, besides the
most sacred promises, to supply them with; himself at the same time
living in a profusion of plenty. It is too much for me. Excuse my
infirmity, I can say no more; my heart is too full. I only ask one thing
of you as a dying request. Stand by them when I am gone, and let them
not be wronged, while he is able to do them right. Stand by them as a
brother; and if you have anything within you owing to my memory, who
have bestowed on you the best gift I had to give, let them not be
injured and trampled on by false pretences, and unnatural reflections. I
hope they will want no help but that of comfort and counsel; but that
they will indeed want, being so easy to be managed by words and
promises.

"It adds to my grief that it is so difficult to me to see you. I am at a
distance from London, in Kent; nor have a lodging in London, nor have I
been at that place in the Old Bailey since I wrote you I was removed
from it. At present I am weak, having had some fits of a fever that have
left me low. But those things much more.

"I have not seen son or daughter, wife or child, many weeks, and know
not which way to see them. They dare not come by water, and by land here
is no coach, and I know not what to do.

"It is not possible for me to come to Enfield, unless you could find a
retired lodging for me, where I might not be known, and might have the
comfort of seeing you both now and then; upon such a circumstance, I
could gladly give the days to solitude, to have the comfort of half an
hour now and then with you both for two or three weeks. But just to come
and look at you, and retire immediately, it is a burden too heavy. The
parting will be a pain beyond the enjoyment.

"I would say, I hope, with comfort, that it is yet well. I am so near my
journey's end, and am hastening to the place where the 'weary are at
rest, and the wicked cease to trouble;' but that the passage is rough,
and the day stormy, by what way soever He pleases to bring me to the end
of it, I desire to finish life with this temper of soul in all cases:
_Te Deum laudamus_.

"I congratulate you on the occasion of your happy advance in your
employment. May all you do be prosperous, and all you meet with
pleasant, and may you both escape the tortures and troubles of uneasy
life. May you sail the dangerous voyage of life with a forcing wind, and
make the port of heaven without a storm.

"It adds to my grief, that I must never see the pledge of your mutual
love, my little grandson. Give him my blessing, and may he be to you
both your joy in youth, and your comfort in age, and never add a sigh to
your sorrow. But, alas! that is not to be expected. Kiss my dear Sophy
once more for me; and if I must see her no more, tell her this is from a
father that loved her above all his comforts, to his last breath.

                                                  "Your unhappy,
                                                                 D. F.

 "About two miles from Greenwich, Kent,
      Tuesday, August 12th, 1730.

"P.S. I wrote you a letter some months ago, in answer to one from you,
about selling the house; but you never signified to me whether you
received it. I have not the policy of assurance; I suppose my wife, or
Hannah, may have it.

                                                         "Idem, D. F."

[101] Pope had collected this scandal from Savage, who says in the
preface to his Author to be Let, "Had it not been an honester livelihood
for Mr. Norton, (Daniel De Foe's son of love by a lady who vended
oysters,) to have dealt in a fish-market, than to be dealing out the
dialects of Billingsgate in the Flying Post?"

[102] The above-mentioned particulars were discovered by searching the
books at Doctors Commons.

[103] Life and Errors, 239-240.

[104] In the preface to his Reformation.

[105] See the Present State of the War, and the necessity of an
augmentation. And see his Commercial Papers in the Freeholder.

[106] Biog. Dict. vol. ii. p. 403. art. De Foe.

[107] Vol. iii. p. 436.





End of Project Gutenberg's The Life of Daniel De Foe, by George Chalmers