1725.]

THE HIGHLAND ROGUE;" OR, ROB ROY.

371

in the Rebellion; his being decoy'd and imprison'd by the Duke of with the manner of his Escape, &c. Introduced with the Relation of the unequal'd Villainies of the Clan of the Mac Gregors several years past. The whole impartially digested from the Memorandums of an authentick Scotch MS. Printed for J. Billingsley, under the Royal Exchange; J. Roberts, in Warwick Lane; A. Dodd, without Temple Bar; and J. Fox, in Westminster Hall. 1723. Price 18."

In this instance also, our author selected a real person as his hero; but, as he knew that Rob Roy was not likely to contradict him, he did not hesitate to combine what existed only in his own imagination, with what is probably true. Yet he gravely begins his preface by saying,—" It is not, a romantick Tale that the Reader is here presented with, but a real History: Not the Adventures of a Robinson Crusoe, a Colonel Jack, or a Moll Flanders; but the Actions of the HIGHLAND ROGUE; a Man that has been too notorious to pass for a mere imaginary Person." There is great art in making this lawless descendant of the Covenanters engage in controversy with a Minister, who, from his doctrine, was more an Antinomian than a Predestinarian; and I think that, on the whole, the freebooter has the best of the argument, especially when he reasons antithetically:-"There can be no Duty where there is no free Action; and therefore, whether you preach or not, whether they (the elect) pray or swear, go to Church or a Bawdy-House, give Alms or pick Pockets, the Case is still the same."

It is worthy of remark that in order to heighten the interest of the reader, Defoe asserts this account of Rob Roy to be a real history, as contradistinguished from "the Adventures of a Robinson Crusoe." I do not forget that in the preface to Crusoe he had, for the same purpose, called that book a history. My object is not to assert or deny the historical character of "Rob Roy," but to notice that, in the absence of all inducements to the contrary, he here admits,I might say, inversely asserts,-that Robinson Crusoe is a fiction. If so, it could not have been taken from any Journal or I think this remark entitled to greater 8th of February in the same year,

Manuscript of Selkirk. weight, because, on the

Defoe advocated in his Paper, the Daily Post, a Bill, then before Parliament, for making navigable the River Dun, in the County of York; and, as to one of the grounds of opposition, "That this Navigation will occasion such an Inundation as will drown no less than 30,000 acres of Land," he replies, "And yet all that is said of this kind, is as mere Romance as the Life of Robinson Crusoe. Vox et præterea nihil." By these apparently gratuitous introductions, I think it evident that now, the fame of the work being securely established, he wished the world to know it only as one of imagination.

In the preliminary remarks to the consideration of “Moll Flanders," I have designated the period when it was written "the age of crime;" and have stated what I believed to be the circumstances, and the motives that impelled Defoe to use his pen so as to inculcate moral principles in the only way that seemed accessible to those who were lost to all goodness, and abandoned by the world. We have seen that he took the worst possible case first, namely, a female convict felon, respited from the gallows, but doomed to slavery; and he made her a living example that hope remained even for those so deeply degraded. The second of such works showed how a male thief, though not a convict, was able-by holding fast one single thought of good,—to emancipate himself ultimately from evil; and to become a useful, respectable, and even an honourable member of society. But though thieves might also be lewd, yet the converse does not necessarily follow; and therefore, a large class of criminals remained, who were not professional thieves, and who would,-from disinclination to see any of their own features in the characters,-refuse to make any personal application of the moral reflections in the two books already published. Yet, that the same necessity existed for some efforts to save women who were lost to virtue, is evident from what I have already stated at to the futility of the whippings, cartings, and fines, inflicted at the instance of the "Societies for the Reformation of Manners." This necessity was increased by the obscenity of the lewd literature of the time, in which there was not merely a negation of every moral word or thought, but the grossest vice, exhibited openly; and encouraged, in printed histories of living characters, whose names and resi

dences were stated, and who appeared to glory in the shame of publication.

Under these circumstances Defoe determined to write the history of a lewd, abandoned woman; and, as the heart was the fountain of iniquity, he endeavoured to reach it through the conscience, by moral and religious reflections on the consequences of such a life. This work was published on the 14th of March 1724, and is entitled, "The Fortunate Mistress: Or, a History of the Life and vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau, afterwards call'd The Countess of Wintselsheim, in Germany. Being the Person Known by the Name of the Lady ROXANA, in the Time of King 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. Edlin, at the Prince's Arms against Exeter Change, in the Strand. 1724."

In the two preceding works of the same class, Defoe had selected the lives of persons born under the greatest possible disadvantages; and he brought them, through much crime and misery, to a condition of prosperity and comparative happiness. They began ill, but ended well. With the same good object in view, the plan of Roxana is entirely different; and I think it excels both the others in originality of invention, and perfection of delineation. The daughter of a French refugee of fortune, she was beautiful and accomplished. With a dowry of two thousand pounds, was early married, and became the mother of five children. But she was vain of her beauty, of dress, and of splendour. She was avaricious; and was willing to buy wealth and ease at the price of honour and virtue. Moreover, she was so unnaturally selfish as to abandon all her legitimate children in their infancy; that she might lead a life of luxurious infamy. A long career of vice followed, involving the usual vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity; the former predominating, so far as external circumstances were concerned, but ever accompanied by the torments of a guilty conscience. At length, in the decline of life, the children she had so long deserted, trace her out, by a chain of events as singular as they are delightfully told, establish