CHAPTER XVI.

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De Foe prepares a Second Volume of his Writings.-His Apology for the Publication.-Pieces comprised in it.-He Publishes "The Consolidator."Character of the Work.-Attacked by various Writers.-And Pirated by the News-venders. He Publishes " The Experiment."-Account of Abraham Gill.-Attacked by Leslie.-Re-published with a New Title.-An Answer to it, by Hugh James.-De Foe Defends it in his "Review."- Opening of the Haymarket Theatre.-De Foe's Remarks upon it.—And upon the Frequenters of Plays.-Leslie's Libel upon the Whigs and Dissenters.-Specimen of his Logic.-De Foe again Abused by the Hawkers.-He Publishes The "Dyet of Poland.”—His Account of the Work.—Specimens of the Poem. -Replies to it.-De Foe employed by Harley upon a Secret Mission.— His Letter to that Minister before his Departure.

1705.

In the early part of the year, De Foe committed to the press a second volume of his writings, containing most of the political pamphlets and satires published by him since the close of his former volume. He announces the collection in the following terms: "The same reason which obtained upon me to expose to the world some of the loose pieces I had formerly published singly, in a collection by themselves, hold good for my proceeding to a second volume: viz. that if I do not, somebody else will do it for me. The scandalous liberty of the press, which no man more than myself covets to see rectified, is such, that all manner of property seems prostrated to the avarice of some people; and if it goes on, even reading itself will in time grow intolerable. No author is now capable of preserving the

SECOND VOLUME OF HIS WRITINGS.

341

purity of his style-no, nor the native product of his thought to posterity; since, after the first edition of his work has shown itself, and perhaps sinks in a few hands, piratick printers, or hackney abridgers, fill the world; the first with spurious and incorrect copies, and the latter with imperfect and absurd representations, both in fact, style, and design. "Tis in vain to exclaim at the villany of these practices, while no law is left to punish them. To let it go on thus, will in time discourage all manner of learning."

De Foe tells us, that he had proposed to give a short history of the several tracts in this collection, but found it too long for a preface. "The Hymn to the Pillory," says he, seems most to require it. The reader is desired to observe, this poem was the author's declaration, even when in the cruel hands of a merciless as well as unjust ministry; that the treatment he had from them was unjust, exorbitant, and consequently illegal. As this satire, or poem, was wrote at the very time he was treated in that manner, it was taken for a defiance of their illegal proceedings; and their not thinking fit to prosecute him for it, was a fair concession of guilt in their former proceedings, since he was in their power, and, as they thought, not like to come out of it. 'Tis true, some faint show of resentment was made, and the author, though then in prison, never declined the test of it; but they began to see themselves in the wrong, from the very first exerting their cruelty and treachery, and the interest of the party sensibly declined from that very moment. Multitudes of occasions have since that, served to convince the world, that every word of the book he suffered for, was, both literally and interpretively, the sense of the party pointed at." De Foe adds, "I should enlarge on this subject, but that perhaps the world may in some proper season be troubled with the journal of all the proceedings, trials, treaties, and debates upon that head, and the barbarity as well as folly of their

conduct be set in a true light to the world." This narrative, it is probable, he never published. The articles in the volume are eighteen in number, and have been separately noticed in the foregoing pages. (B) His works came to a third edition in 1710, 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.”* (c)

It was probably to recruit his circumstances, that De Foe now employed himself in composing a political satire in prose, which he published the 26th of March, under the title of "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 EnglishLondon: printed, and are to be sold by Benjamin

man.'

(B) The following are the pieces in this volume. 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.

*Chalmers's Life of De Foe, p. 28.

(c) This third edition is thus advertised in the Review, for Dec. 9, 1710. "Next week will be published, the third edition of a True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born Englishman, corrected and enlarged by himself. In two volumes, octavo, price 12s. Sold by John Morphew, near Stationers' Hall, and most booksellers in England."

ATTACKED BY VARIOUS WRITERS.

343

Bragg, at the Blue Ball, in Ave-Mary Lane. 1705." 8vo. pp. 360. This is by no means one of his best performances. (D) In the multifarious subjects handled by him, he discovers more reading and good sense, than he does taste or judgment in the cast of the performance. There are in it, however, many passages of well-pointed satire, as well as much information relating to the politics of the times; but it is chiefly valuable for the allusions to his personal circumstances. In the lunar language, he shoots his arrows at the follies of the times, and leaves few characters untouched, from the hair-brained politician to the "men of little minds," whom he endeavours to arouse by his satire. In his progress, he takes in the poets, from Dryden to D'Urfey; the wits, from Addison to Prior; the metaphysicians, from Malbranche to Hobbes; and the free-thinkers, from Asgill to the Tale of a Tub.

Soon after the appearance of De Foe's book, it was attacked in "The Moon Calf: or Accurate Reflections on the Consolidator.' Giving an account of some Remarkable Transactions in the Lunar World. Transmitted hither in a Letter to a Friend. By the Man in the Moon. Price, bound, 2s. 6d." Advertised in the Review, April 21, 1705. The author was Dr. Joseph Browne, a physician in no great repute, and better known in his day as a political writer; but both his medicine and his politics have been long since consigned to oblivion. In the above work, he employs banter, ill-language, and falsehood, to detract from

(D) "The Consolidator is one of the last of De Foe's writings a reader of the present day would find pleasure in; but it deserves notice, if on no other account, for this reason, that it certainly contains the first hints of many of the ideas which Swift, many years afterwards, embodied in Gulliver, particularly in his account of Laputa, the book-making machine, &c. &c. It contains, moreover, a great many bye-hits against all the authors of the time, from Dryden to Tim. D'Urfey."-Pref. to Cadell's ed. of Robinson Crusoe.

344

PIRATED BY THE NEWS-VENDERS.

our author; who replies with calmness, declining to return railing for railing, personal reflections being none of his business. "I have often advanced it as my opinion," says he, "that when an enemy begins to rave, he is certainly beaten. Asserting of falsehoods provokes me not; a refuge of lies will in the end expose the author, not the adversary.”* Dr. Browne, having accused De Foe of cherishing anger, he replies, "As to the remarks on his Moon Calf, which by the way is easy to be known for his, besides the similitude of the brat to the begetter, he is mistaken when he says the author of this is angry at it; for when he descends to want of sense, as in his first paragraph; want of manners, as in the second, third, and fourth pages; and want of truth, as in most of that book, he is below any man's anger."+

The "Consolidator" was also attacked by Tutchin, in the "Observator," where he applies his critical powers in anatomizing a compound word invented by De Foe, to describe his lunar politics; but in this case, it was merely a pretext for attacking a rival author. De Foe was not anxious to seek a quarrel with a writer who was labouring in the same cause as himself, and assures him he shall give himself no trouble to confute his mistakes in print, but answer his follies as he had always done, with the contempt of silence: "Nor had I done otherwise now," continues he, "but as moved to it in my own just defence against absurd and malicious untruths."

The "Consolidator" gave birth to two half-sheet tracts, intitled, "A Journey to the World in the Moon, &c. By the Author of the True-Born Englishman.' Printed in the year 1705." 4to. And "A Second and more Strange Journey to the World in the Moon; containing a comical Description of that remarkable Country, with the Characters and Hu

Review, ii. 149.

+ Little Review, No. ii. p. 14. Review, ii. 135.