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be remembered, too, that Steele was the originator of those periodical essays which became so famous. Sir Roger de Coverley is said to have been Steele's creation, though Addison afterwards took the old knight into his own hands.

The beneficial effects arising from the publication of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, have been very great. A taste for pure and elegant literature was diffused through the upper and middle classes of society; virtue and decorum became more highly prized, and more generally practised; the bitterness of political discussions was mitigated, and public manners received a higher polish. The general improvement of manners and morals during the eighteenth century, when compared with the latter part of the seventeenth, was doubtless owing to various causes, but not the least powerful was the publication of the essays of Addison and Steele.

DANIEL DEFOE.-1661-1731.

DANIEL DEFOE, the author of Robinson Crusoe, was the son of a butcher, and was born at London in 1661. His father's name was Foe, and why Daniel added the prefix "De" has not been ascertained, but it was not adopted until he had attained to manhood. His family were dissenters, and he was educated in an academy at Newington Green, where he remained until 1780. It was his father's wish that he should become a Presbyterian minister, and why the intention was abandoned we cannot tell. Daniel first appeared as an author at the age of nineteen, when he published a pamphlet called A Looking-Glass for the Young Academics, which was an attack upon the high church sermons of the time. In the following year he published another pamphlet on the war which was then raging between the Austrians and the Turks. He joined the Duke of Monmouth in his ill-starred rebellion, and

narrowly escaped execution; and when the Revolution. came, was one of its steadiest friends and warmest supporters.

He now engaged in trade and was successively a hosier, a tile-maker, and a wool merchant; and he is said to have made several voyages to Spain in the way of business. He was unsuccessful, however, and he became a bankrupt in 1692. In 1695, he received the appointment of accountant to the commissioners for managing the duties on glass, and he held the post for four years, until the duties were abolished and the office rendered unnecessary. He then once more entered into business, and set up some works at Tilbury for the manufacture of bricks and tiles. The speculation, however, was not very successful, and Defoe, finding that he was not suited for commercial pursuits, determined for the future to depend for subsistence upon his literary efforts.

In 1701, he published a poetical satire entitled The True-born Englishman. It was written in reply to an attack upon King William and the Dutch, which had appeared shortly before. The sale was very rapid, and Defoe attracted the notice of the king, who granted him an audience and made him a present of money. About this time a memorial, entitled "The Petition of the Freeholders of Kent," had been presented to the House of Commons. The House voted the memorial "scandalous, insolent, and seditious," and committed to prison the deputation who presented it. A few days afterwards a packet was given to the speaker, as he entered the House of Commons, which contained the Legion Memorial, as it was called, signed by 200,000 Englishmen, and declaring that the House had acted illegally in committing any one to prison for presenting a petition, as every subject had a right to do so in a peaceable way. A committee was

appointed to inquire into the whole affair, and the king was asked to stop these threatening petitions, as they were termed. It is very probable that the Legion Memorial was written by Defoe, and was very likely delivered by his own hand. IIe had hopes of obtaining some appoint

ment from the crown, but the death of King William destroyed all his hopes.

He was still carrying on his works at Tilbury when the publication of an ironical pamphlet, entitled The Shortest way with the Dissenters, caused his arrest and put a complete stop to his business. The House of Commons declared the book scandalous and malicious, and resolved that it should be burnt by the common hangman, and a reward was offered for the apprehension of the author. He is described as "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, sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth.' He was shortly afterwards apprehended, fined, put in the pillory, and then sent to Newgate prison.

Defoe seems to have taken his punishment cheerfully; at any rate it did not diminish his intellectual activity. While shut up in Newgate he wrote a Hymn to the Pillory, published several pamphlets, and matured a scheme for The Review, a paper written exclusively by himself, which for more than nine years he continued to publish two or three times a week. It is not improbable that this paper suggested the Tatler. After he had been in prison for nearly two years, he was released through the kindness of Harley, at that time secretary of state. Harley petitioned the queen in his favour, who at once sent money to Defoe's wife, as she was in great distress, and after some little delay paid her husband's fine and set him at liberty.

Better days now seemed to dawn upon the unfortunate author. He was employed by Harley on several important commissions, which he satisfactorily performed, and in 1706 he was sent to Scotland to take steps for promoting the union of the two kingdoms. He resided in Edinburgh for more than a year, and on his return to England wrote a narrative of the negotiations in which he had been engaged, and it was published in 1709. He received a pension for the important services which he had rendered his sovereign in connection with this measure, but he did

not long enjoy it owing to political changes. A few years later he was again thrown into prison on account of two pamphlets which he had published, and fined £800. The queen, however, again interfered on his behalf, and he was released after a few months' confinement.

On the death of Queen Anne, in 1714, a host of enemies whom her partiality had kept quiet, now arose from every quarter, and Defoe was compelled in self-defence to draw up an account of his political conduct and of the sufferings he had endured in the cause of liberty. The continued attacks of his opponents at length so weighed upon his mind and depressed his spirits that his health gave way. When he recovered, he determined to give up writing on political subjects, and after issuing two religious works, which were received with great favour, he published, in 1719, his famous Robinson Crusoe. It is remarkable that this, the most popular work of fiction in the language, was written when the author was fifty-eight years of age. The success and profit arising from the publication of this work, induced him to write a variety of other fictitious narratives, among the most popular of which were Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack, The Memoirs of a Cavalier, and The History of the Great Plague. He was one of the most active and voluminous writers to be met with in the whole history of our literature. Altogether, about 400 books and treatises are known to have proceeded from his pen; yet his life appears to have been one continued struggle with poverty, and he died insolvent.

Defoe died on 24th April 1731, at the age of seventy, in the same parish in which he was born, St. Giles, Cripplegate. This was also the parish in which Milton

died.

The remarkable quality about Defoe's writing is the air of reality which he imparts to fiction. He gives such a circumstantial detail of everything that we are led to believe the narrative, since we think these unimportant facts would not have been mentioned had they not been true. At the same time the author's skill prevents these minute details becoming wearisome. Many persons be

lieve Robinson Crusoe and The History of the Plague to be true narratives, and it is said that the great Lord Chatham thought The Memoirs of a Cavalier was a genuine and authentic history. One of the most striking examples of this power of giving the appearance of truth to a fictitious story is seen in the account of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal. This account was prefixed to a religious work, Drelincourt on Death, and procured a large sale for a dull and neglected book. This proceeding was scarcely defensible; to publish a work of fiction by itself is one thing, but to prefix a circumstantial narrative to a religious book, and thus lead people to believe what is a pure invention, is unjustifiable. The style of Defoe is thoroughly idiomatic, and is good genuine English; but it is not without faults: it has a colloquial ease, and at the same time betrays sometimes a colloquial negligence.

JONATHAN SWIFT.-1667-1745.

JONATHAN SWIFT, the celebrated Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, was descended from an ancient Yorkshire family. His father was bred to the law, and having settled in Ireland, was appointed steward of the King's Inns, Dublin. His mother, Abigail Erick, was of an ancient Leicestershire family, but poor. Swift was born

in Dublin, 30th November 1667. When about a year old he was carried surreptitiously to Whitehaven by his nurse, who was a native of that place; and when his mother discovered this, she allowed him to remain there for nearly three years rather than risk a second sea voyage. When six years of age, Swift was sent to a school at Kilkenny, whence he removed to Trinity College, Dublin. While at the university he does not appear to have been successful as a student, for he obtained his degree by "special favour," a term used in that university, as he himself informs us, to denote want of merit.

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