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

The Famous ROXANA.

FRONTISPIECE TO THE FORTUNATE MISTRESS 1724]

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

their relationship; and this, disclosing the wickedness of the mother, Roxana, now the proud Countess of Wintselsheim, falls from the lofty position she had attained, and is plunged into poverty and disgrace for the remainder of her miserable existence. There are many incidents in the story, very distasteful to a pure and virtuous mind, and the book is even less presentable, according to our modern views of delicacy, than either of its predecessors; yet no reader can possibly mistake the lessons designed to be taught, namely, that prosperous wickedness has a worm at the root, that turns all its fruits to rottenness; and that sin ensures its own effectual punishment. In addition to this general conclusion, every separate sinful action is made the subject of reprehension; there are frequent flashes of conscience which make Roxana tremble, and pause in her guilty courses; and the moral and religious reflections that run through the work, could not fail to benefit readers who having fallen themselves, were incapable of being injured by the relation of Roxana's crimes. This, it should always be remembered, was the class for whom Defoe wrote the book. He was the last man to add fuel to a flame he was endeavouring to extinguish. With him the prosperity of the wicked always comes to an end, even in this life. He did not tell the story for the sake of amusement; but that he might infuse with it moral instruction and good principles, as an essential part of the narrative. The characters and manners are those of the time, his portraits are natural,-and I cannot but hope that many poor degraded women would be brought, by the perusal, to think seriously; and through repentance, seek to lead new and better lives. Mr. Wilson mentions a tradition that Defoe was persuaded by his friend Southerne to leave out of the second edition of Roxana, the whole of the story relating to her daughter Susannah; but he does not say that he ever saw any such edition, and admits that most of the subsequent editions contain the story. I do not call in question the existence of the tradition, though I have found no other reference to it; but I must state that, at a period when the publication of every book was advertised in some of the Journals, I never found any notice of a second edition of Roxana during Defoe's life, nor within a year after his death.