22 I)c foe : his Life and ll''ntings. JAN. 



He even penetrated (a rare occurrence with English authors in those 

 days !) into Germany ; but notwithstanding the vast range and variety of 

 scenery that thus came under his observation, he has left it on record 

 that nothing on the continent was equal, in his opinion, to the various 

 and luxuriant views by the river-side, from London to Richmond. 

 " Even the country for twenty miles round Paris," says he, " cannot 

 compare with it, though that indeed is a kind of prodigy." 



It is not to be supposed that a man thus desultory and miscellaneous in 

 his speculations at one time a hose-factor at another a foreign merchant 

 at a third a brick-maker, and throughout his life a confirmed incurable 

 author an author too, be it remembered, of all work a satirist a 

 pamphleteer an essayist a critic a novelist a polemic a political 

 economist and (almost) a poet, at any rate an inditer of much and 

 various verse ; it is not, we repeat, to be supposed, that so universal a 

 genius would be over-successful in trade; and accordingly we find Defoe, 

 somewhere about the year 1692 for the exact period is uncertain - 

 meeting with the fate of most universal geniuses, and figuring in the 

 Gazette as a bankrupt. It is but fair, however, to add, that no sooner 

 was the commission taken out, at the instigation of an angry creditor, 

 than it was superseded, on the petition of those to whom he was most 

 indebted, and who accepted a composition on his single bond. " This 

 he punctually paid by the efforts of unwearied diligence, but some of 

 his creditors it is Mr. Wilson who is here speaking who had been 

 thus satisfied, falling afterwards into distress themselves, Defoe volun- 

 tarily paid them their whole claims, being then in rising circumstances, 

 from King William's favour." The annals of literature, though they 

 abound in traits of eccentric, shewy, and comprehensive generosity, yet 

 seldom present us with an instance of such just principle and natural 

 (not high-flown) liberality as this. The munificence of genius oftener 

 affords matter for astonishment than admiration ; it is therefore with no 

 little satisfaction that we have recorded this very noble and unostenta- 

 tious trait of character on the part of an author, who had quite talent 

 enough to entitle him (had he felt so inclined) to take out a patent 

 for eccentricity, and thereby dispense with the necessity of being an 

 honest man. But Defoe's heart and head (especially the former) were 

 always on the right side. 



It is not known to what part of the kingdom Defoe retired when 

 circumstances compelled him to render himself invisible for a time to 

 his creditors. It is conjectured, that he fled to Bristol, where he 

 used often to be seen walking about the streets, accoutred in the 

 fashion of the times, with a full-flowing wig, lace ruffles, and a sword 

 by his side. As his appearance in public, however, was restricted to 

 the sabbath bailiffs having no more power on that day than fiends of 

 darkness at the hallowed season of Christmas he soon became generally 

 known by the name of the " Sunday Gent," and the inn, now an 

 obscure pot-house, is still in existence, where he used occasionally to 

 resort for the purposes of enjoying the pleasures of society, to which 

 (though temperate and abstemious in his habits) he was fondly ad- 

 dicted. 



It was at this period or perhaps a little later, for we have no certain 

 data to direct us that Defoe rendered himself conspicuous by some 

 remarks which he published on the subject of Dr. Sherlock's apostacy. 

 As this divine's conduct excited considerable odium at the time, and has 



