23 Defoe : his Life and Writings. J.VN. 



the passing topics of the day, as the changed character of the age has 

 consigned them to eternal oblivion, we shall merely observe, that 

 though uninteresting to the mere reader for amusement, they teem with 

 instruction for the historian, the commentator, and the divine. Viewed 

 as literary compositions, they abound in spirit, irony, and occasionally 

 caustic sarcasm. Their style is everywhere homely, not vulgar, clear, 

 explicit, and free from rant or verbiage. In this respect they 

 resemble the political writings of Swift, though they fall immea- 

 surably short of them in terseness, energy, and fertility of illustration. 

 In the " Dean of St. Patrick's" tracts there is ever an appearance of 

 care and attention ; every point, however simply detailed, seems to be 

 made the most of, every fact to be diligently elaborated and insisted 

 on. With Defoe the very contrary is the case. He throws off his 

 opinions on the great leading events of his day, with a carelessness and 

 profusion which superior literary wealth but too commonly engenders ; 

 and if he at times displays the highest and most varied excellences, such 

 ebullitions are the results rather of accident than design. As a political 

 writer Defoe has left behind him no one master-piece, by which he can 

 be at once brought before the reader's memory. His talents are scat- 

 tered over scores of volumes; felicitous passages, whether for thought, 

 sentiment, humour, or fiction, must be sought in a variety of tracts, 

 whose aggregate number might appal the most courageous students. 

 He has written no one work like Swift's ft Public Spirit of the Whigs," 

 Burke's " Reflections on the French Revolution," or Johnson's " Letter 

 on the Falkland Islands," wherein that stately writer carries the power 

 and dignity of the English language to its very loftiest elevation, by 

 which a reader of the present day may at once form an estimate of his 

 abilities. Hence his political celebrity is a dead-letter to all but histo- 

 rians and antiquaries. 



But if Defoe be comparatively unknown as a politician, as a novelist 

 and writer of fiction he has the rare merit of having witched all Europe. 

 His inimitable " Robinson Crusoe" has been translated into every con- 

 tinental language, and has even kindled the enthusiasm of the Arabs, 

 as they listened outside their tents to its incidents, rendered into the 

 vernacular by the skill of the traveller Burkhardt. By more discri- 

 minating and fastidious judges it has been equally well received. It 

 warmed the unsocial heart of Rousseau, and taught him to feel that there 

 were other things in nature worthy consideration besides himself; 

 relaxed the cynical frown of Johnson ; delighted Blair and Beattie ; ai?d 

 in our own days has received the unqualified commendation of such 

 men as Scott, Lamb, and Hazlitt. Public opinion, split into a thou- 

 sand nice distinctions on other literary topics, has been unanimous on 

 the subject of " Robinson Crusoe." It has received the suffrages and 

 interested the feelings of all ages and grades in society, of the school- 

 boy and the man, of the peer and the peasant. The reason of this is obvious. 

 Crusoe is nature herself speaking in her own language on her own most 

 favourite and intelligible topics. Art is no where present, she is dis- 

 carded for matters of higher and more general interest. While the poet 

 and the scholar appeal to the select few, Defoe throws himself abroad 

 on the sympathies of the world. His subject, he feels, will bear him 

 out ; the strongest instincts of humanity will plead trumpet-tongued in 

 his favour. Despite the extraordinary moral and intellectual changes 

 that a new fashion of society, a new mode of writing and thinking, have 



