that position with the somewhat similar Roxana. Both are triumphs of novel- writing. Both have subjects of a rather more than questionable character, but both display the remarkable art with which Defoe handles such subjects. Tt is not true, as is sometimes said, that the difference of the two is the difference between gross and polished vice. The real difference is much more one of morals than of manners. Moll is by no means of the lowest class. Notwithstanding the greater degradation into which she falls, and her originally dependent position, she has been well educated, and has consorted with persons of gentle birth. She displays throughout much greater real refinement of feeling than the more high-flying Roxana, and is at any rate flesh and blood, if the flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot. Neither of the two heroines has any but the rudiments of a moral sense ; but Roxana, both in her original transgression and in her sub sequent conduct, is actuated merely by avarice and selfish ness vices which are peculiarly offensive in connection with her other failing, and which make her thoroughly repulsive. The art of both stories is great, and as regards the episode in Roxana of the daughter Susannah is con summate; but the transitions of the later plot are less natural than those in Moll Flanders. It is only fair to notice that while the latter, according, to Defoe s more usual practice, is allowed to repent and end happily, Roxana is brought to complete misery ; Defoe s morality, therefore, required more repulsiveness in one case than in the other. The Journal of the Plague Year, more usually called, from the title of the second edition, A History of the Plague, has perhaps lacked less of its due meed of admiration than any of its author s minor works. Here also the accuracy and apparent veracity of the details is so great that many persons have taken it for an authentic record, while others have contended for the existence of such a record as its basis. But it appears that here too the genius of Mrs Veal s creator must, in the absence of all evi dence to the contrary, be allowed sufficient for the task. The History of Colonel Jack is an unequal book. There is hardly in Robinson Crusoe a scene equal, and there is con sequently not in English literature a scene superior, to that praised by Lamb, and extracted in Knight s Half Hours loith the Best Authors, the scene where the youthful pick pocket first exercises his trade, and then for a time loses his ill-gotten (though for his part he knows not the meaning of the word ill-gotten) gains. But great part of the book, and especially the latter portion, is dull ; and in fact it may be generally remarked of Defoe that the conclusions of his tales are not equal to the beginning, perhaps from the restless indefatigability with which he undertook one work almost before finishing another. Roxana, or the Fortunate Mistress, already commented on, appeared in 1724; and in the same year came forth the first volume of A Tour through the ivhole Island of Great Britain, which was completed in the two following years. Much of the in formation in this was derived from personal experience, for Defoe claims to have made many more tours and visits about England than those of which we have record ; but the major part must necessarily have been dexterous compila tion. In 1725 appeared A New Voyage round the World, apparently entirely due to the author s own fertile imagina tion and extensive reading. It is full of his peculiar verisimilitude, and has all the interest of Anson s or Dampier s voyages, together with a charm of style superior even to that of the latter, and far beyond anything which the soi-disant chaplain of the "Centurion" could attain to. The journey by land across South America is of especial interest, and forms an admirable pendant to the African travels in Singleton. In the same year Defoe wrote a curious little pamphlet entitled Everybody s Business is Nobody s Business, or Private Abuses Public Grievances, eremplified in the Pride, Insolence, and Exorbitant. Wages of our Women-Servants, Footmen, &c. This subject was a very favourite one with Defoe, and in the pamphlet he showed the immaturity of his political views by advocat ing legislative interference in these matters. Like all his work of this sort, however, it is extremely amusing reading. Towards the end of this same year The Complete English Tradesman, which may be supposed to sum up the ex perience of his business life, appeared, and its second volume followed two years afterwards. This book has been variously judged. It is generally and traditionally praised, but those who have read it will be more disposed to agree with Charles Lamb, who considers it " of a vile and debas ing tendency," and thinks it " almost impossible to suppose the author in earnest." It is certainly clear to those who know it what our foreign critics mean by the reproach of " shop-keeping ; " and the intolerable meanness advocated for the sake of the paltriest gains, the entire ignoring of any pursuit in life except money-getting, and the repre sentation of the whole duty of man as consisting first in the attainment of a competent fortune, and next, when that for tune has been attained, in spending not more than half of it, are certainly repulsive enough. But there are no reasons for thinking the performance ironical or insincere, and it cannot be doubted that Defoe would have been honestly unable even to understand Lamb s indignation. In 1 706 came forth The Political History of the Devil. This is a curious book, partly explanatory of Defoe s ideas on mo rality, and partly belonging to a series of demonological works which he wrote, and of which the chief others are A System of Magic, and An Essay on the History of Apparitions. In all these works his treatment is on the whole rational and sensible ; but in The History of the Devil he is somewhat hampered by an insufficiently worked-out theory as to the nature and personal existence of his hero, and the manner in which he handles the subject is an odd and not altogether satisfactory mixture of irony and earnest- ss. There are many very amusing things in the book, but to speak of its " extraordinary brilliancy and wit " (as Mr H. Kingsley has done) is certainly inappropriate. The works which have just been mentioned, together with A Plan of English Commerce, containing very enlightened views on export trade, appeared in 1 727-8. During the whole of the years from 1715 to 1728 Defoe had issued pamphlets and minor works far too numerous to mention. The only one of them perhaps which requires special notice is Religious Courtship (1722), a curious series of dialogues displaying Defoe s unaffected religiosity, and at the same time the rather meddling intrusiveness with which he applied his re ligious notions. This latter point was more flagrantly illustrated in one of his latest works, The Treatise con cerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed (1727). This, which was originally issued with a much more offen .sive name, has been called " an excellent book with an improper title." It might more properly be called an ill- judged work, with a title which gives fair warning of its contents. The Memoirs of Captain Carleton (1728) have been long attributed to Defoe. There is, however, a well-known anecdote of Johnson which makes this extremely unlikely ; it is now known that an actual officer of the name did exist and serve; and the internal evidence is, we think, strongly against Defoe s authorship. These Memoirs have been also attributed to Swift, with greater probability as far as style is concerned. The Life of Mother Ross, re printed in Bohn s edition of Defoe, has no claim whatever to be considered his.
There is little to be said of Defoe s private life during circum this period. He must in some way or other have obtained stances
a considerable income. In 1 7 2 4 he had built himself a large antl du;
