the genuine meaning of the paper which he hopes may allay the anger of government, or at least satisfy the minds of such as imagine a design to inflame and divide us. This submission was not sufficient to shield him from the resentment of his enemies. He was found guilty of a libel, and adjudged to be fined and imprisoned. When by these means, immured in Newgate, our author consoled himself with the animating reflection, that having meant well, he unjustly suffered. During his involuntary leisure, he employed himself in correcting for the press a collection of his writings which had already been published by a piratical printer.

When the high flyers were driven from their station, De Foe found an unexpected friend in the secretary of state, sir Robert Harley, who probably approved the principles and conduct of De Foe; and represented to the queen and treasurer, lord Godolphin, his unmerited sufferings. The queen enquired into his circumstances, and lord Godolphin, as our author thankfully acknowledges, sent a considerable sum of money to his wife, and to him to pay his fine and the expence of his discharge.

During the five or six following years he published several works, and was employed by the minister to write in favour of the Union, which be in a great measure promoted; and afterwards published a history of. This history was at first little noticed, but afterwards passed through three editions. He was again tempted to engage in party writings, and through an entire perversion of his meaning, by attributing their being written in favour of the pretender, he was again arrested and obliged to give eight hundred pounds bail, contrary to the Bill of Rights; and prosecuted by information, during Trinity term, 1713. Our author attributes this prosecution to the malice of his enemies, who were numerous and powerful. Some considerable people were heard to say, they knew his books were against the pretender, but that

De Foe had disobliged them in other things, and they were resolved to take this advantage to punish him. This story is the more credible, as he had procured evidence to prove the fact had the trial proceeded. He was prompted, by consciousness of innocence, to defend himself in his work of the Review, during the prosecution, which offended the judges, who being somewhat infected with the violent spirit of the times, committed him to Newgate in Easter term 1713. But it was happy for De Foe that bis first benefactor was still in power, who procured him the Queen's pardon on his making a proper submission.

The death of Anne, and the accession of George I. seem to have convinced De Foe of the vanity of party writing; and from this eventful epoch he appears to have studied how to meliorate rather than to harden the heart; how to regulate more than to vitiate, the practice of life.

Early in 1715, he published The Family Instructor, in three parts. He carefully concealed his authorship, lest the good effects of his labour should be obstructed by the great imperfections of the writer. The bookseller soon procured a recommendatory letter from the Rev. Samuel Wright, a well known preacher in Black Frier's. It was praised from the pulpit and from the press; and the utility of the end, with the attractiveness of the execu tion, obtained it, at length, a general reception. The family of George I, had been instructed by the copy of this book; and it was, with Mr. Wright's Letter, entered at Stationer's Hall, by Emanuel Matthews, on the 31st of March, 1715; and will last while our language endures; at least, while wise men shall consider the influences of religion and the practice of morals as of the greatest use to society.

De Foe afterwards added a second Volume, in two parts; Ist, relating to Family Breaches; 2nd, to the great mistake of mixing the passions in the managing of

children. He considered it, indeed as a bold undertaking, there being a general opinion among modern readers, that second parts never come up to the spirit of the first. Of De Foe's second volume it will be easily allowed, that it is as instructive and amusing as the first.

The Religious Courtship, which he published in 1722, may properly be considered as a third volume; for the design is equally moral, the manner equally attracting, and it may in the same manner be entitled a Religious Play, a title given by some to the Family Instructor, when first published.

Our Author afterwards published his Robinson Crusoe, which in spite of the severe critiques against it, has passed through innumerabie editions and has been translated into foreign languages while the criticism has sunk into oblivion.

While De Foe in this manner busied himself in writing adventures, which have charmed every reader, a rhyming fit returned on him. He published in 1720, The complete Art of Painting, which he did into English from the French of Du Fresnoy. Dryden had given, in 1695, a translation of Du Fresnoy's poem, which has been esteemed for its knowledge of the sister arts. What could tempt De Foe to this undertaking it is not easy to discover, unless we may suppose, that he hoped to gain a few guineas, without much labour of the head or hand. Dryden has been justly praised for relinguishing vicious habits of composition, and adopting better models for his muse. De Foe, after he had seen the correctness, and heard the music of Pope, remained unambitious of accurate rhymes, and regardless of sweeter numbers. His politics and his poetry, for which he was long famous among biographers, would not have preserved his name beyond the fleeting day; yet I suspect that, in imitation of Milton, he would have preferred his Jure Divino to his Robinson Crusoe.

De Foe was now in prosperous circumstances, for his genius united with his unwearied industry were to him the mines of Potosi; but whatever might have been his opulence, our Author did not waste bis subsequent life in unprofitable idleness; for no one can be called idly employed who endeavours to make his fellow subjects better citizens and wiser men. This will fully appear if we consider his future labours, under the beads of Voyages; fictitious Biography; Moralites, either 'grave or ludicrous; domestic Travels; and Tracts on Trade.

Of a writer of voyages his Robinson Crusoe and A new Voyage round the world, by a Course never sailed before, have placed him above the hope of imitation, as in the former we are gratified by continually imagining the fiction to be a fact in the Voyage round the World, we are pleased by constantly perceiving that the fact is a fiction which, by uncommon skill, is made more interesting than a genuine voyage. De Foe was studious to avoid that fault which most Voyagers fall into, viz. that, whatever success they had in the adventure they had very little in the narrations that are indeed full of the incidents of sailing, but have nothing of story for the use of readers who never intend to brave the dangers of the sea.

Of fictitious biography it is equally true; that, by matchless art, it may be made more instructive than a real life. Few writers bave excelled De Foe in this kind of biographical narration, the great qualities of which are, to attract by the diversity of circumstances and at the same time to instruct by the usefulness of examples.

The moralities of De Foe, whether published in single volumes, or interspersed through many passages, must at last give him a superiority over the crowd of his contemporaries. The approbation which has been long given to his Family Instructor and his Religious Courtship, seem to contain the favourable decision of his countrymen. But there are other performances of his of this nature of

scarce inferior merit. His Journal of the Plague in 1665, is one of this kind. The author's artifice consists in fixing the readers attention by the deep distress of fellow-men; and by recalling the recollection to striking examples of morality, he endeavours to inculcate the uncertainty of life, and the usefulness of reformation. In, 1727 he published his Treatise on the use and abuse of the marriage bed. The Author had began this performance thirty years before; he delayed the publication, though it had been long finished in hopes of reformation. But being now grown old, and out of the reach of scandal, and despairing of amendment from a vicious age, he thought proper to close his days with this satire. He appealed to that Judge before whom he soon expected to appear, that as he had done it with an upright intention, so he had used his utmost endeavour to perform it in a manner, which was the least liable to reflection and the most answerable to the end of it-the reformation of the guilty. After such an appeal and such assertions, it will only remain to remark, that this is a most excellent work with an improper Titlepage.

We are now to consider our Author's Tours. He published his travels through England in 1724 and 1725; and through Scotland, in 1727. De Foe was not one of those travellers who seldom quit the banks of the Thames. He had made wide excursions over all those countries with observant eyes and a vigorous intellect. The great artifice in these volumes consists in the frequent mention of such men and things as are always welcome to the reader's mind.

De Foe's commercial tracts are to be viewed lastly. Whether his fancy failed as old age advanced, I am unable to tell; but he certainly began, in 1726 to employ his pen more frequently on the real business of common life. He published in 1727, The Complete English Tradesman, directing him in the several parts of trade. A second volume soon after followed,' which was addressed chiefly