Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/767

 DEFOE 763 ment of a society for making a general ref- ormation in manners and language ; and in 1701 "The True-born Englishman," a poetical satire commencing with the well known coup- let: Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there. It was designed to vindicate King William from the odium which had been thrown upon him in a poem entitled "The Foreigners," had an almost unexampled sale, 80,000 pirated copies being sold on the street, and obtained for the author direct personal intercourse with the king. In 1701, when the bearers of the famous Kentish petition were imprisoned by order of the house of commons, Defoe is said to have been the man who composed and presented a threatening remonstrance, signed " Legion," claiming to be sent by 200,000 Englishmen, which produced immense commotion, and for a time deterred several members from attend- ing the house. Two other tracts speedily fol- lowed, in one of which he eloquently main- tained the original rights of the collective body of the people, and in the other declared the reasons against a war with France. The lat- ter, though adverse to the favorite policy of William, did not excite his displeasure, and he was till his death the patron and friend of De- foe. In 1702 he published " The Shortest Way with Dissenters," a satire in which he assumed the tone of a high churchman, and gravely proposed to establish the church and rid the land of dissenters by hanging their ministers and banishing their people. His satires had already mortified and offended many of the tory leaders, through whose in- fluence his pamphlet was now voted a libel on the house of commons and was ordered to be burned by the common hangman. An order was issued offering 50 reward for his arrest, in which he is described as "a middle-sized, spare man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, and dark brown colored hair, but wears a wig ; a hooked nose, sharp chin, gray eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." He was at this time owner of some brick and pantile works near Tilbury fort, from which he absconded ; but he gave himself up when a prosecution was again begun against his pub- lisher, and was condemned to be fined, pil- loried, and imprisoned. During his two years' imprisonment in Newgate he began a semi- weekly paper, entitled "The Review," which was continued till 1713. His liberation was due to the solicitation of Harley, afterward earl of Oxford. Though occasionally employ- ed in the service of the queen, and once upon a secret mission in a foreign country, he continued his literary labors, and published in 1705 "The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions in the Moon," in which he developed a lunar language, and made the lunar politicians discuss the wars of Charles XII. of Sweden ; in 1706, the satire De Jure Divino, in which he attacked the doctrines of passive obedience and divine right ; and also several treatises relating to the union with Scotland, which he was efficient in promoting, being sent by the cabinet of Queen Anne on an important mission to Edinburgh ; in 1709, a " History of the Union," which is the most authentic on the subject; and from 1711 to 1713, a series of pamphlets against the insinua- tions of the Jacobites and the schemes of the pretender. The most notable of these were " What if the Queen should die? " and " What if the Pretender should come ? " The irony of the titles was misapprehended, and he was again fined and for four months committed to Newgate-in 1713, where he finished his " Re- view." After the death of the queen his ene- mies so assailed him from every quarter, that in 1715 he published a general defence of his conduct under the title of "An Appeal to Honor and Justice." He had not finished this when he was struck with apoplexy, and after languishing for six weeks recovered. He now determined to abandon political satire, and write works for the promotion of religion and virtue. Such were his "Family Instructor" (1715) and " Religious Courtship " (1722). In 1719 appeared " The Life and strange sur- prising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, who lived eight and twenty years all alone in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Orinoco," the most popular of all his works. The publisher, who purchased the MS. after all others had refused it, is said to have cleared 1,000 by it. He was accused by his enemies, who were numerous and bitter, of having stolen the idea and even the ma- terials of " Robinson Crusoe " from the nar- rative of Alexander Selkirk; but the charge was wholly without foundation. Selkirk was not wrecked at all, but voluntarily went ashore on Juan Fernandez, which at that time was as well known and more frequented by ships than now. Crusoe's island, as the title of his narrative states, was in the northern hemisphere, in the Caribbean sea, near the mouth of the Orinoco; and the most prob- able prototype of Defoe's hero was Peter Ser- rano, who in the 16th century was ship- wrecked and lived alone for several years on an island in the Caribbean sea near the mouth of the Orinoco. His story is told at full length in Garcilaso's " History of Peru," a translation of which was published in London 20 years before " Robinson Crusoe " was written, and could hardly have escaped Defoe's notice, as the book attracted great attention, and Serrano's story is in the first chapter. After "Robinson Crusoe " his best known work is " The For- tunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, writ- ten from her own Memorandums " (1721), the history of a woman of the town transport- ed to Virginia. Among his other works are " The Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton " (1720), "The Life of Colonel Jack " and "Jour- nal of the Plague in 1665 " (1722), " The Ad-