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Scotch mariner, who having lived folitarily on the ifle of Juan Fernandez, four years and four months, was relieved on the 2d of February, 1708-9, by Captain Woodes Rogers, in his cruizing voyage round the world. But let no one draw inferences till the fact be firft afcertained. The adventures of Selkirk had been thrown into the air, in 1712, for literary hawks to devour *; and De Foe may have catched a

* The whole ftory of Selkirk is told in Woodes Rogers's voyage, which he published in 1712, from p. 125 to 131, inclufiye: whence it appears, that Selkirk had preserved no pen, ink, or paper, and had loft his language; fo that he had no journal or papers, which he could communicate, or by others could be ftolen. There is an account of Selkirk in The Englishman, No. 26. The particular manner how Alexander Selkirk lived four years and four months, in the ifle of Juan Fernandez, is related in Captain Cook's voyage into the South Sea, which was published in 1772. And Selkirk's tale was told in the Memoirs of Literature, 5. vol. p. 118: fo that the world was fully poffeffed of Selkirk's story in 1712, feven years prior to the publication of Crufoe's adventures. Nor were his adventures fingular; for, Ringrofe mentions, in his account of Captain Sharp's voyage, a person who had escaped fingly from a fhip that had been wrecked on Juan Fernandez, and who lived alone five years before he was relieved: And Dampier mentions a Mosquito Indian, who having been accidentally left on this island, fubfifted three years folitarily, till that voyager carried him off. From which of these De Foe borrowed his great incident, it is not eafy to difcover. In the preface to The Serious Reflections, he indeed fays, "That there is a man alive and well known, the actions of whofe life are the juft fubject of thefe volumes, and to whom the most part of the ftory directly alludes." This turns the scale in favour of Selkirk. Nor, was the name of Crufoe wholly fictitious; for, among De Foe's contemporaries, John Dunton fpeaks of Timothy Crufoe, who was called the Golden Preacher, and was fo great a textuary, that he could pray two hours together in fcripture language; but, he was not arrived at perfection; as appeared by his floth in tying the conjugal knot: yet, his repentance was fincere and public, and I fear not but he is now a glorified faint in heaven.-Life and Errors, p. 461.

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common prey, which he converted to the uses of his intellect, and distributed for the purposes of his interest. Thus he may have fairly acquired the fundamental incident of Crufoe's life; but, he did not borrow the various events, the ufeful moralities, or the engaging style. Few men could write such a poem ; and few Selkirks could imitate so pathetic an original. It was the happiness of De Foe, that as many writers have fucceeded in relating enterprises by land, he excelled in narrating adventures by fea, with fuch felicities of language, fuch attractive varieties, fuch infinuative inftruction, as have feldom been equalled, but never furpaffed.

While De Foe in this manner bufied 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 Frefnoy. Dryden had given, in 1695, a tranflation of Du Frefnoy's poem, which has been esteemed for its knowledge of the fifter arts. What could tempt De Foe to this undertaking it is not eafy to discover, unless we may fuppofe, that he hoped to gain a few guineas, without much labour of the head or hand. Dryden has been justly praised for relinquifhing vicious habits of compofition, and adopting better models for his mufe. De Foe, after he had seen the correctnefs, and heard the mufic of Pope, remained unambitious of accurate rhymes, and regardless of fweeter numbers. His politics and his poetry, for which he was long famous among biographers, would not have preferved his name beyond the fleeting day; yet I fufpect that, in imitation of Milton, he would have preferred his Jure Divino to his Robinfon Crufoe.

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De Foe lived not then, however, in pecuniary diftrefs; for his genius and his industry were to him the mines of Potofi: and in 1722, he obtained from the Corporation of Colchester, though my inquiries have not discovered by what interpofition, a ninetynine years leafe of Kingfwood-heath, at a yearly rent of a hundred and twenty pounds, with a fine of five hundred pounds *. This tranfaction feems to evince a degree of wealth much above want, though the affignment of his leafe not long after to Walter Bernard equally proves, that he could not eafily hold what he had thus obtained. Kingfwood-heath is now worth three hundred pounds a year, and is advertised for fale by Bennet, the prefent poffeffor.

Whatever may have been his opulence, our Author did not waste his fubfequent life in unprofitable idleness. No one can be idly employed who endeavours to make his fellow fubjects better citizens and wifer men. This will fufficiently appear if we confider his future labours, under the distinct heads of voyages; fictitious biography; moralities, either grave or ludicrous; domeftic travels; and tracts on trade.

The fuccefs of Crufoe induced De Foe to publish, in 1720, The Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton, though not with fimilar fuccefs: The plan is narrower, and the performance is lefs amufive. In 1725, he gave A New Voyage round the World, by a Course never failed before. Moft voyagers have had this misfortune, that whatever fuccefs they had in the adventure, they had very little in the narration: they are indeed full of the incidents of failing, but they have

Morant's Colchester, p. 134.

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nothing of story for the use of readers who never intend to brave the dangers of the fea. Thefe faults De Foe is ftudious to avoid in his new voyage. He fpreads before his readers fuch adventures as no writer of a real voyage can hope to imitate, if we except the teller of Anfon's tale. In the life of Crufoe we are gratified by continually imagining that the fiction is a fact: in the voyage round the world we are pleased by conftantly perceiving that the fact is a fiction, which, by uncommon fkill, is made more interesting than a genuine voyage.

Of fictitious biography it is equally true, that by matchlefs art it may be made more inftructive than a real life. Few of our writers have excelled De Foe in this kind of biographical narration, the great qualities of which are, to attract by the diverfity of circumstances, and to instruct by the usefulnefs of examples.

He published, in 1720, the History of Duncan Campbell. Of a perfon who was born deaf and dumb, but who himself taught the deaf and dumb to understand, it is easy to see that the life would be extraordinary. It will be found, that the Author has intermixed fome difquifitions of learning, and has contrived that the merrieft paffages fhall end with fome edifying moral. The fortunes and miffortunes of Moll Flanders were made to gratify the world in 1721. De Foe was aware, that in relating a vicious life, it was neceffary to make the beft ufe of a bad ftory; and he artfully endeavours, that the reader fhall be more pleased with the moral than the fable; with the application than the relation; with the end of the writer than the adventures of the perfon. There was published in 1721, a work

of a fimilar tendency, the Life of Colonel Jack, who was born a gentleman but was bred a pickpocket.Our Author is ftudious to convert his various adventures into a delightful field, where the reader might gather herbs, wholefome and medicinal, without the incommodation of plants, poifonous, or noxious. In 1724, appeared the Life of Roxana. Scenes of crimes can scarcely be represented in such a manner, fays De Foe, but fome make a criminal use of them; but when vice is painted in its low-prized colours, it is not to make people love what from the frightfulnefs of the figures they ought neceffarily to hate. Yet, I am not convinced, that the world has been made much wifer, or better, by the perufal of these lives they may have diverted the lower orders, but I doubt if they have much improved them; if however they have not made them better, they have not left them worse. But they do not exhibit many fcenes which are welcome to cultivated minds. Of a very different different quality are the Memoirs of a Cavalier, during the Civil Wars in England, which feem to have been published without a date.

This

is a romance the likeft to truth that ever was written. It is a narrative of great events, which is drawn with fuch fimplicity, and enlivened with fuch reflections, as to inform the ignorant and entertain. the wife.

The moralities of De Foe, whether published in fingle volumes, or interspersed through many paffages, muft at last give him a fuperiority over the crowd of his contemporaries. The approbation which has been long given to his Family Inftructor and his Religious Courtship, seem to contain the favourable decifion of his countrymen. But there are still

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