_The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York,
Mariner: with a Biographical Account of Defoe. Illustrated with Fifty
Characteristic Cuts, from Drawings by William Harvey, Esq. and
engraved by Adams. New York: Published by Harper and Brothers._
This publication is worthy of the Harpers. It is an honor to the
country--not more in the fine taste displayed in its getting up, than
as evincing a just appreciation of an invaluable work. How fondly do
we recur, in memory, to those enchanted days of our boyhood when we
first learned to grow serious over Robinson Crusoe!--when we first
found the spirit of wild adventure enkindling within us, as, by the
dim fire light, we labored out, line by line, the marvellous import of
those pages, and hung breathless and trembling with eagerness over
their absorbing--over their enchaining interest! Alas! the days of
desolate islands are no more! "Nothing farther," as Vapid says, "can
be done in that line." Wo, henceforward, to the Defoe who shall prate
to us of "undiscovered bournes." There is positively not a square inch
of new ground for any future Selkirk. Neither in the Indian, in the
Pacific, nor in the Atlantic, has he a shadow of hope. The Southern
Ocean has been incontinently ransacked, and in the North--Scoresby,
Franklin, Parry, Ross, Ross & Co. have been little better than so many
salt water Paul Prys.
While Defoe would have been fairly entitled to immortality had he
never written Robinson Crusoe, yet his many other very excellent
writings have nearly faded from our attention, in the superior lustre
of the Adventures of the Mariner of York. What better possible species
of reputation could the author have desired for that book than the
species which it has so long enjoyed? It has become a household thing
in nearly every {128} family in Christendom? Yet never was admiration
of any work--universal admiration--more indiscriminately or more
inappropriately bestowed. Not one person in ten--nay, not one person
in five hundred, has, during the perusal of Robinson Crusoe, the most
remote conception that any particle of genius, or even of common
talent, has been employed in its creation! Men do not look upon it in
the light of a literary performance. Defoe has none of their
thoughts--Robinson all. The powers which have wrought the wonder have
been thrown into obscurity by the very stupendousness of the wonder
they have wrought! We read, and become perfect abstractions in the
intensity of our interest--we close the book, and are quite satisfied
that we could have written as well ourselves? All this is effected by
the potent magic of verisimilitude. Indeed the author of Crusoe must
have possessed, above all other faculties, what has been termed the
faculty of _identification_--that dominion exercised by volition over
imagination which enables the mind to lose its own, in a fictitious,
individuality. This includes, in a very great degree, the power of
abstraction; and with these keys we may partially unlock the mystery
of that spell which has so long invested the volume before us. But a
complete analysis of our interest in it cannot be thus afforded. Defoe
is largely indebted to his subject. The idea of man in a state of
perfect isolation, although often entertained, was never before so
comprehensively carried out. Indeed the frequency of its occurrence to
the thoughts of mankind argued the extent of its influence on their
sympathies, while the fact of no attempt having been made to give an
embodied form to the conception, went to prove the difficulty of the
undertaking. But the true narrative of Selkirk in 1711, with the
powerful impression it then made upon the public mind, sufficed to
inspire Defoe with both the necessary courage for his work, and entire
confidence in its success. How wonderful has been the result!
Besides _Robinson Crusoe_, Defoe wrote no less than _two hundred and
eight_ works. The chief of these are the _Speculum Crape-Gownorum_, a
reply to Roger L'Estrange, and characterized principally by
intemperate abuse--a _Treatise against the Turks_, written for the
purpose of showing England "that if it was the interest of
Protestantism not to increase the influence of a Catholic power, it
was infinitely more so to oppose a Mohammedan one"--an _Essay on
Projects_, displaying great ingenuity, and mentioned in terms of high
approbation by our own Franklin--the _Poor Man's Plea_, a satire
levelled against the extravagances of the upper ranks of British
society--the _Trueborn Englishman_, composed with a view of defending
the king from the abuse heaped upon him as a foreigner--the _Shortest
Way with the Dissenters_, a work which created strong excitement, and
for which the author suffered in the pillory--the _Reformation of
Manners_, a satirical poem, containing passages of uncommon force,
that is to say, uncommon for Defoe, who was no poet--_More
Reformation_, a continuation of the above--_Giving Alms no Charity_,
an excellent treatise--a _Preface to a translation of Drelincourt on
Death_, in which is contained the "true narrative" of Mrs. Veal's
apparition--the _History of the Union_, a publication of much
celebrity in the days of its author, and even now justly considered as
placing him among the "soundest historians of his time"--the _Family
Instructor_, "one of the most valuable systems of practical morality
in the language"--the _History of Moll Flanders_, including some
striking but coarsely executed paintings of low life--the _Life of
Colonel Jaque_, in which an account is given of the hero's residence
in Virginia--the _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, a book belonging more
properly to History than to Fictitious Biography, and which has been
often mistaken for a true narrative of the civil wars in England and
Germany--the _History of the Plague_, which Dr. Mead considered an
authentic record--and _Religious Courtship_, which acquired an
extensive popularity, and ran through innumerable editions. In the
multiplicity of his other publications, and amid a life of perpetual
activity, Defoe found time, likewise, to edit his _Review_, which
existed for more than nine years, commencing in February 1704, and
ending in May 1713. This periodical is justly entitled to be
considered the original of the Tatlers and Spectators, which were
afterwards so fashionable. Political intelligence, however,
constituted the greater portion of its _materiel_.
The Edition of _Robinson Crusoe_ now before us is worthy of all
praise. We have seldom seen a more beautiful book. It is an octavo of
470 pages. The fifty wood cuts with which it is ornamented are, for
the most part, admirable. We may instance, as particularly good, those
on pages 6, 27, 39, 49, 87, 88, 92, 137, 146, 256, and 396. The design
on the title page is superlative. In regard to the paper, typography,
and binding of the work, that taste must be fastidious indeed which
can find any fault with either.