periodical paper, entitled The Review, which, in addition to the usual
topics of news, contained a report of the proceedings of a “Scandal
Club, which discusses questions in divinity, morals, war, trade,
language, poetry, love, marriage, drunkenness, and gaming. Thus it is
easy to see that the Review pointed out the way to the Tatlers,
Spectators, and Guardians, which may be allowed, however, to have
treated these interesting topics with more delicacy of language, more
terseness of style, and greater depth of learning: yet has Defoe many
passages, both of prose and poetry, which for refinement of wit,
neatness of expression, and efficacy of moral, would do honour either to
Steele or Addison.” (Chalmers.) This periodical was published three
times a week, until May, 1713, when it was brought to a close. Defoe
continued in Newgate until August, 1704, when Harley procured his
release, and recommended him to Queen Anne, who seems to have thought
that he had been hardly used, and contributed generously towards the
relief of his family, reduced to poverty by the misfortunes of its head.
She employed him, he says, in “several honourable, though secret
services;” and he speaks, in his Appeal to Honour and Justice, of a
“special service, in which I ran as much risque of my life as a
grenadier upon the counterscarp.” These seem to have been rewarded by a
pension, or by some subordinate office; but the exact nature of the
recompense is not known. In October, 1706, he was dispatched to
Scotland, to assist in promoting the union between the two kingdoms. In
addition to his talents and readiness as an author, he possessed great
practical knowledge of commerce and matters connected with the revenue:
he frequently attended the committees of the Scottish parliament, and
made a variety of calculations, relative to trade and taxes, for their
use; and he was very serviceable, as a popular writer, in replying to
the various attacks which were made upon that hated measure. His
intimate acquaintance with the transactions of this period qualified him
well for a work, which now probably is known to few readers, but which
contains a great body of minute information concerning the condition and
the history of Scotland at that period,—The History of the Union between
England and Scotland: of which Mr. Chalmers says, “The minuteness with
which he describes what he saw and heard upon that turbulent stage,
where he acted a conspicuous part, is extremely interesting to us, who
wish to know what actually passed, however this circumstantiality may
have disgusted contemporaneous readers. History is chiefly valuable, as
it transmits a faithful copy of the manners and sentiments of every age.
This narrative of Defoe is a drama, in which he introduces the highest
peers and the lowest peasants speaking and acting, according as they
were each actuated by their characteristic passions; and while the man
of taste is amused by his manner, the man of business may draw
instruction from the documents, which are appended to the end, and
interspersed in every page. This publication had alone preserved his
name, had his Crusoe pleased us less.” Chalmers naturally makes the most
of its merits, for his Life of Defoe was originally prefixed to a
reprint of it in 1786: but the author would have been little known if
his popularity had depended on this work only.
After his return from Scotland, Defoe resided for some time at
Newington. He incurred great obloquy, he says, for trying to make the
best of the peace of Utrecht after it was concluded, and bore infinite
reproaches as having been hired and bribed to defend a bad peace, upon
the supposition that he was the author of pamphlets in which he had no
share. To escape from this persecution he went to Halifax, in Yorkshire,
where he had ample opportunity to observe the confidence of the Jacobite
party, and the success with which they laboured to make converts among
the lower ranks. To counteract these plottings, he wrote A Seasonable
Caution, Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover, and
some other pamphlets with similar titles; intending, he says, by means
of their apparent drift, to put them into the hands of persons whom the
Jacobites had deluded. But Defoe was unfortunate as an ironical writer:
perhaps the same qualities which gave his fictions such an air of truth
tended to give his irony too much the appearance of earnest. On this, as
on a former occasion, some persons were foolish or malicious enough to
misconstrue his meaning, and to accuse him of writing seditious libels
in favour of the Pretender. On this frivolous charge an information was
filed against him in the spring of 1713, on which he was taken into
custody, and obliged to find bail to a large amount; and the
consequences might have been still more serious, but for a second
intervention of Harley, who procured a free pardon for him in the
following November. Speaking of these very publications in his Appeal,
he protests that “if the Elector of Hanover had given me a thousand
pounds to have written for the interests of his succession, and to
expose, and render the interest of the Pretender odious and ridiculous,
I could have done nothing more effectual to these purposes than these
books were.”
Well intended and valuable as his labours might be, his only recompense
for them was a bare immunity from persecution. After the accession of
George I. he was discountenanced and neglected. In 1715 he wrote An
Appeal to Honour and Justice, comprising a defence of his character, and
a general account of his life, principles, and conduct. He was struck by
apoplexy before he had quite completed this work, but recovered the full
possession of his faculties, and lived until April 26, 1731. After this
attack, whether from the wish to avoid excitement and anxiety, or from
the little advantage which his political writings had produced to him,
he almost ceased to handle controversial subjects, and devoted himself
with unwearying industry to works of a more popular and lucrative kind.
Upon the profits of his pen he seems to have depended for his
livelihood; and to the necessity of courting popular favour it may
probably be attributed, that the subjects of some of his works are
vulgar, and the style coarse: but even out of vicious and revolting
subjects he had the art of extracting a wholesome moral. The following
are the names and dates of the principal productions of his declining
years; and it is very remarkable, considering the circumstances in which
they were composed, that they should comprise all those fictions to
which he owes his imperishable name in British literature:—Life and
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719. Life, Adventures, and Piracies of
the Famous Captain Singleton, 1720. Fortunes and Misfortunes of the
Famous Moll Flanders, 1721. Religious Courtship; Journal of the Plague
Year, 1722. Life of Colonel Jack, 1723. Tour through the whole Island of
Great Britain, 1724–7. New Voyage round the World, 1725. Political
History of the Devil, 1726. Complete English Tradesman, 1727. Plan of
English Commerce, 1728. Memoirs of a Cavalier—date uncertain. But
notwithstanding the unceasing industry which enabled him to produce
these, and many other works, in the time specified, he appears to have
died insolvent, for a creditor took out letters of administration on his
effects.
A catalogue of the numerous works known, or confidently believed by the
compiler to be Defoe’s, and of those also which are attributed to him on
more doubtful evidence, is given by Mr. Chalmers at the end of that
edition of his Life which is subjoined to Stockdale’s edition of
Robinson Crusoe, in 2 vols. 8vo., 1790; hardly one in four of them has
been named in this short account. Defoe was a very rapid, as well as a
laborious composer: it is said that he once wrote two shilling pamphlets
in a single day. His controversial works however have long lost their
interest; and his principal historical work, that on the Union, is too
prolix and minute to find general acceptation in our days. In his
acquaintance with commerce, and insight into the principles by which it
is governed, he is entitled to rank with the most skilful of his
contemporaries; but the progress of economical science has of course
deprived his commercial writings of most of their value, except as
records of the past. Of his numerous works of fiction, we may notice the
History of the Plague of London in 1665, Memoirs of a Cavalier, and
Robinson Crusoe, as the best known and the most deserving. The first,
which professes to be the journal of a saddler resident in Whitechapel
during the awful visitation which he describes, is said to have been
received as genuine even by Dr. Mead, as no doubt it has been by very
many of those who are unacquainted with its real history. There is a
homely pathos, a minute and scrupulous adherence to verisimilitude in it
which almost irresistibly persuades the reader that none but an
eyewitness could have written such an account. The Memoirs of a Cavalier
possess the same air of truth. They relate the campaigns of a young
Englishman of good family, first in Germany under Gustavus Adolphus,
afterwards on the royal side in our civil wars; and depict with great
vividness and fidelity the principal events of those interesting and
stirring times. But popular as these works have been and deserve to be,
they sink into obscurity when compared with the universal acceptation of
Robinson Crusoe; the only thing, according to Dr. Johnson, written by
mere man, that was ever wished longer by its readers, except Don Quixote
and the Pilgrim’s Progress. And Bunyan and Defoe had some points in
common. Both came of the people, and both, without the advantages or
trammels of a learned education, wrote for and to the people; they
slighted no source of pathos or eloquence as being too humble, and cared
little for homeliness of phrase, if it expressed their meaning clearly
and strongly. It is needless to give any account of a book, which in one
shape or other, for in the numerous reprints it has often been curtailed
and mutilated, must be familiar to every reader. The story is well known
to be identical with that of Alexander Selkirk, who, after a solitary
abode of four years on the island of Juan Fernandez, returned to England
in 1709. Defoe has been charged with surreptitiously obtaining and
making an unfair use of this man’s papers; but there seems to be no
ground whatever for the accusation. Selkirk’s story had been made public
in several forms seven years at least before Robinson Crusoe was
written, and it was free to Defoe or to any man to take it as the ground
upon which to build a tale. And far from Selkirk’s papers having been
traced into Defoe’s hands, it does not even appear that these pretended
papers ever were in existence: indeed Selkirk seems, from the published
accounts of him, to have been so much below the fictitious Crusoe in the
extent of his resources, and the fertility of his ingenuity (and we say
this with no desire to undervalue his active spirit and contented
temper), that it is hardly possible that he should have furnished more
than the first hint, which Defoe has expanded into so instructive,
fascinating, and varied a story.
The following lively criticism of this remarkable work is extracted from
Dunlop’s History of Fiction:—
“Defoe and Swift, though differing very widely in education, opinions,
and character, have at the same time some strong points of resemblance.
Both are remarkable for the unaffected simplicity of their
narratives—both intermingle so many minute circumstances, and state so
particularly names of persons, and dates, and places, that the reader is
involuntarily surprised into a persuasion of their truth. It seems
impossible that what is so artlessly told should be a fiction,
especially as the narrators begin the account of their voyages with such
references to persons living, or whom they assert to be alive, and whose
place of residence is so accurately mentioned, that one is led to
believe a relation must be genuine, which could, if false, have been so
easily convicted of falsehood. The incidents too are so very
circumstantial, that we think it impossible they could have been
mentioned, except they had been real....” Speaking of the moral of
Robinson Crusoe, he continues, “We are delighted with the spectacle of
difficulty overcome, and with the power of human ingenuity and
contrivance to provide not only accommodation but comfort, in the most
unfavourable circumstances. Never did human being excite more sympathy
in his fate than this shipwrecked mariner: we enter into all his doubts
and difficulties, and every rusty nail which he acquires fills us with
satisfaction. We thus learn to appreciate our own comforts, and we
acquire, at the same time, a habit of activity; but above all we attain
a trust and devout confidence in Divine mercy and goodness. The author
also, by placing his hero in an uninhabited island in the Western Ocean,
had an opportunity of introducing scenes which, with the merit of truth,
have all the wildness and horror of the most incredible fiction. _That_
foot in the sand—_Those_ Indians who land on the solitary shore to
devour their captives, fill us with alarm and terror; and after being
relieved from the fear of Crusoe perishing by famine, we are agitated by
new apprehensions for his safety. The deliverance of Friday, and the
whole character of that young Indian, are painted in the most beautiful
manner; and, in short, of all the works of fiction that have ever been
composed, Robinson Crusoe is perhaps the most interesting and
attractive.”
[Illustration: [Robinson Crusoe building his Boat. From a design by
Stothard, R.A.]]
[Illustration:
_Engraved by W. Holl._
DAVID HUME.
_From a Print by A. Smith, after a Picture by Allen Ramsay._
Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London, Published by Charles Knight & C^o. Ludgate Street._
]
[Illustration]
HUME.
David Hume was born in Edinburgh, April 26, 1711. His father, who was
descended from a branch of the Earl of Home’s, or Hume’s, family, died
while David was an infant, leaving him, with an elder brother and
sister, to the care of his mother, the daughter of Sir Edward Falconer,
who devoted the remainder of her days to the welfare of her children.
Her property was inconsiderable, and that which fell to David, as a
younger son, was very slender. His family, observing the manner in which
he acquitted himself at college, would have fixed his attention on the
law; but his growing passion for philosophy and general learning
rendered him averse to that pursuit, and after a fruitless attempt at
Bristol to reconcile himself to a more active kind of employment, he
went to France, where he laid down that plan of life to which he ever
afterwards adhered. It now became his fixed resolve to secure his
independence by means of the most rigid frugality; and to deem every
acquisition contemptible, except the improvement of his talents in
literature. This was in 1734.
During his three years’ residence in France, Hume composed his Treatise
of Human Nature, which he published on his return to England in 1738.
The work failed to attract the slightest notice from friend or foe. But
our young aspirant was not dismayed; and his buoyant spirit was much
strengthened by the degree of success which attended the appearance of
the first part of his Essays, which were published at Edinburgh in 1742.
In 1745 Hume quitted the residence of his mother and brother, in
compliance with an invitation from the Marquis of Annandale; the friends
of that young nobleman having thought that his health and mind required
the aid which such a tutorship, or companionship, for we hardly know
which to call it, would afford. Hume states, that his employment during
the twelve months thus passed in England made a considerable accession
to his small fortune. “I thus received,” he says, “an invitation from
General St. Clair to attend him as a secretary to his expedition, which
was at first meant against Canada, but ended in an incursion on the
coast of France. Next year, to wit 1747, I received an invitation from
the General to attend him in the same station in his military embassy to
the courts of Vienna and Turin. I then wore the uniform of an officer,
and was introduced at those courts as aid-de-camp to the General, along
with Sir Harry Erskine, and Captain Grant, now General Grant. These two
years were almost the only interruptions my studies received during the
course of my life.”
In 1747 Hume re-cast the first part of his Treatise of Human Nature, and
published it under the title of an Inquiry concerning Human
Understanding. But this amended performance also failed to produce any
immediate effects; and a new edition of his Essays Moral and Political,
published about the same time in London, found scarcely a better
reception. Still looking to the hopeful side of things, our author
composed during 1749 and 1750 the second part of his Essays, which were
called Political Discourses; and also his Inquiry concerning the
Principles of Morals, which was another part of his ill-fated Treatise
of Human Nature, in a new form. By this time some of the more obnoxious
parts of that treatise began to call forth opponents, and it became
evident that its author, though much more frequently censured than
applauded, was a man of rising reputation. This result was favoured by
his determination never to reply to any of his critics, a resolve which
the peculiarities of his temper enabled him to act upon to the end of
life.
In 1751 he removed to Edinburgh, and being chosen librarian by the
Faculty of Advocates in the following year, the plan of writing his
History of England was formed. This memorable work commenced with the
accession of the House of Stuart; and the author, who was sanguine as to
its success, relates that “on the publication of the first volume, he
scarcely knew a man in the three kingdoms, considerable for rank or
letters, that could endure the book.” After a sale of less than fifty
copies in the first year, the work seemed fast sinking into oblivion.
This disappointment appears to have affected Hume more than any event
which had befallen him; and, had not the war with France at that
juncture prevented it, he would probably have gone to that country,
never again to have seen his own. But the habits induced by a passion
for literature are not easily put in abeyance. Soon after receiving this
discouragement, Hume published his Natural History of Religion. In 1756
the second volume of the History of England made its appearance, “which
not only rose itself, but helped to buoy up its unfortunate brother.”
The third volume, relating to the House of Tudor, appeared in 1759, and
was censured hardly less than the first. In 1761, the two volumes
embracing the early period of our history were published, and, according
to their author “with tolerable, and but tolerable success.”
Hume now formed the purpose of spending the remainder of his days in
philosophical retirement in Scotland; but was induced in 1763 to visit
Paris, in connexion with the embassy of the Earl of Hertford to that
city. The honours paid to our philosopher and historian in that capital
once disposed him to think of settling there for life. He had now passed
his fiftieth year, and his official residence in Paris extended, with a
slight intermission, to six years—from 1763 to 1769. From the period of
his leaving Paris, to 1775, when his last sickness came upon him, his
time appears to have been given chiefly to the enjoyment of his friends;
his authorship, and other employments, having secured him an income of
not less than 1000_l._ a year. A disorder in the bowels, which reduced
him considerably, but without becoming the occasion of much pain, or at
all affecting his spirits, ended his life, August 25, 1776, in the
sixty-fifth year of his age.
Hume’s character as a man has been sketched by himself, and his account
may be admitted as, in most respects, substantially accurate. He
describes himself as mild in disposition, possessing a command of
temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment,
but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in his
passions. “Even my love of literary fame,” he adds, “my ruling passion,
never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments. My
company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to
the studious and literary; and as I took a particular pleasure in the
company of modest women, I had no reason to be displeased with the
reception I met with from them. In a word, though most men any wise
eminent, have found reason to complain of calumny, I never was touched,
or even attacked by her baleful tooth: and though I wantonly exposed
myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to
be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury. My friends never had
occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct.”
Much to this effect is the testimony of Dr. Adam Smith, the intimate
friend of Hume. This writer, indeed, does not hesitate to speak of him
“as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous
man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.” Some deduction
should of course be made from this language, as that of a natural
self-love in the one instance, and of an ardent friendship in the other.
It is no proof, for example, of Hume’s exemption from the irascible
passions, that he should have been so rarely capable of adverting to the
opponents of his favourite speculations in morals or religion, without
indulging in reproachful and degrading language; “bigots” and “zealots”
being the designations flung at such persons on almost all occasions. In
the same spirit the name of a “faction,” is his favourite one for that
large class of politicians in this country whose principles did not
embrace so much of “the monstrous creed of many made for one,” as
belonged to his own. And it is worthy of notice, that a passage in his
memoirs, which was inserted by him as an evidence of his exemption from
this sort of prejudice and resentment, affords one of the most decisive
proofs that he shared in this common weakness much more than himself or
his admirers were willing to allow. “Though I had been taught by
experience,” he writes, “that the Whig party were in possession of
bestowing all places, both in the state and in literature, I was so
little inclined to yield to their senseless clamour, that in above a
hundred alterations, which further study, reading, or reflection,
engaged me to make in the reigns of the two first Stuarts, I have made
all of them invariably to the Tory side.” Now what reader can suppose
that the inaccuracies detected by a mind without bias, could possibly
have occurred in this shape—a hundred on one side, and not one on the
other! The fact itself, and the tone in which it is recorded, disclose
what our philosopher would fain have concealed. We leave the moral
conduct of Hume in the spotless state set forth by his own description
of it, though we cannot forbear to remark that such language comes
somewhat strangely from a gentleman who had been so fascinated with the
manner of the Parisian fashionables under Louis XV., as to have thought
of never leaving them. We believe, however, that in his case, the
principal attraction of such society was its polish, and not its almost
incredible licentiousness. We learn, that in one of those gay
assemblies, Hume was induced to make his appearance in the character of
a Sultan, placed on a sofa between two of the most beautiful women in
Paris. It was his province to solicit the favours of these ladies, and
it was theirs to act the part of fair ones who were not to be subdued,
and in the dialogue, or rather trilogue, which lasted some quarter of an
hour, the author of the Treatise of Human Nature, and of the History of
England, acquitted himself, we are told, much to the edification of all
who were present[3]. In these moments of relaxation, the philosopher was
regarded as discovering his amiable sympathy with the ordinary feelings
of humanity. It does not appear to have occurred to him, or to his
flatterers, to consider the much stronger evidence of the want of such
sympathy, which was afforded by his approval of the system of government
which had so long spread its terrors and its wrongs over the length and
breadth of that splendid, miserable country. Our limits will not allow
of any reference to the particulars of the public dispute between Hume
and Rousseau, and we therefore abstain from expressing any opinion
respecting it.
Footnote 3:
‘Mémoires et Correspondance de Madame d’Epinay.’ III., 284, 285.