gruity, of that harmony which may be regarded as the keystone to all artistic work. Creative power, the immeasurable, incomprehensible faculty that enables a poet to attain the highest heaven of invention is the greatest of poetical gifts; but it is not all that is needed, and the poet who, conscious that he is divinely endowed, would achieve a lasting place in literature, will find that although his most precious possession be a gift neither to be bought with money nor won by study, yet that his belief in his inspiration will fail him unless he add thereto the patient labour exacted from the artist. This is the great merit of Pope, and this is one reason why his works are so invaluable to the student of English literature.

DANIEL DEFOE.

DANIEL DEFOE, one of the most popular of English authors, and probably the most voluminous writer in the language, is to many readers little better than a name. They are familiar with Robinson Crusoe,' with the History of the Plague,' and with 'Mrs. Veal's Apparition'; they know, because Pope has told them, that Defoe stood in the pillory; and they know also, because Hume has told them, that he was a party-writer; doubtless they know, too, that he was a Dissenter, in an age when dissent was unpopular; and that, after a laborious and troubled life, he was buried in the famous burial-ground consecrated to dissenting dust in Bunhill Fields. These facts, with, perhaps, half-a-dozen more, comprise, we venture to say, the popular knowledge of Defoe. Compared with Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday, he is but the shadow of a shade. The novelist's immortal tale, translated into all languages that can boast a literature, is a household book throughout the world, while the author himself is for

the most part neglected and unknown. The more we consider this anomaly, the stranger does it appear.

Defoe lived and did the best part of his life's work in one of the most celebrated periods of our literary history. He was the contemporary of Swift and Addison, of Pope and Prior, of Atterbury and Gay. When Steele was writing his delightful Tatler,' and when the 'Spectator' was winning a place upon every breakfast-table, Defoe was the busiest, and perhaps the most prominent of journalists. He commenced his 'Review' in 1704, five years before the 'Tatler,' and brought it to a conclusion in 1713, one year before the last volume of the 'Spectator.' In 1704, when Steele wrote his 'Lying Lover,' Defoe produced nearly twenty separate publications, as well as several new editions of his earlier writings; in 1727, when Gay electrified the town with his 'Beggar's Opera,' and Swift had astonished the nation with 'Gulliver's Travels,' the indefatigable Defoe was still busy as ever at his trade of author. It may be useful to add that Addison, who was born eleven years later than Defoe, died two months after the appearance of 'Robinson Crusoe,' in 1719; that Prior and Defoe were young men together; that Congreve, who was by several years Defoe's junior, died before him; that Gay, born more than a quarter of a century

after the novelist, outlived him scarcely a year; and that Francis Atterbury and Defoe may be said to have commenced life and closed it together.

With these facts before us-and many of a like bearing might be added-it is certainly curious that when we speak of the Queen Anne men we never think of Defoe; and that historians of acknowledged reputation, in recording the literary or political history of that period, either omit his name from their pages or allude to it with indifference. Defoe was on confidential terms with King William, yet he does not figure in Lord Macaulay's History of England'; he was employed by Queen Anne on important missions, and took no mean part in the negotiations which preceded the union with Scotland, yet he is unnoticed by Earl Stanhope in his History of England,' and but slightly noticed in his History of the Reign of Queen Anne.' Hume alludes to him as "a scurrilous party-writer in very little reputation;" and Dr. Johnson, whose father was a country bookseller, and who in early life was forced to gain his own bread by almost servile employments, is generous enough to allow a large share of merit to a man "who, bred a tradesman, had written so variously and so well." Defoe has been well termed the father of English novelists, and his great successor,

Richardson, studied his style of composition with no little assiduity; yet all Richardson has to say in his favour is, that he was "an ingenious gentleman, though a dissenter." Next to Swift, Defoe was the ablest political writer of the day, yet Swift refers to him as "the fellow that was pilloried, I forget his name;" and Pope imitates the sneer of his friend in coupling Defoe with Tutchin:

"Earless on high stood unabashed Defoe,

And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below."*

It is worth noting also that while the Examiner,' in which the Dean displayed his vigour as a journalist, is included in his works, the 'Review '—a paper every whit as able, and curiously characteristic of Defoe's genius-has never been reprinted. Gay damned him with faint praise as a fellow who had excellent natural parts, but whose writings

*It is scarcely necessary to say that this is a false statement. Defoe was pilloried, and turned the laugh upon his persecutors by his Hymn to the Pillory,' which was circulated amongst the crowd that surrounded the platform, who, he tells us, "expressed their affections by loud shouts and acclamations" when he was taken down; but he never lost his ears. The Hymn contains some telling passages, and was appreciated by the populace. following bold lines are well known:

"Tell them the men that placed him here

Are scandals to the times;

Are at a loss to find his guilt,

And can't commit his crimes,"

The