osperous brickmaker to starveling journalist, from Newgate prison to
immense popularity and royal favor, are obscure enough in details; but four
facts stand out clearly, which help the reader to understand the character
of his work. First, Defoe was a jack-at-all-trades, as well as a writer;
his interest was largely with the working classes, and notwithstanding many
questionable practices, he seems to have had some continued purpose of
educating and uplifting the common people. This partially accounts for the
enormous popularity of his works, and for the fact that they were
criticised by literary men as being "fit only for the kitchen." Second, he
was a radical Nonconformist in religion, and was intended by his father for
the independent ministry. The Puritan zeal for reform possessed him, and he
tried to do by his pen what Wesley was doing by his preaching, without,
however, having any great measure of the latter's sincerity or singleness
of purpose. This zeal for reform marks all his numerous works, and accounts
for the moralizing to be found everywhere. Third, Defoe was a journalist
and pamphleteer, with a reporter's eye for the picturesque and a newspaper
man's instinct for making a "good story." He wrote an immense number of
pamphlets, poems, and magazine articles; conducted several papers,--one of
the most popular, the _Review_, being issued from prison,--and the fact
that they often blew hot and cold upon the same question was hardly
noticed. Indeed, so extraordinarily interesting and plausible were Defoe's
articles that he generally managed to keep employed by the party in power,
whether Whig or Tory. This long journalistic career, lasting half a
century, accounts for his direct, simple, narrative style, which holds us
even now by its intense reality. To Defoe's genius we are also indebted for
two discoveries, the "interview" and the leading editorial, both of which
are still in daily use in our best newspapers.

The fourth fact to remember is that Defoe knew prison life; and thereby
hangs a tale. In 1702 Defoe published a remarkable pamphlet called "The
Shortest Way with the Dissenters," supporting the claims of the free
churches against the "High Fliers," i.e. Tories and Anglicans. In a vein of
grim humor which recalls Swift's "Modest Proposal," Defoe advocated hanging
all dissenting ministers, and sending all members of the free churches into
exile; and so ferociously realistic was the satire that both Dissenter