in one respect, since all the exercises were in English,--the
fact that he had never been "in residence" set Defoe a little apart from
the literary society of the day. Swift, Pope, Addison, Arbuthnot, and
the rest, considered him untrained and uncultured, and habitually spoke
of him with the contempt which the regular feels for the volunteer.
Swift referred to him as "an illiterate fellow whose name I forget," and
Pope actually inserted his name in the 'Dunciad':--

"Earless on high stood unabashed De Foe."

This line is false in two ways, for Defoe's ears were not clipped,
though he was condemned to stand in the pillory; and there can hardly be
a greater incongruity conceived than there is between our idea of a
dunce and the energetic, shifty, wide-awake Defoe,--though for that
matter a scholar like Bentley and a wit like Colley Cibber are as much
out of place in the poet's ill-natured catalogue. Defoe angrily resented
the taunts of the university men and their professional assumption of
superiority, and answered Swift that "he had been in his time master of
five languages and had not lost them yet," and challenged John Tutchin
to "translate with him any Latin, French, or Italian author, and then
retranslate them crosswise, for twenty pounds each book."

Notwithstanding the great activity of Defoe's pen (over two hundred
pamphlets and books, most of them of considerable length, are known to
be his; and it is more than probable that much of his work was anonymous
and has perished, or could be only partly disinterred by laborious
conjecture) he found time to engage twice in business, once as a factor
in hosiery and once as a maker of tiles. In each venture he seems to
have been unfortunate, and his business experience is alluded to here
only because his practical knowledge of mercantile matters is evident in
all his work. Even his pirates like Captain Bob Singleton, and
adventurers like Colonel Jack, have a decided commercial flavor. They
keep a weather eye on the profit-and-loss account, and retire like
thrifty traders on a well-earned competency. It is worth mentioning,
however, to Defoe's credit, that in one or two instances at least he
paid his debts in full, after compromising with his creditors.

Defoe's writings, though all marked by his strong but limited
personality, fall naturally into three classes:--

First, his political writings, in which may be included his wretched
attempts at political satire, a