tire, which are sufficient to
show that he lacked either the talent or the patience to write political
verse. Compared with Dryden's or Pope's, his work is mere doggerel,
enlivened by occasional vigorous couplets like--

"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil always builds a chapel there:
And 'twill be found upon examination
The latter has the largest congregation."

Or

"No panegyric needs their praise record--
An Englishman ne'er wants his own good word."

But an examination will confirm the impression that Defoe was not a
poet, as surely as the re-reading of 'Robinson Crusoe' will strengthen
our hereditary belief that he was a great writer of prose.

[Illustration: signature (Charles F Johnson)]

FROM 'ROBINSON CRUSOE'

CRUSOE'S SHIPWRECK

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sunk
into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves so as to draw my breath; till that wave having
driven me or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore, and
having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry,
but half dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind
as well as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the mainland than I
expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavored to make on towards the land
as fast as I could, before another wave should return and take me up
again; but I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea
coming after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy
which I had no means or strength to contend with: my business was to
hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could; and so by
swimming to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore if
possible; my greatest concern now being that the wave, as it would carry
me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me
back again with it when it gave back towards the sea.

The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or thirty
feet deep in its own body; and I could feel myself carried with a mighty
force and swiftness towards the shore, a very great way; but I held my
breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I
was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising
up, so to my immediate relief I found my head and hands shoot out above
the surface of the water; and though it