was
wrecked on his island on September 30th, 1659, his twenty-seventh
birthday. We are told that he remained on the island twenty-eight
years, two months and nineteen days. (Compare with duration of the
man's silence in the story.) This puts the date of his departure at
December 19th, 1687.

Now add twenty-seven years. We find that Defoe left _his_
solitude--whatever that may have been--on December 19th, 1714. Just at
that date, as all his biographers record, Defoe was struck down by a
fit of apoplexy and lay ill for six weeks. Compare this again with the
story.

You divine what is coming. Astounding as it may be, Mr. Wright
contends that Defoe himself was the original of the story: that Defoe,
provoked by his wife's irritating tongue, made a kind of vow to live
a life of silence--and kept it for more than twenty-eight years!

So far back as 1859 the egregious Chadwick nibbled at this theory in
his _Life and Times of Daniel Defoe, with Remarks Digressive and
Discursive_. The story, he says, "would be very applicable" to Defoe
himself, and again, "is very likely to have been taken from his own
life"; but at this point Chadwick maunders off with the remark that
"perhaps the domestic fireside of the poet or book-writer is not the
place we should go to in search of domestic happiness." Perhaps not;
but Chadwick, tallyhoing after domestic happiness, misses the scent.
Mr. Wright sticks to the scent and rides boldly; but is he after the
real fox?

* * * * *

April 20, 1895.

Can we believe it? Can we believe that on the 30th of September, 1686,
Defoe, provoked by his wife's nagging tongue, made a vow to live a
life of complete silence; that for twenty-eight years and a month or
two he never addressed a word to his wife or children; and that his
resolution was only broken down by a severe illness in the winter of
1714?

Mr. Aitken on Mr. Wright's hypothesis.

Mr. Aitken,[B] who has handled this hypothesis of Mr. Wright's, brings
several arguments against it, which, taken together, seem to me quite
conclusive. To begin with, several children were born to Defoe during
this period. He paid much attention to their education, and in 1713,
the penultimate year of this supposed silence, we find his sons
helping him in his work. Again, in 1703 Mrs. Defoe was interceding for
her husband's release from Newgate. Let me add that it was an age in
which personalities were freely used in public co