onventicle, there
would not be so many sufferers." His irony was at first misunderstood: the
High Churchmen hailed him as a champion, and the Dissenters hated him as
an enemy. But when his true meaning became apparent, a reward of L50 was
offered by the government for his discovery. His so-called "scandalous and
seditious pamphlet" was burnt by the common hangman: he was tried, and
sentenced to pay two hundred marks, to stand three times in the pillory,
and to be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure. He bore his sentence
bravely, and during his two years' residence in prison he published a
periodical called _The Review_. In 1709 he wrote a _History of the Union_
between England and Scotland.

ROBINSON CRUSOE.--But none of these things, nor all combined, would have
given to Defoe that immortality which is his as the author of _Robinson
Crusoe_. Of the groundwork of the story not much need be said.

Alexander Selkirk, the sailing-master of an English privateer, was set
ashore, in 1704, at his own request, on the uninhabited island Juan
Fernandez, which lies several hundred miles from the coast of Chili, in
the Pacific Ocean. He was supplied with clothing and arms, and remained
there alone for four years and four months. It is supposed that his
adventures suggested the work. It is also likely that Defoe had read the
journal of Peter Serrano, who, in the sixteenth century, had been
_marooned_ in like manner on a desolate island lying off the mouth of the
Oroonoque (Orinoco). The latter locality was adopted by Defoe. But it is
not the fact or the adventures which give power to _Robinson Crusoe_. It
is the manner of treating what might occur to any fancy, even the dullest.
The charm consists in the simplicity and the verisimilitude of the
narrative, the rare adaptation of the common man to his circumstances, his
projects and failures, the birth of religion in his soul, his conflicting
hopes and fears, his occasional despair. We see in him a brother, and a
suffering one. We live his life on the island; we share his terrible fear
at the discovery of the footprint, his courage in destroying the cannibal
savages and rescuing the victim. Where is there in fiction another man
Friday? From the beginning of his misfortunes until he is again sailing
for England, after nearly thirty years of captivity, he holds us
spellbound by the reality, the simplicity, and the pathos of his
narrative; but, far beyond the temporary illusion of t