488 CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION," IN SIX DIALOGUES.

enriched with many valuable notes, by his friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Towards the end of the same year, De Foe employed his pen upon a subject more congenial with his talents, and better adapted to purposes of usefulness. In a series of moral discourses, written by way of dialogue, he showed how competent he was to explain the real nature of religion, and to unfold its consolations. He intitled his work "Christian Conversation in six Dialogues. I. Between a doubting Christian and one more confirmed, about Assurance. II. Between the same Persons about Mortification. III. Between Eudoxius and Fidelius, about Natural Things spiritualized. IV. Between Simplicius and Conscius, about Union. V. Between Thipsius and Melaudius, about afflictions. VI. Between Athanasius and Bioes, about Death. By a Private Gentleman. London: printed for W. Taylor. 1720." 8vo. Entered at Stationers'-Hall, November 2. "The moralities of De Foe," observes Mr. Chalmers, whether published in single volumes, or interspersed through many passages, must at last give him a superiority over the crowd of his contemporaries." In this judgment, those who have perused his writings cannot but concur. Upon most of them a favourable verdict was pronounced by his contemporaries; and they require only to be extensively known, to obtain for the author that meed of praise which is due to his meritorious exertions.

CHAPTER XIX.

De Foe a Painter of Nature.- He publishes the " Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders."-Character of the Story.-De Foe's Object in writing it. -Its revolting Features.-Success of the Work.- Various Editions.-His Life of Colonel Jacque.-Nature of the Work.-Slaves and Slave-Owners. -De Foe an enlightened Philanthropist.—General Character of his Novels. -Moral Tendency of Colonel Jacque.-" Memoirs of a Cavalier."—Account of it by his Editor.-Laboured attempts to authenticate the Narrative.— The Cavalier's Story.-Character of Tilly's Army.-And of Gustavus Adolphus. Sensation produced by his Death.-Civil Wars in England.Character of Fairfax.-And of the Memoirs.- War and Pestilence.~ De Foe's Account of the Plague.-Character of his Work.-Its Moral Tendency.-Plague at Marseilles.-Publications upon the great Plague. -Controversy with Dr. Hancocke.—Religious Courtship.—Its estimable Character.-Other Works attributed to De Foe.

1721-1722.

THE misfortunes of De Foe, at a former period, had thrown him into circumstances which subjected him to the sight of human nature in its lowest and most degraded forms. Whilst immured in prison, he was necessarily brought into contact with persons who were competent to let him into those scenes of crime and misery, of which his fertile genius availed itself in the publications we are now about to notice. The various incidents in the eventful life of Moll Flanders, from the time of her seduction to that of her becoming a convict and a quiet settler in Maryland, are those of real life, as exemplified by multitudes of individuals, who have run the career of their vicious propensities. The artless disposition of the narrative,

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the lively interest excited by unlooked for coincidences, the rich natural painting, the moral reflections, are all so many proofs of the knowledge and invention of the writer; but the facts were furnished him by the annals of Newgate.

To gratify the taste of the public, De Foe now served up a dish of coarser materials than ordinary, but adapted to a numerous class of readers, who might be indisposed to receive instruction from his moral dialogues. It is intitled "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous MOLL FLANDERS, &c., who was born in Newgate, and during a Life of continued variety for threescore years, besides her Childhood, was twelve years a Whore, five times a Wife, (whereof once to her own Brother) Twelve Years a Thief, Eight Years a transported Felon to Virginia, at last grew Rich, lived Honest, and died a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums. London: printed for and sold by W. Chetwood, at Cato's Head, in Russell Street, Covent Garden; and T. Edlin, at the Prince's Arms, over against Exeter Change in the Strand. 1721." 8vo. pp. 366.

From the character of the incidents that compose the present narrative, De Foe was fully aware of the objections that would be urged against it by the scrupulous. To conceal a single fact, would have taken so much from the fidelity of the portrait; all that he could do, therefore, was to neutralize the poison, by furnishing the strongest antidotes. Accordingly, whilst he paints the courses of an every-day profligate in their natural colours, he shows us with the same faithfulness their natural tendency; and that, first or last, vice is sure to bring down its own punishment. His villains never prosper; but either come to an untimely end, or are brought to be penitents. In dressing up the present story, he tells us, he had taken care to exclude every thing that might be offensive; but conscious that he had a bad subject to work upon, he endeavours to interest the reader in the reflections arising out of it, that the moral might be more enticing than

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the fable. "To give the history of a wicked life repented of, necessarily requires that the wicked part should be made as wicked as the real history of it will bear, to illustrate and give a beauty to the penitent part, which is certainly the best and brightest, if related with equal spirit and life." Judging from the common experience of mankind, De Foe archly suspects that this part of his narrative will be less cordially received than the other. Should this be the case, he says, "I must be allowed to say, 'tis because there is not the same taste and relish in the reading; and indeed it is too true, that the difference lies not in the real worth of the subject, so much as in the gust and palate of the reader." But the work being intended for those who know how to make a good use of it, he adds, "It is to be hoped, such readers will be much more pleased with the application than with the relation; with the end of the writer, than with the life of the person written of."

Such is the object of the story of Moll Flanders, and it must be allowed to be executed in strict conformity with the writer's intentions. The events of her life are indeed coarse and disgusting; but they are exactly those of a person in her situation, led on from one degree of crime to another, and participating in all the miseries that may be expected to accompany such courses. In the midst of her career, this unhappy creature was not without those compunctions of conscience that often attend a life of guilt; and our author has pourtrayed the workings of her mind with great force and discrimination. But a perseverance in evil courses has a tendency to harden the heart, until it grows callous to conviction. So it was with our heroine; and the reflections suggested by it as soon as she found herself in Newgate, form a striking part of the narrative. The best part of her life is towards its close. "Her application to a sober life and industrious management at last in Virginia, with her transported spouse, is a story fruitful of instruction to all the unfortunate creatures who are

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obliged to seek their re-establishment abroad, whether by the misery of transportation or other disaster; letting them know, that diligence and application have their due encouragement, even in the remotest part of the world, and that no case can be so low, so despicable, or so empty of prospect, but that an unwearied industry will go a great way to deliver us from it, and will in time raise the meanest creature to appear again in the world, and give him a new cast for his life."

The story of Moll Flanders, although seriously told, and abounding in just reflections upon the danger of an habitual course of wickedness, is a book after all, that cannot be recommended for indiscriminate perusal. The scenes it unfolds are such as must be always unwelcome to a refined and wellcultivated mind; whilst with respect to others, it is to be feared that those who are pre-disposed to the oblique paths of vice and dishonesty, will be more alive to the facts of the story, than to the moral that is suspended to it. The life of a courtezan, however carefully told, if told faithfully, must contain much matter unfit to be presented to a virtuous mind. Moll Flanders is one of a low description; and gliding into the occupation of a shop-lifter, she became an adept in all the arts of her profession. The first part of her story renders her an object of pity, as the latter part of it does of respect; but the intermediate spaces are filled up by matters of a forbidding nature; and whatever lessons the whole may be calculated to afford to persons in a similar situation, it may be feared that they will weigh less with the obtuse and the profligate, than their dreams of present advantage. Those who take delight in exploring the annals of Newgate, without the moral, may here find the like scenes with the moral pointed. It is to the credit of De Foe, that he nowhere administers to the vicious taste of his reader, but takes every occasion of holding up vice to abhorrence.

If the sale of a book were any criterion of its merit, De Foe had every reason to be satisfied with the work. A third